A year ago I bought my house for me. Today, I know I bought my house for everyone. 

It’s been one year (and a couple of days) since I purchased the McLain House. This feels like an occasion worth celebrating, because although I haven’t moved in yet, a lot has changed.  
I closed on the house on May 26th, 2020.  Several months into a pandemic, working from home, and in a new relationship. I had about 600 instagram followers, no blog or website to speak of, and every intention of keeping a break neck construction schedule accountable to myself and myself only.  I couldn’t have imagined how different things would look a year in, but here we are. 
It feels appropriate to write this post today, when my friend Stephanie and her husband are coming to visit, because Steph was the first person to ever see the house.  It was Labor day weekend 2019, and I was walking her around Wheeling’s historic neighborhoods when I stopped in front of the McLain House and looked up.  I remember saying something to the effect of hey that one looks available, and what a great yard too.  I wonder if it’s available? 
My now neighbor, Donna, was sitting on her porch and overheard this conversation. She promptly informed me that she knew the owners, it probably was available, and I should call them. Steph giggled, and I, knowing of the couple that owned the house, quietly started plotting. 
From September 2019 to May of 2020, I did months of due diligence, collected bids for rehabilitation, and even waited out a first offer’s contract before it was my turn to try and buy. Ultimately, I closed on a warm summer day, taking the extra time to walk from my downtown apartment to the lawyer’s office on 14th street where I would sign the paperwork.  I made an effort to remember everything about that day from what I was wearing to the pens we had to sanitize between signatures.  There was no picture with a sold sign, no fanfare, the whole thing took all of ten minutes. When I asked if I could walk up to the house (only a block away) and let myself in, my lawyer responded “Well yeah, you own it”. 

When I walked through the back yard that day, the peony bush I didn’t even know was there was in full bloom.  As I opened the back door and entered  my house a vase of peonies and a letter from the sellers greeted me, and reminded me that none of us really own these old homes, we just care for them for a season of our lives, before the next person becomes part of their story. 

Over the last year, I feel pretty good about the contributions I’ve made to the McLain House’s story.  So far, in chronological order, we:

• Cleaned up the yard including pruning trees, building a garden, and shoveling BUCKETS of disgusting leaves and debris out of the cellar entrance 
• Demoed the entire house.  And I mean the ENTIRE house.  I stopped keeping track of how many dumpster loads of fallen plaster and moldy wall board were removed, but it was a lot. 

• Repaired and repointed all of the critical areas of brick (about 60% of the house) 
• Repaired all structural wooden members 
• Reproduced the entire wooden box gutter system 
• Repainted the exterior gutters, windows and doors
• Repaired the slate roof by replacing missing slates and redoing all of the lined peaks and valleys 

• Installed six completely reconstructed windows where the originals were too far gone.  This includes bringing back the curved windows in the front bedroom. 
• Restored or reglazed oh I don’t know, fifteen additional windows
• Ran electrical to the rooms on the second floor 
• Milled and installed hundreds of feet of trim matching the original profiles

• Installed three new gas lines, and fireplaces in the living, dining, and entryway
• Installed brand new HVAC and duct work for all three floors of the house
• Refinished all of the floors on the first level
• Hung new drywall in the living, dining, hall, laundry room, bathroom, and bedroom 
• Finished the Living, Dining, and Main Baths (more on that soon!) 

One day, I hope to go back and do some more detailed blog posts about these projects.  With an old house, some of this stuff has a learning curve, and I recognize there’s a lot of missing information for people looking to rehab realistically (or at all quite frankly!)
And then there’s the stuff I can’t show you yet!  But I will be able to soon.  When I started this project it was for me, and I was the only one that cared.   I started documenting the process mostly for my mom to read from Pittsburgh, and also in the hopes that maybe I’d get some tile #sponsored here and there. 
I never could have guessed how many people would respond to this house.  The number of emails, DMs and blog comments I’ve received is astounding, and 99.99% are not just positive, but downright lovely, day-making, beautiful sentiments.  This project has created a community that has quite frankly, changed my life. 

I appreciate every single person that follows along with the #mclainhouse.  Your buy-in is responsible for partnerships and opportunities that have changed the trajectory of this rehabilitation, and made it so much better.  
And I also want you to know I hear you.  I get dozens of questions about how people can do this themselves, in Wheeling, or another community. There isn’t enough good information about historic preservation for real people out there, and I will do my best to continue to support and assist real people trying to fix up their own dream building. 
So in this next year, expect tons of new McLain House content, but also so much more.  Soon, I’ll have a new website with services, tips, and tutorials.  So many of you have asked for video, so I’m going to listen.  Expect surprises, products, and PLENTY of Marshall content. 
A year ago I bought my house for me. Today, I know I bought my house for everyone.