Renovation Realizations
Right after we decided to buy this house but before we signed the papers, we made a list in our heads of what we would need to do before we moved in. We knew that we would need new electrical and plumbing, and that we would need to turn the one existing bathroom into the one functioning bathroom. We might need a few new windows to replace the ones with obvious damage, but could probably get by without replacing everything right away. The kitchen seemed fine, might need a few tweaks here and there, and we would obviously need a new air conditioning unit but could use the existing hardware. Otherwise, we could take the next five years to live in a construction zone and pay for everything as we could.
I wish that this project was as easy as we had naively believed it would be.
A lot of amazing things have happened since November. We cut down a lot of the foliage in the backyard, demolished the kitchen, realized that all of the drywall needed to go, found live and active termites, treated those termites, and then decided to hire architects. Our architects dreamed of a vaulted master suite, and convinced us to follow that dream in their drawings. They further explained to us that the cost to frame everything out would be nominal, and that we would much rather frame everything out at the beginning of the project rather than in a few years to minimize disruption. We learned that you can't just pay to fix one room of the house, that in order to fix the one room the whole house needs to be adjusted.
The family that I nanny is on the second week of a two week long Summer vacation. James and I took this break in my work as an opportunity to take our own vacation away from how stressful this renovation is becoming, so we spent last week in Colorado staying with a friend and hiking through the Rocky Mountains. Vacations create laundry, so when we got back I spent the first couple of days of my second week with no work to clean up the house and do a bunch of laundry. Unfortunately, I have never been very good at taking a "staycation." Sure, I can watch a few seasons of a show and a movie here or there, but I get incredibly bored incredibly quickly. It was on the third day of this boredom that I decided to spreadsheet all of the checks that we have written to various contractors for Southmore costs. I won't go into too much detail and I won't show people the spreadsheet because I was taught that it is gauche to talk about a few different things, salary, costs of things that you own (probably because it gives people a better idea for how much money you have), politics, and religion. However, I'm grateful that I now have a better understanding for why James has been so worried lately.
I can now take my knowledge and use it to better budget my personal spending. I can start buying more vegetables and poultry and less red meat. No more trips to the coffee shop to get a cappuccino and Nutella croissant. I realize now that I can't afford to go to my cousin's wedding, because even though I could buy the plane ticket with points the cost to eat out every day and rent a car would be prohibitively expensive. These realizations haven't been easy to come by. But that's what being an adult is like, right?
