I know what you are talking about! My dad lived in his house till he was 90, and was constantly renovating. He never bought any building materials, just reused the stuff he removed. In the final few years he was carefully removing drywall from one place so he could use it in another, usually in pieces the size of a newspaper! He reused old nails, screws and bits of wire. I'm sure he would have used those Bandaids at least twice. His electrical wiring was something to behold, and good luck figuring out which circuit went where.....
One Christmas my parents had a big dinner party for 10 or 12 people. While the turkey was cooking in the oven, my dad, my brothers and I carried the stove from the old kitchen to the new one he decided to build during the Christmas holidays! Dinner was started in one kitchen and was finished in a new one!
In 50 years of marriage my mom never lived in a finished house. At her funeral the pastor told the mourners that he had talked to her shortly before her death and she told him that "She was dying first so she could see heaven before Fred started renovating it."
I went to stay with some friends for a long weekend when I was 18. When I came home all my stuff was in boxes in the garage and my bedroom had been turned into a walk-in-closed and ensuite bathroom for their bedroom. I was officially out of the nest..
Gotta love these old guys.
