Four years of this view -- not too shabby.
Four years ago, we unlocked the door to our little house for the first time. For the first few weeks, walking over the threshold each day didn't even feel real. It felt like a wish-fulfillment dream. Anyone who's been through a short sale can testify to that sense of being trapped in a surrealist painting. Even when the dream sense evaporated, it ended up taking a few more months for us to fully realize that the house was OURS.
In the years of homeownership that followed, we discovered that even “turnkey” doesn’t always mean that all of the work has been done. Dry rot, more dry rot, and then more dry rot presented itself as we noticed issues that just sort of grew as they were exposed. You’d think that by the time we were celebrating our fourth anniversary of ownership, we’d be finished with all of the fixes and upgrades, but if you’ve gazed at my yearly to-do lists, you’ll see that there’s still a lot left to do. While we’ve been more tortoise than hare in our first home’s renovation, things are starting to come along. We’ve been taking it easy this summer due to the heat, but as the temperature eases off a tad, the last bit of siding is scheduled to go up, more outside painting will ensue, and the rest of the deck repair will commence. While we may not be planning on spending the rest of our lives in Nevada County, as long as we’re here, it will be in this house, slowly but surely revamping each room until our little house gleams like a jewel. |