Two men in a pickup truck drove into a lumberyard. One of the men walked in the office and said, “We need some four-by-twos.”

The clerk said, “You mean two-by-fours, don’t you?”

The man said, “I’ll go check,” and went back to the truck. He returned in a minute and said, “Yeah, I meant two-by-fours.”

“All right. How long do you need them?” The customer paused for a minute and said, “I’d better go check.”

After a while, the customer returned to the office and said, “A long time. We’re gonna build a house.”

Renters had been living in our new home for the past two years, and it has not had the TLC that it needed. It’s got some of everything: foundation problems, a new roof but no downspouts, so a bit of water around the base of the house (connected to the foundation problems), a really yucky bathroom and an icky kitchen, a look-Ma-no-permits bedroom, a rough-cut skylight (i.e., hole) to the attic, a efficiency-challenged water heater (yes, outside in the cold)… Ah, that’s enough description for now.

We bought a very well kept but small 29-year-old travel trailer from a very conscientious owner and we thought that we would live in that while we do the big stuff. But through various events and visitors, we ended up living in the house in a mode we affectionately refer to as “camping”.

We’re looking at eventually pushing the house back to create a porch. This would also move the kitchen back so that we end up with an eating area (which it doesn’t have right now, except for the diet breakfast bar, left) and combine the kitchen with a family room area, and add a second story that includes a master bedroom and bath.

We will have pictures available here describing our progress. If you would like to be notified via e-mail when we add new stuff, just send us a line or two.