Projects Around the Home

Being a home owner is great but has its trade-offs. While it's great to be building equity in your home, the list of household projects seems to never end. When Karen and I moved into our house about 5 years ago, we created a list of things that we'd like to see done in order to either personalize the living space or perform much needed improvements. We love the location of our house, being in a more mature area of the city and close to the trail system. The larger lot, mature trees and quiet neighbourhood make this an ideal place for us. The only challenge for us is that the house is about 26 years old, which means that it's in need of the type of work that comes with regular wear and tear.


Don't get me wrong, I love working on the house and tackling do-it-yourself projects. There are great TV shows to reference on the DIY Network and HGTV. Their websites are great too! Also, you can YouTube instructional videos on just about anything these days. You can't always rely on the accuracy of the videos, but they're a good resource nonetheless.

 

So this is how we started eating our elephant (with the help of my awesome father-in-law):

 

Year 1

•  Painted the main interior space (living room, entryway and hallway) to get rid of the existing purple and violet tones.
• Painted all casings and baseboards.
• Painted the main bathroom to remove the lavender color.
• Replaced some of the hardware on the doors.
• Furnished the living room to match the new paint.
• Fixed leaky taps.
• Cleaned up the overgrowth in the yard.
• Leveled the small deck at the front of the house.
• Install new window coverings.

Year 2

• Stained the cedar siding on the exterior of the house.
• Replaced siding on chimney.
• Replaced flooring in the main and ensuite bathrooms.
• Re-painted main bathroom to match flooring.
• Painted the master bedroom including all casings and baseboards.
• Painted ensuite bath.
• Replace lighting in bedroom.
• Bought furniture in bedroom to match new paint.
• Added edging and lava rock to the yard.
• Replaced faulty outlets in bathroom and bedrooms.
• Removed water softener (not required).

Year 3

• Installed new flooring in main entryway and on stairs.
• Moved in a yard of gravel for the backyard and next to the driveway pad.
• Replaced plumbing on leaky kitchen drain.
• Major pruning of trees and bushes in the yard.
• Repaired furnace.

Year 4

• Painted 2 bedrooms (previous bright pink).
• Painted doors and closets.
• Installed ceiling fan in dining room.
• Started the re-build of our back deck, including staining (started off as just a staining job).
• Pruning of trees in the backyard.

Year 5 (this year)

• Finish construction of the deck (wrap around stairs).
• Replace bathroom faucets.
• Major pruning of trees and bushes.
• Painted the main pantry.
• Finished painting remaining doors and closets.
• Removed unwanted satellite dish.
• Detail work and touch up paint.
• Replaced trellises.

I’m not sure if I’ve captured all of our projects to date, but it’s clear there were quite a few of them. The next major projects on the list include driveway paving, re-building the fence, kitchen renos, bathroom renos and building a new guest room in the basement. Add to this new appliances on the wish list and I think that takes care of the first decade.

 

Like I said, I really love our place and enjoy working on these projects, so I’m not complaining at all. There is a sense of accomplishment when one is able to customize their home by developing a vision, learning how to conduct the work, and getting through the projects. We’ve been fortunate that we can budget both the cost of the projects and the time it takes to complete the work into our lives. Karen and I are both busy people. When it comes to fitting these things in between school, work, marathon training, social life, family, volunteering, R&R and time spent together, I’m not sure how it all seems to work out. Lucky I guess.