{"id":4968,"date":"2016-04-17T04:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T11:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=4968"},"modified":"2016-04-17T12:39:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T19:39:09","slug":"you-could-always-remodel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/home\/you-could-always-remodel\/","title":{"rendered":"You Could Always Remodel."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"playhouse\"<\/a><\/strong>My younger sister was the one who liked to play house. She spent hours inside the playhouse our dad built for us, decorating and redecorating and having tea parties with her dolls.<\/p>\n

I preferred reading, drawing, painting, and bike riding.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve never been interested in playing house, especially when it\u2019s for real. I grew up in a series of new houses built by Dad and decorated by my artistic mother. It\u2019s hard for me not to expect a degree of perfection in my living space.<\/p>\n

When I moved into my current house thirteen years ago, my attitude was: Yeah. Good enough.<\/em> I’ll just cleaned it up and move in<\/em>. I really didn’t intend to do a big remodel.<\/p>\n

Little by little, though, I saw things that needed to be changed or improved. A new washer and dryer. Then it was a new furnace. The walls needed repainting. One year it was a new roof. Another year it was a deck. Then two bathrooms. Finally two years ago I had the kitchen remodeled. That was a big job!<\/p>\n

This year I had the carpet replaced with hardwood floors. A smaller job. And yet \u2026<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1111\"<\/a>Everything had to be packed away before they could even start. (I spent about a month on that.) The real work began on March 24th<\/sup> and was finished on April 9th<\/sup>. Not bad, especially considering they found a problem under the floor. (See “What Was Hiding under My Carpet.<\/a>“)<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m unpacking and trying to remember where to put everything.<\/p>\n

If you feel like you\u2019re in a rut, you could always remodel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This remodel of mine went smoothly, thanks to my wonderful contractor and hard-working, skillful installer. But there’s no getting around it, every remodel turns your life upside down for a while.<\/p>\n

\"garage\"<\/a>My garage became a storage space, making it necessary to park down the street under a tree that was shedding pollen and little sticky things.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1241\"<\/a>My driveway became the perfect place to cut and finish the baseboard and base shoe.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1218\"<\/a>The bedroom, dining room, and living room were made off limits to me, so I slept in the guest room downstairs.<\/p>\n

Theoretically, I was able to eat and work in the kitchen. But most days the sawing and pounding drove me away.<\/p>\n

\"El<\/a>One day I had breakfast at Chanterelle\u2019s (stir fried veggies and two thick slices of bacon). Another day I had lunch at El Puerto (sopa de albondigas).<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Baicha<\/a>

Baicha Tea Room sells over 100 varieties of tea<\/p><\/div>\n

I did my reading and writing at the Baicha Tea Room<\/a> <\/em>and Cafe Louvre.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG_1257\"<\/a>Now the work is finished (except for the unpacking). And the new floors look great! In fact, I\u2019m already beginning to forget how my house looked with wall-to-wall carpeting.<\/p>\n

By the way, my dad who built lots of houses, preferred not to do remodels. When you’re working on an old house, too much can go wrong, and … homeowners can be hard to satisfy.<\/p>\n

Do you have some good (or bad) remodeling stories? Did you like to play house when you were a kid?<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0My younger sister was the one who liked to play house. She spent hours inside the playhouse our dad built for us, decorating and redecorating and having tea parties with her dolls. I preferred reading, drawing, painting, and bike riding. That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve never been interested in playing house, especially when it\u2019s for real. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[156,1168],"tags":[1220,1204,1216,1210,1218,1219,1217],"class_list":["post-4968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-remodeling","tag-baicha-tea-room","tag-hardwood-floors","tag-playing-house","tag-remodeling","tag-remodeling-turns-your-life-upside-down","tag-sopa-de-albondigas-at-el-puerto","tag-the-play-house-my-dad-built"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-1i8","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4781,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/family\/packing-up-goin-nowhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":4968,"position":0},"title":"Packing Up, Goin’ Nowhere.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"February 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This week I\u2019ve been cleaning out my china cabinet and buffet, wrapping tea cups and vases and wine glasses in newspaper and stuffing them\u2014carefully\u2014into boxes. 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