How I Got Here

When my husband and I first got married, I saw his "country home" as

nothing more than a dump left over from a previous relationship. I

wanted to see it gone. On my first visit, we we were not yet married,

and I saw a huge mess. The house had been used as a storage facility

for four years. At the time, I had no idea how bad it actually was, but

what stood out to me the most was the fact that the guys were keeping

a tractor in the kitchen/dining room.

My husband talked me into having a barbecue/sleepover. When I saw

my first Huntsman spider, I promptly got drunk. I am not exaggerating

when I say it was the size of my hand, and I already had a major

phobia of spiders. I was astonished that no one at the party

wanted to kill it, as they are considered good spiders down here

in Australia.

Fast forward three years. We were living in Melton, and it was hell. We

lived in one of the center units of a six unit square. A sidewalk divided

the units in half, so we had neighbors on either side of paper thin walls.

On one side, we got to listen to the misadventures of a single father

and his sons. On the other side, we got to listen to the constant

fighting of a couple of alcoholics. Across from us, we got treated

to the soap opera of a young couple addicted to drama and

marijuana. I had never experienced anything like it. Cops being

called was a regular occasion. I watched my husband break up

one knife fight and heard about others. The worst part was how

often we were awakened in the middle of the night by loud music

that didn't get started until around 2:00 or 3:00AM. I spent many

a night stressing about whether my husband would finally snap

and give them all the beatings they deserved.

Husband ended up leaving his place of employment, and we realized

there was nothing keeping us there any longer. We discussed it,

at length, and came to the conclusion that the Flowerdale home

would never get finished as long as we lived an hour and a half

away from it. Thus, on my third anniversary, I found myself packing

boxes to move from one dump to another. What kept my spirits

up was the knowledge that we owned half of the dump we were

moving to, and we had the power to make it into something other

than a dump. Plus, it was located in the country which I will

always prefer to the city. And the neighbor situation would be a huge

improvement.

Our plan was simple - take the two weeks from before Christmas to

after New Year's, plaster the three bedrooms, paint them, level the

floors with cement, put laminate flooring down, finish the plaster in

the hallway and the toilet, fix the tub, build up a floor in the bathroom

and tile the toilet, hallway and bathroom. I thought it would be

impossible, but the engineers insisted if we worked hard enough,

it could be done. And after all, they do stuff like this on The

Learning Channel all the time. Well, we learned alright...

First Look

When the husband and friend first began the adventure we refer to as

Flowerdale, even though that encompasses an entire town and not just

our house, they had the idea that they could fix up the on the

weekends and that within five years, it would be ready for sale.

Since they are both engineers, on the surface, this seems like sound

thinking. Little did they know what they were getting into. Both of

them are experienced with their hands and tools, but neither of them

had ever renovated a house, and they certainly hadn't done it as a

weekender type gig. I use the word 'renovated' loosely. Or perhaps

it's the word 'house' I should use loosely. When they bought this place,

the only thing it had was potential. At some point, I will upload

pictures but for now I shall just describe the state the house was in.

It was missing a wall in the back. Plastic had been hanged to keep

out the elements. The outside of the house is blue stone and the inside

was like something out of a madman's fantasy. The living room is large

with a cathedral ceiling made up of paneling (not sure what kind) and

large wooden beams. The walls were also pine paneling, and they went

through the whole entire house. There were no windows in the living

room, only a set of French doors made up of square glass pieces set

into rotting wood. It was incredibly dark throughout the house because

all of the paneling had been stained dark brown.

The previous owner/builder had attempted to lay a concrete floor, but

it was clear that he did not know what he was doing, so the concrete

dried in the middle of his laying it, leaving pits and holes all over. And

forget the idea of it being level. No hope in hell. The front yard was a

swamp, and every year when the rains would come, the house would

flood.

In each of the bedrooms, for apparent creativity's sake, the paneling on

the walls was laid out differently. The master bedroom had vertical

paneling. The bedroom across from it had horizontal paneling and the

third bedroom had diagonal paneling.

There were many other issues, but a few that stand out are the fact

that one of the walls wasn't even attached to the foundation and the

roof leaked like a sieve. A wood stove served for cooking and another

one, placed smack in the middle of the living room floor, for heating.

The bathroom had been completely gutted, or perhaps it had never

been finished.

It took years to figure out why the master bedroom had a closet with a

seven foot ceiling and a clothing rack that can only be reached with a

step stool, but when we discovered the hole in the wall held a fan, it

became clear that the closet had been used for much more important

things than holding clothes. It had been used to grow marijuana.

Perhaps that explains some of the design features.

This is the house that my husband and his friend bought as a five year,

fix on the weekends, investment. In our next installment, I'll begin

explaining some of the challenges they faced and how I ended up

living in this still unfinished house, nine years later.

How It All Started

Many moons ago and long before he met me, my husband had another. We will call her 'the ex'. Shortly before they broke up, she got it in her head that she wanted to buy a house in Flowerdale, Victoria to fix up. Thinking this was not only a good idea, but possibly a potential business venture, he enlisted one of his good friends, and they bought the "house" (for lack of a better term) together.

Nine years have passed. The ex has moved into friendship status and he's met the love of his life - me. Because he's also the love of my life, I find myself trapped in the strange mix of curses of blessings that came along with this "house".

I shall use this blog to share some of the misadventures we've had since we decided to move in to this project and get it finished more quickly, as well as tips on how to live in a construction site.

I hope you enjoy.