An afternoon adventure

When we bought this house, there was a large refrigerated unit left in the back yard...

I posted it on Freecycle, a site where people can recycle goods and keep them out of the landfill and received many inquiries about the unit, however, it was really heavy, it was behind a chain link fence and folks were stymied as to how to get it out.  After a month on Freecycle, there was no solution.

I gave it a rest but now the house is rented and it was time to try again.  This time I posted it on Freecycle and in the free section of Craigslist.

That's how I found John, the man with the plan(s)...

He came yesterday afternoon with 3 burly young men, some 4x4 posts, a large trailer with ramps and... the magic tool...  a tractor with a front-end loader attached.

I wish I had a picture of the first attempt but I wasn't fast enough.  They put the posts under the unit and tried to pick it up.  It barely moved.

Time for Massey Ferguson...

I think plan B might have been to flip the unit up on the bucket and just carry it out to the trailer, using the tractor.  Ingenious but the balance wasn't going to work...

On to Plan C...Use the bucket to push the unit around and align it with the gate...

Then winch it on to the trailer.

Mission accomplished!

Tools and ingenuity made a fine combination and everyone's happy. I never know what adventure is going to come up next but it's never boring.

3/1.5 in Bethany

Looks like this house is rented, thanks for all your interest and inquiries.  We always get to meet the nicest people at the Open Houses, I wish we had room for everyone that needs a home!

OPEN SUNDAY 9/19

The Bethany 3/1.5 is ready to go!  This is terrific house on a nice street in Bethany.

We did a lot of updates to the kitchen including a new gas range and a Bosch dishwasher.  The kitchen already had good lighting with huge windows and I added a pantry cabinet for even better storage.

It has three roomy bedrooms with large closets

.

And 1.5 baths with ceramic floors and wood cabinets.

We have installed mini-blinds and there are ceiling fans throughout.  The heat and air-conditioning unit is brand new as well.

The house has been professionally cleaned and is ready to go.

Pets OK, No Section 8

Open Sunday 9/19 from 2-5pm

New Storm Door

The house has great windows which makes it nice and bright and a little hard to picture because of all the light pouring in.  We have installed new window blinds which helps,

There is a nice wide front step area which is pictured here and showing off the new storm door.

Off to picture left you can see the beginning of a really large two car garage.  I need to get a more complete picture of the front, will post when I have it.


.

Almost Done

Well, I hope our visitors will understand that if I'm not posting it is because I'm busy working on the latest project.  We're at a great place to start sharing pictures so here is the before and after on the kitchen.
This is a large eat-in kitchen that had been gutted and all appliances removed.  The hardwood floors still looked good.

With a little help from my friends, I found a good finish carpenter and together we built a new kitchen, including refurbishing the cabinets and adding a pantry.

My phone photos don't do justice to the before but here's a pretty good after picture - including a brand new Bosch dishwasher.

Keep watching here for updates, I am anticipating an Open House 9/19/10.

3/1.5 in Bethany

I closed on this really nice 3/1.5 in Bethany on Thursday.  Of course, with the temperatures hitting 100+, not to mention the heat index, installing air conditioning was my number one priority.  In fact, the property was virtually unworkable without so on Friday the installers came and the project began.

I should note that the house in the background is not the one I bought, mine is to camera left. This house is,
however, representative of the neighborhood.

It took all day to cool to the 80's, at which point I started to remove the existing carpeting.  Nothing much to show yet but stay tuned for pictures as this progresses.

Update

Just a quick update, plans are going forward for the next house.  If all the paperwork gets in timely, we'll close on Thursday and I'll post pictures.  In the meanwhile, I've been lining up contractors and pre-scheduling the work to be done.  Hoping for a September availability but if nothing else, I've learned that the time frames are unpredictable.

In my time "off" I've been doing some much needed work on my own house, the yard thanks me but I am looking forward to the next renovation, it's just fun to see a finished house emerge from a sometimes rough beginning.