I live in a small Northwoods town that's about 3 blocks long and doesn't even have a traffic light.
Some people don't like small town life because everyone knows everyone. That's precisely what I like about Boulder. Because we're surrounded by the Northern Highland State Forest, our little town will never get much larger than it is. Yet for a small town we have a lot to offer!
​
There's no place I'd rather live than the Northwoods - even though I'm sure whoever dubbed it "God's Country" was only here from June through August and never experienced one of our 8 to 9 month long winters, where temperatures are often -30 to -70 degrees F and one cleans snow off their roof with a snowblower. (We're in the Lake Superior Snow Belt)
A few years ago I purchased my late dad's lake house from his estate. He was in his mid 90's and could no longer make the 6 hour drive north so for many years the house sat vacant, falling into disrepair. I've spent the last 8 years repairing, remodeling and redecorating it - and it's been a real labor of love - but well worth it.
How I lived for 3 months during the remodeling of the upstairs living area...
Nearly lost my mind!
Something was done in every upstairs room - painting, new flooring, complete kitchen makeover with new appliances, enlarge the bathroom and install a spa tub, install new windows, paint house exterior and large deck, install gutters, enlarge septic field and install new tank, you name it!
​
Let me tell ya...I needed that spa tub for my back by the time I was done!
I have yet to finish the basement but so far it's gotten a second full bath, a laundry room, a new well pump, new sump pump, new washer and dryer, new door and window. We got a nasty surprise when installing the new door and window...carpenter ants had eaten away an entire wall and we had to gut the wall and rebuild it from scratch after I called the exterminator!
Luckily I learned a whole lot about DIY and rehabbing property when I owned the fishing resort.
Rather than pay $thousands for a door seldom used, I went to Habitat For Humanity Restore and found this perfectly good door for $150.
They installed the new window and now it looks good as new.
Slideshow
I'm a discount diva and love refurbishing old items to make them useful again. Everything in the slideshow below was headed to the dump - until I refurbished it.
SLIDE #1 - Antique sewing machine base became my downstairs bathroom sink. The piece of wood covering the machine hole in the base was a 75 year old piece of oak from my lower garage. Cost: $75 for bowl and waterfall faucet.
​
SLIDE #2 - Old chest of drawers. Painted black, drawers decoupaged to match the shower curtain.
Cost: $25 for the decoupage paper.
​
SLIDE #3 - Antique wood skis from Sweden found in garage rafters, made into knicknack shelves. Cost: $20 for hardware.
​
SLIDE #4 - 3 barstools rescued from my sister. Painted them with same paint I used on kitchen cabinets. Cost $16 for brown chair pads (not shown)
​
SLIDE #5 - 2 ugly green lamps headed for the garbage. Spray painted them with stone textured paint and bought 2 new lamp shades. Price: $28
How did everything turn out?
So that's 1 year of solid work. I've more than tripled my original investment so not bad!
Everyone says I have the best view on the lake and I can't argue with that...
And the best part is my sister and her family have 2 cabins one road down from me.
