Dear Reader Column 02-14-14

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Dear Reader,

A few years ago my husband and I fixed up our house like we were getting ready to sell it. But we weren't. Why does someone (including me), wait until they decide to sell their home to get their house in order? Why don't we fix things up while we're still living here, so we can enjoy them instead of strangers?

The fixer-upper shows on television were my inspiration for my new found desire to freshen things up around my house, and to even notice they needed fixing in the first place.

So, I did a mini-makeover on my house. The wrought iron railing on my side porch was painted, the ceilings in my dressing room and bedroom were touched up. The roof sprung a leak two years before, I fixed the roof, but the watermark stains were left behind.

Those charming little lights underneath my kitchen cupboards, three of them had been burnt out for three years. What a difference to actually be able to see the vegetables I'm chopping. The grout on my kitchen floor needed some minor repairs, and some of the wooden blinds in my bathroom had been damaged when Mama Cat (the feral cat I take care of) had surgery. Mama-Cat had to recuperate in my bathroom and when the anesthesia wore off, she scaled my wooden window blinds looking for an escape. Mama's surgery scars healed, but the claw marks on my wooden blinds didn't. But the most amazing fixer-upper thing I did was to screen-in my front porch. I live in a 1925 historical home and the minute the old fashioned porch railings were in place, it was instant curb appeal. (And no mosquitoes.)

The experts on the fixer-upper channel do the math when they're evaluating what to spend money on. If you update a kitchen it means extra dollars when you sell, repaint and it's money in the bank, screen in your front porch--I have no idea what that means in dollars--but I do know first-hand that, the enjoyment of sitting on my screened-in front porch is priceless to me.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]

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Comments

[Dan Hale]

The screened in porch sounds nice. Made me think of Grandma and Grandpa Hale's. Though sitting out on the lawn chairs with Grandpa feeding peanuts to the squirrels was pretty nice too.