Yes, I know it has been a loooong time since I made a post.  I had to take my qualifying exams for my doctoral program and that took up all of my time, for the past few months.  However, the house has been slowly moving along during that time.  We have internet and cable TV!  Amazing how internet makes a house feel like a home.  What we don’t have is enough electricity to move in.  We have a temporary 110 line running into the house, which is enough to run the fridge and any power tools we are using.  It is not enough to run all that plus the hot water heater.  I am pretty sure living in a house without hot water is not something anyone in this family wants to do.  Two months ago we paid over $1,100 to the electric company to come in and run our new line and bury it.  Several times we have been told we were on the schedule, but when we get to the house….no new line.  Our next installation date is tomorrow, but with the storm that just went through, I am not hopeful.

One big exciting development has been the new concrete work.  In the back of the house we had our new walkway and stairs installed, all the old asphalt parking pad taken out, and the slab taken out that ran along the back of the house.  We have way more yard space now, but no more grass!  We have also had the side porch taken out since we took out the entry door on the side of the house.  When we bought the house it had 5 exterior doors, and now we just have a front and a back door, which makes the house feel more like a house, and less like the doctor’s office that it was for many years.  Plus, just try to install kitchen cabinets in a room with 3 exterior doors!  The giant pile of crushed stone in the back yard that has been there for nearly a year is gone, as is all the wood the concrete guys had left to use as forms.  

In the front of the house, we had the front stairs poured and the walkway from the sidewalk to the house installed.  Having front stairs means we can get mail!  Since we have owned the house we have either had a crumbling front walkway, or no walkway at all, so being able to walk right up to the front door is pretty cool.  It does, however, make the sidewalk on the street in front of the house look terrible.  We have plans to replace it, but have to wait until the road repaving in front of the house is finished because there is a chance they would damage it.

Here are some before pictures of the old concrete – it’s hard to believe how bad the house was when we bought it.  What were we thinking?  The old front walkway had brick walls and concrete tops.  Unfortunately, all but one of the tops was destroyed beyond saving.  Someday I would like to put back those brick walls and tops, but right now we just need functional stairs.

Trim and baseboard is being installed in the house and I bought two old columns from the Wood Shack off one of the buildings being torn down to make room for the huge Ash project downtown.  I will be installing them between the kitchen and dining room – nice to be able to save something from an old building.

Yesterday we went to work on the house and also attended the 100th birthday party for the Churubusco Library.  It’s just about a block away from the house and I look forward to taking the kids there.  They had a cake, so the kids were all excited!