This can become a nice entryway, right?

Now that we have the keys to the Parkwood house, Carol has been able to go through it in greater detail. She also chose which contractor to work with for this project, so our friend Ray from some of our previous jobs will be joining us again for this one. His bid will work well for us. Welcome, Ray!

What’s the Plan?

You’re probably well aware that the house has a lot to clean out, which has to happen first. But at least you can see floor space now in some of the rooms.

We’ve had queries about whether any of the stuff that’s left is worth buying from us, or if we can donate it to folks we know. Carol’s pretty sure there are horrible germs or bugs on all the furniture, and is equally sure that the relative who stayed at the house after the previous owner died managed to find the things that were worth selling. And we are glad that she did, because she deserved to get something out of her dedication to the property.

After clean-up, the fun begins. Here are some highlights of what Carol and Ray agreed to do.

It’s dark and dreary in here. Let’s add skylights.

Interior

• Add skylights. As you can see from the photos, the house is pretty dark inside, so two skylights will go up in the living area.
• Remove a wall into the kitchen. There’s an unfinished wall leading into the kitchen. It will go away and help open up the main living area.
• Finish the laundry room addition. The laundry room used to be in the garage, and it was partially converted into a room, but without an air conditioning vent. We’re going to add one and finish the addition, which is basically sound.
• Update the bathroom surrounds.
• Find the source of and remove the smells in the master bedroom and any other smelly room.

This is some of the nice siding that has already been renovated.

Exterior

• Replace the trim with wider boards. This will give it an updated look.
• Finish the job of adding new good quality siding to the house. The material is there; it just never got finished.
• Replace the roof. This is really important, of course. Carol hopes to use a newer, more modern color on the roof, and will repaint the exterior modern colors.

And all the obvious issues and damage you can see in the photos will be addressed. As you look Carol’s photos over, let us know if you have any other ideas we could try!

More Fun Photos