Of Appraisals and Light Demolition

The weekend began with us sleeping in, and it took a while to kick into high gear. We’d been up late watching movies in the media room with friends after an awesome dinner (out, at a restaurant…), and I think we rolled out of bed around 10. The bank appraiser was supposed to be here at noon, but instead he called at noon and said he’d be here at 2. That threw a wrench in my plan to spend the entire afternoon gutting the kitchen, so instead I mowed the lawn.

The guy showed up at 2 and immediately dashed my spirits. He started taking notes, and pictures, of all the things on our house that are “incomplete”. Like, the siding on the North side of the house where I couldn’t bear to replace the old stuff when I rebuilt the foundation. Or, the gutted upstairs bath. Or the exposed chimney (which we plan on leaving that way, but to him “oh, that’s gonna need a lot of work!”). Or, the kitchen cabinets sans doors (removed last weekend…) Fortunately for me, the cabinets didn’t look like this yet:

Now, I realize this guy is supposed to put a value on our home. The hard part for me is that where he sees dollar signs, I see a few weekends of hard work. Where he sees a gutted room, I see potential. He had a worried look on his face throughout the entire house. Until he saw the media room. Then he asked me if I could turn the projector on for him. He smiled at that.

One thing really bothered me. This guy is putting a value on our house, and presumably he’s subtracting $ for the “incomplete” projects. But he has no clue what these projects will actually cost. When I told him I did all the work on our house, he started asking ME if I could come over to his place and give him estimates on some of his to-do items, e.g, wiring his upstairs bedrooms with Romex.

So anyhow, he wouldn’t give me any indication of what the final value is. It doesn’t have to be outrageous for us to get the loan, so I’m still hopeful. If not, we’ll figure something out. I’m hoping to talk to the bank lady tomorrow.

After he left it took me an hour or so to rise from the sea of misery he’d cast, but I did, and then I ripped out the upper cabinets on one half of the kitchen. The next day I ripped out the rest of the uppers, all the trim, and de-nailed all the stuff I’m saving. Then Trissa and I moved our new love-seats upstairs to the temporary living room, and called it a weekend. This week we’ll continue moving furniture upstairs, and deconstructing the first floor. Our plan is to remove all the trim, and the floor, before we get a dumpster over here for the plaster. That’s at least a couple of weeks out.

Next week’s poll: should we save the wallpaper for our new kitchen? Seriously - can anyone date that pattern for us? We’re at a loss. It was behind the 1960’s (?) cabinets.