For our first day of the Weekend House Project Bonanza, we walked Cliff through the many things to be done on our house project list. Much to our delight, there were several things on our list that Cliff said looked fine and didn't need repair (woohoo!). In addition, we realized that several of the outdoor projects on our list were not going to happen as soon as we looked at the weather forecast. This means that a number of outside projects--like sealing a cement wall in the back of our house and taking care of the insulation hanging down outside--will probably have to wait until spring. I have a feeling it will be May before Philly finally dries out from all of this rain, so we might have to wait until then for some significant sun to dry things out so we can move ahead!
Given the rainy days in the forecast, we are focusing our efforts on indoor projects. Yesterday we made a master list of everything that needs to be done, gave Cliff time to inspect everything, and then took a group field trip to Lowe's. I think it was the longest shopping trip I've ever had in a home improvement store, but we got all stocked up for the many projects ahead in the next several days, including electrical work, taking out drywall, and finally taking care of that awful hole in the cabinet floor under the kitchen sink!
The big news from yesterday is that we got the final estimate to have the floors done in our house. We knew that the number would be big, and it was. It wasn't a horrible surprise but was about 20% higher than we were expecting, and the more we thought about it, the more we felt like it would be too much of a stretch given that we don't know what other big-ticket projects might be waiting in the wings. We are still planning to do the whole house in solid hardwood, but for now, I think we're going to take it in stages.
We think we'll start with the upstairs to cover the lead paint floors, which is something we can probably afford to get done right away (we're going to head back for another estimate to get just the upstairs priced, but I'm about 95% sure it will be doable for us). We also need to cover the stairs, which are also painted, but proportionately they are more expensive since the labor is more intensive and there are a couple special pieces that need to be ordered. As an alternative, we think we'll just carpet the stairs for now, which will be significantly less expensive than wood. It will also have the added bonus of creating a divider between the downstairs floors, which will still be pine, and the upstairs floors, which will be a different colored oak. When we have more money, we'll add the new floors downstairs, and then eventually we'll probably have our stairs done to connect everything in between.
We're a little disappointed not to get the whole house done at once, but the floors downstairs really aren't that bad for now, and it doesn't seem worth the stress of stretching ourselves thin to get it all done right away. We know there are less expensive flooring options, like carpeting or laminate, but we just can't justify spending thousands of dollars on something we don't really want, so we're opting to take things piece by piece. Knowing that we are going to be here for a long time, it's really important to me to take the long view and to take our time to do things how we want them even if it takes longer. I've always been a quality over quantity kind of girl. Little by little, piece by piece, we'll get there eventually!
In addition to the work we're doing, we had someone come yesterday morning to take a look at our brickwork and get us an estimate for some pointing that needs to be done. This morning, someone else is coming to clean and inspect the gutters. We're hoping to get all the outside stuff taken care of in the next few weeks and get our house all sealed up in time for winter!
Stay tuned for more updates as we make our way through the house project list over the weekend!
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