Home Improvements

Home ownership.

When I was younger I thought that I should do everything possible to see that I got a house. Buying a home seemed like opening a savings account-something financial reasonable but not all that sexy. And so we did. And all was well. I imagined living there until I was old and gray and had to install a lift on the basement steps. Not sexy at all but think of the equity!

Home improvements (part 1)

The first phase of my home improvement occured right after we purchased the place. It basically consisted of me destroying all the reminders of the previous owners. We didn't wan't to have to remember that this place wasn't always ours. So out went the shag carpeting that looked like it had never been cleaned. Out went the panelling. I reworked the hallway so that the path to the bedrooms went round the other way--to throw them off if they returned. Soon I ran out of money and had to stop.

Home improvements (part 2)

Was it Trading Spaces? Was it Metropolitan Home magazine? Dwell? Somehow years later I got it in my head that I should like to make the house look like somewhere I should live and not simply somwhere where I do live. We secured some funds and set out to finish what we started. The bathroom was my first fish...I skinned and gutted it leaving only the bones. Then I pieced it back together bit by bit. I designed a pedestal sink using a fruit bowl. In a bizarre fit of ingenuity/insanity I cut a hole in the common wall between shower and living room and installed a frosted glass window. I found the perfect cork floor.
The kitchen came next. I marched in with a stool and whip prepared to tame this beast. I timed this portion of the project with city's spring trash pickup. So while my neighbors were throwing out toasters that failed to toast, or blenders that failed to blend I was chucking out kitchen cabinets that failed to inspire me when I decided to cook. On top of them I threw out the dish washer that we had never used. The drop ceiling. The flooring. It was 2:00 am at the neighborhood tavern. "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."
I ran out of steam, we ran out of money. So we left off with everything 95% done. a piece of trim missing here. This portion of the wall not painted. No light switch cover--wrong light switch color. But we had transformed our house into a closeted homosexual. Unassuming exterior, flamboyant interior. It would never sell. It didn't matter... or so I thought.

Home Improvements (part 3)

I want to move but I have this house holding me back; a mill-stone coiled round my neck and my boat is going down. We decided to put our home up for sale and go back to apartment life. Which is not a financially smart decision. We've started getting rental applications, which always ask for our rental history for the past three, four years. There isn't a "owned home" box to check. I've looked. But why should there be? Someone who owned a home wouldn't surely want to go back to pissing their money away with renting. But we do.
I'm currently involved with finishing out the house. It is time to put my bevy of DeWalt construction equipment back for one last assignment. It's time to finish out that remaining 5%. All those little things that we've lived with are finally being adressed. These home improvements aren't like the others. These are not for me. They are for the future owners. It's time for me to move on and use my equity to finance my move and deposit on my new flat. It's not financially reasonable but it sure feels sexy.