Nanci and I purchased our first home in July of 2006. It was a mess of a fixer-upper, but it was on five acres of the most gorgeous countryside in the most perfect location surrounded by working farms, other homes (also on large parcels of land), and State Forest lands. It was a short walk to the Schuylkill River and Trail, a hiking and biking trail alongside the river from Pottsville approximately 75 miles southeast to Philadelphia. The property was located on the access road to French Creek State Park, a big, beautiful State Park with a lake, playground, camping facilities, and more. The village of Birdsboro was approximately 3 miles to the west for groceries, pizza, gas, Church, etc. If we need more shopping facilities, the Coventry Mall was approximately 6 miles to the east of our house. Finally, we had great access to major highways - Routes 724, 422, 82, 176, and 100 were all nearby. It was approximately 20 minutes to Reading, 40 to Philadelphia, 60 to Allentown, 80 to Harrisburg, and 120 to New York. As I said, perfect location!

Of course, when we bought the house, it was an awful mess. The previous owners had basically abandoned it with all of their personal belongings inside. The first task was to empty it out and demolish all the walls/plumbing/HVAC/etc. that was not to remain.

Nanci and I moved in here three days after our wedding day in November of 2006. Prior to that, neither of us had spent a single night here; since that first night here, we never again slept in either of the houses that we each owned separately. Because there was so much to do, we concentrated on our upstairs bedroom suite and the livingroom first.

To save money, we had our friend Dave spec out the HVAC requirements of the house, we bought all the parts through one of his connections with some "sponsorship" from Nanci's brother Rob and his family (thanks, guys!) and we did all the installation work ourselves. The day of our wedding rehearsal - the day before the wedding - I was under the house in a Tyvek suit running copper freon lines and electric mains for the HVAC system. The first time we turned it on was the night we arrived home from our brief Poconos honeymoon following our wedding. It sure felt a lot different in there with heat!

We had some professional help with some of the bedroom and bathroom framing, plumbing, electrical, drywall, and priming and painting. We hired the BEST - my cousin Gary. Anyone needing any plumbing, drywall, or painting services down in the Richmond, VA area has to give Gary a call!

Nanci painted and finished decorating our 1/2 bathroom downstairs for Rubato (for those that don't know...he's toilet trained). She's such a good Mom to him to finish his little "suite" all by herself!

The upstairs bathroom wasn't finished when we moved in. So for the first two months we lived here, to take a shower we had to go downstairs, through the livingroom, out into the entryway, through the apartment door, through the apartment and use the apartment shower. Yes, this was in the dead of winter and the entryway and the apartment were completely unheated...well, except for a few feeble space heaters! So I next turned my attention to finishing the bathroom upstairs.

At this point in the renovation, we had new appliances downstairs, but the kitchen was an absolute mess. I removed the furnace from the center of the room (no kidding), and, with the help of good friend Bobby, we gutted the kitchen down to the floor joists. We built an all-new subfloor, all new plumbing, all new electrical, installed a secondary water heater under the sink, rebuilt all the cabinets, installed the island and new dishwasher that Nanci wanted, installed new lighting, and I cut a custom wrap-around countertop to literally top it all off.

Of course, once we found out we were pregnant, I went to work building baby's room. I completely redesigned and rebuilt the floorplan of the center of the house, and turned a central common room into a room for baby surrounded by hallways to access the original rooms. As we didn't know if we were having a boy or girl, we painted the room yellow with a "Raggedy Ann and Andy" theme.

With approximately 150 guests expected at our home for our Baby Shower, I set about cleaning up the house, yard, and garage. Two days before the event, I knocked down a third of the garage, and hauled off the scrap to the landfill the next day!

So the house is much improved over the condition it was in when we first saw (and bought) it; the photos below show its appearance when we moved out in September of 2008. There's still a lot to be done, and I will be working over there until it's sold.

Fresh red mulch around the freshly-landscaped yard did wonders for the overall appearance of the house.

And it really looks (and smells) beautiful when the rhododendrons are in full bloom:

We miss seeing the enormous flocks of big wild turkeys that used to roam around our yard.

I resided the garage/workshop in the Spring of 2008. I stripped the building down to its studs, re-leveled the building with new concrete footers around and beheath the support posts, put up new plywood and vinyl siding, painted the windows and beams, and replaced the door. What an improvement!

This picture shows the game-room/den at the rear of the house. It was finished with its own zoned heating system (as was the apartment kitchen/living area) and furnished, but sadly we never even had a chance to enjoy it prior to moving:

We supported the house through the winter of 2008-2009, both financially (mortgage, utility bills, etc.) and in terms of maintenance. The house was put on the real estate market for sale in December of 2008, just about the height of the housing crisis (when no homes were selling except at "give-away/foreclosure" prices) and near the lowest point in the recession. As of the updating of this website (March, 2009), the house is still on the market with very little interest from prospective buyers. We're hopeful that it will sell soon.