The Fixer Upper #3

Well, it’s time for another look at the fixer upper.  If you missed the first two posts, you can see them here and here.  You know that saying that things have to get worse before they get better?  Well, the house is literally down to the studs with no electricity or water.  The fireplaces have been torn out, too.  Now it’s time to start putting it back together.  I have just a few photos today because we had to cut our visit short and head to the emergency room.  The no floors and no electricity mean that even on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the interior was pretty dark.  So, Mr. Right promptly fell into a pit where a fireplace had once been.  If you knew him, you would understand.  The man is driven, and he just puts his head down and goes.  He cut a huge slash in his forehead that required stitches, and got some pretty bad bruises, too.  He was leaving that week for a bicycling trip in New Zealand, and thankfully, he was still able to go.

 

 

Although it is clearly still a fixer upper, the exterior has improved.  First off, the roof has been replaced, and the house has been treated for termites.  The ailing trees have been cut down, the awnings have been removed, and the ugly, dirty outdoor carpet on the porch is gone.

 

This is what we started with.

It is literally down to the studs.  There’s Bobo smiling his big grin.  He is so happy.  You would think he was about to own a castle.  He wants to change the floor plan and has some really great ideas.  The dining room will be the first room on the right followed by the kitchen.  The bedrooms will move to the back of the house where the kitchen and mudroom were.  If I can figure out how to do a floor plan on line, I will show you all in the future how it will be laid out.

 That dark hole in the bottom left of this photo under our watermark is where Mr. Right fell.  It was very dark in the house that day.  I lightened up these photos in editing before putting them in the blog.  Did I mention to you that the house had absolutely ZERO insulation?  There was just plaster and studs.  Nothing else.

There you can see that insulation has been added.  The crawl space will get sprayed-on insulation under the floor to help keep the floors warmer.  Mr. Right is big on insulation so it will be everywhere there’s a spot to put it.

Keep coming back for more updates.  I am headed over to the fixer upper today to take some photos.  The subfloor is being installed.  This is going to be a slow process, but it will be done right so that Bobo will have a nice home for his family.

And by the way, if you live in Lexington and have a table, chairs, end tables, bed headboards, etc. you want to get rid of,drop me an email or mention it in the comments.  Bobo needs everything – even dishes, pots and pans, towels, sheets, etc.

Take care.