Since graduating from GW in January, I have been back home in Louisville, Tennessee, working on renovating a house with my dad. The house is called The Lake House, and it is a 160 year-old house that we are renovating to rent. My dad is into rental properties, and we have been waiting to tackle this project for a while.
My dad works a 40-hour week, so I have been working on weekdays with a contractor, and friend of the family, to make headway on the project. When my dad gets off work, and on weekends, we continue projects I have worked on during the day or do prep work to prepare for the next day’s projects.
The experience has been one of a kind, and I have learned so much that I never expected to learn. I now know how to demo chimneys and structural foundation, build walls and floors, pour concrete and mortar, sheet plywood and Tyvek, and handle power tools and construction workers, among numerous other things, like working in all kinds of weather. Sometimes the weather was so cold that I could only use my hands for five minutes before having to warm them back up again. More recently, the weather has been so hot and humid, that I roll up the bottoms of my pants at nine in the morning and end up leaving the jobsite drenched in my own sweat.
The most important takeaway for me, however, is the time I have spent working with my dad, doing what he loves, and spending down time with both my parents. When we were not working on the house, my mom, my dad, and I set a goal to hike all of the Appalachian Trail that goes through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Needless to say, we have hiked all but four miles of our goal, which we will mark off of our list at the beginning of August before I head back to DC.
To document my experiences renovating the house and hiking through the mountains, I have made a blog, which you are welcome to check out at www.solomonmaxx.com or my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/c/solomonmaxx.