My Summer: All Mapped Out
So, the Pearce Family House Thing is a “go”. We’re letting my parents’ house to the daughter of our next door neighbors, who’s been trying to get out of the monster house she “won” in her divorce a couple years ago. Alissa and her 2 darling children Hal & Lily will benefit from being next door to the grandparents, who will benefit from having their daughter immediately adjacent, and we benefit by having someone in the house to look after it for us while we spend a little (more) time waiting for the market to improve. Who knows - they might decide to buy it. Stay tuned...
This all means that the work on the house needs to be done-done-DONE no later than 4 August when Alissa returns from her summer teaching job. So, there goes Pennsic.
During this same stretch, my brother and I are preparing to swap houses. Howard has decided to buy my grandparents’ house, where I’ve been living for the past several years, and I’ll buy his place. It’s good because he’s got 2 kids and the dog and this is a larger house. It also keeps the property in the family, which I like because there have been Pearces living there since December of 1941. I get a house that’s more suited to my means, and one for which I have a clear & honest appraisal of its condition over the past decade. So, aces for everybody. But Howard has to be into the Exeter house and settled before the kids go back to school in late August, and there’s tons of work that needs to be done before that can happen.
My tasks at Exeter include:
The Coleridge house list includes:
Sounds like fun, eh? So, there really goes Pennsic.
On the upside, this moves forward on things that have been hanging fire for literally years. And my “spare” time this summer will see the use of plenty of power tools. I have to pack all my junk at my house, which means handling and deciding on lots of it (“Save, pack or pitch?” will be my mantra…)
Look forward to process updates as things grind forward.
This all means that the work on the house needs to be done-done-DONE no later than 4 August when Alissa returns from her summer teaching job. So, there goes Pennsic.
During this same stretch, my brother and I are preparing to swap houses. Howard has decided to buy my grandparents’ house, where I’ve been living for the past several years, and I’ll buy his place. It’s good because he’s got 2 kids and the dog and this is a larger house. It also keeps the property in the family, which I like because there have been Pearces living there since December of 1941. I get a house that’s more suited to my means, and one for which I have a clear & honest appraisal of its condition over the past decade. So, aces for everybody. But Howard has to be into the Exeter house and settled before the kids go back to school in late August, and there’s tons of work that needs to be done before that can happen.
My tasks at Exeter include:
- Getting the upstairs bathroom refurbished - contractors, etc
- Replacing the floor in the kitchen
- Having grounded outlets installed in the kitchen & bathroom
- Getting the driveway apron fixed, and the driveway re-topped
- Repairing the exterior railings on the 2 small 2nd floor porches - they’ve rotted out
- Various yard cleaning chores - excavating massive amounts of brush from the back yard
- And, obviously, clearing and cleaning the place...
The Coleridge house list includes:
- Refinishing hardwood floors over ½ the 1st floor and all the 2nd.
- Prepping 3 rooms for carpet installation
- Painting the kitchen & the living room
- Replacing the aging and warping kitchen cabinet doors. (God bless the idea of mail-order kitchen cabinets!)
- Emptying the house of major amounts of family furniture, which is being split between my home, Howard’s and my sister’s place in Pittsburgh. (Road trip!)
Sounds like fun, eh? So, there really goes Pennsic.
On the upside, this moves forward on things that have been hanging fire for literally years. And my “spare” time this summer will see the use of plenty of power tools. I have to pack all my junk at my house, which means handling and deciding on lots of it (“Save, pack or pitch?” will be my mantra…)
Look forward to process updates as things grind forward.