Friday, May 30, 2008

It’s A Sickening Feeling….

…when someone takes a sledgehammer to the entry way of your home and begins to demolish your front door and everything within reach. The very first time we experienced the feeling was back around 1980 when we built a two-story addition off the back of our house near Santa Cruz, California, and we’ve endured one or two other “events” since then.

Fortunately, the feeling doesn’t last too awful long, but it does affect you for a time until you begin to see progress that validates your decision. And we’re finally seeing some. The photo above shows our roughed-in new front entry door (from the inside), as electrical wiring is being altered today.

We decided months ago to make some significant improvements to our home that would make it more appealing to potential buyers for when we might decide to sell. With current market conditions, the decision to sell or put it off will be made when we can see if the summer brings fresh buyers, as it has in the past. When we finally do sell, it’ll enable us to build on the lot we purchased last Fall, some 45 miles away.

In the meantime, for the next week or three, we must try to maintain our sanity while the house is shaking from jack-hammer-like rumblings and while we're living in dust that seems to be everywhere. We’ve added French doors where our front and back (obstinate) sliders were, and we’ll add Canadian cherry hardwood floors to the great room and entry. The wood will match the existing kitchen flooring that was put in two years ago when we re-did our home galley.

We’re also adding new lighting throughout the great room/kitchen/dining areas, and the final alteration will be the addition of an in-the-wall gas fireplace to replace the old beastly wood stove which now protrudes much too far into the room.

Our hope, of course, is that the first potential buyer will walk in and say, “Wow!” And then proceed to write out a deposit check. Next week I’m also leaving for the Arctic to begin my summer job selling solar-powered outdoor refrigerators to native Americans.

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