Average Jane Plans Some Home Improvements

Yesterday we took our first step toward reclaiming the guest room from the encroaching music gear and junk that has overwhelmed it for the last several years. We met with a contractor and explained what we'd like to do to make it into a TV room/guest room with shelves in the closet to serve as a pantry.

While we were at it, we asked for a bid to fix the piece of sheetrock that fell from our garage ceiling early this summer when the central air unit decided it didn't want to drain properly.

Of course, any time you walk around your house thinking of stuff you might want to improve, it could keep going on forever. We stopped there because it would be nice to still have some money in our savings account when we're finished.

Unlike our usual "why don't you call your buddy" protocol for home improvements, this time we called a guy my husband knows who actually runs his construction firm like a business. That means we can expect a quote in about two weeks and if we're lucky, they'll do the work sometime this fall.

In the meantime, I get to pick out paint colors, flooring, switchplate and outlet covers, and a new ceiling fan.

I wanted to get the same brand of fan that we have in our living room. We've lived in our house almost 14 years and that fan was there when we moved in. It has run 24/7/365 ever since we walked in the door and we've never even oiled it. It's the Terminator of ceiling fans.

Unfortunately, when I looked up the brand name "Bahama," I only saw it in the context of parts and repairs. A little more research revealed that it had been a store brand of the long-departed Payless Cashways chain. I guess that means I'll be looking elsewhere for another quality fan.

I can't wait to swap the purple carpet for hardwood floors, cheap paneling for smooth, painted walls and the glittery popcorn ceiling for a look that belongs in this century. Now I'm just hoping it's affordable...

Comments

[M]

....Good Luck! Hope it works out sooner than later :) We have a list of things that need to be done on our house...but my husband is our contractor and unfortunately he moonlights at a job we need to live on.

[Jan]

Oh, the joys of home ownership. When we bought our house, we got quite a deal on it because it needed a bit of work, most of it cosmetic, thank goodness.

Whoever designed the house itself did a marvelous job - I love the way it's laid out (the kids live upstairs and because our bedroom is on the ground floor, I NEVER have to go up there...bwaaaahahahahaaaaa), but whoever decorated the damn thing must have taken a correspondence course at the Acme School of Polynesian Interior design. It had a bamboo chandelier in the dining room, I kid you not.