Our House

The mice got me thinking about our house. We love our house and are so very, very happy to have found it. Right before Liam was born, we were able to purchase one of the oldest houses in town, a 1904 (or 1902, depending on who you ask) smallish Victorian farm house called the McClellan house.

The McClellan house had fallen on some hard times (which was how we could afford it!) and needed quite a bit of work. So far we have:

• Put on a new roof on the house and garage
• Put up thin drywall over all the old cracked lath and plaster
• Painted everything except the kitchen and upstairs bathroom
• Insulated almost everything
• Installed a very fancy air filter to catch any old mold or lead tainted dust

Grandpa DM built new front steps, fixed up the basement so it doesn't fill with water anymore and has new windows that aren't broken and open and close and have screens (this makes a much better home for mice, apparently!) and he and Aunt C renovated the downstairs bathroom, replacing a tangle of twisted pipes formerly known as the 'shower in the kitchen' with white bead board and a new sink and a new cupboard. He also cleaned, painted and put back in all the trim around the baseboard so it looks nice. Grandpa DH fixed the old windows so they open and close like they once did, with the iron counterweights on new ropes, and he put in a great new front storm door that's all glass so that it lets in the light, but stops the wind better than the old door (it let light in too, but mostly around the edges). He also helped Will put on a new garage door so animals wouldn't think we cleaned all the years of junk out of the garage just to give them more space.

Our parents have done a lot of other work, too -- rain barrels so water drains away from the house and into garden areas, wiring and lighting, and lots of other things. And Will has been fixing up the garage on his own schedule -- that is, intermittently and at weird hours -- so it's a useful workshop for building and fixing things.

We are so very grateful for all the house help!