Counting chickens
Brett’s little brother rehabs houses. He’s an art teacher/ski instructor/ceramicist turned handyman. (An aside, none of those boys — Brett and his two brothers — ended up doing a regular career path. Must have been something in the water.) So while Brett’s been out there he’s been seeing the work that Wick does and talking to him about the work we want to do here. Wick said he’d be willing to fly out and help Brett with some projects that we thought looked nearly insurmountable and that Wick thinks would be easy. These include:
- The bath room. Remember we have one bath in a room flanked by other rooms each with a sink and a toilet and it’s the room with the bath that needs to be [happy Becca????] gutted.
- Finishing our basement. Well, Wick wouldn’t help with that — he just thinks it’d be pretty easy although we need a sump pump. The finished basement is the one thing — well, and the low mortgage payment — that we miss about our old house. If we had a finished basement we’d move our television downstairs and the kids would have a place to play where they wouldn’t drive us nuts. Also we’d like to put a toilet down there.
- Making me an office. Brett grieves my lack of office more than I do. The one thing he wanted in a new house was a place for me to work and I didn’t really get one. I don’t mind my makeshift cubicle downstairs but I’d rather have something nicer. I figured finishing the basement would solve that but Wick’s idea is to turn our carport/storage shed that’s on the side of our garage into an office. It already has electrical and the cement pad but I can’t really imagine it being an actual livable space. Thing is, Wick turned their backyard storage shed into an amazing studio apartment (with plumbing and a kitchenette) that they use for family visits and occasionally rent to artists touring Portland. It was literally a shed and now it’s this terrific luxury space. So I’m gonna let myself dream about an office. (Wick is picturing french doors opening to the yard.)
The biggest thing about the visit for Brett is getting to spend more time with his little brother than he has since college. AND getting to see his little brother being a dad (they have two kids — Violet is Madison’s age and Felix turned one this summer). Plus Wick and his wife are also trying to figure out how to make money on their own terms, too, so they’re both working for themselves — mostly, Karoline’s a realtor — and doing it around the needs of their families. It just gave Brett the encouragement he needed and now he’s feeling more optimistic about our house than he has been since we bought it.
Wow, I can’t imagine having a real office. And it would sure help our resale value to do these improvements, not that we’d want to move if we had ‘em. Having a finished basement and an office space would pretty much make this house perfect for us and we bought it planning to finish the basement but then felt just kind of discouraged when we discovered the rotting bath, etc.
Yes!
I would love to have our partially finished basement turned into a fully furnished basement. We have a sump pump and everything, but I think it would take putting up lots of drywall (ceiling and some walls) and something about DIY drywall scares me. Is it not that hard to do?
I think it is kinda hard but I don’t know because I won’t be doing it! Wick says it’s not that bad but he’s also really brave — he taught himself electrical work on the job.
I helped drywall a portion of our basement in our last house, and it wasn’t that hard (though in fairness I do have some prior DIY experience). We were really pleased with the outcome.
“Wick is picturing french doors opening to the yard.)” — Awesome!! An office with windows at all — let alone doors — would be fantastic. I hope it works out for you.
“…the bath that needs to be [happy Becca????] gutted.”
I just had to LOL at this because where I come from that “to be” is absolutely necessary. However, I have picked up the habit of omitting it thanks to my slacker friends down here.
Good luck with the renovations. I think it’s doable and it will be a lot of headache for tons of awesomeness. Totally worth it.
Yes! Yes! To the office with french doors!
And the bath and basement? It’s possible! (drywall wasn’t that bad, Julian did it with a friend who had done it before).
Have I shown you where MD put the drywall up in our bedroom? Probably not, since our bedroom is embarrassing, mess-wise.
I hope you get to do all these renovations and that your end up with a fabulous house!