"A Little Home Improvement..."

In 1984 Judi and I purchased our present home here in St. Petersburg. It wasn't all we had hoped for, but it was all we could afford: a two bedroom, two-bath Florida-type bungalow originally constructed in 1923. It had charm, but needed a lot of work. It has been one of my fondest passions to "work" on our home since the day we moved in.

I initially was attached to the house because it had a stand-alone, one car garage...just the prefect size to construct what I hoped would be my model train empire. A month into our new home Judi announced that she was pregnant with future daughter Megan. Since I had more than just a hand in this turn of events, my model train empire would have to wait. What we urgently needed then was a nursery. Almost 23 years later my dreams of a model railroad still remained unrequited. Honestly, I'm not all that disappointed.

It has indeed been for me a labor of love all these intervening years to convert this turn-of-the century relic into a more up-to-date home. Not all of my modernization ideas have been met with equal enthusiasm by Judi. The sad fact is that a number of my home improvement projects have been points of heated disagreements between us...like my idea to completely gut the main bathroom...a project that took me two years to complete, my being only able to devote any concentrated construction time to that project on weekends and holidays. That was a difficult two years...especially with a teenage daughter thrown into the mix. But when it was finally completed, both Judi and Megan have always, since the ribbon cutting, been proud to show this piece of handiwork to anyone who were/are guest in our home.

There remains only two rooms that are in need of my additional attention. Our master bedroom and the incorporation of a portion of the enclosed front porch into an enlarged living room. As I turn 60 years of age this coming April, I am beginning to more seriously question whether or not my time consuming devotion to perfection will ever allow me to complete these two projects. My flights of fancy are turning more toward extended vacations and leisurely Saturday's on the golf course rather than hammer, nails and power tools. Still, I continue to take pencil to paper and devise my next home improvement project. It's who I am.

In that vein I was glad to have the end of year holidays behind me. I spent this past weekend building a new trellis of my design next to our back porch...looking forward to warmer days and the planting of new new landscape materials I wish to install come this approaching spring. I wanted to get this non-essential project completed before Judi returned from her weekend conference in Orlando. Task accomplished. She likes it.

Next Saturday I plan to hang new gutters on the garage, then rebuild the deck outside of my workshop, then replace the siding on the south side of the garage, then the new addition on the back of the house to contain a much needed walk-in closet, then... Guess my dreams of extended vacations and Saturday golf outings will have to wait. Honestly...I'm not all that disappointed.