Someone famous said that once, I think it was God. Yes it was God. I said it once but changes didn’t happen so quick for me as what God accomplished. One morning I stood inside my guest bedroom to find that it was always dark in there. The builder of this floorplan decided to place two outside windows inside a closet in this room. Dumbest Idea imaginable. I knew it when I bought the place, however, it wasn’t a real big deal until it started becoming a big deal, funny how that works isn’t it? So I thought to myself, “if I just remove these two closet doors and remove the wall between them I can capture this light into the room where it belongs”. So in December of 2021 I began a renovation project by removing two closet doors and tearing down the wall between them. When unbeknownst to me I ran into a big iron pipe in the middle of the wall, extending from floor to ceiling and elsewhere in the attic. I had a framing contractor come out to check out reframing the opening for a wide archway and he said, “You know what? That’s your gas pipe I believe, let me go into your garage below and I can verify.” Sure enough the builder of this place had placed the one big gas line that feeds the entire house from stove to fireplace to tankless water heater to heater in that tiny wall between those two closet doors. The contractor explained to me that it’s going to take someone licensed to handle moving that gas line for you and it’s going to be very expensive!” He says, “you know you have another option though, just abandon this project altogether, get a sheet rocker out here to put this thing back together for you and call it a day – it will be loads cheaper my friend, good luck on it.” And he left. 🙂

I thought about it for days really as to whether or not to abandon the project. I called the one plumbing outfit that this contractor told me is the only one he would ever use to move a gas pipe and it took them a few days to get out and take a look. Meanwhile, I had time to think this thing over, should I continue or should I abandon ship? Then, with a brew in hand one evening I walked up there to the room and looked around and in a “Animal House” moment it struck me, you know the part when John Belushi yells out, “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? It’s not over – Nothing is over until we decide it’s over!” Yea, yea, yea! I knew then I would do everything I could to see this project through – from beginning to end I was now committed. I’d even call folks in who are experts to accomplish the things I don’t do like sheetrock and flooring. Complications kept stacking up like just having that gas line moved 32″ to the left and re-connecting it all back up without blowing up the townhouse with me in it, that was $3,500. I had set my entire budget at the start of this renovation at between $3,000 to $5,000 max and an expected timeline of five months to completion [knowing I was retired but playing golf often and some travel]. So that projected budget amount went flying out the window along with my initial timeline, and in a hurry. [I just finished at the end of January but I had a torn meniscus repair and a thumb injury.]

On my end I handled framing out the new opening , built and installed a new header and with the help of a friend we installed that archway opening which weighs 20 lbs. I had to search for lumber mills that produce specialty woods like aromatic red cedar in specific sizes in order to build the cabinet door and the facing, and the shelves inside. Even the drawer facing and drawer box is made of aromatic red cedar shipped in from California. I lined the closet walls with aromatic red cedar paneling as well, re-installed all the base trim and re-painted the room. Prior to all that I used contractors to sheetrock the newly framed out areas of wall space and then lastly I hired folks to install the smooth hickory flooring. Total cost for this guest room renovation? Around $13,000 to $15,000. But that also includes extending the hickory flooring into my office room adjacent to this one and the small hallway that extends between them. I look at it this way, I have exactly what I envisioned for my guest room now. Plus, I’m thinking that blowing up a budget to this magnitude could come in handy should I ever be elected to Congress one day… I mean C’mon Man I only went 200% over budget! 🙂

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