What have we done?

In the three months since we closed on the property we’ve had a lot to think about. We still rely on family for a place to stay, but our annual visits are going to become more frequent — this is our second visit in less than three months. We frequently daydream about one day having our own place. We need to focus on making that happen.

We drove to Pennsylvania for a family wedding and Vermont was only another day’s drive beyond. We talk and think about the property often, but there is so much to do and we’re not sure where to begin. At this point we’re working on answers to four primary question categories:

1. Utilities: When can we get core services such as electric, water, septic, and internet?
2. Detonate or Renovate: What should we do with the house — tear it down, burn it, or save it — and why?
3. Travel: How will we routinely traverse the 1,900 miles each way between our home in Texas and this spot in Vermont?
4. Help: If we can’t handle it on our own, who can provide the needed guidance & labor?

Utilities

Electricity: Power in Vermont is not deregulated so there’s no provider choice and electricity is not a bargain. We are the last power pole on the road and it looks like we can get service; many of our neighbors are off-grid. There’s no power meter, but there’s a place where one used to be. The electricity provider tells us they have no record of our street address; they’ll need a pole number to get things started.

Sewer: There’s an existing septic system but the seller said it never worked. They used an outhouse which, clearly, has seen better days. We learn Vermont has lots of restrictions for building new septic systems — with little differentiation between urban and rural environments. Family recommends we connect with a local excavator to discuss options, all of which are very expensive.

Water: The seller mentioned an existing, rustic well. Turns out the lack of snow helps us find it (it’s in upper left of the photo above), downhill and in the tree line from the house. Snow melts where groundwater comes to the surface. We don’t know if the water is suitable for drinking — or if it is drinkable how to get it out of the moss-covered cement housing surrounded by bog. So that’s what rustic means.

Internet: Family has gigabit internet delivered by fiber provided by the local telephone company. Others have wired connections for service at slower speeds. There’s a push-button phone on the wall inside the house and there’s telephone company equipment-looking stuff up there with power lines, all of which leads us to conclude we should be able to get something, but our mobile devices display No Service.

Detonate or renovate

Everything looked better at a distance. We recruit a retired contractor neighbor to go over the property with us. His insights prove invaluable.

• 

• 

• 

Stoop cellar: We discover there’s a cellar beneath about 60 percent of the house that is accessed through a small hole in the sidewall of the pantry in the kitchen. It’s a creepy descent of about four to five feet. Water is pouring in continuously from at least two sides — snow melt? It’s not easy to walk on the cellar floor, which is covered with debris and has about six inches of standing water topped with ice. It’s dark down there and difficult to see anything. We can see rotting floor joists and sill beams. We see daylight in a lot of places.

• 

• 

• 

First floor: Inside the first floor, none of the doors close; only the front door will close, but it requires a lot of encouragement. There are pieces of a wood stove, a half dozen old mattresses, piles of trash, missing windows, and a lot of visible rodent damage. The floors don’t seem level. A funky smell hangs in the air.

• 

• 

• 

Second floor: This is where we can really see the bones of the structure. Remarkably, there’s very little water damage, which is probably why the house is still standing. The bottoms of roof rafters are not secured properly to walls. Watch where you step — floorboards flex a lot and some aren’t attached at all. The brick chimney stops near the top of the stairs. We’ve never seen a brick chimney that doesn’t go all the way down to the first floor. Two different stove pipes branch into the chimney. It looks like someone started lath and plaster to create a ‘room,’ but never reached the plaster stage. There’s more evidence of rodents and insects. Two of the three upstairs windows do not have shutters and are covered with filth.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Exterior: The asphalt siding has seen better days and is in much worse shape on the south-facing side of the house where there’s a shed addition and, to the rear, a screened-in porch. Although the shutters appear mostly solid, there are signs of wear with most all structural elements, from the roof to the foundation. This is going to involve much more than a coat of paint.

Travel

One of us is a road warrior, the other is a normal person who gets uncomfortable after sitting in one spot for 12 hours. A road warrior can get to Vermont from Texas after two long days on the road. Normal people can cover the miles in three to four days.

By air it takes a full day, a long one, to get to this spot in Vermont from Texas. The closest viable airport is hours away. Up here there are no car services — opening the Uber or Lyft app is an exercise in futility. The limited public transit that does exist is spotty. Asking someone to pick us up at the airport is an imposition.

We’re not sure how to get stuff up here. We’ll need tools, work clothes, gasoline-powered implements, and who knows what else. It seems driving back and forth will be the preferred method. As long as our primary home is in Texas, this will never be a quick weekend escape. No one, including our adult children, understands why we have chosen a place so far away.

Help

We’re pretty sure we’ll need help. The more we see and the deeper we dig, it’s more like we’ll need Help! We’ll definitely not be able to stand alone on this one.

If watching a lot of home improvement programs qualifies you to take on a project of your own, then we’re totally good to go. Now, if only the Property Brothers could drop by with some words of advice, along with a few members of their crew. We could really use a healthy dose of shiplap guidance from Joanna and Chip Gaines, but we’re a long way from Waco.

Our list of questions is growing and there are few definitive answers. We need to do a ton of research. We need to buy coats and gloves.