Making the right renovating decisions can be a challenge. The secret as I am discovering it is the reason why you are renovating. Our house about half an hour from Calgary is all about renovating with re-sale in mind. Upgrades being made that we can live with and that someone will see as adding value to the house.

The ‘why’ becomes more interesting when you are renovating around one’s working retirement house. That is all about what you want, your lifestyle and tastes. My aha! moment on that was the other week. The house in Nova Scotia has no upstairs bathroom so I have a clean slate to work with. Someone mentioned that I can install a nice, big bathtub. The only thing is I don’t like taking baths.

I am a long, hot shower girl. Showers have washed away the tears of a troubled first marriage and more than a few lost dreams, down the drain with the aches of too much time at the computer & the cobwebs from sleepless nights. So no the upstairs bedroom that is being converted into a bathroom will never see a bathtub but it will have a roomy shower stall and one of those big rain shower heads. That shower will wash away a new era of aches and dreams.

Ok, so with the money that I save on the bathtub, designing a library in the strange little area off the living room is looking like a plan.