Why Not Just Remodel?

 A couple of people have asked why we don't just remodel the existing house instead of tearing it down and rebuilding.  Twenty years ago, that might have been a possibility, but today it isn't.  After not being lived in and taken care of for two decades, there are a few holes in the roof.  This is the ceiling of one of the rooms in the back of the house:

The ceiling in the back room

The floor in that room now looks like this:

The floor in the back room...

While this is the worst of the damage, there are pockets of damage throughout the house. 

From the outside, you can see where this room is in the back of the house:

Roof damage, most likely from the tree

A Look at the Past

 While cleaning out the house, we found a lot of photos.  We didn't take the time while we were cleaning to look at the photos.  Instead, we just put them in tubs to be sorted later.  This week was "later."  I found a lot of photos of my husband as a kid.  I'll save those for later.  There was also a photo of the house from February of 1973:

February, 1973

Both Geff and I noticed how small the bushes are in front of the house.

I took this photo today:

August 1, 2021

Granted, it isn't from quite the same location, but I didn't have the 1973 photo with me.

In the 1973 photo, the front door is to the right of the windows.  Now that the asbestos has been abated, the front door and porch look very sad.

Front door today

You can see how tall the bushes are today on the left of the photo.  Unfortunately, asbestos was in the glue holding the windows in place as well as the floor.

Front porch 

Front porch