Where to start?

Once the house was ours, the big question was what to start on first. Being entirely impractical, I started on the badly overgrown yard. It was difficult to see the house from the street, as there were two huge spruce trees blocking the view in and out, as well as lots of crummy overgrown shrubs, etc. I started clearing them out, got frustrated, convinced MK that one spruce had to go, and contacted a tree service to take it down. I got a little carried away and had them take down a big walnut tree as well, which was a smart move; it allowed enough sunlight to the rear of the lot for a small garden.

Once upon a time this was a much larger lot, and old, being lot 1 of block 17 of the original 1839 plat of the city. About 1960 the north half was sold and a faux-colonial duplex was built on it. The duplex was for sale at the same time as 225, but we couldn't afford dropping another $200K at the time (it needed some work to boot) and let it go. That was a mistake. In a sketchy neighborhood, it's a good thing to have control of your next-door neighbors. Anyway.

MK and I undertook quite a bit of interior painting after the house was unmasked. The lavender living room gave way to a nice terra-cotta color, the master bedroom went from orange and blue (honest!) to a nice bronze shade with vaguely tan trim (this was the only room in the house with painted woodwork) and the kitchen went from icky 1930s green to a brick red. Stripping 100+ years of paint from the cabinets would come later.

It was looking better.

About the same time we discovered that the house across the street, a huge tumble-down gothic affair, was a serious party house. Drunken idiots carrying on until 5 AM-type party house. Not good. There were a number of run-ins, police calls, and late-night raids. But we got it shut down, and ditto the crack-house around the corner on Market St.

The challenge was getting bigger. I like challenges.



The yard cleaned up pretty well. One of our neighbors, a long-time resident, stopped by and exclaimed that she had no idea that our house was so big, having been hidden by the spruce for so long. She then expressed delight at having new owner-occupiers, and in a subtle manner, questioned our sanity for having bought the old Mellicker Place. Gives one pause.