~ from my home to yours, living the Working Pantry lifestyle ~ surviving today's economy ~ a can-do spirit and attitude ~

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Our Journey to a Mortgage Free Home ... #11

(You can read previous entries in this series HERE.)

STOP ... HIT THE BREAKS!!!!

It's time for an insert ... the kind where you realized you omitted something very important and you have to go back and insert it ...

that's what we're doing in this post ...

inserting something that I should have included before now ...

Remember what the outside looked like from the beginning?


As you can see the outside needed some help.  It was most definitely not 'weatherized' and as you can see had holes in various places. We knew that eventually one day we wanted to put some nice siding or maybe even brick the outside but that was way down on the priority list and in the distant future. But, we did need to put something on the outside for cosmetic reasons and to protect all the work that was going on inside.  So, we opted for this siding ... It's supposed to last for 20 years ... that should give us enough time to be able to put what we really want on it!



The first layer was tar paper and then the siding was put up ... boy oh boy, did we ever work hard on this part ...  (We are so thankful to the friends and neighbors who came and helped!)

Don't you just love our temporary steps!!!  They were unsafe and we took extra precautions when on them ... but it was the only way we could get up into the house unless you used a ladder and we'll just say that I'm not into ladders and leave it at that!  We purposefully built the foundation so that the house would sit up high off the ground to make things like plumbing and any future work or repairs that needed doing under the house easier.


the back of the house ....

The roof looks really bad doesn't it?  But it would have to wait ... we had repaired the hole in it and patched it up so that it was not leaking ... a new roof would have to wait a little longer!  Remember, we were (and are) paying as we go and that meant we had to wait on a new roof!


painting the siding came next ...


... painting all done ... the whole house!

See, this was an important part of the journey that I left out!

In our next entry we'll go back inside and get to work!

Until next time,
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27 

Sharing 43 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building 

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Manual Food Chopper

Pressure Canner

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15 comments:

  1. weatherboards would really set it off, especially with those lovely windows, looking good though, veranda front & back & you'll be set! don't think i'd like to do those stairs but when you got to you got to, i think it's great that you are getting it done without taking out a loan. like they said in olden times, you make do with what you got or given :))
    can't wait for the next chapter
    thanx for sharing

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    1. Selina, you pretty much summed up our philosophy throughout this whole journey ... do what you can with what you got!

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  2. Patsi, I am really enjoying seeing the progress on the house that became "Your Home".

    It reminds me of the day I sat on the floor of this house, and looked around and wondered if we had done the right thing, ( we had moved from a nice custom built home).....it is now almost 40 years later, and all I can say, is, we did!

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    1. Enid, I just had to chuckle ... I know that feeling! If our desire not to have a mortgage wasn't so strong I don't think we would have had the motivation to keep on keeping on! This is not for the faint of heart!

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  3. Every time I read one of these posts I am just astounded by y'alls courage!

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    1. Lana, I don't know about courage but we were determined!

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  4. I can't wait for the next instalment, Patsy. Thanks for sharing this with us as it would be very encouraging for young people especially to see what they could achieve with a lot of hard work. For us oldies...we already know that :-)

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    Replies
    1. Nanna Chel, there are plenty more installments to come! I truly do hope our journey is encouraging to others!

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  5. The cladding makes it look a lot more like a home Patsy. Your temporary steps are way better than using a ladder for access.

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    Replies
    1. Sherri, thank goodness we didn't have to use those stairs for a long time! They were very unstable!

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  6. Ah, Patsy, so that's how you do things over there! It's really interesting! This kind of work sure is a marathon. It's got to be good training for something!!

    I'm enjoying watching you work!!

    Regards,
    Rachel Holt

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    Replies
    1. Rachel, it has definitely been a marathon. Most people would not even consider undertaking this journey, but we're not most people. It's good training for a lot of things ... patience, contentment, good stewardship, saving, frugality ... the list goes on!!!!

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  7. the outside was not insulated? Like with Tyvek?

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    Replies
    1. Joy, the black tar paper acts as an insulator plus the walls all have 4 inches of insulation in them as does the ceiling. The house is very well insulated. All the outside walls are 6 inches thick!

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    2. Tarpaper is fine for your climate, but in the Great White North, Tyvek or Typar housewrap is an essential part of insulation (& required in this area) because our winters are brutal (like, hurricane brutal oftentimes).

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