In October of 2011, my wife and I put in an offer on a fixer-upper in Los Angeles, and despite an ominous Tarot card reading in which we were emphatically warned not to buy the house, we bought it anyway -- only to discover through the arduous renovation process that there were irreparable cracks in the foundation of our relationship. Rather than the two of us creating our first home together, I ended up rebuilding and redoing the property alone, an undertaking in which I was convinced I'd fail. Though it was at times pretty miserable, the experience ultimately turned out to be both immensely fulfilling and deeply therapeutic.
What happens when the one thing that is supposed to make you feel secure in the world upends your world? For me it was a gut renovation in the painful sense, but I came out of it an adult, and a true owner of my home. A story I wrote about the process appeared in the New York Times Home & Garden section on April 10, 2013.
Click through the slideshow below for before-and-after photos and to learn more about how the renovation process helped me get through the divorce.
This is the photo from the original MLS listing. The property is two houses on one lot, and this is the house my wife and I decided to occupy since it was a one bedroom and the other house was a two-bedroom.
This is the front of the house today. The location of the front door was moved, no-water gravel was installed in the front yard, and what was once the entryway became a dining nook.
Here?s a photo of the living room prior to renovation. One of the big decisions I made just after my wife left me was to demolish the ceiling in this room. As I mention in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/garden/dan-crane-magazine-ready-except-the-marriage.html" target="_blank">New York Times article</a>, ?As I watched the ceiling cave in, I was suddenly happier than I had been in a long time. I had made a major, entirely rash decision about the house ? by myself. It was liberating.? Once I realized that my wife was truly no longer going to move into this home with me, I gained a new sense of purpose in the renovation. I suddenly took ownership over every decision and it was at once terrifying and empowering.
This is a collage of the ceiling demolition.
This is what the living room and dining nook look like today.
The bathroom was a total gut. When we bought the house, there were holes in the walls and mold growing inside.
This is what the bathroom looked like after.
The other major piece of the renovation in this house was in the basement. As I mentioned in my New York Times story, one of the most off-putting elements of the house during our first viewing was the ?slow eddy of raw sewage? that ran through the basement. The room had such bad mojo that at one point my mom had even called my wife to ask her to find someone to burn some sage and/or perform an exorcism down there. No joke. This became my office/man cave.
Here is the man cave, complete.
This is another photo of the man cave.
Another amazing thing about the property has been renting out the guesthouse via <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/723736" target="_blank">Airbnb</a>. Not only have my guests loved staying there, I?ve befriended several of them, and plan on visiting one group of Swedes in Stockholm this summer (after I go to Oulu, Finland to host the <a href="http://www.airguitarworldchampionships.com" target="_blank">18th Annual World Air Guitar Championships</a>). This is a photo of the guesthouse from the original MLS listing.
This is the guest house today.
Another photo of the guest house.
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Follow Dan Crane on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dancranehere
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-crane/this-feels-very-adult-how_b_3179213.html
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