If you haven’t noticed yet I have a new blog so my posts here are a bit sporadic. You can find the most up to date information here:

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

The posts are free for the first 7 days before they get archived.

My most recent post is part of an on-going research project to track the time it takes to develop a real world application that is more than a script and not a hot mess to maintain. It also provides a new approach to configuring and deploying organization resources on AWS.

Managing an AWS Organization With AI Generated Code: A new take on the AWS Control Tower concept

Managing an AWS Organization With AI Generated Code

That is part of my whole series on creating secure AI agent infrastructure:

AI Agent Infrastructure Security

I’m tracking all my progress, mistakes, and cost in a GitHub repository as outlined in this post:

Tracking AI Success Rate On An AWS Infrastructure Project

You can also get notified when I post possibly eariler on the AWS Builder Center at https://builder.aws.com. It’s becoming a pretty cool place to find technical content and based on user feedback and the AWS wishlist it’s getting better all the time. A lot of AWS heroes are publishing over here now.

Teri Radichel - AWS Hero | Profile | AWS Builder Center

I’m trying to be a bit more methodical about how I’m publishing the posts. Instead of a daily stream of consciousness like I used to do on this blog, I’m first getting a bunch of things done, then writing about it. There are a few reasons for that. First of all I can’t afford to write so much in the day and age of AI. I need to get things done. Additionally most of what I write is slurped up by AI anyway.

I’m hoping that people will become paid subscribers on my other blog, a model I like better and is already proving to produce more income than Medium, to support the research, but so far it is not enough to cover my costs. Not anywhere close. So I have to spread out my posts and write as time allows between other things. But I have published a number of posts over there on my current research into using AI effectively. Check it out if are interested, and even better, if you want to — subscribe!

Thank you 🩵

— Teri Radichel

P.S. I don’t write anything on my blog with AI and when I research things using AI, I tell you. It’s just me. You can tell by the typos 🙃 which I try to fix but occasionally I miss some. Happy vibe coding. Safety first.

Tracking Costs, Time and Mistakes On An AI Project was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

YouTube Video of presentation at AWS Security Community Day at the Computer History Museum 2026

The presentations videos have been released from AWS Security Community Day. Here’s my presentation on How I use AI for Pentesting.

Presentation on You Tube: How I use AI for Pentesting.

How I Use AI for Pentesting on YouTube

If you are interested, here’s last’s year’s presentation on Threat Modeling a Batch Job Framework.

Threat Modeling a Batch Job Framework on YouTube

Subscribe here for more posts like this and follow Security Bugs.

— Teri Radichel

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

How I Use AI for Pentesting - Video released was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I recently spoke at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View at AWS [Security] Community Day. That conference has expanded beyond security but it was still heavily security-focused which I love. Thanks so much to @john.varghese and AWS for helping me get back there again. I’ve added a link to my slides on How I Use AI For Penetration Testing here:

How I Use AI for Penetration Testing

You probably heard all about Mythos from Anthropic if you are even remotely following AI or security topics. I wrote a bit about that here which is that we cannot really know anything about it until we can actually try it. But the larger question I have has to do with the viability of relying on AI models for business given their transient and non-transparent nature. The inability to rely on value per token is a problem.

Anthropic Mythos

One of the issues I was having related to the whole Anthropic Opus 4.6 meltdown that affected an inconsistent number of people recently — and seems to be heavily skewed to security research users — was implementation of the Yubikey authentication architecture I’ve been working on and wrote about here:

Yubikey Push To Run A Lambda Function

I dove into some of the details of a Yubikey authentication system in this post:

Where are the Private Bits of FIDO2 Compliant Passkey Xtored?

I took some time off from working on that hoping Anthropic would figure out whatever nerfed Opus 4.6. Now I’m back at it and have extended my Lambda Troubleshooter in an attempt to quickly resolve problems with this and all future Lambda architectures. The larger point here is how effective use of AI non-deterministic solutions in combination with deterministic solutions can slow your token burn rate and help you achieve ROI with AI solutions.

Reducing Token Burn Rate With A Well-Designed Architecture

Subscribe on Substack for more posts and more timely updates.

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

— Teri Radichel

Reducing token burn, Anthropic Mythos, How I use AI for pentesting was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I’m honored to be speaking at the AWS Security Community Day again this year. Come have a chat about the impact of AI on penetration testing, bug bounties, and learn about how I use AI for pentesting.

Here’s a teaser…

Register here:

AWS Community Day, 2026

See you!

— Teri Radichel

New Blog:

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

How I Use AI for Penetration Testing was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Stories this week published to the Substack blog — teriradichel.substack.com

🦊 New Blog — Security and AI Research: https://teriradichel.substack.com/

I’m finding that Substack is not as good at SEO as Medium. If you don’t already have a following it may be easier for you to get started on Medium. But overall I’m liking the functionality that Substack has to offer. For those not following me over there yet here are some of the latest stories.

I tried out AI in a Lambda function (Querying CloudTrail Logs and getting Recommendations to Fix Them), played around with an Amazon Bedrock agent, and showed how to create a simple AWS Kiro CLI project with a README.md file. I also explain how to create cookie cutter projects to save on tokens.

AWS pushes steering docs for Kiro but I’m having decent success with a simple README.md file for my purposes. I might not be doing what everyone else is doing but for me this simple approach is working well so far.

I also wrote about a number of strategies for using AI to find security bugs for those who are interested in such things.

My lab code for classes is now on GitHub and I explain some of the things I attempted to do to minimize the risks associated with giving students access to cloud resources in classes.

I’ve also got a link to my GitHub posts in the old-school looking CODE category.

You can follow for free or subscribe and choose only the categories which interest you rather than everything if some of the topics do not pertain to you.

Enjoy!

— Teri Radichel

teriradichel.substack.com

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

AI in a Lambda Function, Amazon Bedrock Agents, Cookie Cutter Vibe Coding, Finding Security Bugs… was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Stories published this week ending February 13, 2026

🦊 New Blog — Security and AI Research: https://teriradichel.substack.com/

As most of you know I’m primarily publishing on substack now. You can follow me over there for the most recent stores. I’ll still publish a few here and there on Medium. The cool thing about Substack is you can subscribe to the sections I write about that interest you most instead of getting everything I write. I realize some people are more interested in AI than security and vice versa so subscribe to whatever applies to you in particular over there.

Here are the stories I published this week:

Non-Deterministic

The most important word you need to understand about AI

https://teriradichel.substack.com/p/non-deterministic

Non-Deterministic

Report Phone Scams to the FTC

Fake calls about loans in progress exist all over the BBB scam website but that is not where to report them to get them to stop

https://teriradichel.substack.com/p/report-phone-scams-to-the-ftc

Report Phone Scams to the FTC

How To Spot Impostor Traffic When The Network Logs Look Correct

How can you tell if someone spoofed an IP address and has compromised encryption in transit?

https://teriradichel.substack.com/p/how-spot-impostor-traffic-when-the

How To Spot Impostor Traffic When The Network Logs Look Correct

Spotting a Man In the Middle Attack on AWS in Network Logs

When your IP logs will tell you that your traffic is being intercepted and when they won’t

https://teriradichel.substack.com/p/spotting-a-man-in-the-middle-attack

Spotting a Man In the Middle Attack on AWS in Network Logs

Securing Pentest and Bug Bounty Research Networks on AWS

Make it harder for an attacker to compromise your pentest infrastructure and snipe your bounties

https://teriradichel.substack.com/p/securing-pentest-and-bug-bounty-research

Securing Pentest and Bug Bounty Research Networks on AWS

https://teriradichel.substack.com/

The most important word you need to know about AI, traffic not visible in network logs, securing… was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

🦊 New Blog — Security and AI Research: https://teriradichel.substack.com/

I’m pondering publishing on Substack so if you are following here you might want to sign up on my Stubstack feed.

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

And now, I need your help. I would like to know if there is any interest in any of the following services.

One of the things I’m pondering doing on Substack is a Q & A service where people can submit written questions and I will answer them if I know the answer or possibly research the answers or get help from other experts if I don’t.

Is this something people would be willing to pay for? What are your questions? What if you could expense the subscription to your company?

The founding tier is more expensive because that is the tier at which you can ask and I will answer questions. Other tiers can read the Q & A.

I’m not sure I’m actually going to do this without some additional research. Let me know what information you need and are willing to pay for by signing up for my Substack feed and dropping me a line.

Note that I won’t blatantly promote products I don’t use or spend a lot of time for a small amount of money doing a lot of legwork to research and market a product. I’m not an influencer. But if there was a substantial subscription from a company and its employees I would use and write about a product — honestly. I could try it out and write about my experience using it as I have written about many other products in this blog.

I will not write exactly what a company tells me to write or deal with editors from the company other than basic spelling and grammar. I have not had good experiences with a lot of editors (except the editor for my book — who was amazing.) Not a fan of people rewriting my work to say something other than I intended to say.

What about materials for educators teaching classes? Do you need help?

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m going to do just yet. I’ll keep you posted here. But sign up on Substack for both free and paid posts and let me know if you have any interest in any particular paid content.

I like Medium, but the problem is I make absolutely no money here so I cannot justify a ton of time. That’s why my posts have dropped off a bit. I am also hesitant to share proprietary research I’m working on through my business but with paid subscriptions — maybe? I wish there was a way to also allow subscriptions on GitHub and I could write and share code more easily. Pondering ideas.

Drop me a line on LinkedIn if you have any particular needs you’d be willing to pay for that would be worth my time to set up over there and I’ll do it. If not, I’ll just keep posting here or there infrequently. Or both.

Follow here — and on Substack — for more.

Teri Radichel :: Security and Technology Research | Substack

Teri Radichel | © 2nd Sight Lab 2025

About Teri Radichel:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
⭐️ Presentations: Presentations by Teri Radichel
⭐️ Recognition: SANS Award, AWS Security Hero Former SANS, IANS Faculty
⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
⭐️ Company: Penetration Tests & Security Research ~ 2nd Sight Lab

Cloud, SAAS, and Application Penetration Testing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🔒 Request a penetration test

Follow for more stories like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
❤️ Sign Up my Medium Email List
❤️ X, Threads, Blusky, Instagram, AWS BuildID: @teriradichel
❤️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teriradichel
❤️ Mastodon: @teriradichel@infosec.exchange
❤️ Facebook: 2nd Sight Lab

Teri Radichel on Substack was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🦊 New Blog — Security and AI Research: https://teriradichel.substack.com/

⚙️ Security Automation (Pre-AI). The Code.

⚙️ AI Automation. The Code.

🔒 Related Stories: Cybersecurity | Penetration Tests

💻 Free Content on Jobs in Cybersecurity | ✉️ Sign up for the Email List

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s that time of year again — the end of the year off-topic post about my reflections on another year gone by. This year was particularly challenging for many reasons and one of the primary ones was the continuing saga of our antique house. For all the people who haven’t purchased a house yet but want to, you might want to read this first.

This is going to be a pretty long brain dump because there are different considerations for different types of houses. In addition, all of this has been…a lot…Just kind of getting it all out there so anyone else buying a home or trying to fix one can learn from my mistakes and experiences. This also explains what my focus will be, in part, in 2026 and how that intersects with my technical research and goals.

The lakeside condo

I’m on my third house. The first one was a condo actually. I like this particular part of town in Seattle after I got out of school from the University of Washington in Seattle. I had rented a place in Wedgewood with my last college roommates (I had a wide variety over the years) up on a hill in a nice neighborhood north of school.

That was an ok place to live but I found myself drawn to Magnuson Park on Lake Washington most of the time. I always want to live by water. I explored the places I could live right near that park and ran across these condominiums called “The Sand Piper.” I liked them the best of the ones I saw in that area.

I noticed that there were advertisements on the window of the manager’s office where people were renting the condos out but I couldn’t afford them. I figured well if they can put up notices that they were renting maybe I could put up a little sign saying I wanted to rent one and how much I could pay. The manager was a nice old guy and said OK.

Almost immediately after putting up my little sign I got a call. There was a man who had moved out of his condo to take care of his sick mother. We worked out an agreement and I rented his place.

I lived there for a few years and then at some point, I contacted him and asked him if I could buy it. Amazingly he said OK and I bought it without a realtor for a pretty low price. I had a $450 per month payment and the stupidest thing I ever did was sell that condo. I needed the money to keep running my business.

Never. Do. That.

I thought I was going to move and rent temporarily and do the same thing to buy the next place. But it never worked out. The dot bomb crash hit and one thing after another went wrong and I ended up bouncing around for a bit.

Transient home hopping

I went to San Diego for a while to play beach volleyball, Australia (Manly Beach), Chicago for a couple of weeks to help a family member, stayed with my parents for a bit since I hadn’t seen them in a while, and then back to Seattle where I stayed with a friend for a couple of weeks and then found an apartment — on the water next to Alki Beach.

I stayed in that apartment for a while and I love it. It was a building built in 1937 with historic windows and doors and features. It has the hugest big window. You just can’t find those things everywhere. I thought I’d probably never move. I thought that I should buy a house and have some equity but I loved my little apartment, the location, and everything about it.

Alki Beach Bungalow

But then my ex-business partner became a real estate agent and he asked me if I wanted to look at houses. I wanted to help him out so I said OK I’ll look — but don’t expect me to buy anything. I didn’t want him to get his hopes up. Literally on our first trip out, I walked into this little house with a view of Alki Beach that looked like nothing special in the listing. I walked in, walked up to the 1940’s solid wood window trim and put my hands on either side of looking at the water.

“I want it!”

The house was cheap by all standards due to the 2008 crash. The owners were elderly folks who had moved out and their kids were selling. The first deal had fallen through and they wanted to unload it. The house was just out of my price range based on the loan for which I was approved. I put in an offer for exactly the amount I had — and they accepted it!

I must admit I got so lucky with that house. I think I bought at the very bottom of the market. I had a 2.5% interest loan. The guy that owned it was a Boeing engineer and he and his wife took care of it very well. It was a solid find with no major structural issues. By the time I left I think I fixed everything that was in my original inspection report. It was a cute 944 square foot (1440 with unfinished basement I loved) with a view and a pool.

The house came with a pool. I grew up with a pool. I didn’t want a pool. They are a lot of work. But oh well maybe if I have a pool I will have a lot of people over for pool parties. I had a couple of parties but mostly the pool didn’t get a ton of use while I lived there. It was only really usable three months of the year and it was mostly an expensive hassle.

Over the years I had the sewer line inspected and they blew fiberglass in it before I resurfaced the pool. That also fixed it so rats wouldn’t keep trying to get at it due to the leaks. I replaced an oil furnace with a heat pump. I refinished the kitchen including a custom spice cabinet that better fit the space, modified a closet to become a custom server and media cabinet closet, and put in a TV that came out of the ceiling in a very oddly configured living room. I redid the fireplace installing a wood-burning insert. Remodeled the bathroom with a custom designed vanity and shower. Changed all the lights. And painted it many, many times because I loved changing the colors. Oh and a lot of landscaping.

OK so that house was pretty cool. So why did I move? Well after a while I just wanted to get out of Seattle for various reasons. It’s beautiful in some ways, in others not so much. I was looking around for where to move but in the end I didn’t know where to go so I just decided to stay.

Then I started talking to my now husband. Long story short, I’m in Savannah and I love it.

A Savannah Victorian Antique

When I started looking at houses in Savannah, the only ones I truly liked were the historic houses. I LOVE historic houses. My house in Alki Beach was built in 1940’s which is not that old but for Seattle it’s older. At first I saw the old wood wall and thought — that has got to go.

Then I read about the history of the wood walls and realized it wasn’t paneling. It was actually real wood. I left it. In that house I went for a mix of modern and historic but in Savannah I could get a truly antique house (over 100 years old). Those are few and far between in Seattle. In Savannah, there are still many 100+ year old houses.

Savannah is a bit strange because you have a real mix of incomes and homes and city buildings all in the same neighborhood and sometimes on the same street or even block. It’s also expanding. The core historic homes go for millions of dollars in downtown Savannah. As you move outwards the homes become more run down in some areas and less historic in others.

You can see how over the decades more and more homes were added, expanding the city outward. There are some neighborhoods with super nice homes outside of the historic district in Savannah in a particular area built in the 40’s and 50’s with somewhat questionable history. Well, really a lot of Savannah has such history. We were told that the condo kitty corner to us was a brothel, for instance. And this used to be one of the most dangerous parts of the city apparently. It’s changed over the years as with many neighborhoods — for better or for worse.

When I moved here I could see the edge of the truly historic and the renovation moving outwards, north and south and west of the city. I found a location that was just on the edge of the “expensive” homes on the edge of a lot of construction and renovation and bought there. I looked at homes that had been renovated but I purposely found a historic home that had some issues so I could renovate it the way I wanted.

The home I purchased has old fashioned wooden floors, brick chimneys, four fireplaces, a trunk room, a hallway that I presume used to be a butler’s pantry, huge pocket doors (I mean really huge), 12 foot ceilings, amazing trim, and truly historic windows (they still have ropes and chains, wavy glass, and historic wood and one huge bay window). The siding looks historic not like cement board and has the appropriate narrow sizing. I can always tell when windows and siding have been replaced with less historic materials. The columns are round, not just square beams added later after the original porch failed.

But little did I know, the history and ability to renovate comes with a price. The luck I had with my first two homes did not transfer to this latest purchase. Yes, I read the inspection report. I knew it had some issues just like the other home I purchased. What I didn’t realize was the gravity of those issues and how they might impact the stability of home. Live and learn.

I had to buy the house pretty fast because the market was so crazy. I did have an inspection and I did have a contractor come out and estimate the cost of replacing one failing beam. But what I didn’t realize was that one failing beam wasn’t the only or biggest problem. So the rest of this post is just a few tips on things I’ve learned — not only with this house but from all the places I have lived.

HOA dues — know what you’re getting yourself into

When you buy a home in some places — most condos, townhomes, gated communities and what are called “plantations” here in the south — come with HOA dues. HOA dues are for the homeowners association associated with the location and I’m not going to get into ALL the drama you can face being part of a location that has HOA dues.

There are pros and cons to HOA dues. The pros — they take care of a lot of things for you like landscaping and some maintenance external to your property.

The cons — you have to pay a monthly fee that may be raised or worse — something big fails on the property and everyone has to chip in to fix it whether you have the money or not and whether you agree with the change or not. You likely have a vote but if your vote is in the minority you may end up having to come up with thousands of dollars to pay for something you may or may not want.

I was clueless and got really lucky when I bought my condo at the Sand Piper because the HOA dues were low and they had just fixed the roof. I’ve known people who had to pay for fixing roofs, windows, and even pay for renovations in a shared restaurant and community center on the property that they never use.

The inspection report

At my first home, I had my dad come and inspect it. He built his own home and is very knowledgeable. I added his approval as a contingency in my real estate agreement. He inspected the house and gave his thumbs up — and he was right. That home was really solid and very well maintained. Most of the things I improved upon at that home were cosmetic.

Now let’s talk about my home in Savannah. Yes, I got the inspection report. Yes, I read it. Yes I knew there were issues. But how everything transpired was not aligned with my expectations — exacerbated by the rise of interest rates and hiring some contractors that made it worse by ripping my house apart so I could not refinance as the interest rates skyrocketed. Live and learn.

I made a good amount of money when I sold my Seattle home. I actually bought a cheaper home in Savannah so I could use the extra money to fix it up. It’s amazing how fast that money evaporated. That’s what it feels like anyway.

Taxes

I had to pay more taxes than expected from the sale due to a mistake I made after moving. I should have stayed in Seattle and not changed my mailing address until the deal was complete. I had a Georgia address while transitioning and ended up having to pay Georgia state tax on my home sale even though I hadn’t officially become a Georgia resident yet!

Interest rates and bank shenanigans

I also didn’t secure a loan due to weird issues with the bank that financed the loan — and approved me and then UN-approved me when I had hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in the bank. To this day I am skeptical. I think someone at that bank may have wanted to buy my house because they saw it was a good deal. I ended up cashing out a bunch of stocks and paying in cash, but along with that came a big tax bill and no loan secured at a cheap interest rate.

And about that good deal — I have issues to fix but the value of the house rose like $300K in two years so…am I right? Who knows if the market will hold but Savannah seems to be expanding in a good way, even if it has some problems. I am still happy with my purchase even in light of some of the issues I’m about to tell you about.

Ok so now about that inspection report…

Electric bills

My house in Savannah is four times bigger than my house in Seattle. Holy electric bills. Savannah has some times where the weather is mild and we turn off the air conditioner and heating system, but in those summer months…phew. And there are about two months in the winter where it gets very cold, rainy and we had some unusually cold freezes.

Beyond that I learned that the back half of the house is missing a lot of insulation …and eventually I realized that the back of the house was literally peeling off the rest of the house due to a failing foundation and maybe pressure from above. Hold that thought. We are literally heating and cooling the city of Savannah.

I’m talking $600–700 per month in some cases. Insane!

I ended up plugging a bunch of things as best I could and we put some stupid looking blankets up on the door to our pantry and laundry room — but there’s literally a gap above both those door frames where they are breaking away from the house and the air is seeping in. I don’t think that was in our inspection report.

HVAC Ducts

Our inspection report mentioned some issues with the ducts under the house. Maybe chewed up by animals. Ok. More on that later. What I learned was that those ducts may be contributing to the expense of heating and cooling the house. So of course I got those fixed almost right away.

While I was at it I had them install a sump pump kind of thing to deal with water under the house. The HVAC guy told me there was some strange pipe going all the way from one side of the house to the other under the house. There was no apparent reason at the time as I hadn’t lived in the house long enough to know why. It would be cheaper just to have the water leak out to the closer side. Ok sure. But then I saw that the water was just draining out on the side of the house and not going anywhere except probably back under the house. The HVAC guy shrugged. Not his thing.

So what’s the point of a sump pump that drains to nowhere? That makes no sense. I had some challenges with the whole drainage problem so let’s talk about that.

Water

So much water. The first two times I came to Savannah it was sunny and nice — May and November. Then I came in December and I told my husband that I thought he had pulled one over on me. Rain in Georgia doesn’t play. When it rains, the sky opens up and the clouds dump over barrels of rain all at once. The thunder is earth shattering. Sometimes it shakes the whole house.

The inspection report said there was some standing water under our house. Yeah yeah ok. No really, there ended up being a river flowing between our house and the neighbor’s house. Not only that the city sewer line in front of our house had issues. I joked that when it rains we had lake front property. That is not uncommon in Savannah apparently. Some roads are worse than others.

Hold that thought.

Pondering the foundation

OK so there’s some issues with the bricks in the pilings holding the house up in the inspection report. Ok sure. I know the floors aren’t level and seems like that all needs to be fixed at once. That’s logical right?

I called Ram Jack and another similar company for a quote and they were either $17K or $45K. I had no idea it was going to be so much after the things I had fixed in Seattle to fix some bricks under the house. Then a structural engineer told me I probably didn’t need that. I could just put car jacks down there yada yada. The floors can be leveled from inside the house. Ok. (But how do you maintain the antique floor…? More on that in a minute.) The gist of it was that Ram Jack, that company that is always on TV might be overkill. I held off at that moment to explore other options.

I hired a different structural engineer (Brian Sapp of Sapp Structural Engineering and Inspections) because the first one disappeared and he gave me a second opinion on everything. He gave me some temporary fixes until we would were ready to do the big project. Would they last? Who knows. Only time would tell. I went seeking for someone to help me put in those temp fixes while we waited for interest rates to come down.

The guest bathroom

I hired a contractor and that’s a whole long story I won’t bore you with completely. I wanted him to finish this temp project and help come up with a plan for the larger project. After waiting for a year for him at the recommendation of some others he took over six months to complete a project that he suggested could be done in 3–4 weeks.

One thing I wanted him to do was just replace some moldy panels at the bottom of our guest bathroom wall and replace them with matching panels from the laundry room. This was a temporary fix because I had guests coming over and the moldy walls were gross. Instead his carpenter ripped out the whole bathroom wall!

My contractor also said he could not tell what to do with the back room until he ripped the ceiling off so I said go ahead. He removed and uh…yeah. Everything is tacked together in that ceiling the weirdest ways. There’s a hip roof over once side and an ugly modernish new roof on the other half. Underneath is a disaster. I just told him — we’re just going to rip that out and redo it. Somehow.

THEN. I find out that the bank won’t give us a loan while the house is “under construction.” Do you think a contractor should know this when he knows we are trying to refinance to get a loan to do the project? That we should not do that until we secure the loan? I don’t know. Seems odd.

So I ask him if he can quickly put the house back together. I also am pondering if I should just fix the bathroom wall or the whole bathroom. He claims he can probably get the bathroom done in three weeks.

Yeah.

Six months later interest rates are up over 2% or more and I ended up hiring my own plumber, my own electrician, and asking him to not bring the drywall people back. I and my nephew finished the drywall (mostly me in the end and I’m not great) just to get it done before we had guests over for my husband’s birthday. I even had to trick my husband into helping me and he hates tools. He was screwing in the plate covering the bathroom fan at the last minute while I scrambled to complete everything else (I didn’t) when the first guests walked through the door. Phew.

I ended up doing some things to make that bathroom historic like restoring an antique chandelier I got off eBay, an antique side table I got at a local shop, art-deco-ish tiles, a historic looking sink, and a poster of a Life magazine cover from 1922. Our house was built in 1920.

Now, before I had the contractor fix the bathroom he swore that there would be no reason why we shouldn’t do that. The foundation was solid. They could fix the adjoining rooms from within those rooms, etc.

OK sure. We’ll see. It’s probably the nicest room in our house right now.

Just give me a plan, ok? I need a plan.

After that I gave up on refinancing as I realized I had jumped on a good (not great) rate at just the right time and secured it. Since then, even though the rates have dropped like three times, they are barely lower than that rate if they are at all. Those rates are killing our finances. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars more on interest thanks to our house getting ripped apart and not being able to refinance right at that moment. Also not being able to secure the initial home loan which would have been at 3.5%.

Also another dumb mistake — I was going to get a fixed rate HELOC and our next local bank convinced me not to do that. Kicking myself.

Great thanks.

That and the cost of everything went up — building materials, groceries, and now with tariffs so much more is costing more than if we had been able to do the project immediately when I wanted to do it. I never should have waited for that original contractor. But I was new to the city and I know it’s a small town where everyone knows each other and I just wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted to be everybody’s friend but that cost us a lot of money.

Initially while waiting on that contractor I was hoping he would help us come up with a plan for fixing the house. I contacted multiple architects and it was hard to find one. The first one wanted to project manage the whole project. I couldn’t find examples of his work anywhere and for whatever reason he would not give me a complete price, only a price for the “as-built.”

I wasn’t even sure if he could do the entire plan based on what I could find and I didn’t want a project manager scheduling meetings with all these people who bill by the hour. I wasn’t ready to hire all those people. I just wanted drawings that showed what I wanted the house to look like and my plan for fixing some structural issues and THEN I would get the right contractor to implement the plan.

Mind you, he was super nice and may have been awesome but I really needed to know a budget so I could ensure I had enough money in the bank to pay him. I have learned from past business problems not to start anything until the money is in the bank. And I didn’t want the project managed the way he was indicating. I didn’t need a project manager — though I’m sure he would be a great one if that’s what you need.

My contractor recommended a couple of architects. They set up meetings with me but never gave me a contract or a price! Is everyone really just that busy or what is going on here? I heard that people sometimes just want the high end projects and so they disregard the smaller projects. So what’s the deal? We pay our bills just like anyone else. Give me a quote! Give me a contract! I can’t get any architect to give me a darn contract.

Finally I found Josh Ward of Ward Architecture + Preservation. He’s amazing. He immediately sent me a contract but said he could not start right away. No problem. I paid a small very reasonable deposit. I wasn’t in a hurry at that point. I was extremely overloaded with work last year. Finally I had a bit of time and we had the money in the bank to pay him and his time freed up we got started. He is amazing, super nice, and his drawings were perfectly what I wanted with just a few tweaks.

After completing that plan I was planning to get a contractor to help me implement the solution (using the terminology from the technical world in which I exist.) But then all hell broke loose…

The big crack

We didn’t quite finish the architectural plan when suddenly I go into my husband’s “man cave” next to the bathroom where I’ve been using the bathtub and I’m like, “Did you want to tell me the crack in the wall had expanded and is now HUGE?!” I’m freaking out.

My husband never lived in a house that needed extensive repairs or had been remodeled. Things related to the house don’t phase him that much and most of the home repairs and planning is on me, which I am fine with. But I didn’t realize what was happening in that room because I never go in there.

I grew up in remodels. I know a lot of the pitfalls. While my dad was trying to fix a ceiling it fell on his head — and he’s pretty particular and careful about how he does things. (His parents spoke German if you know what I mean.) He ended up building a church and his own house. Along the way he pulled all the trim in a historic house in Yelm, Washington used for a church parsonage, numbered it, fixed the walls, and then put all the trim back exactly as it was before he started.

For anyone who says they need to rip out trim, windows, and other historic features, I know the truth. Yes it costs more. Yes it’s a pain. But I know it can be done. And if you’re going to buy an antique, why not restore it and maintain the antique features? Otherwise, what’s the point? Go buy a new house if that’s what you really want. Oh and if you live in the historic district in Savannah you are forced to do that by regulation. I am not in that neighborhood but I still want to maintain the historic qualities of our home.

So anyway back to our beloved crack. The back of the house was clearly remodeled. When we ripped off the ceiling and part of the walls in the back room we found newspapers from 2008. The back of the house…is shoddy to say the least. We found out from a neighbor that at some point that part of the house caught on fire which likely is what led to the less than ideal repairs. I’ve always planned to rip a lot of it off and redo it while maintaining any historic features. But we weren’t quite ready to start.

Well, now was the time. I frantically told the architect we need to hold off for a minute (well more than a minute) and he agreed. I called the structural engineer again with the idea that I needed a plan that worked with our pretty much complete architecture but apparently we had a miscommunication. He gave me another report. I have never worked with a structural engineer before so apparently I don’t use the correct words or whatever to communicate what I need because I wanted a solution — not another report. But it all worked out in the end and Brian was great.

Drainage

I wasn’t sure what to do at that point but remember that river flowing beside and under our house? And the HVAC system that we changed to push the water out the other side? Well, I figured that water might be exacerbating the problem under that wall so I searched around trying to find someone to deal with our drainage problem. This is not as easy as it sounds. There are not a lot of companies that just do drainage. Luckily I got a recommendation for Frank Harris, owner of Drainage Experts in Savannah through a community group. That was a lucky break.

Frank came over and gave me a quote and they put in a super extensive drainage system all around the outside of our house and underneath it. He did a VERY good job as far as I can tell. I also got my neighbor to chip in and fix his gutter pipes that were sending water under our house and exacerbating the problem. They put in a huge pump and now all the water flows out into the sewer instead of heading under our house and into our neighbor’s yard. Luckily it seems the city has fixed the sewer issues in front of our house. Cool.

In addition to the drainage another company put in some gutters. They were very cost-effective and quick. Professional Grade Gutters. They helped us out more later with some of the other issues below.

So now that the drainage issue is solved, we can continue with the architecture and plan right?

Not so fast…

More cracks

One of the problems in our inspection report was that we have these cement blocks on the roof holding the deck up in the back. And the roof is not exactly the right angle. OK so?

Well, those blocks are literally sitting ON THE ROOF. What I learned from Frank is that they should have beams from the deck post all the way down to the ground. Also under that weird new fangled roof is the failing beam — the one thing I thought I had to worry about in the house — that would cost $5–15K to fix according to the contractor. Yeah right.

I had already called a roofing company to fix the leak above that beam and our first contractor put up supports under that beam according to what the structural engineer told me to do. Only they did not put the support beams in the right place on top of the piers under the house according to subsequent report from the structural engineer. * Sigh. *

So my plan with the architecture is to move the deck to the edge of the house and have the beams go from the deck all the way to the ground and remove those stupid cement blocks. And somehow we’ll find a way to merge those two roofs and replace that beam.

And as I’m dealing with the water and trying to come up with a plan — from someone, anyone — the bathroom tile in the upstairs bathroom where a tub sticks out of the side of the house starts cracking very fast all the way up the corner. It literally cracks and wakes me up at night.

And another wall in the man cave is cracking floor to ceiling. And a kitchen wall seems like it’s getting crushed. And I swear a crack in the back room got bigger like the back of that room is cracking off. Oh yeah and a brown crack appeared in our kitchen ceiling likely due to water flowing the wrong direction because that whole back room is now tilted the wrong way. I guess that roof angle is kind of important after all. And a crack appeared end to end in a historic fireplace mantle which kills me. And there are brown spots in ceilings around chimneys which I’m told is called rust and may be due to leaks around them or water coming in through them.

Everyone who has lived here a long time tell me all this happens in old houses and yes you should fix it but no it’s fine. It will just keep cracking. No big deal. You’ll know when it’s really a problem when the ceiling falls down or something like that.

So then there’s a windstorm and a balcony falls off a historic mansion next to Forsyth park. NOPE. Not gonna wait for that to happen. Working on this NOW.

A plan…anyone please…a plan

ACK! So I need a contractor to give me a plan to fix all this but I know the first step is to fix the foundation. After doing a lot of research and through discussion with a relative I know there’s a way to slowly raise the house from underneath by adding jacks and slowly pushing up the house to adjust the floors without breaking things.

The problem with the companies that come and jack up your house all at once is that they jack the house up really fast, break a bunch of things, and the floors still won’t be level because the because the historic wood may be permanently bowed. Multiple people told me that the solution is to fix the floors by rebuilding them on top of the existing foundation.

Regardless of how you end up fixing the foundation, I don’t see how doing that alone is going to solve all the problems. It doesn’t make sense to me. But that seems like the obvious place to start. I’m wondering if someone can start the process of raising the house in various places to help solve the problems.

So I am frantically trying to find a contractor or anyone to help us and I want to do that thing to raise the house and fix the various issues. I talked to many people again including a guy from one of those foundation companies that jacks the house up who tells me he smells mold in the cracking bathroom and I should cut a small hole in the wall. And Frank came over and suggested that maybe the floor wasn’t built well enough to hold up the tub jutting out the side of the house. But we can’t tell that until the tub is pulled out and floor is inspected.

And here’s where it gets nerve wracking. What if something has to be fixed that affects the bathroom below — the bathroom I never intended to fix in the first place and which the other contractor assured me would not be affected by other repairs. Are we going to find that the ceiling or walls in that room are not strong enough and needs to be redone and causes me to have to move the historic chandelier or redo the tiles? We’ll see.

Leaks, mold, roofs, and chimneys

After all this, it seems like the bathroom floor might be the source of our big crack — not the foundation? Or both. I don’t know. But anyway I cut a hole in the bathroom and yes mold and water damage. And this moldy smell all started when we did the drainage project and put in the new gutters. I’ve had many people inspect and tell me there’s no problem with the drainage. The river beside our house is pretty much non-existent. Everyone tells me there’s no water under the house.

It might be related to the gutters. The smell all started after that. I call the gutter company to come back and inspect to try to pinpoint the source of the moldy smell and water damage there and possibly in other parts of the house. And at that point the gutter person sends me a photo and he’s fixing leaks in a roof…OK cool. Now I know he can do more than gutters and they did a really good job last time and I was surprised how affordable it was actually. We’ll see what he says.

I finally get a contractor who agrees to come out and help us come up with a plan — for $5K. I’m ok with that actually. He seemed like he would be really good. I really liked this contractor but he wants to work in a certain way and I’m not sure we can start that right away. But I still want the plan and the budget so I can figure out what to do. How can you decide what to do without knowing the plan and the cost?

But before he got back to me I had also started talking to foundation companies and the gutter company that actually can perform other types of services besides gutters. The company name on the new quote comes from Greg Loper of Professional Grade Gutters. And it is NOT as cheap as I expected. But he has like 85 pages of things to fix including something our new contractor said might be very expensive (and still may be) — dealing with the leaky and possibly failing chimneys.

They ended up figuring out that there were leaks around the bathroom (there are gables? or something related to a pitched roof over that part of the house that sticks out). In addition, the front porch roof has problems — the wood is rotting and in the end he said it was worse than he thought. I have plans for that roof anyway. We had the flashing and mortar on the chimney fixed, added more gutters, fixed a lot of little leaks all over the roof and holes allowing sideways rain to get into the house. They could have done more with the siding but we have plans to redo that part of the house so that is momentarily on hold.

We were also supposed to get caps on the chimneys but he apparently forgot that detail. We paid the invoice anyway because I knew he’d get back to fix it eventually.

Missing chimney caps was also on our inspection report, but I didn’t think much of it. But in hindsight, the baby birds in our chimney every spring were due to the missing chimney caps (something I had mentioned to Greg) and perhaps the rain in the chimney was contributing to the fact that our chimneys seem to be failing and perhaps causing mold and rust on ceilings. I’m not sure. We have a crack in the historic woodwork in one of our upstairs bedrooms which makes me very sad and was told that could be related to a failing chimney.

But wait. There’s more!

Back to the foundation

Besides the typical Ram Jack solutions (they advertise all over on TV here) I found another foundation company that repairs the pilings and wood instead of putting in jacks. They work with a lot of historic houses and had good reviews for the most part. I got quotes from them and the jack company that gave me the a quote earlier.

What I find odd is that same company that quoted me $17K before came back with a $58K quote this time for the same house. What? The house has not changed that much. The only difference is that now we are working with a structural engineer.

In the meantime, it turns out my possible new contractor knows the structural engineer and the architect. Awesome they all work together and they all recommend each other which is promising.

But before I signed the paperwork to have him help me come up with a plan, Brian Sapp got back to me about the foundation plans I sent him and says that he can do a design and then the foundation companies will implement the foundation according to the plan and then he will inspect it. YES. That is what I want. A design. A plan. Someone to inspect it to make sure it is done right. That’s exactly what I want.

One caveat with Brian Sapp’s design is that he says he can only design the fix for the house the way it is today with no consideration of the architectural plan or what will be in the future. It’s too complicated to do that all at once. For that reason, I hold off on hiring the new contractor until we can get this initial foundation work done.

In addition, the contractor says we have to move out and there’s no way we can break up the project in any way shape or form. Hmm. I’m thinking about that. We have to move out to fix the porch? And an upstairs bathroom? And a downstairs bathroom? It sounds like monolithic software projects versus micro-services and people who insist they can’t break the project into pieces. But anyway, first things first. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

We ended up hiring Evolution in Action to come in an repair pilings, piers and beams under the house. They seemed like they had the specific experience we needed for a historic house and a lot of good reviews. We got a quote and it was reasonable for the work that needed to be done.

Brian Sapp’s company came up with a design. Once they completed the design we met with him and Henry at Evolution in Action and went over the plan. Then when Evolution in Action was available they got started and finished the project in a very short amount of time, all things considered.

Of course there were complications along the way due to a house that is over a century old with many “revisions” along the way. But in the end I feel relieved that part of the project is complete. I can’t see everything under the house but I trust that Brian’s crew inspected it appropriately and besides that Henry’s crew seemed to know what they were doing. What I can see looks very good. The leaning piers under our laundry room are now nice and straight.

The floors are still crooked but that was part of the plan. The problem is that if you just start jacking up a house and try to level the floors fast then you might actually crack and break other parts of the house so we just got it stabilized under there for now and will work on fixing all the walls, ceilings and floors next.

The good thing is that the tile in the bathroom that was cracking at night and waking me up has stopped. That is a relief. It used to crack and our dog would bark.

One night it woke me up at like 3 a.m. right before we did the project with a huge cracking sound. The crack literally started and went all the way up the corner in like a month. Perhaps the foundation was the majority of the issue. There were beams that were literally not resting on anything because the historic mortar had deteriorated and the piers had sunk. I guess we’ll find out but I’m not going to wait that long.

Twas the night before Christmas…

And all through the house…creatures were stirring. RATS.

We keep our house pretty clean. I do the dishes every night due to the cockroaches. I’m not a fan. There were like two days where I lapsed because I was urgently finishing a project but then I got right back on it. I was feeling very guilty about this until someone told me that when they renovate old houses around here the rats scatter and look for a new home.

Turns out we had a house across the street where some questionable activities were taking place and the people just got kicked out. I don’t know how or why there was just a realtor lock on the door one day. They just renovated that house including wrapping it in plastic and fumigating it. A guy working over there told me you could literally stick your fingers through the wall. They have been fixing that up for a few months and now it is beautiful. I wonder if that was the source of our problems.

I discovered the rats when I opened the drawer where our oven mitts are and — this so gross but I’m sharing anyway — one of the oven mitts was chewed up and there was rat poop in the drawer. My husband does a lot of the cooking (which I love — I’m a lucky gal) and insists he didn’t see it. Anyway I was about to throw up and I threw ALL the mitts away, took everything out of the drawers until I could solve the problem, and proceeded to disinfect those drawers. I also washed all the towels. ACK.

We did various things to eradicate the critters. We already have an exterminator and I immediately called them and they immediately had someone come out and reposition the outdoor rat traps which I think made no difference.

I started opening the drawer each night, burning a candle in it, and spraying air freshener everywhere on top of scrubbing everything with lemon counter cleaner since I read they don’t like that smell. I got peppermint balls and we have one of those ultrasonic devices which I’m not convinced does much. The peppermint balls didn’t seem to deter our rats either.

But in the meantime, about those chimney caps. Our dog had been sniffing around one of the downstairs fireplaces. We had it covered up with a whiteboard when the birds were in the chimney and a tv in front of the fireplace. That was a temporary configuration until we got the chimney cap on there and we want to move a couch that is too big for the room into the back room once that is fixed. I was afraid to even move that whiteboard fearing there might be a rat’s nest behind it. Was the dog smelling rats in our chimney?

Well, that question was answered when a rat ran into the living room while we were eating and watching TV. I screamed and my husband claims he never saw it and doesn’t even believe they exist I guess. I immediately called the exterminator again and they came back and put in some sticky traps inside and told me there was nothing behind that white board. Phew.

I saw that rat another time and asked for a quote to block all the holes like our exterminator recommended. $7,000. To plug holes. For RATS. That is not what I want to spend $7,000 on right now.

Some other people including my mom recommended other types of rat poison and traps and I researched how to plug the holes on the house. There are a lot of complications with that like we plan to tear off and change parts of the house where holes need to be fixed. But that said, I knew some of the primary entry points besides the attic.

1. Chimneys.
2. Under sinks.
3. Any other holes.

So I frantically call the gutter company and Greg came out ON CHRISTMAS EVE to help us out. THANK YOU. I knew they would take care of it. I read that rats can go on roofs down chimneys so that solves one problem. We already had the flashing around the chimneys patched up and all the holes in and around the roof for the most part.

There are some other holes where they can get into the attic we will deal with later. But my theory is if we can plug the holes inside the house at least they can only get into the attic and under the house — and we have other mitigations for them in those locations.

I researched and figured out how we can patch up the chimneys we never use and don’t plan to but before doing that I burned a ton of incense in the problematic fireplace. Supposedly this could be a fire hazard but it’s just smoke not fire and I was watching it. I blocked off the fireplace so the smoke from the incense would mostly go up the chimney. I was reading how people smoke moles out of their holes and such and that gave me the idea to smoke them out.

I don’t know if it helped or not but I don’t think they could be in the chimneys while I was doing it. And right after I did that the chimney caps went on. So if the only way they could get into the chimneys was through the roof that is no longer an option.

Next I will block the chimneys so they can’t get from inside the chimney into the rooms in case they can get from the attic down the chimneys somehow.

I also read about rat trails and it was really clear that the rats were coming up through the holes around the kitchen sink plumbing. I had put a liner in there and blocked the holes to try to block bugs but the rats chewed right through it. I figured out how to block those holes with wire after reading up on exclusion and spent the day before Christmas Eve working on that disgusting project. I threw out the exterminator’s sticky trap with rat droppings all over it. Clearly that wasn’t effective.

After researching all this I figured that the rats were coming up through that hole and going behind the cabinets into the drawer with the mitts. Hopefully that is now cut off. I had already blocked the wide open holes in the wall behind the oven with insulation and put great stuff in a lot of the cracks between things in the kitchen but I hadn’t done a good enough job on this hole under the sink — and ultimately now I think that was the primary entry point for both varmints and bugs.

What I also learned was that you should use steel wool to plug any holes in your house except those that could be exposed to water. For the holes exposed to water you should use copper wool. I bought all that off Amazon and started plugging any other holes I could find. I also got some stronger rat poison (sorry rat lovers) off Amazon and going to put that around the chimneys in the attic because our exterminator said there was evidence of recent activity up there.

Phew. Joy. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

Update: I haven’t put out the new poison yet and my neighbors said they found a dead rat in the alley. I am not hearing the noises, the dog isn’t going as crazy, and I haven’t seen another one yet. The liner under the sink is still in tact. 🤞

Oh and that neighbor said they had bats in their attic which is why the landlord just fixed a bunch of stuff. Oh no…

Hopefully 2026 is our year for fun home improvement!

So about that structural engineering design…

I was trying to design the new architecture to work with the existing pilings with one exception — a small wall that I want to move where the two pilings below it possibly have to move but we’ll see what our engineer says when we get there. That way we will hopefully minimize the changes to fix the structural problems as far as the blocks under the house are concerned.

In other words where those deck beams are resting on the roof on cement blocks, pull them to the edge of the house so the posts go from the deck all the way down to the ground on top of existing pilings.

Although the structural engineer would not look at the future plans, I did ask for one request. I don’t even know how to read his plans — I didn’t really try because I just trusted those guys all knew what they were talking about and would do the right thing. But I asked him to just make sure all the piers or pilings (blocks) in the back of the house support as much weight as the pilings on the side that already support two stories. I figure (is this logical?) that if the pilings can support two stories then they will be able to support one story and a deck posts. No?

So what I am hoping (TBD) is that those piers will support moving the deck posts off the roof to the edge of the house with no additional changes to the bricks, blocks, and cement underneath them. We’ll see.

We may still need to make revisions depending on how all the weight gets distributed when we deal with that beam in the back room. These are things I have no clue about and have not bothered to research. I have my own work to do. But we have two weird roofs — an old and new one — on the back of the house and I’m not sure if and how those can be moved or changed and what sort of beams need to go where to support that.

I’ve heard talks of ibeams and such and I don’t know how that all works or if we even need those if we change the back ceiling to be supported by the perimeter support. I am planning to keep doors and windows between existing beams and such so hopefully that keeps it simpler but we’ll find out.

I’ve got various recommendations and connections and trying to figure out how we will proceed in the new year. All I know is I lived in remodels growing up so I know what that is like. The front half of our house seems to be mostly fine for the moment. We can block off the back part. But then maybe we can’t. Stay tuned if you really want to know.

So you say you want a house…

When you buy a house it’s not just the cost of the house you’ll need to consider as you’re probably aware. Foundation issues are no joke. Over $25K. Structural engineer — multiple thousands. Architect — over $10K and maybe more than the original estimate when all said and done. Drainage — $12K. Back yard projects, gardening, storage, grill gazebo, outdoor wiring and plumbing issues > $15K. Bathroom project > $10K. Sewer line and plumbing issues $4K? Roof, chimneys, gutters, leaks > $15K. Indoor fans, temporary support beams, drywall, wiring projects, plumbing issues, fix attic stairs, etc. etc. etc. ???

And that doesn’t even cover things I fixed myself. I spent a bunch of time trying to remove what a contractor called alligator paint from some trim in my hallway. I am not sure if that was the right terminology it was more like layers and layers of paint from the past 100 years. Took forever. I ended up sanding some of it. Hopefully I don’t have lead paint in my lungs.

The plumber came when our kitchen sink faucet started spraying water everywhere and said we could easily fix it ourselves. I tried to get my husband to ask the guys at work how to fix it. My ploy backfired. His boss said we just hire people. If she can fix it she’s hired! Well, I did. I haven’t gotten that job offer yet…but sorry I never want to do that again.

I hired my nephew to help put in a brick walkway in our back yard and put up a grill gazebo in exchange for airline miles and a mini vacation and a bit of money. My husband and I put in time laying the bricks. I studied the brick designs around Savannah and cut most of the bricks in the corners myself.

Oh and the biggest projects are not done yet. And in some other parts of the country these prices might be even higher.

Even with all those issues, we love our house and I’m just looking forward to the day when it’s all done! Unfortunately this is why I don’t have a lot of bandwidth to work for free and donate time everywhere right now when people ask me for my time. We have a lot of bills to pay.

Looks like this will be my focus again in 2026. I’m hoping that some of my research in the AI and security space will pay off and will mostly be going to fix more house issues at the moment. I’m working on tools to improve my coverage on penetration tests. We’ll see how that works out.

As always, health, family, and friends come first, but I’m hopeful that we make some progress on all of the above.

Here’s to a prosperous and healthy 2026!

❤️🥂🥳

Follow for updates

Teri Radichel | © 2nd Sight Lab 2025

About Teri Radichel:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
⭐️ Presentations: Presentations by Teri Radichel
⭐️ Recognition: SANS Award, AWS Security Hero Former SANS, IANS Faculty
⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
⭐️ Company: Penetration Tests & Security Research ~ 2nd Sight Lab

Cloud, SAAS, and Application Penetration Testing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🔒 Request a penetration test

Follow for more stories like this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
❤️ Sign Up my Medium Email List
❤️ X, Threads, Blusky, Instagram, AWS BuildID: @teriradichel
❤️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teriradichel
❤️ Mastodon: @teriradichel@infosec.exchange
❤️ Facebook: 2nd Sight Lab

So You Say You Want A House… was originally published in Cloud Security on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.