Rainy day Reminiscing

I was just looking through some old photos and was reminded of the two reasons we settled on this particular house when we decided to move to North Carolina. For me, I knew this was it the moment I stepped into the solarium off the kitchen. The deal was sealed when I learned from the Realtor that the vacant lot next to the house was included in the property since I could see it as the perfect spot for the pool I knew I'd need to survive the hot Southern summers. His two reasons for buying this house were the yard and then the yard.

Some days, especially when I look at old photos, I still can't believe how far we've come since we decided to take on this project. The day we made the offer the solarium looked like this, below. Looking back on it I'm amazed I liked the room at all. I mean, look at that fan above the door, the tarp shade they had draped over the top, which made everything in the room look green, and the paneling! Anybody that knows me even a little knows that I'm physically unable to live in a paneled room. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that their solarium was mostly Plexiglas, had virtually no air-flow and these tiny crank-out style windows. Nevertheless, I couldn't wait to own this room and the back yard behind it for all the potential we knew it had!
What saved us from living with their solarium for too long was the arrival of a pretty severe Ice storm six months after we moved in. Not only did the ice bring trees crashing down into the old shed behind the house (a month after we repainted it)...A huge limb crashed through the solarium too... See the hole near the top over the middle two windows. Oh, what a messy but Happy, happy Day that turned out to be for us!
Because the old Solarium turned into this New one! All double paned, tinted glass with a full size sliding glass door and huge sliding windows on all sides. Not to mention a built-in heating and air conditioning system and individual movable shades. Fantastically Better!
Better both inside and out... No more paneling, no more tarp shade and because of a mistake they made during construction, I was able to negotiate a brand new floor too - I found some imported Italian tile I couldn't live without. It feels like butter and I love the color! In the winter I call it my floor sunshine! Of course, after the new solarium was completed we had to also extend the deck, which turned into replacing all the windows in the house and then the roof... I did mention this was a project, right? And, since we quickly learned that ice storms are common in this area, we installed a generator system and bought a monster chainsaw. Just in case!

Now it's easy to see why I really do love this room!

One more shot of the old solarium on the day we toured the house and offered to buy:Probably the best part of this ordeal is that our new Solarium (and shed) only cost us $250. How? Because $250 is our deductible on our USAA homeowners policy. Some people are in good hands with their insurance company... But with USAA, we're in Excellent hands!All those trees that were too close to the house are long Gone... Just to ensure our solarium stays this way!