Counting Years in anticlimatic

Been thinking about my Dad on the one year anniversary of his death this week. Incidentally, the very same week that I closed on my first home after years of searching and preparing. Old house- 1910, but cute as a button with much of the original interior- but it needs a tremendous amount of work by both yours truly and more than a few sub contractors.

The roof is over 40 years old and leaks, the furnace chimney is held in place by gravity alone as far as I can tell, and the guest house/rental out back is missing most of a bathroom, a source of heat, a refrigerator, and anything that might resemble modern comfort. Also wouldn’t mind removing a wall or two in there to open it up and cut back on the strangely high number of very tiny rooms.

Apparently a roofer will not be happening for a year at least. I haven’t even started looking for a stonemason regarding the chimney. Talking to my uncle about it, he just shook his head. “Nobody does building work anymore. When we were growing up, everyone had friends that could do it all. Now there’s almost no young people doing it.”

It’s true. My dad had a small army of family and peers spread out enough in skill to accomplish any building task together- albeit not completely up to building code, necessarily, but functional- mostly sound. I remember growing up in the sawdust and scrap of houses being built around me or remodeled. Climbing over tools.

When he died he left the upstairs of his house unfinished, so my ma hired someone and took over micro managing the place. She subbed out a few different crews that my dad probably would have managed himself, and completed the remodel not too long ago. It looks much different than it would have if my dad had finished it. I enjoy speculating on how it would be different. You can feel a person in a very unique way, when standing in rooms they designed and built.

I might have to conquer my fear of heights and do my own roof before mending/replacing my own chimney. Haven’t even gotten started on the broader wish-list of projects. I want to pull the carpet, sand and treat all of the old hardwood floors. I want to pull the drop ceiling on the first floor and wanes coat the old plaster walls. I want to remodel the upstairs, knock out a wall to expand the small bathroom into a much larger one- rebuild the antique windows, park a clawfoot tub underneath one, instal a skylight in the same bathroom, completely tile it- including a large walk-in shower, with bench. Landscaping....... Hot tub on the side porch......... zzzzzzz........................