All photos in this post are before photos.  Check the links to see the improvements we’ve made.


A little over three years ago, Jason had the opportunity to make a career change which included relocation to another part of the state.  We talked and thought and prayed about the change and decided to go for it.  We were thrilled to be moving back to beautiful Cache Valley, where we lived the first year of our marriage, while we were attending USU.

When we began looking for homes in the area, Jason’s heart was set on a fixer-upper.  He has a talent for improvements.  In fact, his entire career as a Manufacturing Engineer is based on his innate ability to see a problem, devise a solution and jump right in and fix it.  He loves to see potential in something and then work to make that something the best it can be.  (What does that say about our relationship?)

We looked at many, many homes and finally settled on the one we referred to as “The Window House.”

                   

Many people are surprised to learn that this house could be classified as a Fixer Upper.  It was built in 2006!  It’s in a lovely neighborhood!  Unfortunately, the person who built the house (to put it mildly) had no idea what he was doing.  We never met him and he may be a very nice fellow, but we have been known to jokingly shake our fists at him when we discover yet another problem with the house. Sometimes the problems were dangerous, like gas leaks in every connection. Sometimes they caused a huge amount of damage, like a yard that sloped directly toward one basement window, causing floods with every heavy rain. Sometimes they were fairly minor like window trim attached with one tiny nail.  And sometimes they were huge, like mold in the basement.

It was in bad shape, and we knew it was, but despite the gas leaks, water leaks, unfinished or very poorly finished projects, millions of cosmetic problems, mold, water damage, insulation issues, horrific paint colors, etc. we purchased the house. For the first few months we lived here it seemed that we discovered at least one new issue daily.  Our “To-Fix” list was growing rather than shrinking, despite the hours a day we spent on improvements. As Jason does best, he dove right into fixing the problems.  I wish we’d kept a more detailed list of the improvements we made, but I am confident in saying we have completed hundreds of projects.

Despite how this looks, I can verify that he was actually very safe.