Fast Forward

I guess I need to do some catching up on what has been accomplished so far in the last two decades! Initially, my first concerns were to clean up the place. The house was fine inside other than being run-down and full of animals. A squirrel, a raccoon, and a few ground hogs mainly. Otherwise there was no clutter. Just an empty old house that had been un-occupied for roughly five years. Just like any other building that is left alone, it was slowly dying.

I decided to remove all of the outbuildings since they were in need of much repair also. Two of the buildings were given away to neighbors. They hauled them off to their own properties and are still standing today. There were three separate porches that I demolished. They had all seen their better days. Trees that were splintered and dying, shrubbery growing next to the foundation, all were removed. Then started the real work, replacing the roof.

If I remember right, it took thirty square of shingles to do the main roof. Little did I know at the time how much more I would be putting on down the road. First I had to remove the old slate shingles with the exception of an area which had been replaced with asphalt shingles. Once the slate was removed I found nothing but a slatted roof, in other words, I needed to put on a solid sheathing in order to continue. This work took me through the winter and by the spring of 1989 my house was "dried" in.