HouseWorks: Know when it's time to go shopping

Every year I take on one major expense for the betterment of the HouseWorks Project House.

Ten years ago, it was the workshop. The new-new house came with an old garage in the backyard, and I enlarged, resided and electrified it that very first summer. The biggest challenge of the job turned out to be that I didnt have a shop to work in where I could fabricate the parts I needed to build the shop.

If you follow my drift.

Another summer saw the arrival of the hot tub and the little deck I added because the tub suddenly occupied valuable patio territory and I needed space for my Adirondack chairs.

That was followed a couple of years later by the front deck that gives me something like the porch I had at the 100-year-old new-old house. Im awfully fond of 50s ranches, but a house needs a porch, not a silly little concrete pad.

Year before last, the gift of a pool table led to the remodeling of half the basement, a project that included my second venture into floating floor installation and the first time Id soloed.

Last year, it was replacement windows. No actual labor on my part was involved, but it took a big gulp out of the family finances.

Next year, I think it will have to be air conditioning.

I dont know how old that unit huffing and puffing behind the house must be, but I fear the mighty galloping hamsters that kept it cooling in its early years have been replaced by sickly cockroaches.

Its on its last legs, gang.

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HouseWorks: Know when it's time to go shopping