DIY: Homeowner hit the books, then pounded nails

VIRGINIA BEACH

After some termites ate their way through Earl and Linda Yoder's backyard deck, Earl decided he'd replace it with a screened-in porch to enjoy summers without mosquitoes.

But one of his adult sons convinced Earl otherwise when he suggested his father abandon the porch plans and, instead, build a two-story addition to the Upton Estates' house where the Yoders have lived for 24 years.

He'd have to dig footers and pour a concrete foundation and put a roof on a porch anyway, his son reasoned. The only extra cost would be for more walls, Earl recalled.

So the full-time financial adviser spent the next year building two 16-by-16-foot rooms (one upstairs, one down) and replacing the deck outside with a much larger one.

The room upstairs is off the master bedroom and serves as Linda's walk-in closet, something Earl said he built for his wife because of her "great patience" in their nearly 38-year marriage.

"You know the saying, 'If mama ain't happy, nobody's happy,' " Earl said.

"By the way, don't do this and have a daughter get married" during the same year, Linda said about daughter Melissa Rogers' nuptials last September. Other than that, she said, "I love my closet." The spacious area features neatly placed and abundant racks for shoes and clothes, and beautiful fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling and wall.

Earl gives credit where credit is due. Some neighbors helped carry concrete during the foundation phase, while his sons, a daughter, a son-in-law and two grandchildren helped perform other jobs, including pouring concrete and building a wall. A neighbor's father helped install the windows. Other than that, it was all Earl, after work and on weekends.

Showing pictures of the job, before and during construction, on a large-screen television, Earl said he used no architectural renderings for his plans - just a hand-drawn plan on a piece of paper, meticulously sketched with a ruler.

Earl is proud that he passed all city inspections with flying colors because he did everything according to what code requires, he said. And then some. "I always over-engineer," he admitted.

Whether it's building a shed in the backyard that looks more like a two-story garage, erecting a tree house for the grandchildren or helping his son build a home on weekends for 18 months in Maryland, Earl does the job right.

He earned his know-how by buying and reading books about the do-it-yourself jobs he wanted to perform, he said, and the master electrician at their nearby Home Depot.

For him, the hardest part physically was getting 3/4-inch plywood on the roof by himself. He ended up buying a dry-wall lift, which aided in his ability to keep the boards up long enough to start hammering them in place.

At the end of the journey, Earl said, that fact that you can say you've done it yourself makes it all worthwhile. So does having a 16-by-16-foot room that can serve in any capacity that one wants.

Earl tiled the floor in perfect patterns with a large medallion tile in the center. The couple has decided to keep the room empty besides some floor-length curtains and a flat-screen TV hanging in a corner that way they it can stay versatile, like it was on New Year's Eve when the Yoders hosted a party. They filled the room with more than 140 yellow and black balloons to ring in 2012.

"We're not putting anything in here," Linda said.

And Earl isn't taking on any big projects this year.

He points to a magnet on the refrigerator: "Grandpa's rules: Take them fishing, tell them stories, send them home."

This year, he's taking his grandchildren - two in Chesapeake and two in Fayetteville, N.C. - fishing, Earl said.

"I'm putting the boat back in the water," he added.

Toni Guagenti, tguagenti @cox.net