Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

1023's Shoestring Acres Project

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
As I've discussed a few times, we are in the process of acquiring the house/property that was originally bought by my parents in 1993. My dad (with help from family and a general contractor he grew up with) built the house and we moved in right before Christmas in 1996. On Christmas day in 1999, I received my first bow and went on my first ever bowhunt in those woods that same afternoon. I killed my first deer and first buck in the woods behind the house, as did Tracie. I also proposed to her in those woods, so the memories run deep on our future residence. Raising our children there will only add to the memory bank!

Mom and dad originally bought 2 parcels that totaled 99' wide at the road, with a max width of 150' and a depth of over 3,000', so it was affectionately called the "Shoestring" property. Over time, my dad surveyed a couple of neighboring farms and he'd use that service to trade for land rather than cash. By the time I graduated college in 2005, he'd grown the property from 2.5 acres to 5 parcels totaling 11.5 acres. The house itself is built like all things my dad builds: thoughtfully and built to withstand the test of time. It's 3BRs, 3 baths totaling 2,600 sq. ft. of finished living space. There's an office upstairs we are converting into a playroom for the girls, a workshop and large family room with a bathroom downstairs, and shitloads of storage built throughout the house. Nice level front and backyard, 12x12 garden shed and 24x36 barn make it the perfect mini-farm. The garage makes for a fantastic "man space" unlike my current garage and other than privacy, this property beats out our current property in every way. Except... it's been 20 years since someone has breathed any life into this place, so we will need to touch nearly every square foot of the place comestically to bring it up to date. And that process began last night.

LOTS to come on this thread over the next couple of years as we tackle paint, lighting, new roof, siding, etc. to make this our home now. I have all kinds of fence building to do in order to retrofit and reorder the flow of the farm to suit our needs, and a host of habitat improvement and "deer chores" intended to make this spot our go-to for the girls as they start hunting. But first, a playroom!

The office had a chair rail with wallpaper, so you know where we started...

20181014_151702.jpg
20181014_165004.jpg


Ignore my mom's stupid dog, I do. :ROFLMAO:

We "take possession" on November 10th, but there is A LOT of work to be done before then. My mom is a hoarder and we're basically moving in on top of most of her shit because their new house is too small for more of what she's collected, so we have a long winter of cleansing ahead of us. The goal is to get the playroom done first, so the girls have a place to play that is contained and out of the way while mom and dad get their DIY on! I'll be back tonight to sand my patch jobs, then prime the walls. I'll do another patch job tomorrow, then sand one more time and start painting on Thursday. Hopefully, this room will be functioning by this time next week.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
So my chicken move didn't go as planned and I nearly killed one of my hens after getting pissed and throwing a bucket at it, but we're all moved and one big happy family again! I'm moving outside stuff tonight and working to organize the barn a little. Perfect night to be outside doing chores!

20181024_183252.jpg
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Now that we've closed on our current home, the scramble is on! We are literally moving in on top of a lot of my parent's stuff. Dad has been busy for over a year building the cabin and garage, and with my mom's health, she's not been able to keep up with the house. Add in the fact that she's a bit of a hoarder, and we might as well be filming an episode of Intervention meets Chip Gaines! #DemoDay

So with both females in our lives mildly panicking, dad and I took the bull by the horns and got after it this weekend. We took our stock trailer and redneck-engineered a tarp to it so we could move in the rain, then we made trip after trip out of the garage. Went to the farm. Then the cabin. Then storage. Back to the house. To storage. Repeat...

After 12 hours, I was left with a garage that needs a good cleaning and a retrofit, but it is ready to receive everything our house can throw at it! This corner of the garage will end up being the combo archery workbench and game processing area.

20181027_191943.jpg


Tracie has been hammering away at the girls' rooms for over a week now. She's got them cleaned, closets gutted and painted, now she's putting them back together. She also has a lot of their stuff packed and ready to move.

I've been chipping away at the office. Dad finally got his stuff out yesterday, so I cleaned, patched walls and primed some spots. The walls were in need of some major repairs, so I've been taking my time in an effort to make them look as good as possible. I'll have this room finished and ready for them to play in by the end of this week.

20181028_165239.jpg


20181028_165225.jpg