Build - It - Yourself
Because we are but mere mortal's, our helpers are neighbors, children and other relatives whom we can cajole.
We moved into our first home, only to find out several months later, that my wife was pregnant.
Viewing from left to right you see a screened in porch, the house proper and a garage. The first improvements made to our home were to completely remove the exterior of the porch, install new windows, saw an opening through the concrete block wall which separated the porch from the adjacent bedroom, repaint and carpet. This room became the nursery for our first child.
The second major project was begun shortly after our first daughter was born. We bought dun age cypress for a fence. The left over material was used to construct our storage area. The storage area was expanded to include an upstairs studio and work shop in the rear.
In the photo above you see final improvements which included bricking the front and sides of our home. Vinyl siding was used on the rear, overhangs and gables. Double insulated windows were installed and our electricity bill was cut in half, resulting in a four year recovery period of the investment. Our home improvements were finished shortly after our son completed college at Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama.
Shown above is the rear of our home. The wooden patio was constructed after one particularly harrowing tax season. A good way to release pent-up frustration from being inside for several months. We used Patio and Deck Design, by Books That Work. The software gave us a material schedule, plot layout and building order. We were impressed!
My wife still remembers going to the doctor's office and returning home only to find me sitting in a pile of rubble which came from the porch, learning how to build a corner, which would hold up the roof.
A Mechanic Illustrated sixteen volume encyclopedia set was a premium which could be purchased with S and H Green Stamps. The volume on Carpentry was the book I was reading when my wife returned from the doctor's office.