The First Phase, November 2008-January 2009

Even though we had not officially purchased the house yet, we got permission to begin working right away. Part of the reason for this was because someone decided to break into the house. They broke a couple of windows and kicked in the front door. The owner did not have time to fix things, so he called Josh. Josh and the girls went out and boarded up the front and side doors. Josh also wired in a light to give a little security.
Then the clean-up began. Josh started in the basement, which was completely full of ninety years worth of cans, boxes, furniture, you name it. He spent days down there, sorting and tossing until he had loaded the dump trailer several times over. He also had to take out the coal furnace, shovel out the leftover coal, and throw out the corn cobs that were used as fire starter.
Cleaning up the rest of the house didn't take as long as I thought it would. We cleaned up the downstairs first. This was mostly moving furniture into one room so that it would be out of the way and tossing the pieces that were in terrible shape. The upstairs took longer because it was completely full of junk. The porch room took an entire day by itself to clean out. We sorted through the stuff and found some interesting items, like a never used 48 star American flag!
We also went ahead and put in a new septic tank. But no plumbing has been hooked to the house yet. Then we needed a little heat, to keep the basement from heaving in the cold. We got an older furnace and made a big investment in a LP tank. Next came new electrical service to the property. All of these were just the jumping off point. The next step: demolition!!

From Briggs House Remodel

From Briggs House Remodel