The Hopeful Homesteader

The Hopeful Homesteader

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Busy, busy, busy…

We've been hard at work every week trying to get the house to a livable state. Devin and I are enjoying the time together and working with each other.

The house that we’re buying has been sitting empty for nearly two years.

It turns out that the lady that used to own the house is someone I used to work with many years ago. Sad to say that a few years ago she had a stroke and had to move closer to town, and has since passed away.

When she moved to town she took only the necessities with her and when she passed away and the years since things that have been left in the house has been gone through by various family members gathering their memories. However, much has been left behind and has since come to me as the new owner of the house .

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She obviously passed the time with puzzles.

 

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There’s tons of stuff to go through before we can ever even get to work on the house.

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Even the shed is full of items to plunder through and see what’s what.

Once we cleared out the clutter from the house, (okay moved quite a bit of it to the shed to go through later) we really got to work.

We started in the back of the house and first got Devin’s room all cleared out.

Then we moved on to my room. The water bed is quite a conundrum as to how to get it out of here. The mattress still has quite a bit of water in it and is a little to much for us to get out just yet. 20151011_121153

Since we had to give up on moving out the waterbed for now we decided to start getting rid of some of the carpet.

 

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And under all that dirty, old carpet…

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…very old linoleum.

But finally we have a blank slate to start from.

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We still have quite a ways to go but we’re slowly working our way into what I believe will turn out to be a very nice home.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

I'm back...And starting over!

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. Several factors played a role in this but they all break down into life got in the way. There's been quite a lot of things going on that have kept me from posting but I wont bore you with the details.

Okay...maybe a few details.

When I last wrote it had been six months since we bought the property with the settlement we got from my husband's accident. Due to financial reasons not long after my last post I returned to working as a nurse and my homesteading activities were put on hold. There just isn't a lot of time for blogging when you're working 12 hour night shifts.

Of course, it only took a little over a year before I remembered why I had gotten out of nursing in the first place. I just couldn't take the it anymore and I quit once and for all.

So here I was, with no career and disillusioned about homesteading. I had no clue what to do with myself and I spent the next year pretty much in limbo. During this time I was also dealing with more of the fall out of my husband's injury. He was falling deeper and deeper into depression and I didn't know how to deal with it. I tried multiple times to get him to speak with his doctors for help but he continually refused.

My frustration and helplessness grew. Everything I had known and loved about my life no longer applied. I was confused, angry and hurt. I knew that he was feeling these same things but he refused to talk to me about how either of us were feeling and we grew further and further apart. We argued all the time; about little things, about big things and about nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I've done everything right and he's done everything wrong. I know that it takes two and I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

To make a long story short - we're divorcing. I have bought a place and now my son and I will be starting on a new journey. This place is a massive fixer upper job but I think it has TONS of potential.  So look for upcoming posts of our struggles and triumphs as we move toward the future; whatever it may bring.

For now take a look at some before photos.

Front view of the house


Backyard - there's fish in the pond!

Side yard
Workshop

Garden shed

Back Porch and side yard