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Renovating this house has been an amazing adventure of fortitude and hope.  It’s an old girl.  I think the first record I found for this house was around 1890.  I love it, I love this old monstrosity so much.

If you’ve ever seen “The Money Pit” w/Tom Hanks, watch it again and think of me, except our house is not a mansion.  It’s your average two-story that’s been divided into a duplex.  I’ll never forget it.  Our dads, Daddy’s grandpa, and my brother all came together to build our back staircase.  Once they were done, Daddy stood at the top of the steps and said, “I have stairs!”  (see movie scene for more fun and games.)  When we went to look at houses, it was just so much fun, and we believed we could do it.  I had no idea what I was getting into, despite being a carpenter’s daughter.

When we tore down the plaster and lath in the backrooms, I nearly had a stroke.  There I was, standing in rooms torn down to the studs.  Oh, my heart.  We really had to do it, because the walls needed to be reinsulated.  It was a beautiful thing to watch.  We all joined hands and insulated, hung sheetrock, spackled, sanded, spackled, sanded, spackled, sanded - did I mention spackling and sanding?  Then, finally, when the walls were primed, I stood in there feeling like queen of the universe.  Look, look what my men have done!  Because, I do, I have an army of good strong men.  My father, my father-in-law, my brothers, my brother-in-law, my nephew, Daddy’s grandpa, and my husband, all of them:  how precious it is to have so many knights in my life.

Dad’s taught me how to do so much, cutting paint, spackling, how to make angular cuts on molding.  The molding he built by hand in those back rooms, the built-in bookshelf, the walk-in closet.  All this time, I’ve been watching him, helping him, it’s like dad has been building a playhouse for me.  I owe him so much.  He’s been here through it all, start to finish.  I don’t know how I’d live without him.