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It's hard to believe April is here all ready. For almost a year, I've been looking forward and thinking about my A to Z theme. If I was smart, I would have prepared each post ahead of time, but not me. When it comes to the A to Z Challenge, I like to live dangerously. Off the top of my head the night before posting--or morning of. Okay, here we go, we'll see what happens!
Here's my ACTION List:
Living
Room: New ceiling fan with great reading lights,
new
baseboards, and new flooring all the way
down the hall & into master bedroom, paint, removal of wet bar to build floor
to ceiling book shelves.
Dining
Area: New flooring,
paint
Kitchen:
Combine kitchen & dining area, new flooring, new countertops – granite or
…? Backsplash, New stove top, new dishwasher, microwave and oven. New garbage
disposal, doors on bookcase under bar, remove built-in desk and build shelves
with doors, new cabinets? We’ll see.Master bathroom: new shower, shelves over built-in chest, shelves over bathtub, paint. And new floor.
Guest Bathroom: new countertops and sinks. New toilet, new floor. New tub?
Son’s room: paint? New floor?
Daughter’s room? New floor?
This is the list we discussed with the contractor—more
about him later—and of course, it was all negotiable. At this point, what we
wanted and what we could afford were still two different things--sort of like wanting to be published by one of the Big 5 publishers but settling for an unknown small press.
Listen
to me: Research is imperative. It doesn’t matter if we’re
going to a new doctor or a new literary agent, moving to a new city or a new publisher—research
is crucial to keep us from making unnecessary mistakes.
I learned the hard way that no matter whether we’re taking
action on our writing dreams or renovating a house, we need to always ask the
right questions. What are the right questions? Well, sometimes we don't know them until after the fact.
Do you know any good questions to ask a contractor before he starts knocking down walls? I'd love to hear them. What would you ask your agent if you learned he was e-bombing your book proposal to publishers--even though some of them didn't publish your genre?
Research + Asking the right questions = a happy writer and a happy renovator!
Join me tomorrow for B-day.