The List

I sat down to go room by room and at first I felt okay, then it became a little overwhelming.

We had a budget for a brand new 1800 sq ft house, built by my Dad (who is 1st class) with a lot of amenities and a full walk out (finish-able) basement. I'm hoping to do these renovations and having our costs be under what it would have been to build. We'll see....

Garage:
Clean up - yes, they left everything including the trash
Garage door openers x2
Fix storm door
Shelving
Peg board for tools





Downstairs Living Room/Kids Room:
 
Paint
New flooring
Lights (?)
New windows (?)






Downstairs Bath:
Paint
New Flooring
New vanity counter
Vanity hardware
New towel bars
New toilet paper roll
New Faucet
Mirror over vanity


Laundry:

New top for folding table
Clean out closet
New Washer/Dryer
Hanging drying rack (?)
Paint
Floors



Downstairs Bedroom/ Office:

Floors
Paint
Curtain and shade       






Stairway:
Paint
Tile in front of doorway
New carpet on stairs
New door/windows
Fan instead of super 80's chandelier

Upstairs Living Room:
Paint
Floors
Glass for fireplace
New cable outlet
Built-ins next to fireplace
Mantle




Dining Room/Kitchen:
Take out wall separating the two
Flooring
Paint
Trim paint
Lights
Chandelier 
Sliding glass door where glass doors are
Take out Dutch Door extend wall
New Cabinets
New appliances   
     





 

Hallway:
New lights
Paint
Flooring
New doorbell

Upstairs Bathroom:
Take off shower door
Shower curtain bar and curtain
Flooring
Paint
Paint ceiling
New vanity light
New Faucet
Towel bars
Toilet paper bar
Hook on door for towels
More shelving in closet
New vanity countertop (?)
New mirror
New window 
New (non gold) Shower hardware

Boys Room 1:
Paint
Electrical for light
Fan
Shave door
New shade
New windows x2   
New heater


Boys Room 2:
Paint
Trim paint
Electrical for light
Fan
Shave door
New shades
New windows x4   
New heater 


Master Bedroom:
 
Paint
Trim paint
Ceiling paint
Electrical for light
Fan
New windows x2
New heater


Master Bathroom: Can I just say GUT? This is the worst room in the house

Paint
Trim paint
Ceiling paint
New window    
Extra shelving x100000000000000
New counter for vanity
New vanity light
New shower
Floors  
New faucet 
Shower door

My goal is to ignore the Master Bathroom and eventually gut the bathroom and two hallway closets and somehow incorporate them into one. Or, build a Master suite addition and not worry about anything but updating hardware and paint in the Master Bath.




I didn't touch the outside on this list. There is quite a hefty lift for the outside, but for now I'll let it stand.  
    

Why did they do that?

We have run into a few things during this renovation that have made us realize that there are some "charming" highlights to renovating an older house. The electric, the appliances, the design, its all just not quite what modern is.

Take our project of installing a new dishwasher tonight. Not easy. My husband guessed 1hour to take out and install. Well, it took an hour to get out, who knew they hard wired them in the front. Our drywall took a little bit of a beating, but hey, we're about to rip the whole kitchen out anyway, right?

Today, we had an electrician here and I happened to mention - yeah it seems they made some odd electric decisions here. His response, yeah, it seems like they just threw it together quickly. Well, at least it matched our thoughts.

The plumbing, ha, that too either was poorly done or just has changed since the '80's. The seemingly simple task of changing a faucet can take up to 8 hours - especially, if you are a novice like us! The pipes don't line up the same.

The silver lining, it feels so good to be replacing the old with the new and making this home newer, better up to code. It feels so good to be new. Don't get me wrong, I love the character of old. But my gold faucets and 1985 Maytag dishwasher are not charming.

Sweat Equity

 

Photo credit: http://stayviolation.typepad.com/chucknewton/2008/01/sweat-equity-sw.html

Ever watched the show sweat equity on tv? We used to watch it religiously before we bought our first home. We always thought our first house was going to be a "fixer upper", turns out it was turn and key. But, with the purchase of our first home (vs. townhouse) we are ready to put some sweat and labor into our place and hoping to increase our value and in this economy, refinance and drop our payment.

We knew when we moved it that paint was the quickest way for us to improve what we had. The cream walls in the whole house was great, since it was a clean slate, but they make it feel cold and unfinished.

Right when we moved in, we could see our other important order of business was to update the bathrooms from their gold fixtures and oak towel bars and light fixtures.

Our other bonus came in a bit of accident. Before we decided to buy, we were steps away from building. Back a few months ago as I was leaving our storage unit I noticed a sign for a display sale at a kitchen design center. I went on the website and they had two beautiful kitchens. Thinking we were building and that we'd need to order a kitchen anyway, I thought this might be a good investment. I grabbed my Mom, who is much more knowledgeable about these things, we met the owner and ended up with both kitchens! Figuring to put one as a kitchen and the other we would split up for vanities and built ins. We moved both kitchens into storage and when we bought the house - into our garage.

In honesty, I feel like this was meant to happen, because I really don't like the kitchen we have. The cabinets are in great shape and could be refinished, but they are small. The kitchen itself is small and we have a lot of stuff. So, our next order of business would be the kitchen.

When we first decided it was time to upgrade from the townhouse our major need was land. We have a big dog and a growing family and we need space. I also am an avid gardener. I have always wanted a vegetable garden of my own and my own beautiful landscaped playground. I have spent years landscaping my parents yard and have wanted one of my own to transform. I was a landscaper in the summers all through college and I love the joys of being outside, the hard labor, and the rewards from gardening. It also helps that we have a landscaping company 3 doors down and our neighbor is awesome. The first week we moved in, the owner came over and asked us for a favor. He needs to use our driveway for the next few months to access the next door neighbors back yard to deliver fill. I, of course, said yes and started the back scratching.

He let us borrow his landscaping blowers to remove the years of leaves that filled our 3 acres. Then he came with a tractor and hauled at least 10 loads of leaves out of the yard. He and I also talked about improving the lawn and he is going to help me put in a brick walk way in the front! Landscaping!!!

So, where am I going with this?? Well, it just happens that I look at sweat equity and see the 5 top projects to improve the value of your home....

Yay! We are on the right track!

The task at hand

Hello. Here is my introduction to Our Big Reno, a blog that I've made public to highlight the monumental task my husband and I are taking on. We recently bought our second home after a long time of trying to figure out where we would end up. Build/Buy/Rent?!?! We were seconds away from building when we bit the bullet and bought a house we had happened to go in during an open house for curiosity's sake. Our thought: It has everything we need.





The house was a second home for an older couple for the last 27 + years. They built it in 1987, decorated it and that is how we bought it. All their stuff included... even the trash and lots and lots of soda. The house is in great shape since it wasn't used a lot, but it is in need of some "freshening up". Knowing ourselves, if we don't tackle it all now, we will be living as is for the next 30 years. So here we are taking it one room at a time, ready to get that modern house we planned on building, in our not so modern fixer upper.