Old Stone House

Two weeks and two offers later we are still in the running for the ‘new’ house. Our fist offer was ‘ignored’, however, our second offer was signed back. The terms the bank has offered are not to our liking – the price point is still too high. However, we view this as good news as they have accepted our condition of sale clause. This is encouraging as it means that if we can come to agree on a price there is a distinct possibility that the bank will honour this condition.

We are also encouraged that there have been no other offers on the property. There have been several dozen showings but only 2 offers. Apparently the property continues to rest at a price-point that is unattractive to most buyers. The house is ‘only’ 1800 sq feet, and needs some work, and for the advertised price this represents too large an investment. (more agony and joy…)

Since the last post we have made two offers on the house – we’re waiting for the second offer to be rejected… In the meantime we have been making a mad-dash to finish our house. Overall, our house is in great shape but almost every project is 98% complete, and it’s the last 2% that needs to be finished if we want to be able to sell. (more agony and joy…)

As mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve been taking a break from renos and writing to enjoy a much needed break, however as “an idle mind is the devil’s playground” we’ve started ‘thinking’ and we’re considering moving… (more agony and joy…)

Well, it’s been a quiet couple of months since we finished the exterior of the ugly addition. Outside of the very occasional blog entry we’ve enjoyed NOT working on the house – taking advantage of some much needed down-time. We’ve avoided looking through home renovation magazines, surfing our favourite DIY sites, and thinking about the house in general. At least until this weekend… (more agony and joy…)

In support of blog action day, here is a small contribution.

The first winter we stayed in oldstonehouse we were quite surprised at how cold the house was, as well as how expensive it was to keep the house that ‘cold’. Our average heating bill cost about 700% more per month then our previous home – and this was to simply maintain a temperature of 18C/65F! Needless to say we were fairly determined to remedy the issue.

(more agony and joy…)

Having spent 9 months taking a much needed break from renovating, we have embarked on another frustrating repair – completely upgrading the exterior of the rear of the house. (More to come on this hell in the following months) In mentioning this to my neighbour, he asked if the heritage board was going to let us make the changes we wanted, and proceeded to demonise the heritage board, pointing out their faults etc. In response to this, I’m going to clarify just what having a historical designation means. (more agony and joy…)

So it has been about 4 months since we updated the site, and it certainly hasn’t been fueled by apathy – we needed a break. Since moving into our home almost 3 years ago, we have spent every free moment, and every extra dollar doing everything we can to make this house our home, and to do so in a manner which pays homage to our house’s heritage. However there comes a time when one must stop and take a breather, before the passion and finance becomes resentment and poverty. Such is our case. After the holiday had passed, we decided that we would take a breather for our own sanity. In that time much has happened. Our house has been officially granted historical status, we’ve completed our basement, and glacier-like ice dams on the roof managed to ruin parts of the drywall in the kitchen. As well, it has become apparent with the spring thaw that the exterior trim needs to be stripped and painted, and several of the concrete retaining walls need to be replaced. In essence, even though we took a break, the house didn’t.

Understand, we’re not discouraged, if anything we’re inspired to forge ahead with our plans as taking a break offered the reenergizing boost we needed.

So what did we do while on our break? Well… I played with trains. When I’m not smashing walls with sledgehammers, or shocking myself, I like to work on my N scale model railroad. I can’t imagine anything better then spending a cold winters evening in the basement playing affectionately with the memories of my youth. (All the while assessing the floor joists above, looking for the source of squeaks, and imagining how I might change the heating ducts to improve air flow…) For those interested, I did update my railroad blog and documented my progress through the winter.

www.modelrailroader.ca

We’ll talk soon.

Every holiday season my wife and I take great pains to decorate the house – contemplating the most minor details, and orchestrating elaborate stagings to both reflect our tastes, and genuine love for the holidays. This year was no different, so as December began, we started adorning the house with assorted ephemera.

We decided on an understated, yet classy dressing for the exterior of the house – an effective combination of lights, floods and greenery, that enhanced the natural beauty of the home, yet resonated with the appropriate seasonal tidings. We pained over the lights we purchased, opting for environmentally friendly LED mini lights – evaluating the 3 different shades of ‘white’. As well, we acquired fluorescent flood lights – again testing to ensure that the hue of their light partnered suitably with the twinkles.

(more agony and joy…)

A while back, we visited the bank to discuss our house, mortgage etc. We had a fantastic conversation with our representative, who started asking questions about our house. It turned out that she too had an old house that was in a constant state of repair, and she understood the costs involved therein. We learned that she was a member of the Heritage Committee, and they were always awarding grants to help maintain designated homes of historical significance. She suggested that we apply, that they were always looking for worthwhile projects. We concluded our discussions, agreeing that it would be nice to be awarded some grant money, but thought nothing more of it.

(more agony and joy…)

If you’ve been a regular visitor to this site, you will have probably noticed that this blog is updated quite regularly, but the posts are 3 months old. Over the past 4 months we done a lot of work on the house, and I’ve jotted down the events as we’ve worked away, but I but I’ve haven’t managed to find the time to actually upload them. As such, please bear with us as I update the archives!

(Oh mercy, I have to put up the Christmas lights still!)