Posted by Raphael on Dec 10, 2012 in Interior Decorating, Personal | 0 comments

So…we’re pau. No that picture up above was done about a week back. I can’t take any pictures yet because the place is still full of our unpacked boxes and covered in a layer of fine dust. But last night was the first night we were able to sleep back at home and my own mattress felt like a bed of heavenly pillows.

So now are we officially inducted into the experienced remodelers club? This was not a fun experience, but looking over the whole project I know for a fact we skated through relatively unscathed. There weren’t any surprises that were revealed along the way. No contractor errors.   That’s about as good as we can expect. Along the way we were told horror stories about how contractors would leave mid-way through a project never to return. We ended up with a quiet, hard-working, local-Japanese contractor named Kenji who worked on our place for 3 weeks and completed everything fantastically. We owe a lot to that guy.

The place has turned out to be about as good as we had hoped for. Somehow, despite being very unsure of our own choices along the way, we ended up with a place that looks better than we had begun. And that’s always a good result if you’re looking at spending that much money to fix up a place. I don’t know if it’s as jaw-dropping a change as you might see on those home remodeling shows on cable, but I can imagine if we ever sold the place we would probably make a good impression. At the very least our family can enjoy a nice place for a few years. My wife is already planning a bigger home in a few years and I’m trying very hard to tune that out. The level that my wife “The Hurricane” pushes to get the place she wants is very stressful to me. I just want to not think about the next step for a while and just enjoy life. I don’t want to see boxes for a good few years.

My favorite changes in the house?  New windows and fixed walls. Our old window jealousies were 40 years old and apparently let moisture through to our drywalls so that they were cracking. We updated the windows to modern jealousies and had the walls fixed and reinforced. Now the windows not only work, but they’re much more secure, sound-proof, and water-resistant. Pans that keep the moisture from seeping into the walls. I love them. I can spend my day just opening all the windows in the condo and going AAAAAAAH!

More later…