More than spackle and paint.

That was the way the realtor rightfully described my little house.  Still, some spackle and paint can go a long way toward improving a room.  That, and removing the ridiculous wire shelves which had been installed everywhere in the bath and kitchen.

Lipstick

I decided the half purple, half beige room needed to be painted (well, that was obvious).  What I really decided was it had to happen now, and not wanting to spend money for what might be a temporary paint job, I looked over the orphan paint colors which the prior owner had left.  And so with the help of some Martha Stewart Sea Mist Green originally mixed in 1998, and even a roller and brush left in the house by the old owner, I made a surprising improvement.

The Garage

The fact is, I have not had a garage since I was in high school.  And as someone who greatly prefers travelling by bicycle or Vespa to a car, I was OK with that.  Bike can be brought inside, and throw a tarp over a Vespa and you are set.  But I have come to appreciate the garage as more than just a warehouse for a car.  A garage lets you keep yard tools outside (you don't have to schlep them up from your basement).  A garage lets you work on bicycles and scooters without the claustrophobia of working in a basement.  Plus, it is impossible and/or unwise to work on motor scooters in your basement, and working on them in the yard just means lots of clean up each time - you can't just leave a project half done and hope it won't rain or get dirt or leaves in it while it sits in the backyard.

Now, some might say a shed can take care of most of these items.  And that is true.  But to be fully practical, the shed would need electricity.  Also, even big sheds are a bit small for spreading out and having access to your tools.

As the attentive reader will have noticed, my new house has a garage.  It also "needs work" as the roof is in such bad shape you can see daylight through a chunk of it.  And it appears to have been a grand hotel for mice over the past 40+ years.  But despite its age and condition, it stands straight and has a concrete floor and is 10' x 20'.  Now, that's not a big garage by any means (I am not 100% certain my car will even fit through its barn-style doors).  But at 200 square feet, it will very nicely accommodate my 2 Vespas, my 3 bicycles, and my 1940's Indian bike-rickshaw.  And remember, at 200 sf it is 22% of the size of the entire house.

The previous owner left a bunch of stuff in the garage - a cabinet, some doors and screens, a nice workbench, some yard tools.  And I've stored a few items in it just for convenience.  But last night I decided to do some cleaning.  I opened the barn doors for the first time and was pleased to see they worked, at least well enough to get smaller items in and out (I will test a full open later).  I started throwing away the random debris and sweeping up the old mouse nests which filled most of the crevasses.  I also tore down some of the ridiculous patchwork of planks a previous owner had nailed to the frame to combat the mice accessing the garage walls.

OK, enough words.  Here are some pictures showing the garage and the clean-up.  Still very much "in progress" but I was encouraged at how it went and I am thrilled to have a garage!

The hidden path

I am slowly in the process of uncovering the concrete walk that runs along the side of the house and actually leads to the garage door.  While a few spots were visible, it was so covered over with soil and plants that you could not be sure where the concrete ended and the yard began.  Below, a few shots of the unveiling:

IT'S MINE! ALLLLLL MINE!

Closed this morning!  This monster of a project is now mine to wrestle with until it once again becomes a happy home or I am institutionalized.

And to put my stamp on the house, I moved my rocking chairs and table to the house, declaring to the world that this house is owned by a rockin' dude! (ok, that was horrible.  Sorry.  Truly)

The Inside Story

So I mentioned that by some standards the house might be called a craphole.  But again, with love.  It is super cute and the right size for me and has a garage (or a big shed with electricity and a concrete floor).  And the price was right.

So what exactly makes me describe it in less-than-lauditory terms?  Well, the inside "needs work" as they say.  The Realtor who listed the house was quick to point out when I first called about seeing it that this

house needed work, and more than just paint and spackle.

The part that "needs work" is the room labelled Mudroom.  That room was an addition to the house and it has a flat roof.  Mating the flat roof to the original pitched roof created a seam which leaked.  And so that entire room has been gutted of drywall, walls and ceiling.

A keen eye will also notice that the kitchen and bathroom are smaller than some motor-homes.  But that can be changed, and in the meantime I am kinda looking forward to living the tiny-house lifestyle.

And so it begins

So I am buying a new house.  It is in Clintonville, a neighborhood in north Columbus about 2 miles north of the Ohio State University campus.  I used to own a house in Clintonhood, the north campus neighborhood just south of Clintonville proper, but this new house is in true Clintonville. So I am movin' on up, for sure.  Except for the condition of the house, that is.  It, uh, needs work.

I have been trying to come up with a good name for the house.  "The Craphole" seems pretty harsh, though I mean that with love.  It IS a bit of a mess.  But that doesn't bother me in the least, as it gives me a pretty clean slate to make it what I want.

So have you ever heard that cliche' that "you never want to own the most expensive house on the block"?  Well, there is no fear of that happening.  None at all.

Back to the name.  As you can see from the blog address, I think I'll go with "the Shack" or Clintonville Shack.  At 905 square feet, it certainly isn't a mansion or manor-house or estate.  Just a shack.  I might try and find out how to say "shack" or "hovel" in French and dress it up a bit.  But regardless, I truly could not be more excited about moving to The Shack!

I close on the house Oct. 30th.  I'll try to post some photos to make this more interesting.  Onward!