Since I've retired, the most frequently asked question is "What do you do to keep busy?" I have lots of projects, but the most demanding and rewarding is working on my son Eric's house. In December 2010, Eric bought an 1895 Victorian house in Cohoes. Eric looked for several months at a variety of houses in the Waterford and Cohoes area. Eric and his realtor Chris looked at almost 20 houses. Eric asked me to look at a few of them. To be honest, most of the houses were disasters and money pits. Even once they were fixed up, they had little to offer. When Eric showed me the Victorian, I could see it had good bones. For sure, parts of it looked like it would collapse, and the property was a mess.

Fixing up an old house requires vision, money, time and sweat equity. Fortunately, as a family, we have all four.

Here a a few of our completed and on-going projects.

Before and After

The Trees

Six large spruce trees dominated that side yard. Our first outdoor project was ro remove four of the large spruces. This opened up the front and side yard for further improvement. It also opened up views from the second floor and kept the trees out of the electrical lines.