A Flood Led To Us Improving Our House
Last year our house was flooded by a tropical storm. It was amazing how much damage just six inches of water could do. We needed major repairs to our house, and we hired a contractor to do what needed to be done. Since our house was already being worked on, my husband and I decided to go ahead and make a few cosmetic changes that we had only talked about before the flood happened.
The first thing we decided to do was add recessed lighting to our master bedroom and our living room. It baffles me why the home builder neglected to add lighting to these two rooms, and I had always hated how dark they were. We added six canned lights to our bedroom, and four to the living room. These rooms are so much brighter and I enjoy being in them now.
Next, we talked to our contractor about knocking down the wall between our kitchen and dining room. He verified that the wall in question was not a load-bearing wall, and down it came. In place of the wall our contractor extended the counter space and cabinets from our kitchen. Removing the wall was a huge improvement to our home. It opened up the entire house with that one change. Our kitchen had previously been a dark, cramped place. Now it is bright and inviting, and we can easily talk between the kitchen and dining room.
When we knocked down the wall, we also blocked one of two entrances on one side of the kitchen. Instead of the extra entrance which was, quite honestly, stupid, we now have something I had only dreamed of before - built-in book shelf in the kitchen. I have a tremendous love of cookbooks, which has led to my large collection of said books. Now, I have a place to keep my cookbooks in my kitchen. Even better, at least for my husband, the book shelf has doors so no one has to look at my books unless they open the doors. My books are safely hidden from view, which my husband had long wanted.
The last thing that we did was add a door between our master bedroom and the attached master bathroom. That was the one design flaw, in my opinion, from the original builders. I always hated the fact that the bathroom led right into the bedroom without a door. Don't get me wrong, way in the back was the toilet and shower part of the bathroom and that had a door. But the part with the sinks did not, and we could hear each other when we brushed our teeth or washed our hands. The addition of a door was simple, yet has added many a good night's sleep to us.
As difficult as dealing with a flood was, it led to us making home improvement decisions that we otherwise would have never done. It was our way of taking a bad thing and turning it into something good.
