Construction

We have lived in this house now going on 13 years. It was built in 1921 and hardly a thing had been done to it except to turn the pantry into a bathroom and the bare necessities of electricity added when the rural area was electrified. The paint was peeling, floor joists sagging as the place had been flooded and no one lived here for 10 years.

Vandals had smashed out every one of the windows or as we discovered most likely the previous owners as even the day we signed for the purchase they claimed someone "broke in" and stole stuff. We found out later when the insurance company wouldn't insure us that this house was their cash cow. Need money, wreck the house. So we patched a few of the 14 windows up, enough to give us light and air for the first year, replaced the kitchen half of the floor joists and moved in.

We then every year replaced a few windows as we could afford. There is over 10K in glass in this house. Only the basement windows need replacing. We have them but dh hasn't gotten around to it yet.

DH used to have his own construction company so I figured this house would be nothing for us to work on. I don't know much about construction but I can fetch and clean and do all the grunt work along with learn. But it was like the minute we moved in he lost all motivation. He'd patch things or add things like a heat register. I kept saying we need to put the money into insulation (house has no insulation), not more ways of heating. He wanted to get LP (we heat with wood) and again, we need insulation first dear. Why heat the outdoors?

On cold days this house struggles to get to 45*. That makes winters very difficult. Most the time husband is at work so he doesn't realize really how cold it is here. My dish soap coagulates. Water turns cold faster than I can wash the dishes. I hole up in the 10'x12' bedroom where we have electric heat and cannot move. So this winter being as cold and miserable as it has been perhaps was a blessing with him being laid off. He gets a taste of what I deal with every day.

Suddenly this motivation to do the hallway and now it is going into the attic/upstairs too. He said to me on Wed. that we should pull some money out of the savings and do the bathroom too which is a disaster. For 10 years I have looked at a wall of pink and yellow insulation behind a sheet of plastic dotted with dead flies. Real attractive. The walls are sloppily plastered because this is the room that used to be a pantry and whoever did the work was definitely and amateur. Dh is tossing ideas around and I said do whatever you think and I will live with it. I have long lost my enthusiasm for renovating. Just do it. I don't have to help much because he has the three boys who are loving it.

So I may be getting my bathroom finally too. I won't hold my breath. I learned a long time ago that I cannot live while not breathing. Time will tell.