This week marks 1 month since we closed on the W. Olive house. We can’t quite understand where the time has gone, but then, upon reflection, it’s like…oh yeah…a lot is going on!!
We closed on W. Olive on Oct. 12 and spent that first week getting things lined up – turning on utilities, finding a demo crew, getting roofers scheduled and a construction dumpster delivered. We then focused on getting our current home in Centerton on the market having picked a target date of Oct. 22. We didn’t have a ton of things to do to get the current house ready — just the typical “thinning out” and some touch up paint, especially where the dogs tend to bang around chasing balls.
Knowing that we would probably see a lot of traffic over the weekend, we loaded up the RV and made last minute reservations at Horseshoe Bend Recreation Area for Oct 21-24. This was our first time at this beautiful spot, but definitely not our last, especially since it is less than 10 miles from the new house. Laura called a friend to see what amenities the RV sites had, only to find out he and his wife were already there…small world! We invited our dear friends Myank and Shweta to join us on Saturday night to walk along the lakeshore and have dinner around the campfire, and it also turned out to be a celebration of the sale of the house!
Our realtor, Mike Self (@Caldwell Banker) told us we would most likely see a quick turnaround, but less than 48 hours from MLS posting to accepted offer gave us quite the whiplash! The sign outside the house still has “Coming Soon” and we will be closing before Thanksgiving. Fast forward to today, and we have a Pods container sitting in the driveway and a multitude of boxes packed and stacked.
Meanwhile, progress is being made at W. Olive Street. As the Gallary photos show, our focus has been on getting the room above the garage completed so that Laura can use it during the day as her home office and we can all use it at other times as an additional place to hang out. The space is something like 15ft x 30ft with dual skylights and a small outdoor deck space, so no doubt it will be a favorite place to retreat to when the RV starts to feel tiny.
The demo is taking about 7 to 10 days longer than originally planned, but we also increased the scope to include “everything.” But now, with the ceiling and all the insulation out, we are super hopeful that we will be able to raise the ceilings on the main level by at least 2 feet, which will be awesome. It is very interesting as well to see that this house has actually gone through several renovations in its lifetime. We see evidence of moved or added walls, windows turned to doors and doors to windows. From evidence on the central chimney stack, Peder also believes that the house has had its roof raised at one point. On the positive side, we aren’t seeing any evidence of water or termite damage, which is always the risk when you start tearing things out.
Olive Pit 2 Perfect 