Let’s start with the timetable, which fell far behind our goal. Delays included weather, materials (we couldn’t just run down the street when a need popped up, and deliveries were at least a day away, or often more), crew availability, the plumber and fixtures, and our own attempts to make decisions with a key player living at the other end of the state.
By late spring, we were making headway again but were also reaching toward the bottom of the pot when it came to finances.
And then the big whammy came, when Trump and his cronies decided to freeze already approved grant money, meaning my wife would soon be unemployed.
We tapped the brakes, meaning the modest kitchen remake would be on hold, along with the new upstairs bathroom and laundry room and an upgrade of the downstairs bathroom. The lower apron deck in the back, an L around the newly replaced upper deck, was also now on hold.
Drawing on our remaining available funds, we decided to go ahead with new outdoor lighting front and back, some final touches in the front bedrooms and stairway/hallway, insertion of doorhandles upstairs, and a scaled down job on the mudroom, eliminating rainwater leakage, replacing the peeling paneling with drywall, and the addition of electrical outlets and lighting – a revamp of the hip roof with an more efficient shed line, has moved off to the future.
It all adds up. The new freezer in the mudroom is quickly filling with garden produce and marked-down groceries.
A few other projects, especially a heat-pump system to counter our fuel-oil furnace, are now further off on the horizon.
Emotionally, I’m feeling conflicted. I don’t like letting up this far from the finish line. We still have much to do in settling into what’s already been accomplished. We need to empty a storage unit at the other end of the state and fit the contents into our place here – or cull much of the rest.
But I’m also proud of what we’ve accomplished to date, and of our luck in landing the contractor we did.
If you haven’t already looked at the Before/After album at my Thistle Finch site, please do. It’s also available there for printout.
Home, Money, Design, Life, Maine, Downeast, Eastport,
Jnana's Red Barn 