This is our last day in the house I bought in 1987. I figured Drew and I would be here five years, until he finished high school. Then we met Jack and he added his Wassily chairs and his grandfather’s hall tree and Victrola to the Southwest style we had established. Right away he built a little deck and a curved wooden walkway in the garden. Later he built closets in the bedrooms, installed a gas fireplace in the living room, tore down the walls in the third floor and cathedraled the ceiling. Together we renovated the kitchen and bathroom, tiled the front porch, built bookcases then took some down again. We ripped the paneling off the basement walls and scraped off the crumbling parging, cleaned and painted the basement walls and floor a couple of times. We added crown molding, sanded the hardwood floors, and installed more square feet of tile than I can calculate.
At the beginning of every project Jack complained loudly and often that he didn’t want to do any more work on the house. He considered home improvement projects an interruption of his life, time wasted. Yet he worked hard, did things well, and in the end, took great pride in what we accomplished. The house sold as easily as it did because of Jack, and I can’t wait to find our next home and go through the Schulzifying process again with him.
We loved coming to visit because your home was beautiful, cozy and inviting, but mostly because you both were there. Without you, it’s just a house. We’ll visit whatever dwelling you Schulzify next.