Story Weekend: Remodeling Gone Wrong (and a Giveaway!)
Story Weekend is back, and to celebrate, let’s have a giveaway! I’ve been madly working on next year’s book which has sapped all my time, but I’ve missed hearing your stories, so here goes. This week’s topic is Remodeling Gone Wrong. I’d love to hear your Remodeling Gone Wrong story. I’ll use a random number generator to pick an entry to win one of my audio books. Good luck!If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve contributed. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge. Happy writing!
First apartment, 20 years old. It had a giant claw foot tub but no shower except for a hand held that was about a foot long and came from the tub spout so good for sitting only, and no shower curtain or rod. After a year or so I got tired of waiting for the landlord who said he would look into installing one. So, $5 at dollarama later I created a rounded curtain rod to go around the tub with duct tape, clothesline, a shower curtain and garbage bags. The shower itself was extended by a length of garden hose and a shower head hanging from the ceiling with duct tape and staples. It was hideous and sometimes leaked onto the floor and wall but it worked! Stubbornly independent to stay there as long as I did, but I did it myself.
I was a newlywed and we had just bought our first house. The tiny bathroom had this hideous red flocked wallpaper. My parents bought us this white wallpaper with blue whales(which sounds hideous NOW). So, my mom shows me how the wallpaper will just peel off by taking the first piece down. MAGICAL! I start ripping off the next piece and THE ENTIRE WALL came down! Wallpaper, plaster, everything! I had to go confess to my new husband that he had a bigger job to do than just putting up wallpaper!
Had to do some emergency work on my kitchen because the drain pipe to my kitchen sink broke and rotted through the outside of my house. Came home to a real mess. So we decided to “really” fix the kitchen. Tore down the sheetrock inside, tore out the floor boards, the outside siding and ended up with just the studs and joists. We did all the work ourselves. I did all the rewiring and cut wires haphazardly only to have to splice them back together again because the person that did the wiring before me just did them any old way. My washing machine ended up in the front yard with an extension cord and a garden hose for a few months. And yes, it was used on a regular basis for the whole summer. It took us forever but we did it. Good thing I live in a small town that is considered pretty REDNECK. No one even thought anything about it. The kitchen sink took almost a year to get done and I did dishes in the bathtub for a long time. My kids hated it. When everything was all done, I had an electrician come in and rewire my hot tub….he went on to explain to me that we put the washing machine in the wrong place…..right under the circuit breaker box. I never did change it and it’s still working…lol
It was 1957 and my parents had just purchased an older home near the beach in San Diego. It needed a lot of work both inside and out. My daddy, a plumber by trade, decided to replace the sewer line one weekend. Before he started, he told me and my brother that he’d be working in the backyard inside the trench he had dug around the sewer line and cautioned us that if we needed to go to the bathroom, to just not flush the toilet. I watched my dad work off and on, and he had just pulled the last of the pipes out of the trench when I got nature’s call, so I walked back inside to take care of business. As I arose from the toilet, I reached my hand back towards the handle and flushed as usual. I walked back outside just in time to hear my daddy scream out and cuss like a sailor, as he wiped my little poopies off his hands. His face was beet red as he turned towards me and snarled, “Was it you who pooped and flushed?” As a 6 year old, I had a deer in the headlights look in my eyes as I met his glare, but I shrugged my shoulders innocently and answered “nope” and walked back towards the house.
2 years ago. Finally remodeling kitchen. The gent I hired said it would be a month project. The ceiling was redone without incident. The room was painted with care. And then halfway thru putting in the new sink and countertop I learn that the guy had never done this type of project b4! I end up with holes in the countertop next to sink, which I stare at daily. And the icing on the cake? He had unplugged my second freezer, never mentioned it, and forgot to plug back in. Guess who lost their meat,etc??
I haven’t written in a while and glad to see Story Weekend. I was reading these great stories and really couldn’t think of one. On the other hand, my dad was a wonderful carpenter and built many things. He did some work on my home. He layed a tile floor in my kitchen. He built a laundry room in my garage.During my life he built two houses from the ground up. After he retired he remodeled a 1957 travel trailer that had a room built on. First he built a regular roof over the existing structure making the out side dimensions larger. He built outside walls and the tore out the inside and replacing it. When he was finished we had a brand new house.This was his and Moms lake house that he built for his whole family. Nothing went wrong here. But we did lose Dad on November 26,2003. He has been on my mind and in my heart these past few weeks. It is the time of the year. Thank you for the opportunity to tell his story.
Thank you for these great stories! The random number generator picked KatheeSue to win the audio book. Congratulations, Kathee! You’ll be hearing from me.
Did you write a remodeling story, Diane? Not sure if I’m not looking in the right place to find it. Love to read these stories from your readers.
No, I didn’t! I probably won’t contribute my own stories until I get my work-in-progress finished.