Are We There Yet?
Let's take a walk down memory lane...
The most common question I hear these days. "Are y'all there yet? So when are y'all gonna move in?" First off let me make it very clear these questions do not annoy me or discourage me one bit. If anything it makes me thankful and grateful that so many people care and have invested some interest into our life and our remodel.
I think I have a hard time answering it because the one thing I know for sure is nothing is for sure. We haven't done anything like this before, and outside of TV and my grandparents stories, I've never been a part of someone remodeling a log home. Sure lots of pieces are the same as any other remodel, and I'm sure we don't know lots of the steps involved with building a new home or fixing up a different style house. All I do know is that day to day I learn of a new step that has to take place because of the logs.
Hines sight is 20 20, we could of just took every log down and then put them back up and saved ourselves a lot of trouble and time. Trying to level out 150+ year old logs and fix places which the bugs and aging got too is much harder when your trying to keep the four walls standing.
The other tricky thing about our project is the time. We are very fortunate to have the know how and access to tools that are allowing us to do this ourselves. We can't really afford (if you ask Dave Ramsey) what we're doing now, so having to pay someone else to fix the logs isn't possible. So we chip away at it on the weekends and sometimes on evenings, when we can fit something in after 5pm. For a while we had the luxury of Chase being there seven days a week, but now it's three day for him, two for me. So as you can imagine that slows progress down a little. I did some math today (with a calculator of course) and I have roughly put in 3,000 hours there since April of 2014. That really doesn't feel like enough time for as long as it's been, but I think it's about right. I can't begin to do Chases hours, that's impossible and would make mine look bad so let's just say it's more.
I'd also like to point out that what we're doing is small compared to what others do and have done. We have the ability to go slow, we have family who have opened their doors to us. We don't have little ones who need attention and care. We also are blessed with jobs, family, and friends who understand, make exceptions and don't disown us from our lack of visiting. We chose this road. Maybe quickly, like within one week of seeing the house we signed a contract to purchase, but we still choose it. So I don't get annoyed when people ask if we're there yet. I understand the confusion on why we aren't. It seems like we should be closer to living there than we are, but we aren't quite yet. We aren't for lack of trying. Chase himself has put his entire heart and soul into this house for the last few years. We will get there, I know it. We just have to keep hacking away at it. Hand Hewing as they say. Thank you to every single person who has lent a helping hand, a kind word, or support over the last few years. We are blessed to have the help, and we wouldn't be making this house a home with out it.
The first day I ever saw the house, that same night was the evening we had to decide if we were going to put a bid in on it or not. Within one week of seeing it online, we signed the contract to start the purchasing of the foreclosure. The rest is history...
