The Threshold

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me."

- Revelations 3:20 (New American Bible)

As this wonderful biblical verse states, a door is pretty important. Not only does it provide security, it also provides a threshold to invite many family members, friends, even strangers into your abode to share in your life's memories. This being said, an entry way door is very important.

It is also a first impression, which as we know, is a lasting impression. Needless to say, Big Red's door gave the impression of 1970's funky "Go away, I am heavily fortified, except for the no-deadbolt, broken lock access;

and if that doesn't stop you, don't worry the mold on my inside frame will sure to add a perfect touch to your shoe when you kick me down."


Therefore, Big Red's first impression needed a face lift. From the picture on our left, Big Red's original door had a wonderfully semi-broken storm door. This door could be easily pushed by little Rose with one push of her foot (no exaggeration, especially as she bolted from the living room on deconstruction day #1).



This would be more work than expected... unfortunately, there were many unforeseen problems with this semi-difficult task.

In fact, Leo and our friend, Collin, thought the project would take only a few hours to pull out the entire door frame and reconstruct this beast of an entry way door. Little did we know that Big Red did not want any new additions, and started a nice fight between home vs. homeowner.

Due to old stripped and rusted screws/nails, the old frame was demolished and cut up. This took a few hours to plan and execute since Big Red would not happily let go of its past.

One of the larger set backs, the men discovered, after purchasing the new door, was that today's standard door frame is bigger than the 1970's version. This would mean hours of cutting a larger hole in the house framework, and cutting off some of the new door's edge work.

But 2 days later, Leo was semi-satisfied with his time and effort, and Maria was more than impressed with this task being done in an adequate way. Why pay someone to install a door when you only need to waste, I mean spend, 15 hours on a door yourself?

Leo says, "The project would have went faster, but I wanted the door perfectly level and square, which it is."

We feel that our new door is a beauty and a major upgrade for Big Red's new look. With this new door, Leo wanted to make sure that we had a wonderful new deadbolt system (it's automatic electronic locking feature), and new door handles to match the window of the door.

Needless to say, we LOVE it! Our little Rose and Nicholas have a semi-view of the family, friend, or neighbor who comes knocking on our door wanting to sit and eat with us.

Other fun projects completed by Leo around this time are: a brand new toilet for the upstairs bathroom, a new kitchen sink faucet, all new sink plumbing, and a new garbage disposal for our kitchen sink. These improvements stopped all the leaks that were present when we bought Big Red.

Who said a little sweat equity wouldn't get you great results?

Big Red

Back in 1979, Big Red was born. While he was modern in his day; he just doesn't make the cut today.

The Negatives:

• A foreclosed home that was left abandoned, stripped of appliances, and left to the prey of the wild ants/large rodents (ok...squirrels) for 2 years.
• Previous owners tastes have covered ceilings to base boards of their nature-loving-outdoorsy lives. This includes: 4 layers of wallpaper in the living room, 2 layers of paint (one on the wall paper); a full wall portrait etched into the basement family room (did we mention the portrait is WALLPAPER photo of their favorite water rapids? Side note: Leo thinks this is so cool. Maria says no.); two layers of border pasted paper in the main floor's bathroom; and kitchen cabinets that to die for... I mean, to die over. Literally. They may contain poisonous gas AND they look like they were taken from the laminate woods of Driftwood city.
• We have found some lovely neighbors/tenants in the house... these "friends" include: a plethora of insects and creepy crawlers inside the house and voles that fall into our window wells on the outside of the house.
• The previous owners also left us a wonderful parting gift of wretched smells all throughout the house. Especially in the garage, where they left the rotting refrigerator door wide open to welcome us.
• Although they were generous to leave us a dog cave, I mean outdoor kennel, they took all the appliances, including the central air unit!
• Just in the upstairs, we found that there is no lights in the living room or bedrooms (anyone selling lamps?).
• Doors, toilets, and flooring are all a blast from the past and show the original 70's vibes.
• Last, there are two small leaks. One in the bathroom and the other in the kitchen. They have been fixed, but you will hear more about that in our next post.

So why Leo and Maria, would you buy this place for your growing family? You might be asking us. Well, here are the positives:

• Roof, foundation, and siding are in great condition! This is a huge plus when living in the north where snow loves to engulf your house.
• 4 good sized bedrooms. All of them have windows and wonderfully semi-large closets.
• 2 full bathrooms! Gotta love spreading out to get ready in the mornings.
• A spacious kitchen!! A major upgrade from our current apartment situation... we will have more than enough space to add more to accommodate for our family's needs.
• Wonderful backyard space; with space to run, and beautiful massive trees that shade the surroundings of the house, we love this gorgeous space.
• A deck (although needing some TLC), nice and big, and no rotting boards. Leo will be able to have lots of fun getting this deck up to date in love.
• A relatively new furnace... to help keep us nice and snugly warm during those icky winter months.
• No asbestos or lead paint found in the home!
• A 200 amp service panel, leaving lots of potential for new appliances and wiring that can eat up a lot of energy?
• A heated and insulated garage! YAY! Major bonus for someone working on lots of fun projects during winter.
• No water damage to the basement, even though there is no sump pump currently.
• Spacious ceilings including large vaulted A-frame living room/kitchen.
• PRIME LOCATION! This sold Maria: it's 3 blocks from the Catholic Church that we attend. 8 blocks from the Lake. Close to work places and living in a nice neighborhood on a not-so-busy street.
• Most importantly, all this great potential for a great price.

While the negatives and positives were pretty level, it fit our family's exact needs; and now we get the fun of working on the future wants. Plus, it gives our family room to grow and space that is much needed with two active toddlers.

About Us

The names we are using for this blog are reflective of our Patron Saints. We figured we needed all the help we could get in making this house a home. The "Outremer" name comes from a place during the Crusades where Catholic rulers created peace and harmony despite the challenges of different religions, cultures, and the political climate of the time.

In buying this house, we are: first, trying to make a home for our family. And secondly, a home base for our family's vocational calling to bring others closer to Christ. We look forward to being able to bring out traditions of hospitality, dignity towards others, and a strong work ethic through our example of being new homeowners on a very tight budget :).

The title of this blog is "Ground Zero" because we are beginning the climb of the equity ladder and naturally, that begins on the ground. We find that "Big Red" is the perfect (and challenging) starter house that we can use as our base of this climb...and although we realize there are many fun, and teeth-gritting times to be had, we see a future need of an even bigger house for our little growing-army...I mean family... since we are willing to accept 12 children (or more) if God Wills it.

Although, we know this newer and bigger home is five or more years away, we will be using this blog to chornicalize our renovations/achievements for building equity and our adventures along the way. Hopefully, we will reach our goal, stay under budget, and have a lot of frustrations and fun through it all.

Introducing... the ladder climbers

In this corner: the fierce Outremer Family. In the family there is:

• The mighty "Leo". Husband to one; father of two (and one on the way); pet owner of 4 fish and 1 dog; and a truly devote Catholic.
  
• The fantastic "Maria". Proud wife of one amazing man; a rocking the cradle Catholic mother of two (and baking one on the way :); youth minister to many awesome middle school and high school youth; and a master of the art of garage sale hunting!
  
• The little "Rose". An almost-two-year-old girl whose curiosity and courage sometimes gets her into mischief.
  
• The tenacious "Nicholas". An almost-one-year old boy who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, especially if it's his mommy... his daddy....his "sissy"... his dog... hint, these are all code words for his bottle.
  
• The small-but-growing "Blessing". At 18 weeks-old (in the womb), this little guy or gal is already very much in our family's hearts, lives, and prayers.
  
• The noble "Kolbe". Newest member of our little family, our adopted 3 year-old dog.

In the other corner:

• The 1979 thirty-ton behemoth Ronald McDonald, (also known as "Big Red"). This L-shaped rambler styled shell of a house is more than up to the challenge of becoming our home, but will do so reluctantly.

The question is: who will continue to stand at the end of each day? Who will ultimately win the war: house or home?