Dan and Megan Leach
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Progress
Sorry to say I don't have any pictures to go with this update. Mom and dad were out here for ten days and we were unable to get the house finished. Dad drove back with mom and the dogs to B.C because he had a job there to finish. Nine days later he hopped on a plane BACK out here and we finished the house up in the next seven days. All in all we've had a lot of "quality" dad time. (And as a side note in twenty days I'll be back with him in B.C - Dan and I are driving out with our boys for Christmas).
The house went well. We were able to get everything accomplished that we had planned and then some. The kitchen is completely re-done, the bathroom and flooring are all re-done as well, and the upstairs looks brand new. Throughout the process it was hard to remember we can't make this house stand amongst the glory of other Sibley projects. We had to do a good job but on a limited budget. In the end we believe the we have created a beautiful rental home.
We have found a young single mother of two to rent the house. She loves the location because it is close to her family and s he is excited to be out of the apartment she was in. In the next few days we'll be coming and going from the house as the renter gets settled and we get the last of the clean up done. I hope to be able to snap a picture or two and get them up here for everyone to see.
This project was so fast that if you blinked you missed it. Good thing Blogs last forever!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Glutton For Punishment
It all starts again...
It began with a phone call. I called the realtor on the sign to ask how much... Oh! That's not a bad price.. I called my parents to see what they wanted to do. Next thing I know we're at the lawyers signing the papers.
And that is how we came to have a second house!
Two houses down from ours it is in the perfect location for renovating and renting out. The parents have driven out from the coast again and we're in for ten solid days of 'bonding'.
This is the master bedroom on the main floor. The walls are all lath-and-plaster with some nice 70's panelling over it. We have since painted the ceiling and walls and installed hardwood flooring - yes, we finally found a use for those ten extra boxes dad 'miss-calculated' on our house.
Mom spend a few good hours trying to get the doors off the cabinets. We are in the process of replacing the kitchen to make it more functional. Under this particular set of cabinets we found a piece of news paper from January 14, 1925!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Don't Cry... it will only add to the water in the basement
Well,
It appears as though we live in a place that gets more rain than B.C! We estimate that we had over three inches of rain in just over one hour! I lay in bed Tuesday night watching the continuous crash of lightening outside the window; lightening slowly gave way to rain and hail that created a drone too loud to ignore. At 1:30 in the morning a soft knock on our bedroom door started the dogs barking. "What" Dan groans, "The basement flooded" the tiny whisper slips through our door - The enormity of news did not match the tone of voice! Going downstairs we were greeted with about half an inch of water - sploosh! What happened was the window well filled with water, the ground was hard and dry so it did not absorb any water. The roads were flooded level with the sidewalks and all low areas were filled to overflowing. The window wells, being low spots, filled like a bathtub, the drain plugged with all the debris; when the water reached the bottom of the window if slipped right on in and down the inside of the wall. Not only did the water see fit to soak the floor with over an inch of water in some spots, it also crept along inside the wall cavity into the other room. Eventually it trailed all the way across the basement and into the sump wreaking havoc as it went. Our roommates (Timothy and Laura) helped us most of the night clean up the mess. Amie, our other roommate, who's window it was leaked is away on vacation and still doesn't know! The only personal belongings that got wet were a computer monitor and about 20 loads of laundry. Timothy has since moved upstairs to the spare room and Amie's stuff is in the living room waiting for her to come home.
And I'm sure everyone will be as happy to hear as I was that we are NOT covered by insurance. They say we don't have sewer-back up on our coverage (which is news to me) so I've been on the phone with some nasty words trying to get the our broker to admit they neglected to tell us this tiny detail! We'll see what comes of that. As for now, we've got to go open up the walls and pull up some carpet.
Oh, and the pictures are from the rain storm we had this afternoon! (very similar to the one that flooded us!) Oh, yeah we finally got sod too!
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Open House
Wow!
That was a lot of work! We didn't get nearly as much as we wanted to get done on the house in the time my parents were here: Reason - They brought their crummy B.C. weather with them. That's right, as soon as they jumped into their truck and pulled away from their driveway the clouds started to form over their little truck. As they progressed through the mountains they were greeted with snow; the prairies brought rain and wind. Finally they arrive at 11pm and the rain settle in above my house. Funny thing is, they day they left they took it with them! I'm sitting here now writing this from my lovely little spot in the sunshine on my back deck! HA!
We did get some paving stones down outside. Got most of the black trim painted. Dad fixed our gate that couldn't be opened (yes, it was essentially just a fence until he fixed his design flaw). We drank a lot, ate a bit too much, and definitely had a good time. We got gravel down the side of my house where the backfill had created cavernous washouts! We got concrete down the side of the house (the plas
tic bags around my dad's feet were an attempt to protect them from the concrete since he was standing in it). It was fun to watch dad try to finish the concrete. The stretch was so long and narrow with fence/house on either side he had no choice but to build planks and crawl across on hand and knee. At one point he swore loudly, we looked, sure enough his face was inches from the wet cement and his hand print was clearly visible smushed into it. He managed to smooth that one out and we were able to keep the cat off it as well (unlike when we did the garage). Gramma and Grampa came up from the cost for the Open House as well. They helped a lot with the cleaning. Gramma and I planted our garden out front! Yay for a rock garden - people out here spend all their time and
effort to pick rocks out of their fields and to get rid of them... I paid to have a tuck load brought into my yard!
The Open House itself was a blast! Loads of people came (although, nobody was brave enough to be the first one here; everyone came about two hours
in). We met all of our neighbours and they all got great ideas for their own houses. I even heard some people talking about bull dozing their old houses and building new- guess it's contagious.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Finishing Touches
Well, now we have started into the phase of the house that never seems to end! We're just working on the finishing touches! The open house gives us a good deadline to have most of the major work done by; however, I fear that the small touch up jobs are going to drag on forever!
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