Home renovations

When Rick and I bought this place we knew there would be years and much money spent before it got to the place where we wanted it to be.  I always said it was a "complicated" property, which is why we got it at the very reasonable price we paid.  It needed a new well, something had to be done to separate the double wide from the cottage.  We initially intended to have the double wide hauled away and renovate the cottage.  But when it came time to move in - about 18 months after we bought it - housing prices had gone to hell and my house in Gardiner which had been appraised about five years earlier at $250,000 was now sitting on the market unwanted at $150,000.   I had taken out a home equity loan on it to help purchase this place so I now owed about $120,000 and the $100,000+ that we had thought would be available to renovate the cottage no longer looked likely.  

So we took another look at the double wide and decided we could make do with that.  The cottage has become storage space as we moved from a 14 room house with a huge two car garage into a 7 room house with a small one car detached garage that sits out by the cottage.  It will never be a showcase home but it's comfortable and that's what matters.  Over time we have put in the new well, separated the water and electric from the cottage, built a two car garage with a great room overhead that we use as my pottery studio, Rick's music studio, an exercise room and an extra bedroom when we have guests. We also had a 12 x 65 foot deck built towards the lakeside of the house.  Oh yes, one of the first renovations we did was the master bathroom, putting in a big new shower, tile floors, and a granite counter top.  

From the beginning I've always wanted to put down new floors and take down the strips that hold sheet rock together in mobile homes, have them taped and mudded, and repaint.  Well, having to do so much infrastructure work, the cosmetics have taken a while to get to.  But we just finished phase one yesterday - new floors in the tv room, living room, and kitchen.  Huge improvement.  

Next week our handyman, Todd, is scheduled to come and take down the visible beat up skirting and replace it with a brick look product, which should help the curbside appeal some.

We still have lots of work to do:  paint the kitchen cabinets (or replace them?), replace counter tops, take down the strips, tape and mud them and repaint throughout.  Maybe a new window or two, maybe redo the second bathroom at some point.  And we should probably replace the one-hour bookshelves we put up in the den with something a little more stable and aesthetically pleasing.

Like I said . . . a work in progress.