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.