TEARING DOWN AND BUILDING UP

TWO AGENDA DRIVE the house project currently. First, make the house into my home; making it work for me. Secondly, optimize the fit of the house to the environment. Mostly, I am following these principles in parallel.

MAKING THE HOUSE WORK FOR ME: this house was built in the early 1970s for two aging parents and perhaps one resident adult child, with room for three other grown children visiting from time to time. It has three bedrooms, two in the upper level and one in the lower. with two full bathrooms. The kitchen/dining room opens onto a large deck (with rather rickety railings), steps going down to the rear yard. Also in the lower level are the laundry and a recreational room. This is the only rear entrance. The garden consists of lawn and a few shrubs. When I purchased the house, it lacked a garage or a garden shed. My first action was to purchase a garden shed and site it on a concrete pad just off the rear lane. I got this from a local Amish company that makes rather good sheds at a very good price. I have no clue what the pad was previously for but it takes the shed and my car very nicely.

The roof/attic was poorly ventilated and, consequently, ran very hot on summer days. So the next task was to have a contractor install a proper ridge-cap and soffit ventilation system. I also got him to paint the roof with a special highly reflective white paint specifically designed for composite roofs (very expensive at about $80 per gallon). My roof is in good condition and took less paint to do the job than estimated. This makes the attic space, and therefore the house interior, now much cooler and will extend the life of the roof by about ten years. Here you see the front roof partly painted.

In the next posting, I will tell about the plans for the bedrooms and extending the rear deck. These will convert the house from a family home to a bachelor's abode.