Author Archives: magnetsfromeverywhere

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About magnetsfromeverywhere

I'm dreaming and planning and traveling to get my family of 4 everywhere on the globe one trip at a time!
May10

Moving Right Along

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More work has been done on the foyer, all part of getting to the problems with the foundation. You’ll notice that a few of the boards that had rotted/ been eaten are now gone.

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On a fun note Chris let me get this door mat. We decided we can have more fun with the back door. We’ll put our nice “C” rug up front once the construction is done.

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I went out front with my broom all intent to sweep the front walk and make it look nice, somehow when I saw the giant pile of dirt it completely killed my motivation. I have no idea how I missed this driving up to the house.

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This confuses and terrifies me. Did they find it with the marble eyes or did they put marbles in the eyes? Or are these somehow actually bloated petrified eyes? Is this a sign of a current infestation or a previous one? Either way Chris will be making with the traps and possibly poison this weekend. I need to check with the contractors and make sure we could put the poison somewhere they wouldn’t be near.

May4

Asbestos Free!

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So after one week ownership and progress on the house the view I showed in the last post looks like this:

Progress? Well no, not from this view. However, if you go into the little door under the stairs you’ll find:

A crawlspace completely devoid of asbestos! There was a giant furnace here, coated in the stuff. You can kind of see the indent.

The backyard is coming along slowly but surely. After work today I dug for about an hour and 15 minutes in the 80 degree heat and I was completely wiped at the end. Chris and I walked downtown for dinner and I barely made it back.

In Durham news, anyone looking to start a new business can apply for a spot in the world’s smallest office! Located inside The Beyu Cafe (which I really like). That’s about all we know about it, so you should google it to find out more!

Apr29

Taming the Jungle Part II

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We found a lot more trash today, including an old hubcap.

To give you an idea, yesterday we’d gotten just about a foot past the leaning wooden beams.

Since the dump isn’t open on Sundays we just left everything we pulled up in piles. Ideally I’ll come back tomorrow with Dad’s truck and take everything to the dump. We’ll see how time works out though.

Definitely the most exciting discovery was the pecan tree. Yesterday I though the leaves looked like pecan but today we found bunches of rotten pecans as we cleared under the tree. Jackpot. You can see Chris cleared the ivy to about shoulder height but he didn’t have the right tools to take out the trunk. Who knew ivy could get that thick? He stripped some of the bark in an attempt to kill it, and we’ll have to come back with a hatchet or axe.

Apr28

Attacking the Jungle

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We got permission to go out this weekend and do some cleaning/clearing of the back yard even though we don’t close until Monday.

You see there’s quite a lot to do.

Our friend the tree snake.

The view from the back of the yard looking at the house.

Trash we collected.

This is what we were left with at the end of the day. Not bad for a few hours, but there’s still a lot to do.

 

The car full of yard waste.

It made for the quite the uncomfortable ride.

Aug20

On Location

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So in high school my family lived 25 minutes away from Durham and I never spent any appreciable time here. My thoughts on Durham were that it was sketchy and to be avoided. Well apparently there is some sketch factor but people are working hard towards gentrification and I think they’re doing a stand up job.

Chris and I walked around downtown for the first time a few weeks ago when his mother was in town. Granted we walked around at lunch time on a Saturday but it’s an incredibly charming downtown area and if it weren’t for the many many empty buildings I would have assumed it was a thriving upscale metropolis. Everything is nice, clean, the whole industrial area has been restored, the ball park glitters, and most of the shops and restaurants are spiffy and beyond our price point at this point in our lives.

Another weekend we walked around and stumbled upon a pretty fun festival at a local brewery celebrating their one year anniversary. Our goal was to make friends but apparently we’re too shy and awkward, although one guy did try to pick me up. He said he was training his dog to be attracted to pretty women, when I started petting his dog he said he was only interested in training him to spot women without wedding rings and led him away.

It still has a ways to go since I would guess the commercial slots are at 25% capacity but I’m definitely rooting for downtown Durham and think it could be a great place for us. We have a pipe dream of restoring one of the beautiful historic homes downtown but that’s not an immediate goal so we’ll have to wait that one out!