Year-Long Distraction

My son and daughter-in-law bought their first house just three miles away from us about a year ago. It needed some remodeling and lots of updating and in the spirit of Do It Yourself I resolved to help them save money in the process. It turned out that I have spent the entire year working on their house instead of ours!
Initially I was interested in purchasing the fixtures and style they had picked in a contractor showroom because the retail costs were astounding. But eventually I wanted to make small updates for them which expanded to a full time job.
I supervised the contractors who were hired for the major remodel of the master bath and the new upstairs laundry. The contractors were fantastic and I enjoyed working with them. While they were working I gathered reused and reduced price items for the remodel and updates. I found some reused materials for whole house upgrades like new doorknobs throughout. (Restore $3 each) We estimated that Craigslist, EBay, Amazon Warehouse and other marketplaces saved them over $5000 not counting the new “used” appliances and furniture. As I found materials I used them to remodel and update the house.

New home for our son and his family
New home for our son and his family

I wrote about some of these projects on the blog this year. Although these kids were not seeking LEED certification, it is possible to reduce, reuse, and recycle during a more upscale remodel than ours. I’m excited about all we have accomplished and there is always something left to do. So I’m going to tell some more stories from the last year.
The house is larger than ours and more suitable for a young family. I had to try to understand the tastes of my son and his wife and work on projects that would not totally “takeover” their design style. They decided to have most remodeling completed before they moved and I was there to help while they were hundreds of miles away in another state.

House Layout
House Layout

As the contracted remodel was for a redesigned master bath and closet and an upstairs laundry, the smaller projects that I tackled included the kitchen tile removal, redoing the mudroom, updating the basement bath, updating the family bath, adding rocker type switches, updating the ceiling fans, adding smart programmable switches, and purchasing and renewing some basic furniture.
I also helped strip old varnish from the office shelves, a bear of a job that is still not finished and was there for the install of hardwood floors. Quite a year.
So I am going to recount more of the upscale remodel stories until I get back to work on our house!

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