Renovations

I've touched on this in a previous article, but this note will thoroughly cover the topic of my renovation plans, along with what led to the appropriate level of interest and knowledge. All of this goes back to some commercials that used to run in cinemas for a show called Holmes On Homes. Mike Holmes was a charismatic figure with an appealing dedication to professionalism in contracting. As it turns out, the Canadian program ran on a channel I was never able to find at the time. A few years later, I was able to find the program on the Internet during a time when a major renovation, for which I was paying, was taking place on the building in the service of the company I was starting at the time. So I would understand everything that was happening, I binge-watched the entire seven seasons of the series. While this was no practical use to me after the renovation was completed, I found that rewatching the program periodically has allowed me to retain a wealth of knowledge about construction and renovation. Well, it will be of use to me once again as I embark upon plans to renovate all my flooring and my kitchen.

The idea to do any kind of renovations first entered my head on a trip to a friend's lake house in Minnesota. There, I horribly embarrassed myself by burning his mother's countertops as a result of only being familiar with kitchens with stone countertops ever since I'd been cooking on a level above heating things up in the microwave. Subsequently, I similarly burned my own countertops, making the issue of replacing them at some point a pressing one. Although I kept putting that off, the recent point about my allergies to dust and carpet's negative effect on it brought up the issue of the need to replace my flooring, especially in light of the hell of a time my sinuses and the resultant chronic cough have given me of late. Hardwood flooring was suggested to me by an annoyingly large number of people. Given its tendency to do poorly with the spills and mess common to serious culinary adventure, my dislike of the wood luck, and my desire to keep green flooring of some kind, that's a no. Tile is the other major option and I want it to be durable, attractive, green, add value to home, and be less expensive than wildly costly things like granite and marble. That leaves slate.

Custom cabinets were the last part of my renovation plans. It was pointed out to me that granite countertops would necessitate new cabinets anyway. Since I never liked the wood look of my cabinets and it would be recognizable, even with paint, I may as well. A visit with the contractor that has handled the renovations on the building for my failed company says that my projected budget, based upon what I'll be able to save by January 2019, will be sufficient for all of these renovations. While the cabinets and countertops are uncontroversial aspects of my plans, the same cannot be said of of the entire floor being slate. Once people understand that my idea is to put slate everywhere on the floor, including the areas where there are presently tiles, they get all complainy. Truth be told, the fact that factors like expense and slate's traditional use of highlighting certain areas means that just about nobody would tile an entire 1,500 square foot condo with slate makes it all the more appealing for me. As to concerns that such an unusual feature would harm the value of my home, I basically reject that. If I were to install ugly cheap tile like the asbestos my mother has suggested, then, yeah, I could see that. Similarly, if I were to select ugly or odd slate, I could see that, but I will rely upon the advice of my experts to prevent this. In any event, it's my place, my money, and my rules.

-Frank