Well, I bought the only house I could afford at the beginning of the boom.
The woman that used to own this house hadn't touched it maintenance-wise in 20-odd years, and in preparing it for sale, had very cleverly stacked crap so as to hide as many of it's flaws as possible.
One of the most heinous Money Pit type cover-ups was the front porch. At least half the floor boards were so rotten it should have completely collapsed under the weight of the stored crap...but they didn't, and the carpet hid a lot, as did the reed blinds and broken light fixture that kept it dark. Upon moving in I ripped up the carpet and tore out the blinds to discover that the porch was virtually unusable. That summer, we ripped out the bead board and floorboards, and found no supports underneath! How, you might ask, was the floor magically floating there? No clue. Maybe via the will of the 3 (yes 3!) dead cats we found underneath?
Anyway, we put in joists, and ran out of money. The remaining good floor boards sat outside and warped, the bead board split, and the chipboard that was supposed to be temporary became an 8 year hold-off until we could afford to fix the whole thing properly. Then came PPL! The Project for Pride in Living here in Minneapolis gave me a grant to repair said porch, and a back porch, and a few other things, and so...finally...we fixed it. Partly.
We got new floorboards and bead board installed, and then, we got pregnant.
And then, we found out about lead paint, and had to hold off for safety (while pregnant)
And then, we had a baby, and yadda yadda yadda, we were just awarded a second grant for lead abatement, and the porch HAD TO BE FIXED for the safety of sweet Josephine's brain cells and development.
So with the help of my beautiful parents, stripped and finally painted and stained the porch. It's so beautiful I could cry. And safe for Josephine to play on! So, without further ado....
BEFORE:
And,
drum roll please............
I
introduce to you,
the FRONT PORCH!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYY
