At Last -- A New Home Office

It has been over a year since this project first got started with a dumpster and demolition work. Following demolition (where I removed many interesting things from walls and ceilings) I replaced the "wiring" (mostly daisy chained extension cords) with fully grounded in-wall service and replaced hanging bulbs with recessed can lights. A new wall was added to hide the plumbing and electrical service as well as to create a closet and computer rack enclosure. The old gravel floor was replaced with reinforced polished concrete and two new insulated windows replaced the two single pane units that came with the house.

Along the way there were several obstacles. The first was a leaky pipe in the upstairs bathroom that the previous owner had tried to stem by wrapping it with fibreglass insulation. Then there was the water leakage over Christmas during the pouring rains. This was abated with French drains that Wendy may have mentioned in a previous post. Finally there was the plumbing leak under the house that created such a stench that we had to have the underside of the house drained and fumigated before the plumbers could fix the leak. Well now almost all is behind us. We are still awaiting a French door to replace the old garage door, but the walls are finished, the ceiling trimmed in tongue and groove cedar and all the computers are safely racked up.

There is still work to be done -- the floor needs to be mopped and buffed up; an area rug could be added, the desk needs to be oiled and polished, but a recent appraisal of the entire Dilbek shows that we have increased our equity in the house by $45K in the two years we have had it!