The New Old House

Hydrangeas on the north side of the house

Our daughter and son-in-law have recently bought a home. They were looking for an old house, and I am glad they finally found one. Their house has many of the things that they had hoped to find -- a brick exterior, high ceilings, a formal dining room, a pantry, beautiful woodwork, hardwood floors, several bathrooms, lots of space.

The house was built in 1933, when workmanship and materials were still good. A home inspector checked the entire building thoroughly. The wiring was fine; the plumbing had some leaks. But structurally, it was sound.

Keely and Taurus made a bold offer, far below the appraised value of the house, and  the seller accepted it. Completing the sale took a long time because the financing included a State of Kentucky first-time homeowner program. In late October, the last bit of red tape was finally cut, and Keely and Taurus got the keys to their house.

Vintage fan in the basement

Since then, they have been working in the house getting it ready to move in. One of the first items on the agenda was the plumbing.  Our son-in-law has worked hard on it day after day when he arrives home from work, and he has installed two commodes and several faucets and various pieces of plumbing connected to those fixtures.

Meanwhile, Keely removed the old wall-to-wall carpet, with the help of a friend. She has spent her evenings working very hard on the floors. She pulled up the nails and tacks left from the carpet and put down a fresh coat of shellac, and finally, a coat of paste wax. The hallway, which had a double layer of old carpet, has been a challenge. There, she is still scraping up the foam backing of the bottom layer of carpet.

Keely has also been fixing cracks in the plaster and getting the walls ready to paint. And she has painted the pantry shelves. I have been helping as much as I can with thorough cleaning. No heavy cleaning had been done in the house for a very long time, even before it sat empty for two years.

Old wallpapers in a closet corner

They will be moving in a few more days. It would be lovely to have enough time to paint every room in advance and solve every little problem, but that isn't possible. We are thankful for what we have accomplished  The rest will be done in its own good time. The house already looks 100 times better. It's a jewel, and it's beginning to shine.