Construction is Taking Over My Life
/Nearly 15 years ago, my wonderful, darling husband bought us our first house. It was a rental house that was owned by his dad and one that he was quite familiar with as he had helped with a few repairs. I, on the other hand, saw the house for the first time after we signed on the dotted line.
Then I spent the next two weeks crying.
The house was horrible.
Really, really horrible. I am not exaggerating Reader Friends. It had mismatched cabinets in the kitchen and a floor that was so unlevel, it was like riding a roller coaster. Every wall had been sprayed with an orange peel finish that was so thick and bumpy, it was nearly impossible to paint. The upstairs, which held some of the remains at it’s former hotel self, was a bizarre series of tiny rooms that the previous tenants had painted with spray paint. No joke. There was no railing along the staircase and I spent so much time up there convinced someone would step wrong and plunge to their death. Tin can lids covered holes in the walls and there were license plates covering holes in the floors. The bathroom had 17 layers of wallpaper, wallboard, tile, and paneling. Worst offense? The pink toilet in the only bathroom.
My wonderful, darling husband eventually broke the news that I could remodel any room I wanted. Any and everything I wanted to change, it would happen. Except, we were also planning a wedding, which we were paying for, and I was a student teacher so our budget was extremely small. Our first change? Removing every bit of plaster and lath in our upstairs, shucking it all out the second story windows, installing a door at the base of the stairs and not going up there for another year. Our next project was remodeling the extremely tiny bathroom before we moved in since it was the only one in the house.
And that’s how we did it. One room at a time, when our budget allowed. Over the next 15 years, we completely remodeled nearly every room in that horrible, horrible house. We’ve added on rooms, torn down walls, and laid countless pieces of wood flooring. The upstairs floor was laid while I was nine months pregnant. I don’t recommend doing that-it’s a bit stressful and hard on the knees. We made countless mistakes and ruined many, many sheets of drywall. We learned that the proper tools really do make a difference and trim covers a ton of mistakes. We discovered that every project went smoother when you had a beer in your hand, but a case of Berryweis will mean you don’t have closet doors because you screwed up the door opening. And, if you want to completely remodel a house, you have to do it all yourself. You have to learn to hang drywall, lay tile floors, and watch countless videos on how to cut crown molding because I can never, ever, remember the angle.
Or, be rich. Then you hire it all out and it doesn’t take 15 years. Needless to say, we did all the work.
In all these years, we have hired a contractor only one time-our new bedroom addition. We’ve done so many projects, like attaching our house to the garage giving me both a dining room and a laundry room, but a whole room addition with full on trusses? No way were we tackling that one. We had a great local contractor who framed it and roofed it and the rest is on us. This is by far, the most stressful project we have ever tackled and trust me, we have bought some rental houses that were a ton of work. This addition is taking over every part of my brain. I don’t know how people design entire houses from start to finish. There is so much to think about-how many lights, where do they go, where do the switches go, how big is a bed, what is the clearance for an in-wall heater, how many ceiling fans are too many fans, can a wheelchair work in this room? It’s an endless list of decisions.
But this addition means we will never have to leave this house. It puts everything we need on the ground floor with nearly everything wheelchair accessible. The Hubs is a decade older than I am, which I remind him of constantly, and everything was built with him aging into a wheelchair long before me. My son can finish out school in the district he started in and one we have been incredibly happy with. I will never have to pack up my house and move. How do you even move chickens, horses, goats, and crazy dogs? And cows? How? I’m sure people do it all the time but I’m not going too.
Random fact-according to county plat maps, our house was built sometime between 1860 and 1870. On those maps, houses are blank squares and business are shaded in and labeled with their business name. Our house is shaded in like a business but is never named on any map. We’ve been told it was once a hotel and over half of it was torn down in the early 1900’s. You realize what this means, right?
I live in a former brothel. I know, it’s amazing.
This week we started the drywall. Reader friends, there’s over 90 sheets of drywall to hang. My hands are tired, my brain is fried, I am so tired. But all this work means in a few months I will get to place my book collection on shelves that were designed especially for them. The entire room was designed around my books. There’s going to be a library ladder! I’m going to be Belle sliding from side to another, randomly selecting books to read. I will get to cozy up with a blankie and a fireplace to read.
So with all that said, I’ll be back in December, hopefully, with more books to share with you.
Happy Reading!
Michelle
