Prime that would drive me crazy. I just had the interior of my house painted. The guys were here almost two weeks. Just don't like workers in my house. One of them was even a friend of mine. He did time for killing a guy and even has another kill that was ruled justified but that's another story. I got friends in high and low places. Just drove me crazy that we felt they were guests in my house and felt obligated to feed them. They soon expected lunch and dinner every day. They even did a half ass job in places but I didn't ride them because again the head guy was a friend down on his luck out of prison.
I use to live in a small house with my wife and 4 kids and had to make a decision to bump out the small house in a relatively expensive neighborhood or buy a big house in a less expensive town. I went for the big house 3000 sq ft. The guys from NJ can vouch for how expensive real estate is in NJ. In the end I wonder if I made the right decision from a money stand point. The smaller house in the expensive neighbor is worth more than my 12 year old house that's twice the size.
As I probably mentioned, we are remodeling our home so it will better accommodate three generations. We aren't adding any square footage because the house is already fairly large. The plan is for our daughter and her husband to help take care of us as we age in our own home. Our grandson is a senior this year and will (hopefully) be off to college a year from now. Not that we don't love him, because we do. Teenagers just are what they are; often times a pain in the butt.
The remodel started upstairs where the kids have about 1,100 sq. ft. We are redoing the bathroom and in the bedroom, we created a large walk in closet. There are some electrical and media upgrades. The big thing, as it turned out is replacing a sea of carpeting with hardwood floors.
Our home is in an upscale neighborhood. It was built in the late 70's and has neither suffered bad remodels or much in the way of updates. We've been replacing the mechanics over the last 16 years we've lived here. The furnace is new and we just added central air. Needless to say, the décor is dated. We actually replaced the shag carpet which covered most of the main floor shortly after we moved in with wool Berber. This has since developed worn spots.
Once the upstairs is done, we will begin the downstairs remodel. The first thing to go is the carpet in the living and dining room, which will be replace with hardwoods to match what we are putting in upstairs. Expense wise, the kitchen will be the killer. Since the vanity for the bathroom upstairs is costing around $1,000 I can only dread what the new kitchen cabinets are going to run.
The good news is that we hardly owe anything on our home. Unless the cost of remodeling exceeds our outside estimate of $150,000 we should be fine if we wanted or needed to sell this place.
As for two or three generations living under one roof, I will say if I had my druthers, we'd have built a duplex....like two houses joined by a glassed in breezeway. But considering my champagne taste, building from scratch would mean we'd have to win the lotto first.
One of the hardest things for me is that we will be unloading a lifetime collection of furniture and accessories. I love most of what we have. My wife is all for a change. She is ready to put it all in a garage sale, including things she inherited from her parents. Guess I can't blame her, she has been looking at some of the same things since she was a little girl. Ethan Allen and Pottery Barn, here we come.
I have actually lost sleep and had panic attacks over these changes. Really, I need to get a grip. It is all just "stuff" and it is relationships that count not possessions.
