It’s Been 2 Years Since I Moved Into The Dollhouse & It’s Not Been All Roses

Welcome to the 906th Metamorphosis Monday! The end of May marked my 2nd anniversary of buying this cottage home, a home I often refer to as the Dollhouse because of its many adorable dollhouse-like features. Over the next few weeks, for Metamorphosis Monday, I’ll share some of the updates I’ve made since acquiring this cottage, along with new updates as they happen.

One of the first things I did after moving in was to remove the crabapple tree on the right side of the house. In this older photo I found online, you can’t see how overgrown it had become. By the time I purchased the house, it completely blocked the walkway to the front porch. When my realtor and I went back for a final walkthrough to reach the front porch, we had to bend way over to go under the tree branches that stretched out beyond the walkway. The day I moved in, I noticed the movers had taken those branches and pulled them all the way back to the trunk of the tree and taped them down with brown packing tape. I soon discovered that the sellers had basically treated the home as if it were a rental for the three years they lived here, letting the garden go to ruin and not keeping up with basic maintenance. I’m guessing they did that because the wife had a job that required them to move every few years, so I guess they didn’t want to invest any time, money, or effort in maintaining a home they would soon be leaving.

Personally, I don’t like it when trees are planted right up against a house. They tend to darken interior room(s) and block the view. The top branches of the tree were right up against the upstairs window, lying atop the window box outside that window.  I didn’t even realize the house had window boxes until after I purchased the home and moved in.

I first discovered there were window boxes on the front of the house when I walked into the bedroom above the tree and saw tall weeds growing just outside the window. In this photo, the crabapple tree is visible outside the window with one of its branches lying on top of the window box.

I had the tree removed, greatly brightening up the dining room and revealing the long-hidden window boxes on that side of the house.

The next thing I had done was the removal of a million and one weeds from the backyard gardens. Brown mulch was added to the beds. I wish I could get pine straw here for a reasonable price. A bale costs 3 to 4 times what it does in Georgia. This was only about a third of the weeds that were removed from the back and side yards. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with the weeds again, but I hope to have that dealt with soon.

I don’t remember exact dates, so these updates I’m sharing may not be in order, but sometime during that first year, I had the exterior of the home washed. It was filthy!

Here’s an example of how this side of the house looked afterward. I think the whole house gave a big sigh of relief to have years of grime removed. It was too long after this that I discovered there used to be a window on this side of the house that was bricked up at some point.

I also had the roof cleaned. Moss was growing down the right side of the roof over the garage, and the whole roof needed a good cleaning. While we are looking at this photo, note the round electrical box and the wire guard that’s running across the top of the garage door to the wall on the right—more on that in a sec.

Here’s how the roof looked after cleaning, so much better!

The wiring guard we just saw was covering wire that ran to this ancient floodlight on the back of the house. Actually, there were three of these very old floodlights on the house. I had two removed, not realizing there was a third one on the other side of the house. I didn’t know about that third one until we had hurricane winds come through and the power went out in my office. All three floodlights, along with their wiring/cover, are now gone. I love seeing the exterior of the home without a bunch of ugly wiring snaking up its walls.

Ignore the roof in this photo; this photo was taken before the house and roof were cleaned. I wish I had thought to take a photo while the floodlight wiring was still on the house. It looked just like the electrical service wiring that’s still there, so I had two of these ugly wiring things running up the back of the house in this spot. At least, I was able to get rid of one of them. I’ve gotten quotes for moving this meter (and its wiring) where the power comes into the house, and it’s very expensive. All the old homes in this historic area have above-ground wiring.

Now the area over the garage looks much better with that ugly wiring gone. (Note: Photo was taken before roof was cleaned.) I had all the wiring inside the garage and on the back wall of the garage removed and cleaned up. Over the 88 years this home has been here, as new families moved in, new services that required wiring and other devices were added, but nothing appeared to have ever been removed. With each new family, more stuff was added to the wall you see just to the left of the garage door. That brick wall was covered with old cable boxes and wiring that went nowhere. I hired a contractor who spent an hour or two doing nothing but removing old wiring, old cable boxes, and old cabling from both inside and outside the house.  I can’t stand to see wiring running everywhere, especially when it’s not even in use anymore. It’s like having trash tacked to the walls of your home. Argh! This summer, one of my many goals is to have the driveway and patio pavers cleaned, resanded, and sealed.

Sure wish I could get rid of that electrical service wire that’s just outside my office windows. I’d love to get it buried and have it come in on the left wall of the garage, if possible. I’ve had quotes from $8,000 on up, so that would be a very expensive update.

We’ll go inside next week and look at some of the updates I’ve completed inside over the past two years. I also have more outside updates planned for this summer, especially in the garden. Looking forward to sharing those soon!

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