Reconstructive Surgery

There seem to be varying levels of skill and professionalism when it comes to renovation work.  There are those jobs that you certifiably can do yourself.  As my husband points out, we are capable of painting and can hang pictures and that’s about where our skill set ends.  Then there is the next level, which I call the handyman level.  This is the middle ground where you may be embarking on territory that isn’t necessarily difficult, but the cost is nominal and it wouldn’t be worth the time or energy or money required to purchase any necessary equipment to tackle it yourself.  Then there’s the real stuff – the tearing down walls and taking it to the studs kind of stuff – the contractor stuff. 

Up until now we’ve been dabbling with renovations – painting, patching and sanding some drywall, and swapping out lighting fixtures.  Most of this work has been closely aligned with a series of events like hosting bookclub and out of town guests.  These have been primarily amateurish attempts to put on appearances much like one might do before a high school reunion.  We have been, in affect, applying Crest Whitestrips – temporary measures, rather than make truly significant or permanent changes.  And when the light is just so, things don’t look half bad. 

The kids’ rooms have been painted as has the hallway and most recently the master bedroom, which my husband took on while my daughter and I were out of town visiting my parents.  He had our 3 year old to look after and so the job was done in what he described as 45-second increments.  In between fetching apple juice and helping launch Hot Wheels, he managed to get a few swaths of paint on the walls.  While painting does fall under that first level of renovation – work we can do ourselves, I might have opted to upgrade the spa package to include a handyman.  Even with that blue masking tape, we’ve managed to get more than our share of paint on the ceiling and trim and otherwise where it should not be.

Now that the holidays are behind us, we can really dig in on the big stuff the reconstructive surgery.  We have had four different contractors visit the house and provide bids for what we have identified as the priorities – two that are necessary, but highly boring (a new roof and HVAC system) and some fun stuff (a new kitchen, two new bathrooms, and an expanded master closet).  Interestingly, it wasn’t that difficult to pick which contractor we would go with.  Oh sure he had the pre requisite good grades on Angie’s List and his bid was comparable to everyone else’s, but what really sealed it, was that he was the only one guy didn’t say, “what?” when I mentioned the idea of putting in terrazzo throughout the main floor.  His exact comment was, as I recall, “Kick butt!” 

Now that the contractor has been decided on, we have to take on the task of reprioritizing our list as we won’t be able to tackle as much as we’d hoped with our budget.  But how do you decide?  The roof and HVAC are givens, but what about the fun stuff?  The bathrooms are in pretty sorry condition, so that seems like what we should address first, but the flooring upstairs and down is really bad too.  And we can’t really put flooring down on the main floor if we aren’t going to rehab the kitchen.  The truth of the matter is that the best way to do this would have been to do everything before we moved in.  Maybe there’s a fourth level – the contractor who rehabs your home before you move in, while you supervise remotely from an exotic vacation locale.  Maybe in our next life, we can opt for that. 

Comments

[Judy Prouty]

Dear DIL:

I am afraid I would have flunked the terrazzo-WHAT? test. You must have a better looking - warmer, less lethal when you drop stuff or people on it terrazzo in mind. Yikes. Look forward to all the changes you have planned.

XX
Judy