This month is flying by!  I can’t believe it is half way over.  I guess time flies when you are having fun, or was that when you’re stressed out?!  I’ve been both over the past couple of weeks, but that is to be expected when you have a project of this size going on.  Week two was a little slow in the progress department despite my good intentions.  Week three has been much better.

All of the wiring has either been repaired or replaced.  I hired an electrical contractor to come out and replace the panel box and meter base.  I’m still on the same 100 amp draw but with a much nicer panel box.  The old panel box did not have a main disconnect and the ground wires were mounted incorrectly in the panel so the upgrade is more than just cosmetic.  As I’m doing my rehab work I have to remember that one day there will be a home inspector  looking this place over.  I don’t want t be negotiating price down due to the fact that I didn’t make appropriate decision in the early days of fixing this place.  The county electrical inspector should be out Monday Wednesday and with any luck I will have power to the place by the middle of this week.

Old panel box. Besides being weathered it had no main breaker to disconnect the power to the house nor was the grounding wired correctly.

New box.  Besides being much nicer to look at it also is wired correctly and has a main disconnect. 

Boring but necessary.

The windows, doors and siding for the soffits have been ordered and hoping to get started on those later next week or the week following.  This house has old aluminum windows now and they are ugly!  When this work is completed it will give the outside of the house an entirely new look.  Curb appeal is important! 🙂

I have the bathroom almost completely gutted and I think I will be starting on it next week.  This is exciting as everything else I have been doing has been either demo work or systems work, e.g. electrical and plumbing.  To be able to actually start “building” something is exciting to me.  I want to see a room come together.  There are still a couple of other items I need to take care of first.  I know I will be replacing the hot water heater and since I don’t have electric I’m still not sure what kind of condition the heating and air system are in.  Man there is a lot to do around this place!

There was an old cast iron tub here that I removed.  Once I disconnected the drain it wasn’t much trouble to get out.

You will never guess what I found under the tub.  A dead raccoon!!  It was completely decomposed and just the fur and bones remained.  Crazy!!

On of the big unknowns right now is what to do with the car port.  I would love to turn it into a one car garage, but I think it might be cost prohibitive.  For now I’m waiting until later when I get most everything else done to know where I stand with the budget.  Any thoughts??

Hope you guys had a great weekend!!