Perpetual Remodels… Will It End?

I started remodeling a house in 1983. Jen started before that with her girls. It started off small with a wall here and a door to create a bedroom for JD, which grew into custom cabinets and a pool table in the new space that was a bonus room. Very little landscaping back then and I felt good about enjoying the two new spaces. I left that marriage and bought a patio home with an unfinished basement. I was soon in a new situation and having to finish another basement with multiple rooms, bathroom, and common area. Soon, times were a changing once again and we moved into another home. A new one this time, but with another unfinished basement. Knowing that a game room had now become mandatory, it was the central focus of the basement finish with two bedrooms, bath, and now an additional need for a craft room. So far, all the remodels had run about the same cost and were doable with a second mortgage and a speedy first mortgage refinance. We focused on a slow multi-year advance on the landscaping, creating space outside that became as cherished as any interior room we enjoyed. These outside projects all came at small expense and work was done by us. After nearly fifteen years, we had planted over 250 plants, created a disappearing riverbed, and planted a maple that went from ten feet tall to over thirty feet tall. Magnificent work and was our pride and joy. I thought we had surely completed all the work and as I approached retirement, we would have a place to enjoy for many years. Oh, foolish me! The best was yet to come and then come again.

The year before I retired, our daughter’s wedding (the final of five weddings) was planned for the end of September. Jen had a received some inheritance and we decided that we didn’t want to waste on a list of lifetime wants, but instead decided that if we invested it in a house, then we would not only safe harbor our money, but we potentially would enjoy the benefits of the American Dream of bettering oneself through hard work and vision (Jen’s vision and my hard work). Don’t get me wrong, I loved the idea of using my hands and laying tile and building something. I soon found out that beyond the tile, I was pretty much in over my head, but thank goodness for close friends that do have the skill. Brian came to the rescue and Jen’s dream kitchen and my dream tv den were no longer a vison. With a remodel and a wedding both occurring in the same time and space, the race was hatched, and Jen and I were using our oversight skills to make sure Brian completed the remodel prior to everyone coming to Colorado for Kate and Joshua’s wedding. On top of all this, I was also going to be the minister at the wedding. Our timeline allowed for only a possible two-week slip in the project and as it turned out we needed every bit of the extra time. Literally wiping the new off the new kitchen and den, we had two weeks to get everything in the house moved back to its final resting place. Five months from start to finish, and an absurd amount of money spent, we had completed both a remodel and a wedding to remember. How Jen ever was able to complete all of the table settings and decorations while we lived in a corner of our bedroom and chaos everywhere is beyond me. So many people coming and going with Remi meeting everyone with a wag and a good sniff and a final rub on exit. He was our security and greeting committee wrapped up in one ninety-five bundle of Labrador fur. I watched in awe the circus acts of scaffolding, two step ladders and a board spanning across some nineteen feet in the air to mud, tape, and texture walls that had been opened for a double stacked LVL block and tackled into the attic rafters to keep the house from collapsing on itself in a high wind. Followed by Brian standing on top of a twelve-foot stepladder to cut holes in the ceiling for new can lights. I didn’t want to watch, but like a moth to a flame, you’re mesmerized and paralyzed while you contemplated whether your insurance would cover if they fell.

A year later I was retired, my parents were in need, and two years later, we had sold our dream rooms renovation and had moved to Texas where our remodeling and landscaping dreams were about to take on all new meaning and a much higher level. As far as the costs, lets just say I could have torn it all down and rebuilt one and half times and might have come out ahead. But then where would all the memories be? They’d have been in whatever we would have been doing other than remodeling, that’s where. We are now in the fourth year of God only knows how many years. We are enjoying everything done and for the most part it hasn’t created any inconveniences until now. We are again displaced as we watch bathrooms being transformed. A little better time this go around as we have a small guest house and a travel trailer to escape the dust, jackhammers, dust, nail guns, dust, clutter everywhere, and dust, dust, dust!

The end seems near, maybe. We might have two more years until final completion. At that time, every floor surface will have been replaced, every room gutted and rebuilt, every light switch and outlet replaced, every door knob replaced, every exterior door replaced, every window replaced, one garage converted to a game room, and another built with shop and storage. And that’s just the main house. During this time, we have laid new flooring up and down stairs in the guest house. All new trim everywhere, new cabinets, spiral staircase removed, an elevator installed, and then the spiral staircase re-installed outside to the upstairs back door. Purchased a tenth of an acre behind us to build the new garage and Jen’s she-shed party shack. Thirty-five trees removed, a jungle of bushes, vines, grass, weeds, hillsides, all removed to provide the framework of three-quarters of an acre of all new landscaping, secret garden, a waterfall from our own rocks uncovered in hillside removals that has become our POI for identifying where we live to people. Rock outcroppings are surrounded by what else, more rock. Concrete pads poured, swimming spas, pergolas, and a pavilioned installed to give relief to the hot Texas summers and the surprisingly cold winters. An old large raised and leveled platform for an old pool transformed into a fire pit worthy of the best fire gatherings. Not failing to mention all of the new outdoor furniture and fountain.

We have tripled the value of this place, giving an all-new meaning to the buy low, sell high business outline. Thank goodness for the market bearing the increase as we have spent over two times the purchase amount. We look forward to the finish line, but guess what? We’re already looking for a new project rental home on a lake two hours from here. I’m beginning to believe this is in our blood. Not like the TV shows you see such as our favorites “Hometown” and “Fixer Upper”, because they actually make money while doing the work. Our vision seems to be more about spending our money and creating a dream that someday our kids will benefit from the monetary gain of our passion. As they say, you can’t take it with you, enjoy it while you can and leave it to those when we are gone. It is and has been a fun ride though and without any regrets we continue to create through hard work. Jens creation and my hard work, LOL!