We purchased our house in July 2004, after returning to Portland (Oregon, not Maine) from Providence, Rhode Island. Most other houses we looked at before finding this one had already been “redone,” usually by a flipper or by a homeowner (both of which have their potential share of problems).

Because so much of this home’s original stained woodwork was intact, we decided to take the plunge. Our previous experience with minor remodeling on three earlier houses somehow led us to believe that we could handle this one. While we’re now at the point were feeling good about the decision, there was a lot of hardship along the way, and our original timeline was off by at least six years.

We spent 8 months in a rental house while doing the major work on the downstairs and demolition on the upper level. Since then, it has been a never-ending stream of weekend projects and vacation time used to make progress on the bigger stuff. We are hoping that by the summer of 2013 we will finally be “done” but, seriously? Don't we know better by now?