25_The End Of A Chapter

After working for around 4 months, finally our home was completely livable. There were works that still need to be done such as tidying up the garage, setting up a home gym, building a new shed, etc. However, these works wouldn’t affect our basic needs i.e. eating, sleeping, and bathing. So these works would happen later slowly. At this moment, it was time to end a chapter.

Last Big Cleaning Up

Now that we were done with renovation, we could throw away stuff that was not used. On September 9^th we piled up things that we didn’t want to use further, included a semi permanent gazebo in the back porch. I never liked this gazebo, I thought it was tacky and it blocked the sunlight to the house. I took off all the tarps, and while doing it I found various nests and crawling creatures such as ants, white spider, little cockroach, small lizards, etc. I was glad that we decided to get rid of the gazebo; otherwise it would become bug nests. Later on, my husband disassembled the metal parts. These parts would be given to the scrap metal guys who scavenged our old washer and dryer.

Left: The gazebo and leftovers of construction materials. Right: Only the gazebo's frames remained.

The gazebo blocked the sunlight to the house.

We also separated some things to be donated to ReStore, a social organization that provides affordable housings for people. We would give an old ceiling fan, old sink, and some leftovers of construction materials. But first, we filled our van with things that we wanted to throw away. We worked until the sun set, thinking that we would go to the landfill tomorrow.

Left: The last load to the landfill from the back door. Right: From the front seat.

On the next morning we went to the landfill, only to find out that it was closed on Sundays. So we had to bring back all the junk to the house and waited until Monday morning. It was a challenge in doing it, as the weather was cold, windy and drizzles due to the Irma hurricane effect. The landfill was an open area, it was not easy to walk from one dumpster to another in the rain and windy day; but this was our last trip to the landfill, so it was worth to do. After this, our house became more enjoyable to live in.

Before And After

A lot had changed to the house, especially the living room, kitchen, and the previous dining room. No more walls to separate these three rooms. Here I showed you the before and after pictures of these rooms. It was not easy to recreate the same pictures, as I was limited by walls for the ‘before’ pictures and by furniture in the ‘after’ pictures. But that was the point, presenting the changes. So, just enjoy…

The view from the entrance.

Another view from the entrance.

The living room previously had a folding door.

The living room walls.

The living room.

No more walls and pocket door in the living room.

The view from the hallway towards the kitchen.

Too many walls.

The kitchen.

Kitchen light.

The end of kitchen cabinets.

Another part of the kitchen.

The oven.

The sink and its window.

Kitchen wall, before and after.

The back window and wall.

Ceiling fan. 

Financial Situation

In about 4 months of work, until we went to the landfill last time, we had spent $35,878.44. This included buying the van and its reparation cost, appliances, and plumbing services. The biggest expense was putting new roof, followed by kitchen cabinets and appliances. The roof installment took 22.30% share.

We had not settled all the expenses, and thanks to various credit systems, we had time for two years to settle. Hopefully we would be able to do it on-time.

Future Projects

As I mentioned before, there were some works to do; but they all just small projects, it shouldn’t hurt our financial condition. However, there would be middle-size projects waiting such as bathrooms remodeling. We would put this project on pending until our financial condition recovered. So for now on, we would only work on small projects.  

As for this blog, I would keep updating it with all the works that we do for the house. So please keep checking on it. Meanwhile, just enjoy our gallery from the past projects. See you later!

Living room.

The kitchen.

Family room.

Dining places.