The New House

Since my father's passing in 2015, I knew that my brothers and I would be selling his land.  None of us live near the property anymore, and it was a liability to have it maintained.  So, I started looking at homes and properties in my area, dreaming of what I would be able to have as my own home, purchased with my portion of the proceeds of the sale of Daddy's land.  Well, we finally sold all of the land, and I bought a home ... from an online auction site.  The process has been, in many ways, the same as the traditional route.  However, having every entity in a different state has made it exceedingly tiring.

Anyway, this is my house.

It's an old farmhouse that was built in 1900.  Someone remodeled it at some point in the 80's and removed every ounce of character the house once had.  It currently has 2 bedrooms (both upstairs), 2 bathrooms (1 up and 1 down), and a modern (in the 80's) kitchen.  There are 2 front rooms (living and sitting?) and a dining area adjoining the kitchen along with a laundry room and partial basement.  When the remodel was done, there an addition built onto the back of the house which added a separate entry area and another "room" of unknown purpose.  There is also a detached garage (which can be seen in the photo), but the door has been bolted shut in order to turn the space into a workshop of sorts.

The great thing about waiting to buy until now is that I am paying cash for the house and the property on which it sits.  So, there will be no mortgage payments.  All the money I currently pay out for rent can be used for renovations and improvements.  So, what to do first?

The immediate plan is this:

• First, we have to close.  Yeah, I haven't closed on it yet.  That's just paperwork and whatnot.  It's mine, but not legally yet.  Details.  We close on or before 05 February 2018.  Waiting for more information on that.
• Get the power and heat going to wake up any creepy crawlies.  (There is evidence of at least 1 former pet, so there is a good chance there are creepy crawlies of some kind.)
• Bug bomb the whole place, every level.
• CLEAN!  I will be putting every available form to use - my Thieves cleaner, PineSol, bleach, Lysol.  I put no faith in any possibility that the place isn't crawling with heebie jeebies.
• Make the upstairs my temporary home.  With 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, there's space for sleeping quarters and a TV room.  Everything else can be stored until it has a place of its own.  Then I can work downstairs a little at a time and still have an escape.

I'll update here as I go.  There will be pictures (before and after), successes and failures, and some story telling.  Welcome to the show!