2003, What We Have Accomplished So Far

When other people see our home do they see lots of potential or do they see a disaster? I get very protective of our house and try to point out all of its positive attributes but I’m not sure if everyone else is convinced? It takes some imagination to appreciate our house.

The day we took possession of the house our friend Jeff came over to see it. As I proudly walked him through our new home, he turned to me in disbelief and said, “You are going to live here?”

“Oh, boy!” I thought to myself, “Not quite the reaction I was hoping for.”

I later questioned why he said that and he explained that he couldn’t imagine someone like me, who likes everything pristine and perfect, living in a house that was, to put it nicely, in such bad shape – polite code for a complete dump. I struck him as too prissy to be a do-it-yourselfer. But, Jeff didn’t know the farm girl inside me clamoring to grab a sledgehammer and start knocking out ugly circa 1970’s cabinets. I don’t think David, my husband, was prepared for her either.

It was a shock for him to come home every day to see something else demolished, taken apart or gutted. David, being much more practical, decided that I needed to be contained. He begged me to focus my energies on one room at a time because he feared the whole house would be completely torn apart. He wondered when we’d get out of the destruction phase and start the restoration phase? All of my “improvements” seemed to be making things worse. When listening to reason didn’t work he began hiding the sledgehammer.

Although we’ve made progress on the house, I still see all the things that we need to fix or all the things I’d like to change. So, I think now is a good time to take a look back and focus on just how far we’ve come in the past year and three months.

Before we moved into the house:
• Replaced the foundation. Bolted for earthquake safety.

• Connected to the city sewer line. Our sewer line was illegally tapping into our neighbor’s sewer line.

• Had the wood floors refinished.

• The kitchen floor: Pulled up press on vinyl tiles that covered plywood which was nailed and screwed into the floor. The floor is uneven so the previous owner had poured plaster into the lower areas to even the floor. All the plaster had to be carefully hammered out. We decided to have the heart of pine floor refinished.

• Upstairs bathroom floor: Pulled up layers of old linoleum. This was a horrible job. Removed the black tar-like backing that was stuck to the floor after the linoleum was taken out by covering the tar paper with paper towels and wetting them with warm water. We discovered the black tar paper backing was water soluble because in areas where it had gotten wet, around the tub and toilet, the tar paper come right up from the wood.

• Removed various cabinets from the upstairs bath and kitchen.

• Painted the two upstairs bedrooms.

After we moved in:
• Installed central heat.

• Added some more electrical outlets to the upstairs bedroom which we plan on using as an office.

• Had a carpenter replace the old plywood stairs leading to the top floor with nice steps made from cherry wood that was generously donated by my dad.

• Began landscaping.

• Began the restoration of our front porch. We hired someone to rebuild the brick piers that support the wood columns holding up the roof. We removed a roof covering the pergola on the north end of the porch. We plan to grow vines over this. The failing cement steps were replaced with steps made from redwood. The 4″ thick layer of cement covering the porch floor was removed. Low walls built around the porch were removed and the original porch railing was restored.

• The dining room was completely restored. See pictures.

• We had a new roof put on. The dormers were stripped of their asbestos shingles. The original wood shingles couldn’t be saved so we had the dormers re-shingled.

• Began restoration of our living room.

• Still trying to select a paint color for the exterior. Any suggestions?

I guess we have accomplished a lot but we still have such a long way to go…