Jewel Out of Diamond in the Rough

“So, you and Donnie in the market for a house?” my client Nancy casually mentioned as I was preparing to give her a facial.

“Why?” I asked, as I began to massage cleansing creme onto her face. “Is it a good deal?”

“Best view lot on our hill, sign just went up yesterday and, yeah, it’s a good deal but it needs a lot of work” she said.

When my husband and I went to the house I realized that Nancy’s last words were quite an understatement. The house was a junkyard--uh, the most beautiful, neglected house we had ever seen in our search for a home. Old air conditioners crammed in windows, boxes of cut pipes, rusted screens, tires, toilets, broken light sockets and many “what do you suppose these were for?” items. And that was just on the porch!

The kitchen was full of radiance with its bright orange cupboards, Farmer Brown wallpaper and a floor that your feet stuck to like flypaper as you walked on it. The front room had potential with its built in bookcases and fireplace. The dining room was graced with a lovely stained glass window of a hummingbird feeding on flowers surrounded by large wide windows.

I also noticed a very old, paint-stained but beautiful hardwood floor in that dining room. We decided to peek upstairs. STAIRS? Aye-yi-yi! We saw very thin plywood steps with no stair rails. We flipped a coin to see who ventured up first. I lost.

One room had musicians’ pictures nailed to the walls. Windows were cracked and there were no closet doors. The “fried” room had had some sort of fire inside it and the walls were covered with black soot. That room had a sliding door that allowed you to walk out on to the roof of the deck below. It was like walking out onto your house roof. We got vertigo! We held on to each other as we walked back into the house.

The master bedroom had windows broken out, lighting fixtures ripped off, doors were missing and there were holes in the walls. Whatever went on in this house? You don’t even want to know about the bathrooms.

We looked all around and then at each other. “Think we can do it?” Donnie asked with some trepidation. We “thought light” as we ventured down those old, rickety stairs and walked outside onto the small deck. It was warm and squirrels were gathering walnuts from the old black walnut tree next to the deck. The sun was going down and the lights were beginning to flicker on in the city. Leaning on the deck rail we stood in silence and took in the amazing view. The city lights began to beam and gleam like an open jewelry box. I looked at Donnie and said, “We can do it.”

We called “Not a Problem” Cortney, our wonderful contractor and friend. The house was solid and well built. The electrical and plumbing checked out well. The three of us combined ideas and creative options.

First on the list was to order a dumpster. It took half a day to dejunk that house. Then we got to see what we really needed to do and organized our list of priorities, measurements and details, room by room. That saved us time, money and lots of extra trips to the home improvement stores.

I also became best friends with my clipboard, even slept with it by my bed for those late night and early morning thinking times. Work began. What a feeling of victory when we unstuck all the windows! What a beautiful sight when I painted the stain on to my hardwood floor after days of cleaning, scraping and sanding. That old wood floor’s character was so beautifully brought out that it was worth the sore knees and itchy skin burns from the varnish remover. My index finger ached in pain after days of scratching at that kitchen wallpaper.

You don’t know the moments of joy until you get enough wallpaper away from the wall that affords you a big easy pull. I really looked forward to the time when we could start putting the house back together.

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I had purchased some beautiful tiles a few years ago and knew that I could use them in the bathroom. I learned long ago that when you come across unique things (boutiques, swap meets, garage sales, etc.) and you know that they will be used, then buy them. I’ve come across house numbers, a birdbath and very nice flower bulbs for my garden that way.

I was bonding with the house more and more as we were gaining momentum. While we were taking care of the “feel” of the house, Cortney was taking care of the “look” of the house. He enlarged the little deck we had downstairs to cover the whole view side of the house. Then he decked and put side rails around the top deck for an even higher and more incredible view. Now you could walk out safely from the two bedrooms upstairs.

My confidence in the solidity of our 40-plus-year-old house was reaffirmed while Cortney was building the deck. Upon the tail end of completion, we had an earthquake! Cortney and Paul (his assistant) were out on the deck. Cortney yelled, “Whoaaa” as the house and deck shook. Paul scampered to the inside of the house and forever more got teased for his “lack of faith.”

Donnie and I tried, and mostly succeeded, in staying one step ahead of Cortney by getting lots of the supplies ourselves. For months my days off were spent at the house. My hands became power grips from all the hard work and I became a whiz at visualization when it came to options and decisions to be made. Sometimes Donnie and I argued. He wanted to put tile at the bottom of the stairs in the house leading to the outside deck. I wanted to put in the used brick look. We did the brick. He wanted the house to be painted a blue-gray with white trim, I wanted a brighter color. Blue-gray was the way to go. The three most valuable things Cortney, Donnie and I learned together were:

1--Attitude. Before we began this job, we knew there would be decisions, tensions and lots of money spent. We made a pact to keep a positive attitude and a good sense of teamwork. We celebrated when the inspector passed each project and acknowledged each other with support, open-minded critiques and compliments as our work progressed.

2--Creativity. Incorporate some unique things. Those tiles, beautiful old house numbers, an extra nice kitchen faucet and a French door instead of an aluminum slider to the deck make it all worth it at the finish. So what if you have to eat bean soup for a week to pay for a special splurge. Don’t compromise on everything.

3--Pictures. Take before and after pictures. No one who didn’t see our house before we fixed it believes it was as bad as it was until they see the pictures. Words cannot describe what pictures can show. It makes for great conversation and gives you the chance to experience the glow of acknowledgment that’s sure to come for a job well done.