That Thing We Did - Renovations

The price was right. The view was beautiful. We made the leap… with a plan.

We said, “Yes” to the apartment before our home had even sold; before it was even on the market. That took faith. We had possession of the apartment two weeks before we moved in. Our house sold in 24 hours. On top of purging and packing, we began to ‘improve’ our soon to be dwelling.

My brother had been a woodworker/cabinet maker for years. We measured the ugly white cupboard doors and ask him to make us new ones. Jerry hung them and added cute white nobs. We painted almost the entire apartment (several different colors), which might not have been a big deal. But Jer kept asking the maintenance man to fix our bathroom curtain rod that was held in place by a wad of paper. I couldn’t understand why Jer was so insistent that he come when he was capable of fixing it himself.

Anyway, the worker finally came to our apartment and stated that the rod was functional, so no need to fix it. Then he immediately went to the manager and told her we had painted ‘everything.’ We did leave three or four walls white. After being slightly reprimanded, we made a strict rule not to call for any more help. Jer patched, textured, painted, and rehung the rod himself. Looks great!

My husband replaced all the outlets with new ones. I added some wall art in the living room. We touched up some of the white trim. Jer replaced a dryer hose that had a hole in it, that after we pulled it out, found it wasn’t even attached. He hung folding doors over our washer and drier that should have been there and replace the bathroom fan motor, so it wouldn’t sound like a truck.

We rented a garage for cheaper than a storage unit. Jer masterfully packed it full. It took every last moment before having to turn over possession of our home to get everything moved out. During those couple weeks before moving in, we brought over load after load and unpacked it. That helped on THE moving day. Still, it was a huge job.

It was exhausting but we made our apartment our own, continuing to fix things here and there. I think you’d like it. We haven’t missed the house at all, only the hot tub and the woodstove.

Satisfied, we were in our apartment, home sold, but with no property in sight. Now what?