Friggin' house

Not my friggin' house, I assure you. One of my favourite blogs, even though it updates infrequently, is This Friggin' Old House. It's the adventures of my good friends Andrew and Karin as they attempt to renovate a house in downtown St. John's. I've always loved this house. It belonged to another friend of mine and I have a ton of good memories at that house. For example, for the better part of a decade I celebrated New Years at that house. I have so many good memories of the house that when my friend Anne announced she was selling it, I was understanding, but heartbroken. However, when Andrew and Karin announced they were buying it, I was thrilled.

I knew the house needed work and I knew Andrew and Karin were planning on doing a lot of work on the house. However, today we got a tour of the place. Renovations are well under way, but they still have months to go before they can sleep there. So right now the inside of the house is mostly frames.

Still, my god...I never dreamed of the scope of renovating the house. I had a number I figured they might have to spend on renovations was off by so much I'm embarrassed. I'm actually staggered by the scope of it. From the small details and the little things that need to be done to the big scale reimagining of how the inside of the place needs to done is mind blowing.

Cathy and I walked out and said never in a million years could we do what they are trying to do right now. At one point we were mulling buying a house on Bond Street that we used to live in. We looked at it today, saw the shape it is in and shuddered at the idea of trying to fix it up. I would have lost my mind ages ago. So I bow to them, their patience and their vision for being able to do all of this.

I can't wait to see what the place looks like when it's finished, which they hope to be by April. Sadly, I don't think I'll be back in Newfoundland in 2010 so it might be awhile before I get to see it. But I look forward to the pictures.