Home-a-rama

This year, we mad our first trip to a Home-a-rama.  And now, the home improvement itch has hit.

Elaine commented that it was the closest thing that she’s come to actually shopping for a home.  Which may be true.  I had already purchased this house prior to her moving to Louisville.  And who really shops for a house when they don’t plan to move?  She also commented that the trip to Home-a-rama (and the late night dinner stop afterwards) was the most exciting thing that we’ve done on a Friday night in a while.  Maybe we need to get out a little more…

Walking through these homes, we found multiple sources of inspiration of what we would like in a home.  While some of these could only be accomplished by building a new home, our current home could be improved to incorporate some.

The question is, how far do we want to go.  Our home is already on the upper end of the neighborhood.  Not that our house is extravagant, but more so that our neighborhood is moderately priced.  We could improve this house to near perfection, but we would likely price ourselves out of the neighborhood when we someday look to sell.

A couple of the projects that I do want to take on are the basement and the deck.

I’ve already “started” the basement.  A while back, I wanted a theater in the basement.  To ensure that I could get the picture and sound experience I wanted prior to building a dedicated space for a theater, I purchased the A/V equipment and set it up.  Well, it worked out pretty well.  It worked out way too well.  The picture and the sound is great.  We kind of got used to watching everything in the basement.  Then we decided to put a couch and then a sectional and a rug and we more or less have an entire living room set up  down there now.  So, instead of a finished basement, we just have a furnished basement.  Before we finish off the space, we have to move out of the basement.  So that is our first hurdle.  The next is finding time or contractors to do the work.

The deck is the next home improvement project that I seem to be obsessed with lately.  I would really like to expend our deck.  Which would be much simpler if our deck wasn’t a story above the patio outside of the walkout basement.  While that makes it more difficult, it doesn’t make it impossible.  The biggest holdup here is finding a reason to do the project.  Our deck is a pretty decent size (14’x14′) and seems to accommodate our needs.  But I can’t get the thought of doubling it out of my mind.  After that, the thought is to take a section of it (probably half) and putting a roof over it and screening it in.  Elaine likes to eat dinner outside, I’m not a big fan of all of the bugs that it draws.  This could help make both of us happy.  Maybe I found my reason for the project.

The real question is how much time will I have to tackle all of these endeavors in the coming years with our little daughter drawing my attention at every spare moment.