My Dad taught me a lot. Not always by what he said but how he lived. And of course, I didn’t always know he was showing me at the time, but in the end, it all made sense.
Not that he didn’t have his faults, but he was a pretty good Dad. Strict.
But then, I was a Wild teen of the 70’s, and the discipline was probably a good thing to keep me on the up and up and learning about consequences and responsibilities was valuable.
I live in a fixer upper. I’ve lived in a fixer upper since childhood, even when there was brand new construction, because my dad, he liked to tear things up, errr, fix things up himself.. In his last house,, a homesteaded cabin in the high desert, he took out the supporting beam to take out the wall between the back porch and the living room (to enlarge it) and ended up using a telephone pole to prop up his house. No Lie.
That was not as scary as the 225 live wire that hung down from the ceiling about 5 ft away. Not surprisingly this was part of a project that was left unfinished for 20 years. just like the drywall in the living room, and many other projects.
During the late 70s, in another house, a mid-century Daddy covered the open beam ceilings, the windows and sliding glass door of the west wall in the living room, and the in drywall and insulation and closed off the windows at the top of the ceilings… Sort of stucco’d the outside, a job finished much later by my brother in law, I think.
I was sad when he covered those windows. Those windows, besides being the hall mark of the iconic look and some very groovy natural light. Very sad, but his ceiling came out pretty good, and at least he left the height. I was worried he was going to do a drop ceiling.
His main reasoning was to cut down on the heating bills. -Everybody needs a hobby, my dad’s was “doing it himself”. And saving money.
My house is a fixer upper. Sort of a natural disaster
But it’s mine. And well, it’s mine.
All so I could avoid debt.
But of course nobody can avoid debt… it is apparently what makes things go around these days
Hopefully, I’m just as content to wait to see my ideas come to fruition as this house becomes my home and not just a house. I will not be covering any windows, except with curtains.