I’ve always found home remodeling horror stories extremely entertaining. My
own brother has been remodeling his home for the past 5 years. The last
bit of work was completed just before the Christmas holiday. He felt
triumphant and proud after 5 years of permit struggles, and mounds of
dirt/rocks in his front yard. You name it – and it happened to him. He
went from being slightly inconvenienced with no access to his laundry
room, to the extreme nightmare of having to move into our mothers’
house while they ripped his home to shreds. My brother and I don’t
always see eye to eye, but I wouldn’t wish the nightmare of living with
my mother again on my worst enemy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the lady,
but you know how moms can be. I’m sure many of you out there in
internet land feel the same. Well, after 5 long years of anticipation,
his brand new finished basement flooded on Christmas Eve.
Ok, ok. The contractors weren’t always so terrible. After all, on
Christmas day I was able to enjoy a lovely tour of his completed home.
From the complete addition of a second story, 3 new bedrooms and 2 new
bathrooms down to the amazing aforementioned finished basement (which
didn’t exist at all 5 years ago). Now that he has the house in the
shape of his dreams (or nightmares) he will soon be moving on to
landscaping. I just hope for my nephews sake, my brother survives it
all.
I
haven’t met a single homeowner without a horror story of their own, so
I wasn’t terribly surprised when I stumbled across this Diary of a Remodel on Sfgate.com
Bernadette compares the images of remodeling projects in magazines to an alternate universe, “where budgets and time are unlimited…”
We get to join her as she walks us through her remodeling experience from choosing the architect down to cost and her regrets. I wonder if having a site like remodeleze
would have helped her along the way. I guess I need to personally
apologize to you Bernadette (if you’re reading this). I’m sorry we
didn’t launch sooner. I’m sure some of our contractors would have loved to help you through it all.
When it’s all said and done, I think her home turned out simply amazing and her pictures prove it.