“I get by with a little help from my friends” so goes the Beatles song. And so it goes with my project of adapting my house for a housemate. It’s taking me a lot longer than I thought it would.
I’ve made progress. Significant progress. It wouldn’t have happened without the help of friends and family.
To adapt my home for a housemate, I’m planning on moving out of the two spaces I currently occupy. I will give up the master bedroom with its private bath and move into a smaller bedroom. I will still have my own bathroom but there’s a hall to get to it. The master bedroom also has a fireplace! And to make that space even better, I’m going to add a door close to a sliding door that goes outside. So the housemate has the choice of coming home and simply getting to their room without going through the house.
The house is upside down.
The three rooms and two bathrooms are downstairs from the one big room that is the main floor. My office has for many years been a desk in the corner of the open space big room with the kitchen in the opposite corner, with a large brick chimney in the middle, and the staircase going down. I can’t easily see the kitchen but still it’s one room. In my new office I will have a door that can be closed! And space for the many supplies that Sharing Housing now owns. I will miss having the wood stove in sight in the winter, but that is a small price to pay. I hope and trust that this way my housemate will also use the upstairs and we’ll be able to hang out comfortably.
So much work to do to get there. One friend spent a day with me cleaning the two rooms. When other friends offered to help paint and we set a date I had to decide on colors! No more procrastination. These friends came one day and then volunteered to come back the following week! The two rooms are now mostly painted. Not only was it a huge help in getting the work done, it was felt good to have the company.
The bathroom that will be mine is getting a full renovation.
It all started with a vanity that had to be replaced because it had awful black mold. I pulled the trigger on buying a vanity and the one I decided on has legs. When I took out the old vanity there was no tile under it leaving an ugly hole.
After much text consultation with my siblings, I decided to remove the adobe tile. My wonderful sister made a date with me to come and do that work. She was really good at smashing the tile and we got it done in less than two hours. In order to get to the floor, I had to remove the toilet. I decided that it wasn’t going back in. So that left the ugly molded fiberglass shower/tub. It’s going too!
When I bought the house there was a pale blue wall-to-wall carpet on the floor in all three rooms and the hall. Little did I know that the carpet on top of a concrete slab would wick moisture into the rooms! What I did know is I didn’t like it. I had a clickable laminate installed in the room that will be my office and the hall but didn’t do the bedrooms because of cost. The rug in the small room developed mold behind a bookcase after we had a flood in the adjoining space. Sigh. Removing that rug was almost the first thing I did. The rug in the master bedroom will go once I move out. I’ll install the laminate in both rooms. And yes, I’ll do it myself. Maybe I can find someone who wants to help? We shall see.
No question that this is a lot of work.
Some of the work is absolutely necessary to deal with moisture and mold issues. Painting is required. The bathroom renovation is optional but will be really nice when done. The new door to the master bedroom will give my housemate the feeling of privacy that is so essential in shared housing. I may have a friend who has offered to build the door for me. I hope so.
Fortunately, I like doing these types of projects. Not everyone is so inclined and would instead hire the help. And if I had hired help it might have been done during the winter and I’d already have a housemate! I’m appreciating the help and support of my friends and family as I move forward on this project. The whole point (aside from getting rid of mold and sources of mold) is to create a space that will lead to a comfortable and delightful sharing of this home.
Read Annamarie’s earlier post about her remodeling project: Modifying My Home for Shared Housing Comfort. And read what happened next, it’s a little surprising.
Are you the Annamarie Pkuhar who used to live in Cambridge, MA when you were little?
Glad you’re moving along with all these steps toward improving your home for yourself and your housemate(s). It IS a lot of work, but as you point out, doing at least some of it with family and friends BUILDS in a couple of ways: community affinity as well as better living space!