Don't Hate Me Because I'm Solvent

[sevfiv]

Interesting article about a family and a twelve year restoration of a 1913 Tudor house in Akron:

Saving this house has taken David Giffels, a columnist at The Akron Beacon Journal and sometime rock musician, and his wife, Gina, a special education teacher, 12 years. And the renovation, most of which Mr. Giffels has done on his own, is not finished. The strain on their marriage, as Mr. Giffels admits in his sweet and funny book, “All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House,” which will be published next month by HarperCollins, has not been inconsiderable. Weekends, vacations, time Mr. Giffels might have spent with his two children, have been given over to such projects as removing, cleaning, and re-caulking the 733 windowpanes in the house. (He counted.)

On the other hand, except for the mortgage on this house, the Giffelses have no debt. This is not only because they have done so much of the renovation themselves, but because they do not have and never have had credit cards. Their feeling, anachronistic as the servants’ call button in their dining room, is that if you don’t have the money for something, you don’t buy it. It is for this reason that none of the six fireplaces in their house are functional: they do not have the money to fix them. If this sounds extremely practical, you should know that the story of the Giffelses and the falling down house is as romantic as they come, tied up with not just the love of a house, but the love of a city. Ask Mr. Giffels (who once tried to evict squirrels from the house by playing guitar really loudly) how much money he’s put into it over the years, and you’ll get the idea.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/garden/17akron.html

[RedScare]

Great story. While my rehab is only one-fourth as long, and a much smaller house, it too has been accomplished without a single credit card. Often times, friends do not understand why it is taking so long.

[Dan the Man]

Great article. Stories like this expose how some old buildings can gain a "soul" through the actions of their inhabitants.

The children probably think their parents are insane, but hopefully they'll come away from the experience with the understanding that most things in life are attainable with enough discipline and creative thought. Maybe they'll also realize that they had the luxury of growing up in a house that was more than just "a place to live."