By love, for love, of love..

It takes a lot of courage to jump into a home remodeling project, especially if you have gone through it thrice already over the years. 

We decided last year to remodel and get the girls their own bedrooms. Their bunk bedding days were clearly over. We also wanted an open layout and have a backyard we would spend time in. So we took the plunge and started the project. 

We lived in one part of the house (read two rooms and a bathroom with no kitchen) and managed it with a lot of sacrifice from San, the kids, MIL who visited us. We also had help from our neighbors and friends who understood what we were going through.

I made 9 trips to Asia during the time of this remodel and that did not make it any easier for the family, but we pulled through. 

Every day, we would do "inspection" when I got home from work and take pictures on my iPhone. The family would go to the forbidden side and see what changed during the course of the day!

There were more than 2500 pictures in this sequence. I took a select few and have made a video out of it.. have also included a few random pictures as time markers on things that still happened while all this was going on. . . 

and now that we have a final permit and things are done except for decorating the house... this video got made!

Here is a picture of San "doing the official milk boiling to intiate the new house". Brought back memories of a different time from 11 years ago.. 

I think I am done with remodeling. This is "IT".

Then again, wife and kids laugh at me when I say something like this. 

On the bright side, there will be no more fighting between the ladies for closet space, no more "you took my shampoo" fights when said shampoo is same bottle same brand same size in same bathroom, "you are in my space" fights, etc. etc. 

One can always hope! 

The best part was that we were a happy family in one room. When we all spread out after the house was done, there is more space, but more distance between people. It was a great experience to live in one room for those months! 

Double Trouble

Let us say your house is worth $x in your opinion (based on square footage muliplied by the going rate in your area)

Now you get a property tax statement from the county that says your house is worth x+300k !!! and you now owe the county a bigger tax amount.

You figure that if your house is worth that much, then you should be able to get a really nice interest rate on a loan.. afterall your risk is low considering how much your house is worth and how much money you have put in the house already!

So you start the process and to your surprise and anger, the guy who came to appraise your house values the house at x-200k. You are now scratching your head...

The banks want to keep your mortgage high by lowering house value
The county wants to keep your tax high by raising house value

This whole country is run by crooks at every level!

Maybe we should sell our house to the state of California and repay the bank loan and start renting?

If the above mentioned weren't true, I would be laughing.

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