Water and Whatever: Tear it down

Back in 1985, my friend Pete bought a house at the top of Main Street on three city blocks for $85,000. He was so excited with the deal that he went to clean it up right after closing. He cleaned up a bunch of loose finish wood around the house and started a small fire in the fireplace and sat back to enjoy a beer. Before he knew it, there was smoke billowing from the chimney pipe and his upstairs was on fire. By the time the fire department got there and did their thing, half of he house was burnt or damaged. Pete luckily got some money from his insurance company, but the first contractor he hired took half of it and moved to Mexico on a handshake deal gone bad. Now all he had was enough money for materials and beer, so we went up there to help him rebuild. We spent the summer demolishing the charred portions of the house and some connected good parts that needed wiring and plumbing while dreaming and drawing up a new floor plan.

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