A few “extras” added in 2010
I’ve just added a short photo gallery here: http://www.myoldhouse.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=28
It shows photos of a few minor “upgrades” we added in 2010.
1) When my wife and I walked in the back door, returning from a week’s vacation out-of-town surrounding our August wedding anniversary, I noticed at once that something was different! The front door had strange light surrounding it. I walked to the front of the house and saw that we had brand-new sidelight glass surrounding the front door! Turns out, she had gotten that for me / us as an Anniversary gift! My father-in-law had worked in “cahoots” with her. He let Mike and Denise Butler in to install this glass while we were away. (They had worked with Terry to select these sidelights and buy them.)
2) My father-in-law followed this up with a second surprise…. and early Christmas gift. He was impressed so much with what Mike and Denise had bought and installed, that he had them build and install a custom stained-glass window, replacing the clear glass window along our main stairwell. This looks pretty classy!
3) In late October, Mike and Denise referred us to a gentleman who would help us solve a problem: The stairs in front of the house (not the ones off of the porch, but rather, the stairway that connects directly to the street) really needed a set of railings, for safety. To my knowledge, there had never been any railings there. So, this gentleman not only designed the railings to MATCH the look of our existing front-porch railings, he also built, painted, and installed them for us! (All for only $320 !! What a deal!)
Now: Where on earth am I going to come up with money for our NEXT big project –> replacement of our entire driveway !!! ACK !!!!