Revising a House

Jessie: In New Hampshire where the leaves are turning and woodsmoke drifts through the morning air.

Did you have strange, and or, disappointingly tedious weather this summer? Here in New England, things were less than ideal. When it was warm enough to feel like summer it rained. When it was sunny the weather was chilly. Mushrooms sprouted in the lawn. Birds muttered from soggy bowers. Tomatoes and cucumbers delayed their arrival by weeks and then only showed up halfheartedly.

All in all, it was not a particularly good summer to spend at the seaside. Fortunately, this was the year my husband and I decided to go ahead and have some long overdue repairs and renovations done to our cottage at the beach. The work has been extensive and of long duration. The back of the house was pulled to the subfloor and entirely rebuilt. The garden is an unrecognizable disaster. Everything from the inside of the house is now in the barn at our year-round home.

I had heard from quite a number of people that projects like this one can be stressful and even unpleasant. Fortunately for me, it all felt remarkably familiar. The process has reminded me, to a surprising degree, of revising a book. The house as it was came off as a first draft of sorts. It was a completed house but, there were certainly opportunities for improvement in structure, flow and tone.

Like with a novel we took a close, hard look at what was working and what was not. We made notes and imagined how things might be done differently within the footprint available. We drew up a budget, which is a bit like being mindful of word count. We came up with an approximate timeline for the work to be completed. Deadlines are something with which I am all too familiar! Making decisions about colors and windows and where to locate light switches reminded me of the constant requirement to make choices while writing.

And then, that day by day, week by week, work began. Like with writing, sometimes the process seemed to be flowing well and moving ahead by leaps and bounds. At other times it was difficult to notice any progress at all even when we knew it had to be there. But, just like a novel, months later it has all started coming together.

Still, it is not done. I would call it close to the end of the second draft. There is drywall still to be installed, floors to be laid and kitchen cabinets to be placed. It can’t really be considered finished until there are working bathrooms and electrics that have gone live. But I ma having that pleasant feeling I always experience with a book that comes as the finished product crystalizes in my mind’s eye and the end feels closer than the beginning. Hopefully, by this time next month, the project will be completed and the furnishings will be returned to their proper places. With any luck, we will be able to park in the barn before the snow flies!

Readers, was your summer filled with strange weather? Do you have any remodeling tips to share?