The Mud Trench
Sheryl ripping out carpet
The new French drain
The front of the house from the street
The back of the house and what's left of a boat shed.Tyler and Meghan returned from their world travels in November of 2010. By April of 2011 Tyler had found a Spanish teaching Job at Colton, a little town about 40 miles southeast of Portland, but they moved into an apartment and felt very temporary. As this school year unfolded they again were apartment dwellers but were still unhappy about it and started to shop for a house to buy. Their only drawback seemed to be they had very little savings and clearly could only afford a “starter” house. They looked at some OK houses in dreadful neighborhoods. They looked at some dreadful houses in OK neighborhoods. They had been looking for over a year when they found their home. It was in West Linn, a highly desirable community on a wonderful street in a great little neighbor hood. On one side are nice homes, on the other side are jillion dollar mansions once owned by professional basketball players. The neighbors like to fish. It’s simply an amazing neighborhood and there, sitting on the corner in the middle of it all, is this little house we can gently call a “fixer-upper.” It had been vacant over a year as the price kept dropping as nobody was willing to tackle all the issues. Well, nobody other than Tyler and Meghan, who stepped in just as the price dropped once again. Drainage appears to be the number one issue as water gets under the house. Then it needs new bathrooms, kitchen, windows, insulation etc. You get the picture, but what Ty and Meghan have is lots of energy and enthusiasm but very little money so we think this is a good fit. Sometime at the end of summer, or maybe next year they are going to have a sweet little home that they will be very happy in.
The first weekend as owners T&M, in a driving rain, hand dug a three foot mud trench around the house. They already have “stories.” I wish I had photos of them, self-described at the end of it all as “mud turds.”
The photos show the trenching Ty and Meghan did to install a French drain to divert any water approaching the house. We have just returned after spending three days with them mostly shoveling dirt, and helping with drainage. Sheryl also managed to rip out all of the carpets, pads, and staples.
At the end of our first weekend of fixing we were all tired and sore but a feeling of warm accomplishment was felt by all. Sometimes hard physical work that yields results is very rewarding indeed.
