Done, time to get on with it.

Life in Edmonton was expensive and hectic. We moved to Coutts to start a new life. A slower and more affordable one. We bought a fixer upper and an empty lot. How hard could it be? It should take only a couple of months and then we could start making pots and videos as planned. Yeah right.

A year ago we bought the house. A modular in Central Alberta. We hired someone to move it down, build the pad, do the plumbing, gas and bring in fill to level the lot. We did all the rest. We just finished the yard and the house just this month. It has taken a year from start to finish. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, including child birth.

House, before and after pics.

A quick list of what we have put into it:

About 20 gallons of paint and stain

2 gallons of dry wall mud for all the repairs

1200 square feet of new floors
felt like a mile of baseboards and quarter round

all the light fixtures,15, sinks,3
and taps, 3 replaced. We only kept the tubs and their taps.

back splash in kitchen and bathrooms

The Yard, before and after pics.

A quick list of what we have put into it:

250 yards of fill to level the yard and then with a landscape rake changed the drainage of the yard.

Lumber for deck, fence and repairs

over 1,000 deck screws

150 pounds of grass seed, the yard is 12,000 square feet

32, 24"x 30" concrete side walk blocks

10, 8" x 20" concrete blocks

14 yards of gravel, just over 42,000 pounds moved by hand in wheel barrow

We are here. It is not a big fancy house, but it is ours. I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about plumbing, heating, wiring, building, repairs, painting, concrete and whole list of things. I honestly think that there is very little that Jim and I can not do.... well you know what I mean. If it has be fixed, we can fix it. I got past my fear of small places when crawling under the house in the cold for days doing the skirting. I got past my fear of heights and went up on the scaffolding to help repair the trim on the roof. So far past I went up on the roof at the school to see what needs to be fixed up there. We came here to play with clay and video. If someone had told me the house and yard would take a year, I would not have believed them.  After all, how hard could it be. Until you have a done it you just don't know. For a couple of old farts, we did pretty good. 

This is the last post about the house, yard and repairs. I complained and bragged, but I think there was room for both. It was hard work, emotional work and expensive work. I learned over and over again, everything always takes longer and costs more than you ever dream it could. We are done, for now, and it is time to get on with it!

Until next time. 

AKA 

The Clay Teacher and former construction worker