We who live in the great north know that winter months can be a challenge. Whether it comes on early in October or holds off until Christmas, the cold weather is not the time to be fixing most things around the exterior of the house, yard or garage.
That is why fall is such a busy time for most homeowners who live in North Dakota.
Not only do they have to deal with the garden produce cleanup, dead-heading the peonies and other perrenials and trimming trees and bushes before the snow settles in but also caulking those windows and sealing those cracks that may have developed during the warmth of summer and movement of walls doors and buildings settling into another freeze/thaw cycle.
That’s the way it is at my house.
I live in a vintage 1930 – 1940s house that has been added onto several times, so it has issues.
My parents purchased it in 1970 for back taxes owed to the county – I can’t even tell you how much it cost in total – it is embarassing, really.
The place was pretty rough when we took possession of it.
The basement was packed dirt floor with a couple of cement slabs “floating” on the bare ground – one held the furnace and water heater and another held the only flush toilet in the house – no walls around it – just a white procelain “throne” in the middle of the bare, dirt floor of the unfinished basement but it was firmly embedded in concrete, like the furnace.
The basement walls were cement block, but not insulated and definitely had no rebar or support for the block walls.
I’ve seen some movement in those blocks and a basement window on the south is not as plumb in its space as it used to be but I do not get water in my basement, unlike a lot of people do.
There is a huge crack along that south wall that I was advised to fill with bees wax – NOT putty or anything that would harden – to allow for that minute movement each time the frost goes out of the ground each spring and returns again in November or December sometime. So I bought several wax rings that plumbers use to settle rocking toilets and used that bees wax to fill the cracks – it keeps out the night crawlers that have made my yard difficult to walk in but delighted my dad each time he wanted to go fishing – all he had to do was pour some water in the garden or along the sidewalk and they would come to the surface ready to catch him a nice walleye or two.
I once caught the Chief of Police and the Ramsey County Sheriff out there in the dark filling coffee cans with the critters looking for cheap bait. Not the present Chief and Sheriff, but the guys who were in those positions a few years ago. I won’t name any names, however.
Following one of the disaster declarations in recent memory, as Devils Lake was continuing to flood, I applied for, was inspected by and approved of by FEMA, they gave me some money to fix that southern wall of the basement and I had a company install a process that was supposed to help push the block wall back into place. I went down to the basement every so many weeks and cranked this huge wrench a few times with the hopes that it would eventually push the wall straight again. That seemed to work for a while, maybe a few years, but there came a time when it became more and more difficult for me to get downstairs so I abandoned that process hoping and, yes, praying that it wouldn’t cave in all the way as I had no idea what to do about it anymore and had used up what little FEMA had provided and then some.
My dad had some skill at home improvement and filled the basement with concrete to cover the packed dirt. He added a 12 x 20 foot living room to the east side of the house. He built a two-car detached garage that he and mom and I managed to fill with stuff. Oh, I can still park in it – but it is a squeeze sometimes! I keep meaning to sort through it all and bring much of it to the St. Olaf Rummage Sale in the Fall or the Spring – they do it twice a year, you know, and it is a gift for all of us hoarders who also listen to their inner “Uncle Vern” reminding them this used to be a two-car garage and Leland used to park both his Suburban AND his boat inside it!
Now there is a little 13-year old Jeep Patriot in it and a whole bunch of things stored in big plastic tubs. There’s barely space to walk.
Now and then I run into something my dad “fixed” and scratch my head “what in the world?” but for the most part his fixes have held and he’s been gone 15 years, now. Since he left I have had the roof of the house and garage replaced, all but one of the windows replaced, new siding, a nice little deck added and so on. It is sometimes a difficult thing to be a “grown up” but if you are over a certain age and are responsible for a home and garage you have to step up and “get ‘er done!” As the saying goes.
The oldest addition to the house has developed a leak in the cieling and I haven’t had much luck finding out where the rain gets in OR how to fix it. I think I’ll have to replace the roof of that portion of the house both outside and maybe inside, too, but this old house of mine is a continual challenge to maintain. I often ask myself “What would Leland do?” It’s getting harder and harder to imagine what the response to that might be.
So to all of you who own an older house and are in the same boat as I’m in, or almost, I salute you and raise a glass to your struggles – we ARE all in this together, even if I have to start using an umbrella each time I need to open my fridge! Good luck to you all! We’re gonna need it! Happy fall home improvement 2025.
