I live in a small Northwoods town that's about 3 blocks long and doesn't even have a traffic light.
Some people don't like small town life because everyone knows everyone. That's precisely what I like about Boulder. Because we're surrounded by the Northern Highland State Forest, our little town will never get much larger than it is. Yet for a small town we have a lot to offer!
There's no place I'd rather live than the Northwoods - even though I'm sure whoever dubbed it "God's Country" was only here from June through August and never experienced one of our 8 to 9 month long winters, where temperatures are often -30 to -70 degrees F and one cleans snow off their roof with a snowblower. (We're in the Lake Superior Snow Belt)
A few years ago I purchased my late dad's lake house from his estate. He was in his mid 90's and could no longer make the 6 hour drive north so for many years the house sat vacant, falling into disrepair. I've spent the last 8 years repairing, remodeling and redecorating it - and it's been a real labor of love - but well worth it.
How I lived for 3 months during the remodeling of the upstairs living area...
Nearly lost my mind!
Something was done in every upstairs room - painting, new flooring, complete kitchen makeover with new appliances, enlarge the bathroom and install a spa tub, install new windows, paint house exterior and large deck, install gutters, enlarge septic field and install new tank, you name it!
Let me tell ya...I needed that spa tub for my back by the time I was done!
I have yet to finish the basement but so far it's gotten a second full bath, a laundry room, a new well pump, new sump pump, new washer and dryer, new door and window. We got a nasty surprise when installing the new door and window...carpenter ants had eaten away an entire wall and we had to gut the wall and rebuild it from scratch after I called the exterminator!
Luckily I learned a whole lot about DIY and rehabbing property when I owned the fishing resort.
Rather than pay $thousands for a door seldom used, I went to Habitat For Humanity Restore and found this perfectly good door for $150.
They installed the new window and now it looks good as new.
Slideshow
I'm a discount diva and love refurbishing old items to make them useful again. Everything in the slideshow below was headed to the dump - until I refurbished it.
SLIDE #1 - Antique sewing machine base became my downstairs bathroom sink. The piece of wood covering the machine hole in the base was a 75 year old piece of oak from my lower garage. Cost: $75 for bowl and waterfall faucet.
SLIDE #2 - Old chest of drawers. Painted black, drawers decoupaged to match the shower curtain.
Cost: $25 for the decoupage paper.
SLIDE #3 - Antique wood skis from Sweden found in garage rafters, made into knicknack shelves. Cost: $20 for hardware.
SLIDE #4 - 3 barstools rescued from my sister. Painted them with same paint I used on kitchen cabinets. Cost $16 for brown chair pads (not shown)
SLIDE #5 - 2 ugly green lamps headed for the garbage. Spray painted them with stone textured paint and bought 2 new lamp shades. Price: $28
How did everything turn out?
So that's 1 year of solid work. I've more than tripled my original investment so not bad!
Everyone says I have the best view on the lake and I can't argue with that...
And the best part is my sister and her family have 2 cabins one road down from me.
