Zachary Burns | Zack Burns | The Country-Side Estate

Country-Side Estate Remodel Pics and Notes

Why document all this? Well, mostly for historical and future reference and if you've read my Lake House remodeling notes - the reasons are the same.

Some preliminary notes...the house was not in bad shape. It has a good skeleton, but was just neglected (but not as bad as the Lake House). It needed some new appliances and some paint here and there. Historically, the house went through 4 previous owners. From what I could find, it was built in 1974 as a Farm, complete with horses and several rows of crops as you can see from the arial flyover photo (circa 1980) below in the top right corner...
Some history on the estate....
1 - Initial Build - 1974 - Working Horse and Agricultural Farm
2 - 1992 - Sold from the Michalski Family to the Smith Family
3 - 1998 - Sold from the Smith Family to the Weaver Family
4 - 2006 - Sold from the Weaver Family to the Konecki Family
5 - 2022 - Sold from the Konecki Family to the Burns Family

Note: The Konecki's were horrible stewards of the property. They did more destruction and damage than caring for it. They were cheap/lazy and I think just poor people. The fixes (roof, furnace, painting, windows/doors are all easy fixes. I've done them - it's a shame they didn't!

I'll never find the same angle photo (as that one from 1980 was taken from an airplane), but here's a photo taken from a drone that shows how it looked in May of 2022. The land behind the property is owned by the State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources. So there's plenty of room for activities. Amazing how the area has matured from the just planted trees to ones almost 50 years old.

Here's a map of the State Park in relation to the Burns Country-Side Estate, there is direct access to the trails that include Horse, Hiking, ATV, Dirtbike, Mountain Biking and Hunting trails.

Note that I'm just throwing up pictures here, not editing them, etc. This is all for my historical or future reference. Deal with it! :-)

8/8/2022 to 8/23/2022 - Took posession of the house and did an initial inventory. I need to shut my mouth sometimes. I said, anything you don't want, leave it and I can handle it. Well, you get stuck with an old couch, rollup desk, etc. Sometimes you find some gems. There is some old equipment in the barn, but I need to unwrap it and figure out if it has any value to me or just scrap it. Most of the crap that's burnable, I've just thrown out on the lawn and will burn it in a bonfire!
I've got security cameras setup too, so I can keep an eye on the place and sometimes you get some interesting nature popping up here and there.
The first thing was to wash down the walls and open up the place. Get rid of the old people smell and freshen up the place. It's helped to have the Lake House to crash at...sleeping on the floor (which I've done) isn't much fun.
Ceilings and walls have been patched and painted. Carpet has been ripped up and I put hardwood floors down. Carpet just got finished today in the master bedroom. So things are progressing - albeit slowly. As usual, I've been told, just slow down and take your time. Don't race to finish it. So I've been taking breaks and hitting the trails in the back yard with the dirt bike to blow off some steam. It's some good exercise :-)
I think the dog likes the place so far...it's just tough to get her inside as she wants to sniff and hit the trails. There's always something good to smell.

8/25/2022 - Finally got a change to mow the grass. Life has been hectic between work and houses and travel. I finally had a chance to have a bonfire too. Which is nice to get some old wood, trim, and other stuff ripped out of the house disposed of. I also mowed the trails and starting to encroach on the overgrowth, but the 20 year old little tractor probably won't survive much more. Time to start thinking about a new one!

9/26/2022 - The septic tank was pumped out today and was noted to be in good condition. The baffles looked good, and the tank was in solid condition. It has a 1250 gallon capacity and was theorized to have been pumped out between 5-6 years ago. So I'm happy with that the technician was happy with the way it has been working and the leachfield looks all good too.
A photo of the shed and garage floor before I repaint the garage floor. I have no idea why they painted it green. It is hideous. Originally it was the 1970's red that so many garage and basement floors were painted. I'm getting quotes on replacing what I call the "shed" also. It's not in bad shape, but I would prefer something nicer looking. People that do steel sheds are not into maintaining them with a little stain or paint that's why people like them.....humans are lazy!
Been doing a little trail riding and preparing for fall. Got the sunroom setup with TV for football and that's been fun having a view of the firepit and watching Browns vs Steelers on a cool fall night from there. I haven't had a lick of trouble with Amazon Prime or NFL Sunday Ticket. I sure hope Amazon wins the NFL contract next year. There's no real reason to have Cable or Satellite TV since the Internet and Streaming television is so good.

10/15/2022 - Installed a couple posts and bird feeders around the backyard. I love watching the birds. I've never seen so many cardinals (male and female) and bluejays before. The 6-inch powered auger plowed through the soil like butter - so I was happy. I painted the garage floor battleship gray - so that finally looks normal.

10/24/2022 - Gulp! Replaced the furnace, ac, compressor, everything. It was a chunk of change but I knew it had to be done and that was the reason I did some low-balling on the price of the house. The guys that installed it took 3 days to do it, but it was professionally done and should last a couple more decades. So I'm happy with that. I should have low-balled a little more, not knowing Biden's leftist policies would really screw up America and send inflation through the roof. It's worse than Jimmy Carter Era inflation - so it's getting a little scary for a lot of people! I wish them luck! It is a 98% efficient furnace, so only 2 cents per dollar is wasted to heat the place.

11/2/2022 - Family Room Chimney was cleaned and inspected and no issues found. I'd like to replace the insert and have some of that fireplace re-built, but there are bigger fish to fry. So it's going to get put on the back burner for now. I haven't really had a chance to tackle some major projects due to hockey season starting again, and away in Columbus for a couple of Sydney's bowling tournaments. (She's in the top third of participants - but hopefully that high-rev ball will change that! It should bump her easily into the top 10!)
I've also been using the AgriFab lawn sweeper to handle the leaves instead of raking. Oh my God! That is the best 300 bucks I've ever spent. Never rake leaves again! Get one if you can!
And lastly, I've got some duck decoys in the pond, so hopefully, that keeps the ducks coming back - they are a blast to watch.

11/12/2022 - Wow! We had our first snowfall of the year today. It was beautiful! I was getting the emergency generator started up and tested, mixing gas and getting the snowblowers going and just overall preparing for winter. Then it started to flurry, then got pretty heavy. It did stick to the ground and was just beautiful.
Sydney also called and her and some friends entered a tournament and won first place! They took home almost 500 bucks! That new ball must have performed well! :-)
I started a fire in the fireplace and just enjoyed the day. Charlie was napping on the couch after running around in the yard most or the morning too.

11/24/2022 - Washing Machine and Dryer were upgraded and replaced. I'm not sure I need a phone app to tell me when the wash is done, but maybe it's helpful. Hah! Log Splitter was put together and tested. We'll see how long that lasts splitting all this wood! Picked up a metal detector so I could trace the power going back to the barn and I plan on putting power out to the pond for a waterfall, etc. That should keep the ducks happy if it doesn't freeze over - but may have to build that hockey rink in the backyard afterall! Also caught Sydney cruising around in the quad in her shorts - I think she's nuts - it was just snowing the other day! :-)
Sydney and her friend entered a Turkey Shootout Bowling Tournament - they did well, but not a winner. Of course I don't think any of us knew it was going to last until 3:00am! Still had fun.

3/31/2023 - A new roof was completed last night (by a gang of mexicans that spoke no english) and they kicked butt getting it done and did a really nice job. I was happy. I had to sweat some guys at my kitchen table for over six hours to get the price down. I thought they were going to cry at the end of it!
Other than that, it's been a quiet winter. I spent a lot of it around the fire watching football and doing little things here and there. Once spring starts and it finally stops raining, I plan on doing a little more around the house once I can get the barn workshop up and running.
I've been enjoying feeding the birds which usually consists of waking up on a Saturday morning, sipping my coffee and watching the BlueJays, Cardinals and other animals bleed me dry on peanuts, bird food and fruit.
The Florida house went on the market and sold, so that history is gone, but the memories remain. It was a neat place. A new house was built down the street, so taking the boat you have to pass the old one...so we will see what the new owners have in store for it. The new house is gorgeous with a pool/hottub and totally awesome deck area for parties, grilling and fires....but more on this down the road.

May 31, 2023 - Weekend was very busy....Every window in the house has been replaced with new energy efficient windows and they look really good. Well....the sunroom windows haven't been replaced, but they were in ok shape for what the room is. While the dumpster was here I've cleaned out the barn and threw away anything old that I didn't want. I put a lot of stuff (old engines, power washer, generator, grill, etc) out by the road and put a "free stuff" sign there and it was gone within a few hours. Spoke to a couple people and they said they clean it up and try to make a couple bucks. Must be a tough economy, but I get it. I don't participate in recessions!!!
I cleared a path all the way around the pond, cleaned up the paths in the woods on the walking trails and burnt all the brush. I pulled some muck out of the pond and dumped that in some low spots in the woods too. That stuff was heavy and tried leaving the little silver fish in the pond at the same time.
Posts have been planted around the fire pit for entertainment and a sun-sail has been installed around the outdoor porch.
Here's a neat little sunset from the sunroom while having a beer and watching the Dukes of Hazzard. In the videos you can see a bunch of the solar lights that kick on at night too. Hopefully an airplane doesn't land in the back yard! Hah!
Did some other odd jobs like changing the oil in the dirt bike, weed wacking, etc...just little stuff to keep me busy.

June 20, 2023 - Replaced hallway, dining room flooring and trim. Converting everything over to white trim just brightens up the place and makes everything look cleaner. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance, the only thing I have is a couple snapshots of the barn workshop. Eventually, I'm going to demo this barn an put up a larger one.

July 4, 2023 - Spent the weekend at the lake and had Kevin, his wife, Sydney, Mom and Dad, etc and a couple of friends over for a get together. Cooked ribs, chicken and piles of sides were present. The city-wide garage sales were a little bit of a let down due to the possibility of rain (which did happen). Luna Pier did cancel fireworks, but Sydney brought some and we set those off. You can see the Lakehouse page for pics of the event.

October 7, 2024 - Wow! Haven't done an update in quite a while. As usual I've been pretty busy traveling, working and making improvements here and there. The newest edition over the summer was a TYM tractor, backhoe, forklifts and flail mower. This changes the entire way I work around the farm. I've replaced all the bedding around the house with river rock, ripped out trees and stumps, mowed the ditches, moved and installed a new hot tub, graded the dirt bike and 4-wheeler/walking trails. It's been a life changer. I also build a 32x16 foot deck in the back yard too. The hot tub also got a black projection screen and projector setup. A 30 minute soak at 101 degrees and a couple drinks is almost too long, so I've shortened those soaks a bit. :-)

DATE - WORK DONE

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Country-Side Estate Remodel Pics and Notes