House update

It's been over a year since my last house update, and there's a lot going on.

First, after all the work we did to create the master bedroom with en suite and french doors onto the deck, I've decided to move out of the master bedroom and into what was my study/guestroom. I'm not doing this because the master bedroom reminds me of Rae (everything in the house reminds me of Rae) but because I decided to list the master bedroom on Airbnb. Last weekend, I took all of Rae's stuff out of the closet, which was pretty hard, but I'm keeping it until the girls can go through it and see what they want.

Rae and I had hoped to re-do the kitchen when we re-did the rest of the house, but we ran out of money and didn't want to dip into the "war chest" we'd set aside for the self-funded drugs. I can't tell you how grateful I am that so many people contributed to my wife's Givealittle page, and how frustrated I am that nobody would take their money back after she passed away so suddenly, but those funds covered her burial and so I still have the "war chest." It seems reasonable to use that money to finish Rae's vision, even if she isn't around to enjoy it.

I spoke to three kitchen designers and got three completely different versions, but they all follow Rae's requirements: A galley kitchen with sliding doors at either end, so the kitchen can be cut off from the rest of the house as needed. Right now the kitchen is a demented u-shape design that wastes so much space, that the only option is to gut it and replace it.

Unfortunately, as I was in the middle of the discussion with the kitchen designers, we discovered the little balcony off the living room was leaking water into the garage. Over the past two months, I've had four builders out, all with wildly differing views on how to solve it, and not one of them will give me a cost estimate.

(If money were no object, I'd look at enclosing that balcony and making a sun room, or even moving the exterior wall and incorporating that space into the main living area, but that's not a priority right now. I just need to it to stop leaking.)

On that note, when we had the roof painted last October the first thing they did was pressure-wash the roof and our guest bathroom looked like someone had been murdered in there. That's how we discovered there were problems with the skylight. (And based on the layers of caulking, it looks like these have been problems for years, so I'm not sure how the property inspector missed it...) Of course, they no longer make that kind of skylight so the only option is to replace it. In June, I had a skylight company over to give me a quote and mentioned I was re-doing the kitchen and somehow he convinced me to put a new skylight in the kitchen, as well. He gave me a good deal for both so, even though the kitchen is on hold, I need to take care of the bathroom so I'm going ahead with the kitchen skylight.

Also last October, when the roof painters were setting up scaffolding around the house, I also looked at solar panels because (obviously) they'd need scaffolding as well. The bank offered a "good energy" loan that was 1% interest for three years for things like double glazing and solar panels, and I wanted to take advantage of that. After a month of negotiating and finally selecting a vendor and organising a date, the bank told me the house market in Wellington had fallen and if I took out the loan my "loan to value" would be too high and I'd need to pay another $1,500. I told them to pound sand.

After Rae passed away, the same bank wouldn't just take her name off the mortgage, but instead made me take out a new mortgage from scratch. It was ridiculous, especially since they knew Rae wasn't earning anything so the fundamentals hadn't changed. But I went through the charade and noticed that, for whatever reason, they had set the value of the house higher. This didn't affect the loan but it did mean the loan-to-value amount was lower and so I wouldn't need to pay the extra $1,500. They confirmed that was true so I contacted the three solar companies and asked if they needed scaffolding (since it was long gone). One said yes so they were out. One said no but he'd increased his cost by $1,800 so he was out. One said no and had increased his cost slightly, but was also using better panels so the system would generate slightly more electricity. I signed up.

I'm also waiting for a part to try and repair the spa, which has been out of commission since February. I'm promised it will be here this month. If it doesn't work, the spa guy want to replace the controller, which is going to cost a few thousand dollars. 😢

And lastly, I decided I'd get a mosaic to put on Rae's garden beds. (Something really creative, like "Rae's garden beds.") I know someone who does large mosaics so I thought she'd jump at the chance, but instead she said, "You know, I'm teaching a group of friends how to do mosaics, so why don't you come along and then you can make it yourself?" That sounded like a terrible idea so of course I agreed.

So that's seven big things, plus several little things:

1. I got quotes to replace some of the windows (the north-facing ones that get the brunt of the winds) with double-glazing, but it's much more expensive that I'd expected. I'm hoping to get a better mortgage rate in December, which may allow me to extend the "good energy" loan to include the windows.

2. Last summer I installed a metal shed but decided to move the door to the other side, which created a host of unforeseen problems. The reason I moved the door was because there was a hydrangea in front of it, but that hydrangea didn't really do much last summer so I've since had it removed. I may try to move the door back, but it was riveted in place so it will be a real pain to undo.  

3. I haven't been able to park my car in the garage since January. It's just a cavalcade of crap going through there. I really want to get it organised so I can charge my car at night again, instead of worrying about my neighbour Karen (not her real name, just her attitude) complaining about my car in the shared drive.

Wish me luck.