We have a door!

Our old door really helped keep our condemned house vibe.

For over a month our only way in to the house was with a drill and a square bit. This was good at keeping out unwanted guests, but also made it annoying to run to Menards or Home Depot for something we forgot (which never happened, haha).

Hammer Time

"Sometimes it's better to be strong than smart." ~ KG, 2013

Kevin destroying the reinforced cement laundry sink. 

Top 5 Best Surprises So Far

As promised, a list of the top five best surprises we have found working on the house.

Beefing up Security

We've been increasing our safety at the house starting with our two new security guards - Fla and Bingo. Thank you Drew for the new recruits!!!

Fla (left) and Bingo (right) ready to take down any punks that even think about messing with our house. 

Kevin has also wired in a security light for the corner of the house along with an exterior outlet!

Cooking in a Camper

Pam's yummy chicken enchiladas.

The only reason why we haven't starved since buying the house and moving into the camper is because we have awesome friends. Pam and Dale and Matt and Alissa have cooked us many, many delicious meals. And we have gobbled them all down!

Monday I decided it was time to cook a real meal in the camper. My previous cooking experience in the camper has only involved reheating pizza, serving granola and making grilled cheese sandwiches. But now I have kicked it up a notch and made a meal in the slow cooker.

Top 5 Worst Surprises So Far

Here is a list of our top five worst surprises with the house so far. I will follow up with a top 5 best surprises so far soon.

Moving Out

Dan and Kev moving Kev's big desk.

Last week we finally moved out of our one bedroom apartment in East Duluth and into our no bedroom camper! We could not have moved out of the apartment without the help of Dan, Matt and Pam. Dan came over last Tuesday and helped Kevin move our big pieces of furniture down three flights of steps to their trucks and then off to the storage unit. On move out day Matt did several truckloads with Kevin and Pam came to my rescue by helping me clean and taking our electronics to storage.

Our storage unit is VERY full!

Finding the House

When we looked at the house in April we were able to at least see part of it from the street but not so much in July. The only solution was to buy a chain saw.

BASEMENT!!!! Part 2

Now that we have power and water, we have removed everything under the stairwell and have bleached/power washed the basement.

Yay, no more spider webs!

Dump Day - Chest Freezer

Around here, Saturday is Dump Day!!! This past Dump Day was special because we finally got rid of the in the basement. In the morning Kev called a few waste disposal locations to ask if anyone would take the freezer with the liquefied food still in it. Surprise, surprise - no one would take it. One of the people Kev talked to said, "No one on this planet would take the freezer with that s**t in it."

Best View from the House

Friday we were on the roof so that I could clean the gutters (a new experience for me) and Kev could patch up the roof (a new experience for him). While we were up there we got to see this amazing view of the Blatnik Bridge being lit up by the setting sun and of the St. Louis Bay. It was surprisingly nice up there away from most of the skeeters and a bit cooler after all the +90 degree days we've been having. 

We have a bleeder!

Yesterday marks our first real injury.

• Victim: Matt's Leg
• Cause: Wire from the basement sink
• Outcome: He walked it off.

Warning, this post contains pictures!

BASEMENT!!!!

At some point the sewer backed up (yucky) and flooded the basement; so, for our first day we decided to tackle the basement (it is still an on going project). The sign we found while cleaning pretty much summed it up:

We kept the sign.

Initial Impressions of the House

We initially took a look at the house April 30th to see what kind of shape it was in and to see if it was even worth pursuing. We looked at the house with Kevin's boss, Dale, and his coworker, Matt. Matt's first statement after seeing it kind of summed up the outside of the house, "Oh look, it is already decorated for Halloween."

Some History

Kevin and I moved to Duluth, MN in 2011 so I could start graduate school. Before 2011, I hadn't even heard of Duluth, MN and had never imagined moving over 1,200 miles away from Georgia and from family! But after almost two years here we have come to really like everything about Duluth and what it has to offer - fishing, snow, a break from Georgia humidity, canoeing, hiking and some good friends!!!