A Taste of the Kawarthas Magazine October/November 2019

Page 38

TODAYS REAL ESTATE IN A NUTSHELL

Contributed by: Jay Lough Hayes, Sales Representative Re/Max Rouge River Realty Ltd. 705-772-1025

Bathroom renovations is one of the top five home renovations. Any real estate sales rep-

resentative will tell you that bathrooms and kitchens sell homes. As long as a woman can waltz into a house, produce a healthy meal and wash the family in a clean environment, chances are that house instantly becomes a home and you have a sale. I grew up on a farm in The Ottawa Valley, a typical farmhouse kitchen and an outhouse for those quiet times when you needed to be alone. No indoor plumbing; we upgraded to a flush toilet sometime when I was a teenager, living in the lap of luxury … running water inside the house. Our grandfather hooked up a motor to the handpump from the well to water the livestock long before we had running water in the house. And don’t even get me started on Ma Bell and our party phone line. Years ago, my husband at the time, dropped the cap off a shampoo bottle during his shower. With while everything was open, we had a new baththe bottle cap lodged somewhere in the drain or room window installed. The old tub, heavy as the plumbing, the water just sat in the bathtub. dickens, was lugged down the 100 year old hardWith a “Help!!” call, my father-in-law showed up wood stairs. Norm’s provided us with a lovely new with tool box in hand. After yelling at my hus- tub complete with a drain stopper. Well, why not band in Italian while standing in the kitchen below enjoy a new vanity and mirror while we’re at it? the bathroom, he deduced where the lodged cap My Italian father-in-law proved to excel as a tile should be. With crowbar and skill saw in hand, he installer, laying down a lovely, white ceramic tile removed the 100 year old kitchen ceiling. That bathroom floor. New baseboard trim was painted $3.00 bottle of shampoo was going to get expen- and installed and after only 2 weeks of showersive. The ceiling, now on kitchen floor, exposed ing at the in-laws’ house, our bathroom reno was the bathroom plumbing. Copper plumbing, the complete. Why stop there? expensive kind we can’t afford today, 2” copper drain. With the water shut off to the house and all plumbing from the 2nd floor drained, our expensive copper piping was cut open and the elusive bottle cap retrieved. But, not before we decided that while the kitchen ceiling was on the floor, we could and should replace the toilet with a new one and give it that modern look by angling it into the corner. Home Depot hadn’t expanded to Peterborough yet so Norm’s Cash and Carry got all our business. Of course, when this house was built, they never installed a bathroom window so, Page 38

We must have been bored or crazy. It took another few weeks to renovated the kitchen. As luck would have it, while the 9 foot kitchen ceiling was down, we decided to lower it 12 inches. New drywall, tape, mud and paint looked pretty nice. So nice that we decided to replace the vinyl kitchen floor that was beat up when the ceiling was removed. New kitchen cupboards were installed complete with a new counter top. Why stop now? This calls for a celebration with fresh paint for the walls. Yippee! By the time all these renovations were completed, we decided to get married. If we could live


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A Taste of the Kawarthas Magazine October/November 2019 by A Taste of the Kawarthas ATOTK - Issuu