Introduction

Welcome to our new blog.
Last summer, the Mr. and I sold our vintage 2001 townhouse and began looking for something, well, a little better built! After 2 years of drywall cracks, scary flickery lights, siding falling off, etc. on this "new" house, we were throughly disgruntled with new construction! So, we chose a neighborhood near downtown, near a great little park, and most importantly near lots and lots of friends. Not being that experienced with home renovation, we sought out a house that most of the remodeling had already been done. When we saw the 1915 duplex on Elm St. we thought it was perfect- our dream house! A gorgeous gourmet kitchen, all new electrical work, all new plumbing, a fully finished basement, a decent sized backyard, a new roof, a recently remodeled upstairs bath. So we put in a bid and bought it! Then, we had a home inspection. The first clue that things were exactly right was that the electrical work seemed a little, well, less than professional. The service had been upgraded, but the box had never been certified by the city. We pitched a fit, and got some money off the house- whew! crisis avoided--- so we thought. Over the last year, we've been faced with all of the following from the house--
bathroom water leaks
basement leaks
roof leaks
no water pressure/no hot water
dead washer, dead microwave, dead hot water heater (not related to above)
rotten porch
plus all the things that we did to ourselves--
repainting
retiling
relandscaping

I've been spending more and more time looking at everyone else's home remodeling blogs lately, so I've decided that it's time to start one of my own. We're not complaining about the work that we have to do on the house- we've gotten way past that and have learned to take this stuff in stride. I love the supportive atmosphere of the blog environment and the helpfulness of its members. We're in over our heads on some of this, so the opportunity for peer review is a wonderful blessing. We don't have pictures from the befores on all of the projects, but I'll start taking them now.
Thanks and welcome again! Pictures to follow as soon as I figure that out.