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.

To provide a little dose of optimism, here are some photos of our slow and steady progress.

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