One drawback to remodeling comes when you sell your home and you have to say goodbye to pet projects you have bled, perspired and maybe even cried over. So far, I haven’t been overly brokenhearted about having to say adios to an old abode. Until now.
There has been rumblings of an impending move. Not in the next two months, but surely within the next two years we’ll be leaving here and already I miss it. ‘It’ is my fireplace. A few years ago, after a serious health scare, we decided we needed to celebrate the excellent outcome with a significant DIY project. The livingroom had a lonely wall and we had all those fabulous woodworking tools in the garage, so we decided a fireplace was just the thing.
We accumulated paper and pencil and began sketching. When we finally decided upon a design, my MWT* began building while I called the gas company, who we hired to install the firebox and flue. When MWT was finished planing, mitering and shaping, he handed off the individual pieces to me, designator stainer and finisher. After the pieces were assembled into place around the firebox, we tiled the surround.
I know this project will be the one I’ll cry over when I have to say goodbye to it. We’ve replaced and installed cabinets, flooring, a roof, and just about everything else in this home, but they weren’t our creation, our vision from start to finish. And sure, my attachment might also have something to do with reason we decided to make it the first place. I don’t know.
So this is my question to my fellow Curbliers, what DIY project will break your heart when and if you have to say goodbye to it?
*Man With Tools
