We'd been told the roof needed to be replaced four years ago. It was "wood shake," which had since been banned in California because of the fire hazard, and was well past it's 20-year lifespan. We preferred the look of shake over shingles, because it's thicker and has more character, but composite shake costs about $8,000 more! So we ate PB&J all year and saved our pennies, but when we were finally ready to commit we found a company that had just started producing a thicker shingle, so we could do the roof and save the $8,000!
Dawn did some back-of-the-envelope calculations and figured $1,500 to remove the acoustic ceiling and $3,000 to put a cover over our deck, even though neither of us could remember why we wanted to do that in the first place. That left about $3,000, so I started calling spa places.
The cheapest new spa was $5,200 but I found a used spa for $950. He even delivered it, but I didn't have anywhere to put it--I didn't want to leave it in the yard while the roof was replaced--so I put it in the garage. On Dawn's side. She did not take having to park in the street for a month well.
Still in the garage were the sliding french doors we bought in '97 to replace the regular french doors that lead out to the deck-cum-spa. We hadn't planned to buy new doors but I'd mentioned my plans for the hot tub to my neighbor John (the general contractor) and he was picking up some doors for a job one day and saw these selling for half price. Apparently it was a custom order that had been cancelled, so they were just trying to get rid of them. John agreed to buy them, dropped them off at my house and gave me the bill. (In hindsight it was a great bargain and they fit perfectly, but at the time I was a bit...perturbed.)
First the roof guy came out. The first thing we learned was that all of the quotes we received weren't for the thicker shingle Dawn liked; that cost $1000 more. Then we found out the fascia around the house would cost another $1000. We cancelled the acoustic ceiling and the cover over the deck, but then Dawn decided she needed gutters, so the cost went up another $500.
Over the deck-cum-spa was a large opening in the roof. We'd talked about installing a skylight but somehow I convinced Dawn that it would be nice to keep the opening--you could see the stars, you didn't have to worry about steam, etc. The day before the roofer arrived, Dawn took me to the deck and pointed at the two inches of leaves, and let me know she had just cleaned the deck last week. I ordered the skylight that afternoon, for $700.
The next week the spa guy came. He looked at our five-foot-wide deck, then at our five-foot-wide spa, and asked us if we knew what the hell we were doing. Then the door guy came out. He looked at the current French doors, then at the sliding French doors which were one inch short and five inches wider, and asked us if we knew what the hell we were doing. Then the drapery guy came out, because we wanted tiebacks on the sliding door, just like the ones on the french doors in the guest room. The drapery guy pointed out that you can't attach tiebacks on a sliding door, announced we didn't know what the hell we were doing, and left.
Next came the paint. I looked at the French doors, then at the 1" paintbrush I had, and I asked Dawn if she knew what the hell I was doing. Dawn also re-painted the back deck, partly because it desperately needed it, but mostly because we'd replaced a couple of the boards to hide the last vestige of the pine tree that had once grown through the deck, and we needed the paint to match.
Finally the plaster man came out. Two years ago we had replaced two doors with windows but decided not to repair the plaster until the spa was in. He looked at the spa butt up against the stucco and asked us if we knew what the hell we were doing.
I thought we were done, but one of Dawn's coworkers announced that they'd just taken down a brick wall, and so had 600 bricks they were giving away. The house used to have brick walkways on both sides of the house, but when we moved in they were both in bad condition and we ended up scavenging the (rarely used) west side to finish the (high traffic) east side. Dawn decided this was an opportunity for us (read, "me") to refinish the west side. After three truck-loads of bricks, I declared the walkway finished. (And every time Dawn points out the big gaping holes, I again declare the walkway finished.)
And then we were done. We'd spent almost $17,000. Dawn got a new roof, a new set of doors, a new brick walkway, four new dining room chairs, the deck was fixed, the stucco was repaired, the carpets were cleaned and I GOT MY HOT TUB!!!
Before and After photos
Living room. Note the "atrium" is two levels and goes down to earth. Unfortunately it's north facing so doesn't get much sun. We put in a koi pond and a ficus tree.
Back yard. Originally a wooden fence overgrown with ivy; when we pulled that all out we were pleasantly surprised to find the neighbors had built a nice cement block fence on their side. We planted more ficus trees; in two years they were over ten feet tall.
Master bedroom. We installed a giant skylight to try and increase the sunlight in the atrium.
Front fence. The original was only finished on the outside and was in very poor condition. We decided to replace it but the local by-laws now said a front-fence could only be two-feet tall! We decided to ignore that, but put in trellis so it looked more open, and some bushes to soften it. The city never noticed.
The front yard. 20 years of neglect had left the yard barren and rock-hard. After turning it over, we ordered some turf and in one day had created a lawn.
The garage. I have no idea what they were thinking when they decided to build a garage but no door into the house. Dawn's truck barely fit in the garage, so the stairs had to be specially built to accommodate that.
The guest room. Later it became the piano room.
The deck-cum-spa. I don't have an after photo but imagine new doors, a spa taking up the entire deck and a skylight.
The kitchen. It was hideously ugly but perfectly functional, so the only thing we did was put in the curtains.
More of the split-level living room. Including the koi pond, I had over 1,000 gallons of water. Thankfully we never had any major quakes while we lived there.
No comments:
Post a Comment