IN JULY last year, I consolidated my resources.
I dug from my personal savings, and hired contractors to renovate my house for a $20,000 maximum budget.
I hired “cheap” people.
They were pretty good workers, they know what they were doing, but slow; so they were cheap.
The full story was: They worked a salaried job most of the week.
When they are off from their jobs, they would do me (my house, silly!) as a side job.
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Since they recognized how they were delaying the renovations and the sale of my house, they didn’t demand much.
A floor job that’s probably $7,000 in another company, they give to me for only $4,000.
But that means having my floor in three weekends (21 days wait) instead of just three days.
And then, of course, it ended up something like three months.
But it’s COVID season, so what’s the rush really?
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One house, three levels (including the basement), three bedrooms (four, if you count the pimped out basement suite with a personal sauna), two and a half bathroom, 2,040 sq ft.
Go look it up on zillow.com:
1 Glyer Court, Reisterstown, MD 21136.
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There’s the sale price in Zillow: a quarter of a million dollars.
And there are 41 photos of my house post-renovation.
The house really looks grand.
And looks convincingly $250,000!
***
It was “time lost” that was most costly to me.
Imagine me waiting for the renovations to be finished in July, August, September, October, November, December, January—seven months!
But, on hindsight, if I was depressed because the first prospective buyers walked away from my $170,000 deal, the mixed excitement and hopeful anxiety of the renovation kept me afloat.
I was dreaming of pricing my house at $200,000 at the very least.
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My old house had working kitchen appliances.
And that was why I’m was willing to give $20,000 cash back to the buyers (if my house was bought at $190,000).
Because the appliances (may very well be 20 or 30 years old) can break down anytime.
I didn’t want the buyers to feel cheated.
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Remember also that three months after my husband died, I painted the ground floor of the house with all sorts of pink (In the Pink, Coming Up Roses, and Charisma) to cheer me up.
And to put my signature on “my” house!
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To be honest, the pink therapy helped.
I didn’t feel a widower’s mournfulness.
When I stared at the pink walls during my morning coffee, I felt happy and rosy.
Sexy and horny, even.
And that would take care of my mood throughout the day.
***
But after four years, I knew the pink walls needed to go.
I figured that the buyers’ first action would be to get rid of the pink.
And second, to maybe change the carpets.
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For the renovations, I had the whole house painted in Olympus White.
The basement was Agreeable Grey.
The kitchen and the bathrooms were Mild Blue.
The outside was Cedar for wood (including the patio), and Egret White for the concrete parts.
The bedroom in the basement I kept in its dreamy, sea-like blend of greens — Mystic Turquoise, Tropical Sea, and Hidden Sea Glass.
I chose waterproof wood laminates for the floors, Grey Oak.
For the carpet, Classy Grey.
***
My neighbors, and my eventual realtor, admired my choices for everything.
Even the expensive Ice Bevel Textured mosaic tiles for the kitchen backsplash (probably my most expensive gamble).
I changed the kitchen cabinets to white.
The original cabinets were pretty strong and usable, but they were old and, well, pretty ugly for the 2020s.
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The white “natural stone” quarts countertops were naturally expensive, but I knew they needed to be done.
In the Christmas sale of December 2020, I decided on a new set of kitchen appliances — refrigerator, convection oven/electric range, dishwasher, microwave — LG Stainless Steel.
They made the kitchen pop.
(But I still think that it’s the backsplash!)
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The hardest thing about preparing my newly renovated house for sale was getting rid of things that I have accumulated through the years.
And all the stuff that my husband has hoarded throughout his lifetime. (To be continued)/PN
