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Starting the process again
Feb. 20th, 2013 06:46 amI guess this is Phase 3 of our long-term remodel of the house.
Phase 1 started in 2004 when Danny and I redid the downstairs ourselves, plowing through our learning curve. Lots of electrical, drywalling, tiling, cabinet installing, but when that part was done over the course of a couple of years, we were generally pleased with our efforts. A few things, done by 'contractors' were awful, like the conversion of the carport to a garage and adding a deck. Both need to be redone.
Phase 2 was from October 2008 for about 4 months, starting with Danny completely gutting the kitchen--in effect, every square inch of the upstairs has something done to it. Most of the upstairs work was done by hired contractors, and except for a bunch of plumbing issues, the results were quite nice. But of course, we were both so over the process by the time we finally moved back into our bedroom and the rest of the upstairs in late Feb 2009, all the little unfinished things stayed unfinished.
Phase 3 isn't so much remodeling, but doing a lot of deferred maintenance things to ready this white elephant of a house to put on the market. New gutters, new shingles on the roof, replacing the badly made deck, fixing the roof in the garage, scraping and repainting all the trim (again). A whole bunch of small projects that will end up costing a bunch, but will be needed for a quicker sale.
Jim Bailey and I bought this house over 20 years ago, so a lot of memories have been accumulated here. The house is oversized for Danny and me, though. Although it's not a big hindrance, I am tired of climbing up and down the stairs, since we use large parts of the house for our daily activities. I don't use the downstairs for dancing anymore, although that was one of my Big Ideas when we first saw the house.
We have two dedicated guest rooms, rarely used. We have a 'crafts room' which is right now just storage for a lot of garage sale items. We have two large living areas (which I'll miss having), a large dining room, a large kitchen, and we have a walk-in closet that was formerly a bedroom. It's on 1/3 acre with a lot of yard maintenance that shouldn't need to happen (lots of tree trimming, leaf raking, weed killing), us being in a severe drought in a high desert environment.
Phase 3b will entail getting rid of a lot of the furniture that's filled this house up over all those years. I got rid of a lot when Danny moved in back in 2002, but we've accumulated a lot more. We've been purging small stuff for awhile; now on to the big stuff.
The plan is to have this house staged for a sale, move into an apartment somewhere, then look for a nice single-level house about 1700 square feet here. AND buy a vacation home in another city.
Yes, I could stay here forever, but I think an actual move might get me kickstarted in thinking of my own Phase 3 of my life and what to do as I enter my retirement years. Part of that goal is to live life for me and not put so much of my time into maintaining the house.
Phase 1 started in 2004 when Danny and I redid the downstairs ourselves, plowing through our learning curve. Lots of electrical, drywalling, tiling, cabinet installing, but when that part was done over the course of a couple of years, we were generally pleased with our efforts. A few things, done by 'contractors' were awful, like the conversion of the carport to a garage and adding a deck. Both need to be redone.
Phase 2 was from October 2008 for about 4 months, starting with Danny completely gutting the kitchen--in effect, every square inch of the upstairs has something done to it. Most of the upstairs work was done by hired contractors, and except for a bunch of plumbing issues, the results were quite nice. But of course, we were both so over the process by the time we finally moved back into our bedroom and the rest of the upstairs in late Feb 2009, all the little unfinished things stayed unfinished.
Phase 3 isn't so much remodeling, but doing a lot of deferred maintenance things to ready this white elephant of a house to put on the market. New gutters, new shingles on the roof, replacing the badly made deck, fixing the roof in the garage, scraping and repainting all the trim (again). A whole bunch of small projects that will end up costing a bunch, but will be needed for a quicker sale.
Jim Bailey and I bought this house over 20 years ago, so a lot of memories have been accumulated here. The house is oversized for Danny and me, though. Although it's not a big hindrance, I am tired of climbing up and down the stairs, since we use large parts of the house for our daily activities. I don't use the downstairs for dancing anymore, although that was one of my Big Ideas when we first saw the house.
We have two dedicated guest rooms, rarely used. We have a 'crafts room' which is right now just storage for a lot of garage sale items. We have two large living areas (which I'll miss having), a large dining room, a large kitchen, and we have a walk-in closet that was formerly a bedroom. It's on 1/3 acre with a lot of yard maintenance that shouldn't need to happen (lots of tree trimming, leaf raking, weed killing), us being in a severe drought in a high desert environment.
Phase 3b will entail getting rid of a lot of the furniture that's filled this house up over all those years. I got rid of a lot when Danny moved in back in 2002, but we've accumulated a lot more. We've been purging small stuff for awhile; now on to the big stuff.
The plan is to have this house staged for a sale, move into an apartment somewhere, then look for a nice single-level house about 1700 square feet here. AND buy a vacation home in another city.
Yes, I could stay here forever, but I think an actual move might get me kickstarted in thinking of my own Phase 3 of my life and what to do as I enter my retirement years. Part of that goal is to live life for me and not put so much of my time into maintaining the house.
