Chris, when I started reading your post for a second there I thought it was mine.....lol! ! I too started when I got a job at a nursery and collected what few hostas we sold. Yes, about 8 varieties, but it was closer to 25 yrs ago. I didn't go on to start my own plant business, however, I retired after 16 years and went into the bead business, taking a hiatus from plants, even though I still bought some hostas and other plants on a casual basis. I didn't get into really collecting hostas until about 2003, when I got married to my former boss and best friend, the garden center owner, who had by that time sold the business and went to work in the garden center of a local big box store. And I was retired by then, also. When he sold his house and we moved his small hosta collection to my garden, we started making more beds and developing the rest of our wooded acre, collecting more and more hostas along the way, dividing the ones we had already. We are still at it, ripping out that godawful Japanese honeysuckle and replacing it with hostas! As I am an artist, a garden is just another medium to explore, and I haven't finished with it, yet. I have to create, and I have to have my hands in the soil. I've actually been a gardener since about age 3, following my dad's heels when he worked our farm when I was growing up. There were always huge vegetable gardens and flowers. Two new big beds last year and one smaller one this year have been added, and I still get that little tingle when I see an awesome new hosta, so I guess the honeymoon continues! In spite of the deer, and the voles, and the groundhogs, drought, cutworms, pillbugs and the heat, I'm still making wish lists, checking every garden center, planting seeds, yanking out more honeysuckle, looking at online catalogs and reading every post on here. Hope springs eternal, I KNOW next year is gonna be wonderful! Sandy

Another example of my great GC, who responded to my email late last night (I still can't believe how lucky we are to have this kind of communication as "part of the deal"!). Answer: they'll look at it tomorrow and see if they can get it unjammed. If it's beyond salvation, he'll replace it with another one he has (although if it comes down to having to replace it I may just pony up for a new one with a guarantee - the Badger series aren't that expensive.) You know, I have enjoyed this remodeling thing, but I think I'm ready for a quiet life again! Just a couple more weeks before I think we're truly done...... bring it ON!

Welcome to the club and like everyone has said, don't lose heart. I'm in the same boat and there are days where I wonder why I bought this old house with decades of problems. Then I go outside and look at it from my meadow and something just clicks, and I smile. I have a colonial 1911 house with a 1930's addition. The original house was built very, very well. The addition, not so well. It is where my little galley kitchen is, my laundry room, and a small mud room is located - all used everyday. I just had it gutted and I can't tell you what an amazing adverture it has been. I've resigned myself to doing laundry at my brother's house for the next month, cooking off a hotplate in the dining room, and using the main entrance instead of the mudroom entrance. Luckily for me, the workers who are gutting it are taking the time to show me the progression of work and re-work through the years that was done to that addition...old paneling ripped out to reveal beautiful old wallpaper, and older wall paper behind that; a time capsule of old newspapers from the 1930's that are in mint condition that someone stuffed in the walls; a pile of coal near the fireplace that indicated at some point, there was a chute to the basement and coal was burned for fuel, etc. They are just as giddy with excitement of finding the next "clue" to how the room was used over the last 80 years as I am. Not everyone can do this. It takes alot of patience, and I wouldn't advise having people over that don't get it while you are doing big projects such as what I'm doing, unless you can deal with being met by sour faces that say "You must be crazy, this is a mess!". And there are days (since I'm taking this slow and as money allows), that I look into my ripped up, gutted addition and cringe at how much work it will take to do it right, to bring it back to a functional, but period-correct room again. Lots of money. But, luckily I'm working with craftsmen that do this on the side and agree to work slow as money allows. Then I see all the wires that were buried in the wall (as well as a cast iron (working) radiator and think "thank God I have unvielded these potential catastrophes." So, we all go through the range of emotions from shock to fear to "how am I going to pay for this?!" to "wow, this is mine and it is great." It is an emotional rollercoaster. But, when it all comes together, you will treasure - beyond your wildest dreams - how you preserved a piece of history and it is yours to add to its legendary testament of time. Best wishes for you! We are always here to listen! :)

Lindsey, I have a LOT of friends who still live in that neighborhood. Of course, bathrooms and kitchens have been upgraded, and additions put on the backs of many houses. But most people buy in that neighborhood because they love the old architectural details of the houses, and they don't destroy them. When Buckingham Palace is given it's upgrade in the next few years, I greatly doubt that it will be a gut job, regardless of rotting beams, wood, old plumbing etc. It will be repaired and worked around. When we lived there in the early 1980's, there was constant disruption from filming going on in the neighborhood - all those generators and trailers - blocked entire streets. The movie "War Games" was filmed across the street - they wanted our house but we were renting and the owners said "no" and that was fine with us. When a movie needs a neighborhood that looks as if it could be Cleveland, St Louis or Greenwich, they head to this neighborhood, as many streets have no palm trees. The movie "Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation" was filmed right next door. We would constantly see houses from our neighborhood in movies and in commercials. Some people said they could pay their mortgage for an entire year on the fees they got for the use of their house. But most people got VERY tired of the noise, the confusion, the general disruption. An ordinance was passed that limits how many times a year there can be filming in a particular house, on a single block etc. And peace again did reign 'or the earth. It's that kind of neighborhood. People either love it and wouldn't consider living anywhere else at any price, or they hate it and wouldn't live there if they were given a house.