"It Just Needs a Little Renovating," Part II

(To finish the post I started with the Zadge in mind...)

Having moved into my little house two weeks before Christmas of 2005, thinking was all I could do about renovations until spring. March, 2006 rolled in, bringing with it the worst snow in 30 years. It was beautiful. Spring shortly followed and I started looking for a contractor/handy person. It was time to start renovating my new home. I found a retired contractor well known professionally and personally by people I knew. That made him reasonably credible. He brought in workers he knew and had used on other projects and we went over the things I needed done and those I wanted done and then tallied the costs. Okay, maybe I didn't really need some of these things right away and let's see what's left over, if anything, before we go onto the "want" list. The guys soon dreaded hearing, "I was thinking ... "

First and foremost was the back step or stoop. I called a patio cover company and had an aluminum awning style cover installed. Not big enough to block the view from the kitchen window but enough to allow me to go outside and throw a piece of chicken on the barbecue if I so desired, rain or no rain. They also installed a hand rail on one side of the stoop for me.

The next project was putting in a deck so I could get off the stoop even in less than perfect weather. We elected to put in a full-length deck with a ramp at the carport end to allow me to load my wagon with groceries (or pellets for the pellet stove in the winter) and pull it up to the back door. The other end got a concrete pad with a step down from the deck. It seemed a little unfinished so we added an additional area and step down/concrete pad to accommodate the patio set, giving me an eating or sitting area while keeping the deck clear (except for the chaise, the pet food lockers, the water cooler bottles, the extra chairs and fold-up table, deck box, and BBQ. Yeah, well. It was a very hungry money monster but it's the perfect spot for dinner or wine & cheese; like camping out in the woods --- and then you go back into your comfy little house with its hot shower and comfy bed. Project One & Two done ... ka-ching, ka-ching!

Now it was time to demo' the laundry room. First the shower came out. Then the hot water heater was moved outside, next to the house on the new concrete pad. Then everything else had to come out so a new floor could be put in. This is when we discovered that there were more than a couple of sub-floors. Pulling those meant pulling them out of the kitchen as well. Ka-ching! New toilet installed, sink moved to where shower had been. Door taken off, doorway refinished, bi-fold door hung. Pantry cupboard moved to that section of wall. We put cupboards where the hot water heater had been, placed my bakers rack where the sink had been, I added shelving, a mirror, a medicine cabinet. Ka-ching! We put the washer/dryer and chest freezer back in and voila, I had a working laundry room. Having taken up the previous sub- flooring, I no longer had a step up from the living room to the kitchen. Very nice! Ka-ching!!!

A couple months later the guys had gotten to the bathroom. They had to demo' the tub in order to get it through the doorway. We pulled all the ceramic tile from the walls and floor and took up the excess sub-floors as long as we were there. I have bad hips and my legs aren't much better so the high sided tub was replaced with a walk-in shower. New walls and flooring were put in. Ka-ching, ka-ching!

My son stopped by one day as the gutters were being hung and said, "did you know you were buying a fixer-upper?" To which I replied, "it didn't need fixing; it simply needed a little renovating --- to make it mine".

The rest, with the exception of the pond, has been the small, normal stuff. A little paint here and there, raised flower beds - so I can reach the dirt and do my own planting; the everyday stuff that you do to a house when you move in and make it your own ... "your home".

We've since had some very cold, snowy winters but not like our first winter. The snow piles on the deck but it can be shoveled or swept and cleared and I can access the back of the house. We have a few hot days in the summer but not like down in the valley. I don't own an air conditioner and probably only run the swamp cooler half a dozen times in the summer. The air is clean; it's quiet; I'm surrounded by trees and rocks and critters. My daughter says it's like when we all used to go camping.

I knew as soon as we turned onto the driveway - I was home! It just needed a little renovating --- and a white porch rocker so I can sit and take in the view.