And I get to stay!

We have lived in 5 houses now.  We start with whatever and then make it ours.  The house in Price began as a 2 bedroom, 1 bath rambler with 990 sq.ft.  By the time we left, we finished a full basement doubling the square footage and added an extra large garage.  Charlie put in a laundry chute over the laundry room, added a hall closet, put in gas heat (as opposed to the wood burning stove because all electric heat was too expensive), added two bedrooms and a bathroom, as well as awesome food storage room and extra storage. Equipped a very hot house with a swamp cooler, put in french doors out to the deck that he built. Oh, and we fully landscaped the works and built a fence.

I learned much from building, sheet rocking, wiring, pouring concrete, plumbing...you get the picture.  I always said after the 19 years in Price that I could build a home myself.  It wouldn't look pretty, but I could do it.  It was so much fun having such a handy husband.

We moved from 569 Windsor Rd in Price, Utah to 491 Marcus Ct in Moab, Utah in 1996. There wasn't a whole lot to pick from in Moab.  We settled on a brick rambler that was built in 1977.  It had served as a rectory for a priest and then rented out to whomever.  I died when I first saw it.  Torquoise shag carpeting was the absolute worst!  It had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living room, laundry, kitchen and family room.  To make it liveable we gutted the entire house and started over.  Popcorn ceiling was scraped away, every wall painted, every inch of flooring redone, all new appliances, new showers and tubs, new hardware on newly finished cabinets, and then we settled in. Then Charlie decided it wasn't done.  He and Brent put in a bay window in the living room.  They added a wall to the large living room creating a tiled entryway.  Still not done?  Let's add a 500 square foot addition on the back so we can get a pool table. Then it needed another bedroom and bathroom and a deck. When that was done, he did a makeover on the master bedroom.  The bathroom was too small so he extended it into the walk-in closet and built new closets.  Good thing the room was huge to start off with.  You ready for the pictures?

This is turning into a really long blog.  We lived here 9 years and got the house to where we liked it and then moved.  

Stansbury Park house was next.  I blogged about those renovations in a much earlier blog.  I loved that house.  We didn't have to do much to it but Charlie did.  His truck wouldn't fit in the garage so he added an extra long third bay with workshop.  I think he was really sad to leave that behind.  In Pennsylvania (also blogged about earlier) his truck spent the next 6 years outside even though we had a 3 bay garage.  Poor truck was just too long and the door wouldn't shut.

So now we are in our last house!!!  Everything we do to it I get to keep forever until I'm dead.  So excited!  The third bay in the garage is long enough for Charlie's truck!  Miracle!  We have much planned for this house.  The carpet has already been replaced and we are starting to re-do rooms and built ins.  White appliances just didn't cut it, so voila!!

And I get to stay and keep them forever!