A flood encouraged us to make home improvements

Just a year ago our house was flooded by a tropical storm, there was too much rain. It was amazing how much damage six inches of water could do to a house. We needed major repairs to our house, so we have to hire a contractor to do what should be done. Since the house was being repaired before the flood, we decided to make some cosmetic changes. My husband and I talked about those changes before the flood happened.

The first thing we agreed to do was add recessed lighting to our master bedroom and living room. It confuses me why the home builder was unable to add lighting to these two rooms. My husband had always hated how dark these rooms were. We put six LED lights in our bedroom and four more in the living room. These rooms are now much brighter and I love being in them now.

After that, we talked to our contractor about taking down the wall in our kitchen and dining room. He said that the wall in question was not a load-bearing wall and it went down. He replaced the wall and extended the counter space and cabinets in the kitchen. Getting rid of the wall was a great improvement for our home. He opened the whole house with that change.

Our kitchen had previously been a dark and cramped place. Now it's bright and cozy, so we can talk inside the kitchen and dining room.

After tearing down the wall, we blocked one of the two entrances to the side of the kitchen. Instead of the extra input that was pretty stupid, we now have something we've only dreamed of before. Yes, we now have a built-in bookcase in the kitchen area.

I have a great love for cookbooks, which has ended up in my vast collection of cookbooks. Now, I have a storage location for my cookbooks in my kitchen. Even better, at least for my spouse, the book shelf has doors, so no one has to look at my books except when they open the doors. My books are out of sight, which my spouse had long wanted.

The last thing we did was add a door between our master bedroom and the attached master bathroom. That was the only design flaw of the original builders. I always hated the fact that the bathroom led directly to the bedroom without a door. Don't get me wrong, in the back was the toilet and shower, part of the bathroom and it had a door. But the part with the sinks didn't, and we could hear each other brushing our teeth or washing our hands. Adding a door was simple, but it has added many good nights of sleep.

Despite how difficult it was to deal with the flooding, it led us to take home improvement actions that we have never done before. It was our way of taking something very bad and turning it into something good.