It has been an emotional and fulfilling week.
The Grass Valley house, barn and premises went from a shoddy mess – to almost beautiful again.
Thank Horsegods!
If you EVER need work done anywhere near Grass Valley, CA, I’ve got the people to help you! They turned this place around in a week. Awesome team. Awesome.
MY PHOTO JOURNAL
OK, so I know these aren’t that dramatic to you because I didn’t show you the before pics. And, I’m not going to… no need for you all to suffer the shock and sadness I did – especially because it is FIXED!
I’ve added a short description to each photo.
Do you see the new barn post?! The old one was chewed almost in half – right at horse mouth height. You can also see the beginnings of the tractor work to spread the manure and even out the swale so that the rain water, manure and urine doesn’t pool into a sloppy sewage behind the barn. You can see where the mats I had there were buried.
Yes, there is still a bucket of paint and a bucket of screws left, but all the other garbage is gone! And, the lights work!
All the chewed fenceboards (well, most of them) are GONE! And, you can see how even and lovely the tractor shaped the hill back there.
This had nothing to do with the tenants. Mother Nature felled several trees due to the drought then the heavy rains last year. One huge oak fell on this fence. But it is now fixed!
This hill was full of garbage and dead brush. All good now! Also, the arena, which is that fenced portion, had a tree fall on its gate, too. Fixed.
The arena has a new gate and new boards. The mass of tree branches and brush are gone.
The horses had chewed the barn wood and barn fencing as well as dug deep holes in the back of the barn. This is after the tractor work but before the fence was totally repaired.
I think the horses were kept mostly in this pasture. They were like locusts on the fences… The fence behind this photo was destroyed. You can see the new boards down the driveway and the tractor work to smooth out the manure.
Notice the lights on the house… I kept them on because I fixed them all, and because it looks more homey. The guys removed old wood and garbage from this area.
LESSON FOR ME: DON’T SWEAT THE LITTLE STUFF. Things can be repaired or replaced.
Great job Dawn, No surprise it’s beautiful.
Great job, Dawn!
I’m sorry you had to go through that, though.
I moved out of my home and rented it… ONCE. When I was growing up, my mom had rental property. It was difficult. The mindset of most renters (NOT ALL) is that it’s not their stuff, so they don’t have to take care of it… as one of my mom’s renters put it, “That’s the beauty of renting!”
Either they report EVERY little thing that breaks, even really simple stuff and you have to go fix it “right away”, or they don’t say anything at all and you have a huge, cumulative mess to clean up later…
The secret is to not put anything in the house or barn that you’ll cry about losing. Keep a crew on retainer to go do periodic maintenance on the grounds (in the city that’s the lawn mowing company). It helps if you have neighbors who’ll tell you if something is afoot, which saved me many trouble many times.
You keep the rent in an account JUST FOR that house, until the renters move out. It’s the safest thing to do. My aunt and uncle had 8 or 9 rent houses, and THAT’S how you make money renting. Volume. You get volume discounts on the home repair, yard work, and appliances, for example.
Actually, I have done better flipping houses. You fix it. You sell it. You move on.
Anyway, nice recovery! It looks beautiful! Keep all those peoples’ phone numbers handy! Blessings!