Everybody Is Fixing His or Her House or Apartment Up These Days. Use That Digital Camera To Capture The Process!

 by: Kevin Rockwell

That’s right, you go through all the trouble of making your house or apartment nicer by hauling yourself off to the local fix it yourself store or hiring some professionals to come in and do it for you, so why not capture an accurate record of it for posterity. At almost no cost I might add.

Grab your digital camera and start snapping images of your place before the project begins. Hey I even documented my wife buried in catalogs, magazines, plans and books on the couch as she researched our kitchen remodel. She did not like the shot but in the end I think she will look back on it and laugh. After the bills have been paid I might add.

Yes we are in the middle of a major kitchen remodel. Imagine taking your old semi-functional kitchen, stripping it down to the studs, knocking out a wall or two and then starting over. That is what we are immersed in these days. I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to be nothing but positive about the process no matter how painful it gets. So to that end I decided to start taking pictures everyday of the progress. Well almost everyday as there are days when no progress is made. It helps me keep my sense of humor and it has also given me a better perspective on the project that has allowed me to give my wife input on direction that might otherwise not been received too well if you know what I mean.

It all started with the excavation of the new addition off the back of the house. The contractor started with digging for the new foundation, and stripping off the façade of the back of the house. While there was a bunch of activity on the outside of the house I even set up my DV video camera and shot time lapse video of all the carpentry and digging that was going on during a two hour period. It made for a fun video.

Now I work out of my office in the house so when construction began it was an earful for sure. My wife works at a local hospital so she was lucky enough to miss the din each day, although she gets an earful at work from time to time. I am able to set a timer in my day to wander up in the back of the house and take the days images. I try to find a new detail of the construction to capture each day. My favorite day, although it was the loudest by far, was the day of demolition. My contractor brought in this delightful crew of guys who hail from Russia originally. They whacked and crashed my old kitchen to pieces all the while chatting each other up in Russian. They were efficient and fun guys who tore it up in record time and created a mountain of trash out back. I documented mount trashmore with my dog standing proudly on top with a quizzical look on his face.

Of course one could say that I am protecting myself against problems with the construction and you would be right on some level. But that is not truly why I am doing it. I really want to be able to assemble a full documentation of this process that I can look at down the road when we are fully enjoying our great new kitchen.