((((iyanini14)))). I feel for you and wish you luck. Some years ago we were building a home and had to run off our builder... fired him. Finished it ourselves hiring our own subs and learning along the way at 1/2 complete. Never again. Uhg. Hmmm. After well over a year since I started packing and we moved all furniture out, 8 months with a temporary kitchen, 6 months now with no kitchen, and living with no furniture except the bedroom, no flooring (Much is DIY)... we are finally seeing the light.. or I should say a glimmer! Flooring is in (and covered with Ram Board, which was a bummer as we loved looking at something complete!). The cabinet maker said they'd start putting cabinets in soon as we finished painting and installing our baseboard (week after next I hope!), but then we've got the vent to install and vent cabinet, a pass-through window to finish, and the glass people (for the cabs) are special ordering, so that's a while away. Still, we have much electrical, plumbing, and purchases to do. I'm still hoping for June. Ha! I hate all the purchases! First you have to figure out what you want, then you have to pay for it! Good heavens, I see now why faucets and pulls are called "kitchen jewelry"! My sanity has been pretty good despite set-backs. The two things I love are cooking and gardening. Without a kitchen, no cooking, but we simultaneously started working on our landscaping (older 20 year old home, dire need for re-do everywhere). While the yard has put us behind, I love working outside : ) All is good here, but it's just rush-rush, exhaustion, soreness!

That house is FABULOUS! If those shakes are in good enough shape, keep them. Replace the few that might be missing. The shakes add personality to your home: clapboard will turn it into plain vanilla. I'll be that yard can be great, too. It looks like you can make it into a very private retreat. Is the blue trim in good shape? I would consider painting it. That can be a budget DIY project. What happens around the front of the house? Is it shakes, too? What does it look like? Prolly decisions for the back should partly be determined by what you have on the front, so it's coherent.

Glad you were able to figure out what was making you feel bad and get it fixed.

It sucks feeling down and like you can’t get up. I’m sorry to hear it. It could be you may have to sell the house. But unless I couldn’t afford the house even if it was good condition, or it was about to fall apart, I’d try to see if I could make it work first. Get more quotes, figure your budget, and prioritize repairs. Is there a handyman person you could barter with for services? Offer childcare/babysitting, pet sitting, whatever. Rent out a room in exchange for work? If you belong to a church ask around there as well. But before you pay anything learn about the problems and going repair costs in your area. Maybe show pics and describe some of the issues (like front door) and see if anyone here has advice on repair options. As opposed to replacement costs. An exterminator can help with the animals and also identify and seal entry points. We had rats and raccoon families in our old house. At one point I jumped off the couch Bc they were so loud into he wall I thought they were next to me. It didn’t take the exterminator long to get them out and seal holes. Before we could afford new insulation, DH bought some sheets of radiant barrier and stapled them yo inside the attic. Perfect solution? No. Affordable and helped enough temporarily? Yes Eventually when we replaced all the insulation I paid extra to suck out the old, including the rat turds 🤣 Plumbing fixes can be costly but you don’t always have to replace it all. Instead opt to cut out and replace a leaky section for now and start saving and planning for a total redo if it’s headed that way. We had a plumber tell us our galvanized pipes were ready to burst but we could only afford to fix the leak at the time. 10years later we sold with those same pipes still working. Working great at optimal flow? No haha. But also not busting and flooding our house. My point is there are often fixes you can do that maybe aren’t best long term but are good enough for now. Don’t feel bad about doing that. There are many people on Houzz who seem to have unlimited funds and budgets, but for most of us we have to do what we can when we can and pray in between.