Falling in love...part 1

Have you ever fallen in love with a house?  To the point that you would sacrifice over 3+ years of your life working away at gutting, rebuilding, restoring, and bringing back to life a house that would otherwise be condemned?  You really have to LOVE that house insanely to do it.  Most people probably would have walked away, rather than to take on the challenge of a complete gut.  But not us...

I love our 1868 house...we just can't live in her yet.  She's not finished.  We have been on a long, and dare I say agonizing, journey for the past 3 years slowly bringing her "back to life" and it better will be SO WORTH IT when we are finished.. Shall I tell you about her?  She is lovely and has so much character already.  I guarantee you will love her too, once you meet her.  BUT, I tell everyone that you have to have rose-colored glasses on vision.  You can't judge a book by its cover, nor can you judge this house by the way she looks at the moment.  I would like to show you what she looked like when we first met her.  Then I'll show you what she looked like before we bought her, and finally what she looks like now...in her still unfinished state.  But that will have to wait until later...I need to sort through my photos.