The Beginning

It all began 6 years ago, when I first moved to Alleghany County, Virginia. I rented a small house in Covington, so I was in between the two schools that I taught at. Roanoke was about an hour drive from Covington, but I did it often, as I didn't have much socially to do my first few years here.
That is when I first noticed "the house." It was located in Iron Gate, the gateway to the Highlands. "That house is so cute!!! I could just see my students say, oh, my art teacher lives there!" I always checked it out when I passed it on my way to Roanoke.
Forward to 2 years later. I have met Cliff, my now husband, we were living together in Covington and he had a long commute to his job in Roanoke. It was during one of our trips to Roanoke that we noticed the house was at first for sale by owner.
"Oh look, if a realtor takes it, lets check it out!" we both said to one another. And it would shorten Cliff's commute so it is ideal!
Sure enough Action Real Estate, in Clifton Forge was listing it. So we called and got a house tour. Well at least that is what we thought.
We arrived early on a Saturday, as we pulled up I realized the house belonged to a student of mine, who was going on to middle school in the fall. We opened the front gate, not in great shape but still a fence for Betty, how awesome.
We knocked on the front door, a very lovely, but roughly cut ornate door. A middle-aged man answered and welcomed us into the front room, a TV/living room.   It had orange shag carpeting, a ton of furniture packed into the room. And on the walls the owners created the look of a log cabin. The wife nailed log slabs onto the wall and used some type of plaster to give it that log cabin look. There was also a large deer head with antlers, proudly mounted onto the front wall.
Ummm, ok this is ugly, but I can fix ugly. I thought to myself.
Next to the front door was a bedroom. With brown walls, green carpeting and a crowded bedroom of a teenager's belongings. We continued into the dining room, which had a wood stove. Oh wow! I grew up with a wood stove and thought how fun owning one would be. There was again a crowded kitchen, with old appliances; they were taking the fridge and washer. Yes the washer was in the kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a small bedroom, which was the master bedroom. On the other side was one of the kids room, my students bedroom in fact. His dog lived a crate in the room, it smelled, but I didn't think anything of it...it is fixable/cleanable. Well. I really don't know what I was "seeing" looking back at all this. I think just the idea of owning this home
From the kitchen it lead out onto a covered deck with a porch swing. The backyard was also fenced in with tall privacy fence, and lots of lush bushes and trees. There was an above ground pool, which the owners said they would remove if the buyer doesn't want it. That was one of the first things we had removed when we bought it...too expensive and too much upkeep for us, even though I would have loved to keep the pool. There were three sheds, ok actually two; one was a truck camper that was being used for storage. Later we found out it also served as part of the "fencing" in the back yard. There was also a homemade seesaw, made from a car tire, wood, metal and twp red tractor seats. Very quaint/country.
Cliff and I saw the porch swing, a fenced in back yard, a great, lush and older yard with huge trees and flowers and we both fell in love with the potential we saw in this house.
I wanted something we could play with. I wanted a house that needed some love and some repair. Oh, were we in for a surprise! And so this is the reason for this blog. To record and share in the many adventures Cliff and I have had with our first home.