3/22/11

When everything in your life is going haywire, you forget your own limitations. In my early 20's I took a stained glass class and never finished a project. I am not a detail-oriented person. Think of me as a macro personality (as opposed to micro). And for the sake of Theresa Patrick, a blog reader, I am also a pretty strong Gemini.

To review -NOT detail-oriented and schizophrenic. It's a heady combination.

I ordered kitchen cabinets. The space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling is nothing but a dust collector. Our cabinet designer suggested small cabinets on top of our "real" cabinets.

Visualize this. Small cabinets with interior lighting and glass in the doors. Nice? Of course. But how much nicer would it be if the glass was leaded. How hard can this be?

We have 11 cabinets which are 5 different sizes. It's not a one-pattern fits all. But I found one pattern that I am envisioning will fit all. And now that I have 6 of the windows complete (and let me assure this has taken hours upon hours of time I simply do not have), I remembered why I never finished a project.

Not only did I fail to take into account the time commitment this would entail, but I failed to imagine the costs. Believe me, I could have paid to have someone else do it for about the same amount of money. Plus (and this is both a positive and a negative thing) I enlisted my mother-in-law's help. (positive) And have consequently taught her some swear words she never knew before. (negative) Fortunately I am only a daughter-in-law and can't be written out of the will.

3/21/11

About a year or so ago we replaced our windows. Several contractors/window people bid it. Seventeen windows. The prices ranged from $7500 to $33,000.00.

We did not get the $33,000.00 windows. Does that surprise you? At the time we said, "is this our retirement home?" And decided it wasn't.

So we went with a cheaper alternative. Our house was built in 1938. Construction has changed a lot since then. The men who put in the windows did not add insulation or make any adjustments other than to replace the wooden frames and glass. So why weren't our utility bills any cheaper?

Less than 2 years later, they leaked. The roof leafed. The skylights leaked. We got a new roof and windows taken out - insulated and set back in. It completely changed the appearance of the house.

Sometime in the past our house was owned by a man who owned stock (a lot of it) in Radio shack. The reason we know this is the wiring. Not only did house have holes in the walls for speakers and volume control. Each room including the baths had telephones. Try to imagine how many calls I wanted to take in the bathroom. Cable installers groaned when we took them to the basement and the closet of wires.

Times have changed. We no longer even own a land line. Replacing the roof allowed us to remove 3 of the 4 skylights.

So now we have a very different house with - wait for it - beige aluminum siding. Whoo hoo!

Of course, the siding had to go. But here's the cool part. Under the siding (and yes we did have those tacky aluminum shutters) was cedar siding. Cedar siding today is priced at $3.40 a foot. I know this because my remodelers are so excited they mention it about three times a week.

My house continues to look worse before it looks better. We're still waiting on better. In one of my poor-pitiful-me moments, my husband reminded me of the quote I had posted on the wall in my office. "When you are in the middle of something, everything looks like a failure." Never post anything on your walls - you are just calling out to the Universe to make it a fact.

So how did we pay for all these changes, in a year where we had not budgeted for this? Why we went to our credit union. And guess what? Our house is now worth $100,000.00 less than it was two years ago. So it turns out, we who weren't bright enough to know it, are upside down in our mortgage. But just barely.

The good news is once the remodel is finished the house will be worth more than it is today. However, we won't have any comparables to prove it.

So as it turns out, this is our retirement home.

March 20, 2011

You might not have noticed, but I haven't posted for a while. My mother was diagnosed with lung cancer last August and given 3-6 months. So between my job, the rebuilding and numerous trips to Texas to see my mother, I've been busy.

March 25th is right around the corner. March 25th is our one year anniversary of our fire. I've booked another trip to Texas to celebrate. And to keep the trifecta going. I've entered a big writing contest with results posted on that same day. With my luck so far this year, what do you think the chances are that I will final? Slim? None? Honestly, I wouldn't have entered if I'd realized the date the finalists would be announced.

Back to the house. What have we been doing? Well, in August - nothing, In September - nothing. In October we got a deck and french doors leading to the deck. By the end of the year we had a new HVAC, some new wiring and some new plumbing.

The plumbing came with it's own special issues. My husband wanted a steam shower. I ordered one online. One of the lessons I've learned is that ordering online is not always a good idea. The plumber didn't like the quality of the shower and called the building inspector. The building inspector called the factory.

Heck no, it hadn't been inspected.

Were we daunted? No. For only $250.00 we were able to have the shower re-crated and sent back.

We ordered in another shower (from the same company. Several thousand dollars more expensive, but this one had been inspected), but only by the electricians - not the plumbing people. For five weeks, the shower sat in front of my house like a ugly lawn ornament while we tried to get them to take the second shower back.

At that point we gave in. No steam shower. But that's when we learned that the vanity we'd demolished had been custom built. So the new vanity wouldn't work. Nor would any other vanity work because I only had an 18" depth. So I pondered. What is long (5') and skinny (18")?

A sofa table.

Okay, I have to admit it. The new vanity is going to be so cool. A gray marble top, claw and ball legs, a clear vessel bowl. I'll post photos as soon as it's in.

Our fire has been a mixed blessing. We're getting a brand new house, but at what cost? In my next post I'll tell you about the roof and the siding which weren't damaged by the fire, but still get to be replaced. (Guess what? The insurance company isn't paying for the roof and siding).

Next time I have a house fire I'm not calling the fire department until it has burned to the ground.