….a remodeling memory….a remodeling memory
Don't be like my friend Doyle, here………remodeling, refurbishing, redecorating, redoing….shouldn't end up in weekly sessions with your friendly neighborhood mental health specialist. What can I say? We've spent the last 22 years attempting to remodel an old duplex built in 1889 and have lived the old adage 'No one ever said it would be easy'. Nothing is square OR on center when remodeling an older home. Looking back…..a person could easily ask, "Why are we banging our heads against a brick wall?"
The answer is easy…..we love this old house. I don't know why. It's broken up into little rooms and had pretty well zip for closet space built into the original floor plan. In the past, we have turned the 3rd floor into a large dormitory bedroom, remodeled one upper bedroom into a padded cell for gymnastics/wrestling/weight lifting (it's back to a bedroom now), ripped out most of the upstairs kitchen cupboards to make room for bedroom furniture, knocked out the wall between the 2 front doors (gave us the illusion the livingroom was bigger than a cracker jacks box), over hauled the existing downstairs kitchen, sawed a large opening in the kitchen for a patio door, built a very nice ramp/multi-level deck onto the back of our home and yes…..all without making a trip down the street to the loan company.
HOWEVER, this time our remodeling plan includes a two-story, 22 x 22 foot, structure to be added to the east side of our house. AND resizing the downstairs bathroom to make it wheelchair accessible and additionally, turning the front bedroom into a familyroom. Yes indeedy….quite an undertaking. We will definitely be in need of a financial partner to accomplish this. Early estimates for the basic shell (boxed in/siding/cement work) is $24,000.00. That is mind-boggling……and after my husband picked me up off the floor, we assumed our diningroom pacing patterns to begin the discussion of pros and cons. We decided that we both might be mentally deficient….the original mortgage on the house in 1977 was $29,900.00. Every once in awhile we'd stop and look at the rough draft of the addition and finally came to the conclusion that nothing ventured, nothing gained. Our carpenter friend went home and we sat down at the table and tried to figure out where to start.
I must admit, designing the new space or project has always been the most fun. I've done it so many times before…..graph paper, drawing board and T-square, pencil, erasure. I'm sure y'all know the drill. On my way to grab graph paper and pencil, the computer caught my eye and I halted. Wait a minute….what am I doing? Searching the shelves, I found '3D Home Architect…..Deeeeelux (Broderbund)'. Interactive 3D editing, view multiple levels in 3D, automatic roof designer……AND Internet access. My husband saw the direction my thoughts were taking and rolled his eyes……but honey, I said (I refuse to think of it as whining), we can plug in the costs of the project too.
It's funny how the mind works….you would think that two people who have been married for 29 years would have cloned thoughts….WRONG! He was thinking 'workshop' with a garage door to pull in the occasional car for oil changes etc. While I was thinking 'bathrooms and closets'. Hey! When you have 10 kids, you assume that someday they will have kids. Where are all those bodies going to take a shower? Good grief!
The plans were completed without bloodshed. The garage door had to go to make room for the laundryroom…the variance we received from the city allowed for a 22 x 22 structure; we would have needed 24 x 22 for cars and the laundryroom. The new plan included rough-ins for the 2 sets of bathroom fixtures, which would be added at a later date (soon I hope!) and fewer closets.
Our family is dual licensed for fostercare, children and adults; so we want to include some enhancements such as a hard wired smoke alarm system, wheelchair accessible halls, doorways and bathroom. Rewiring the house will be the most ambitious of the improvements. Currently, we have 60 amp service to the house and will be updating to 100 amp service…..out with fuses and in with a breaker box. I can't wait; most of the rooms have only 1 outlet (teenaged girls require a minimum of 6 $%### !).
What we have now are stacks of lists…..stacks of bids, copies of letters to the city, and hard drive space devoted to room plans and furniture placement. Today we should have all the bids in and can make that trip to the bank on Monday. The kids have had fun looking at the house abstract (it's a piece of history afterall) and local surveyors have staked out our lot, which had some interesting results. The stakes, with their little pink flags, ended up 4 feet into one neighbors driveway and the northwest marker indicated that our back neighbor built his carport 9 inches into our west neighbors yard……hhhmmm we don't know how THAT will end up. The Variance hearing and city council meeting were an education…..and we only have to cut two limbs from a very old maple tree. LIFE IS GOOD. All in all, even if the loan money isn't forthcoming, we've had fun with the process.
Remodeling Part II ; Remodeling Part III
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Updated August 3, 1999
