As some of you may know, Ariana and Nick have moved onto the farm officially as of Feb 1, and have begun the process of getting the 936 property in decent shape. This is the big white house formally known as “Oma’s House,” although since the current Oma of the farm is living in the red brick house, that title becomes at best confusing for the newest generation. A new title is still in the works.
Much credit to Bob, who has done a respectable job as landlord for the last 20 years or so, but as everyone knows, rentals inevitably get treated like rentals. Carpets get abused, plumbing issues don’t get reported and devolve into minor waterworks, paint jobs wear out or get redone tackily, and most things get 20 years of dirt ground into them.
Everyone is very optimistic about having family back in the house, and there is a long list of improvement projects already forming, each of which will give the property some much needed love and help maintain the property’s value as something closer to it was when Ellen lived there.
We have been keeping track of all of the man hours so far put into the house (99% of which have been done so far without paying for labor), as well as keeping a spreadsheet of all tasks completed. In the first month, 149 man-hours have been put into heavy cleaning, pulling carpets, repairing & painting walls, electrical fixtures, plumbing repair and more.
We’ll start out with a juicy gallery showing off how rough the house was on Feb. 1, and then drop in a few in-progress pics below.
- 20 year old chocolate sauce coating the bottom of the fridge
- Leaking, rotting underbelly of the kitchen sink
- broken kitchen drawer
- living room floor
- cracked ceiling paint…one of many in this state
- It’s easier to paint if you just go ahead and paint all the fixtures…
- bathroom cabinet…faux distressed look?
- Offensive teal wall color. I feel like I’m getting yelled at, but no one is in the room
- We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, and say they were going for a “frosted look” here
- Hard to see the stage 3 level of people’s grime…this took 3 hours to clean
- dirty mildew grody floor
- This was real crisp in 1956
- Plastic tiles in the downstairs bathroom…falling off and cracking
- Smoothing out the walls
- This started as paint peeling. We’ve discovered what could be a parascope, a mouse waterslide, or an old kitchen vent. You decide.
- Exhibiting another crisp paint job
- Tip: latex paint on top of oil peels off in sheets…
- This unidentifiable liquid was on most doors, and many walls. We are still coming up with theories as to how this might occur
- One example of many painting faux pas
- Bye Bye Birdie
- 6 in total
- Broken bathroom fan, leading to cracked/moldy ceiling
- Transition from dining room to front hallway
- Cousin Scott Bartel pulling up staples from the old carpet
- Upstairs bath
- Cracked kitchen window
- Leaking tub…later fixed by Bob
- 45 year old carpet
To provide a little dose of optimism, here are some photos of our slow and steady progress.
- Moving Day
- Pretty dining room floors
- New kitchen sink
- So fresh, and so clean
- Taking time to enjoy a fire
- Switching out the lovely painted outlets
- Painting base molding
- A sneak peak at a more peaceful living room
- New plumbing under kitchen sink, removal of rotting wood base

Leaking, rotting underbelly of the kitchen sink. Yes, that’s rodent and ant poison on the left

New plumbing under kitchen sink, removal of rotting wood base

Teal walls. I feel like I’m getting yelled at, but no one is in the room

A sneak peak at a more peaceful living room