The House that Built Me - Part 4 - Renovating

Every evening and every weekend would have us all working on the house. I hated weekend mornings when I woke up to a buzzing saw or pounding hammer but I knew it was something that needed to happen in order for us to get our home the way my parents envisioned it, and every weekend after seeing the progress that was made, I felt guilty for cursing the noise in the mornings.

I’ve recently gone through most of my parents photos and sadly there aren’t ANY of the before and after progress that we made on the inside but I can tell you it was like day and night! New flooring, drywall, and a fresh coat of paint made it look really nice!

When the weather was good,  I worked outside with Dad. I watched him and learned many things – like how to use power tools, putting on shingles, siding, and landscaping. I helped by getting tools and  basically in any way I could. I was strong for my age and used my muscles whenever an extra little bit of help was needed.  The first thing that needed to be done was to dig a well so we would have good drinking water. We did have running water inside but it was piped in from the lake and not suitable for drinking. Luckily there was a fresh water spring in town where we filled up containers for drinking water – we had it tested before we drank any of it and it was the best ice cold water ever!

My Dad dug the trench and well by hand only to find out the water was no good. You can see the trench in the photo below. We had nice neighbors that let us pipe into their well for water. They only used their cottage a few weeks of the year so it worked out great!