Why does one improvement always create more projects???

[bleedingheart]

Why oh why!!!!!

Kids were asthmatics...so we put in an above ground pool...cheaper than a built in and we know from experience that the 'pool thing' can grow old.

But that creates another problem...how to landscape a corner lot for privacy when you have a pool???
So we hire a landscape architect who we found through the post gazette at a hourly rate...he draws up some plans for a very reasonable rate and tells us...excavate out part of the yard for a terrace and put in some wide sidewalks and a patio...so the sidewalks and retaining walls one year...the patio and patio steps another year...

Then there were the boulders for privacy and the loads and loads of plantings.... there is not one square foot of dirt in our yard that we have not dug up at least once or twice or three times...


And then there is inside....the windows set off the painting and refinishing projects...then the new kitchen...a few years later we are now thinking of re-doing our basement office with a fireplace and tile floors....UGH!!! it never ends....

[babylonsister]

1. That's the dilemma of the happy homeowner -

a home is a hole in the ground you throw money into! :)

[DawgHouse]

2. We are always doing project around here.

For the past few weeks, it's been installing hardwood floors. They look amazing but because they look so awesome I just can't hardly stand my kitchen anymore. So the next project in new cabinets in the kitchen. It just goes on and on and on!

[Longhorn]

3. Try being married to a remodeling contractor!

We even remodeled some of the rentals we lived in!

The advantages:

1. Free labor. We couldn't afford him if he charged!

2. Great hand-me-downs. I'm talking high-dollar, almost new dishwashers, refrigerators, light fixtures, even carpeting -- stuff we would never buy new because we couldn't afford it. I also just scored a genuine Hoosier cabinet! Sometimes we pay and sometimes the homeowner just wants to get rid of it.

3. Access to great sub-contractors who often cut us a deal or fit us in just to please the boss. ;)

The disadvantages all have to do with unfinished projects:

1. "The plumber has leaky pipes; the cobbler's children have no shoes" -- you get the picture. And I can't blame him -- he works 60 to 70 hours a week so it's not easy to come home and do the same work after hours.

2. Paying jobs take priority.

3. Demolition is easy and free! Finishing is not! :)

But I'm not complaining -- well, not right now because we just got a bunch of stuff finished. :D

Our rule is supposed to be that we don't start a new project until we finish the others but sometimes, things just happen as you describe and one project leads to another. After ten years in the house, there's not one room that hasn't been redone in some way or another with plans afoot for more. My husband's specialty is kitchen remodels and it bugs the heck out of him that we have store-bought cabinets with laminate countertops. Maybe next year . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

4. We've redone every room in the house over the last few years

Some were just simple repainting. Some were major re-do's. I tend to be a 'thinker' .... meaning I always think stuff up that sounds cool ..... then come to love one and think it is **really** cool. Then we do that.

We redid our master bath from top to bottom. Out went the 70's blue tile and in came new subway tiles and marble and cabinets and lights and a shower and ......

Now Sparkly wants the main bath done the same way. I did a quick repaint in there last year, but it really needs more.

Then there's the outside. That could stand a lot of sprucing up, too.

About four years ago we redid our offices (we both work from home and have about 1000 SF of office space in the walk-out basement). That job is still incomplete and the materials are in the garage, keeping the cars in the weather. Its just a free-standing room divider/bookcase, but its kinbd critical to the overall plan we developed. Oh well ..... some day .......

Then there's the two other houses we own. One needs little and my younger son is taking care of that (he owns it in partnership with us). The other house we own. It needs everything done to it, from top to bottom.

Yup ...... it never ends.