The House My Parents Gave Me—and What I Turned It Into

better” in the form of a house that would have been condemned if anyone from the county had bothered to look at it.

Over the next ten weeks, I poured everything I had into that ruin.

Twelve thousand dollars of my savings. Four hundred hours of my time, working nights and weekends, taking vacation days to frame walls and hang drywall. Every skill I’d continue reading …