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Remodel Project
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Reflections
and Advice
Surprise!
In 2002, after 14
years in various aspects in construction, I had been working for
about a year as a school district project manager and then promoted
to Assistant Director. It was basically a desk job, and
they won't let me touch a tool. Since the Palm house was pretty much done, I figured that my
heavy construction days were over. I was even thinking of
selling some of my larger tools to save space in my crowded
garage.
Little did I know
that the construction project of a lifetime was looming right around
the corner. It would be one thing to do something like this
after I retired, and had more time (and money), but to try to tackle
it evenings and weekends with a limited budget would not have been
my first or even second choice. |
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I liken it to seeing the last of your daughters finally
through college, married off and waving goodbye as they drive off on their
honeymoon. Then on the way back into your house, your wife whispers
in your ear "honey, I think I'm pregnant!"
This project consumes every minute of our evenings and weekends.
But it makes you wonder; what were we doing with all our spare time, that
if you add it all up, you can build a whole house, by yourself, in about a
year and a half? I'm blessed to have a 4-mile commute, and weekends
usually off, which gives me more spare time. But it makes you wonder
why we spend all that time watching TV, and have nothing to show for it at
the end. About three weeks into demolition, I remember
sitting out back in a lawn chair in the dark after a day's work, looking
at the silhouette of a partially-destroyed house, thinking "what
have I done?! I've destroyed the only house we have, the sum total of our
fortune, and it will be months, even a year before it will be habitable
again!" I'm glad I didn't know the extent of this project when we started it,
as I probably would have chickened out. It wouldn't have mattered
anyway, because there were no other suitable properties, and home prices
have gone up so much that we would not have been able to afford this place
had we waited. God is always stretching us, giving us more than we
think we can handle, just so we can discover how much more we are capable
of doing. |
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Unless you live in a high property value area like San
Francisco or Boston, I do not recommend stripping a house this far,
as it would not make economic sense. Instead, try to find one
that already has been fixed up, as the sellers seldom can get the
money and effort back that they put into it. I'm an
experienced contractor and electrician, but it has taken every ounce
of my ability to manage this project, and I feel sorry for any amateur
that attempts the same. Many people have made a good living
fixing up and selling old houses, but those are usually just mostly
cosmetic changes, upgrading the electric panel, and maybe a new
roof. |
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People often ask "why didn't you just tear it all down
and start all over again?" There are several reasons. We
would have had to haul off at least four more dumpsters of debris, and
then have an excavator dig up and haul off all the footings and concrete
basement walls and floors. Plans for the new house would have to be
drawn up and meet more stringent codes, including Title 24 energy
calculations. Many new fees would be charged, such as school fees,
stormwater mitigation fees, utility fees, etc. The basement would
need to be filled in and compacted, and new footings dug and poured.
I doubt that we could afford a basement on the new house, and so we would
have to skip that. This would have added tens of thousands of
dollars to the project, and would not have resulted in a much better
house.
The demolition work was hot, tedious, and extremely dangerous. We
thank God for protecting us, as we only had a couple minor scrapes and
nail punctures. For that matter, His hand of blessing has shown
itself throughout this project, providing just what we need right when we
need it. It has brought us closer together, and been a source of
encouragement to others all around the country who are following the
progress on the internet, and are struggling through their own
project.
This project has also given us quite a notoriety, and it is not
uncommon to mention it to complete strangers, and them know exactly which
house we're talking about. It's provided entertainment to the
neighborhood to watch the house slowly take form (people cheered while
driving by after the roof was finally completed).
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Its' Just A House
I spent four years doing insurance repair (fire,
flood, wind, vandalism), working on jobs like the photo on the left
(tree vs. house- tree wins). Terrible things can happen to a
house. Gas explosions, car through the wall, deadly fires,
slow decay from rot and termites. Every house, no matter how
nice or historic, is just a pile of lumber and hardware, and will
eventually be compost. They are not built nor intended to last
forever. |
| "Unless the Lord Builds a house, the work of
the builders is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good" (Psalm 127:1).
As you work on your new house or remodel, keep this in
perspective. Keep a light touch on the house, as it could be
taken away in an instant. Do not let it entwine with your
soul, nor allow it to affect your relationships with people
(especially your spouse). When God set this project before us,
he is more interested in the process (us learning to work
together, solve problems, grow closer to each other, and depend on
Him) than the product (a completed house). It is
foolishness to set your heart on something that is so temporal as a
house, or any other physical thing for that matter. The same
can be said for your own body, your personal
"house".
"What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These
perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever.
But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to
us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be
transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an
eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet
sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed
bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that
we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be
transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. When
this happens- when our perishable earthly bodies have transformed
into heavenly bodies that will never die- then at last the
Scriptures will come true:
" Death is swallowed up in victory. O death,
where is your victory? O death, where is your
sting?"
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives
sin its power. How we thank God who gives us victory over sin
and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (1 Corinthians 15:
50-57) Click on True Rest for
more on this matter.
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Nature's 1/3 Acre
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Working on the house has kept us outdoors more,
and I am more aware of the weather (especially working on the
roof). I
don't remember as many birds at our last house. They decided
that our rafters are the perfect, secure, warm, dry place to build a
nest. We did the best we could to discourage them and tried to
pull them out as fast as they built them, but we discovered birds
are sneaky. Two birds can build one in about a day, and lay
five eggs very quickly. So despite our best efforts, we've had
four clutches of chicks hatch and grow up to leave the nest.
The last two months we've worked to the cheep, cheep of little baby
birds. We put up a feeder to try to speed things up, but we
ended up feeding the whole neighborhood, and the little pigs went
through about a pound of seed a day! They're hilarious to watch
eat. They're very wary, and are always looking around.
They will be behind the feeder, and will grab a mouthful of seed,
then stick their head around the side to look around the feeder, all
the while chewing their huge mouthful of seed, with hulls dripping
from their beak.
Once there was at least six of them trying to eat
at once, and were hopping around the feeder like crazy, pecking at
each other. It was too much for the branch, and the feeder
dropped straight down from under them, leaving them hovering in
mid-air, looking down at the dropped feeder. A half-second
later, they were pecking at each other again before flying away. 
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I walked in the house one evening after the windows were
installed, and there was a sparrow sitting in the middle of the
floor. He flew off into the house, and I heard a
"bam..splat". I walked over and he was laid out on the
floor in front of a window like a prize fighter with it's eyes
closed. I picked it up and held it in my lap in the lawn
chair. In a few minutes, one eye opened, and then the other.
He looked around and chirped a couple times like "man, I gotta quit
drinking!" Finally, with a chirp he flew off.
| There's a nest of chicks up near the eaves where I've
been working, and this bird on the right has been having a cow all
day. As soon as I walk out on the driveway, he chirps and
sputters and fusses, hopping all over my scaffolding and the roof
over my head. He still goes in and out with food, missing my
head by about 6" every time. Scares the life out of me
every time he does it. Inside, the chicks are chirping, and
one of them will stick its head out, sees me, then goes to
hide. The only thing is you can clearly see its 1" long
little tail sticking straight up. Hilarious. |
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