If there’s one thing you could say about Joel and I, it’s that we never stop moving. This is why we make intermittent bloggers at best. Even though we may be landlocked again, our get-up-and-go lifestyle never stops. Since our return, we’ve been hard at work renovating our 90s fixer-upper. It’s been only a few months since the purchase, and we’ve scoured every surface; yanked out some overgrown, gnarly barberry bushes; replaced the original, mud-tracked carpeting and padding; repainted almost every wall and ceiling in cool, modern hues; we’ve even done a complete overhaul on one of the bathrooms. And, since we’ve done it on our own-minus some electrical upgrades and painting help from our collective family–we’ve been able to keep costs way under the ones you’ll see in magazines or hear on HGTV.
We’ve also done major repairs on Joel’s truck…like, drop-in-a-new-engine-type repairs. And tear-the-back-end-off-the-truck repairs (bearings, shocks: you name it, it needed it). Then there’s the fact that we’re both back to working full-time jobs, and I added on grad classes. Yep- we’re busy.
To some of our fellow cruisers, all of this may sound like a scary four-letter word: WORK. To others, it may merit a 5-letter label: CRAZY. To us, this feels like work that works for us. It’s not that different from what we’ve already done. Our boat was a fixer-upper; it took us 6 years of weekends and summers, but we gave a derelict fixture of our marina’s parking lot a new lease on life, and we had an awesome maiden voyage this summer. Now, we’re making our mark yet again. We took a run-down home in our hometown and are giving it the maintenance and contemporary touches to bring it into the next generation. People can say what they like about millennials, but the majority of us aren’t scared of getting our hands dirty, especially when it means making a difference. Though there are definitely some moments when we wish we were sitting on a beach sipping on a beer or fruity-beverage, we are both super proud of having our own place in which to plan our next adventure. So, stay tuned for some reno pics and our burgeoning plans for our next adventure 😉
