Tool Time with Tom
After the Total Renovation Project
1018 West Washington Street, Athens, Alabama 35611
Ahhhhhhhh........ we are almost complete with the project, well as about complete as any new home owner would be, if we stay here 50 years, many things will change. We are already beginning to talk about another extensive change to the back side of the house, but believe me, that is another home page. So far we have spent over three and a half years working towards the finished project.
There were many questionable days and night before we got here. I "had the vision" from the beginning but I had spent fourteen summers here growing up and this was always "home" to me. Alice, my wonderful wife, saw it for what it was, a rundown, relic of better days. It took over two years to have her warm up to the idea of finishing the project and then moving in here, but when she finally commited herself to the project her help was invaluable.
So you might ask me, was it difficult, was it hard, did it turn out the way you wanted it to and why in the world would you choose to spend so much time and money rebuilding this old house. Everyone also says that a remodeling job will test a marriage like nothing else, they were right, I am not sure which one of us had divorce papers drawn up more often, Alice or me; but somehow we survived.
Before it was over with, "Big A" had helped me build a 60 foot long deck across the back of the house, paint much of the house, lay ceramic tile, trim out the game room, help with the siding, install brick landscaping and everything in between. I had always told her that my dream girl was Joe Anne (JO JO) Liebler from Home Time because she was so handy around the house, but Alice is my dream girl! She also kept me feed, bringing me wonderful lunches on the days i was working here alone.
Pap had an old garage behind the house. It was not so much a garage but more of a small barn. My grandfather was a small man of stature, so an original ceiling heights of 5' 8" tall was just fine with him and it gave him room in the small barn to have a loft that he used for storage.
I ripped the loft out, using the old flooring (1 x 12 poplar boards 16 feet long) to close in the door on the front of the structure and to make a few repairs, then poured a new concrete floor, covering the original dirt floor. I wired the building, insulated the walls, tore the tin roof off and replaced it with a new shingled roof. We have plans to use the house as our guest house, but now we are just using it for storage...i feel a yard sale comming on!,
Want to see inside...well come on in.
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