The
Shoemaker's Children
This is a guest post by my wife,
the "J" in D & J Construction.
There's an old saying that the shoemaker's children go barefoot,
meaning that people often neglect those closest to themselves. And I suspect a contractor's own home is
often the last to be repaired or renovated -- contractors, like anyone else, deserving
to rest on the weekends, too!
So I
guess I've been pretty lucky to have an ambitious husband who's spent an awful
lot of his limited free time making improvements to our own home, and teaching
our kids valuable lessons about construction in the process.
So I
guess I've been pretty lucky to have an ambitious husband who's spent an awful
lot of his limited free time making improvements to our own home, and teaching
our kids valuable lessons about construction in the process.
In fact, sometimes it's almost
too much of a good thing! Even being
married to a contractor and learning a
lot about what's involved in construction, the prospect of major home
improvement on your own home can still
be really daunting.
We'd already added a second story and two bathrooms, among other things
-- great for us AND for the resume of D & J Construction -- but I thought
the backyard pictured here was the final incarnation of our house. Masonry is a specialty of Dominick's (that's
a paver patio there and pretty piers and walls built with landscape block and
bluestone), as are decks, and I thought
ours were terrific.
But that deck in the picture is gone now, in favor of an expanded
dining room. Definitely a worthwhile
project. Bonus? There's a whole new laundry room in the
basement now, too.
Additions and alterations can easily seem overwhelming, but I can say
from experience, it's always completely worth it in the end!
