As some of you know, and I’ll take a wild guess that 25% of you actually know me, I’d been doing a little job hunting as my position was to terminate at the end of the year. Well good news, I have been hired by the same agency. The job concerns allowed me to keep any plans I had about fixing the house that crack built, on hold.
The hold is off and I have to start thinking about the house, and do something before interest rates bump up again. After I did the kitchen several years back, which was beautiful and modern, I turned around and saw the rest of my house which was ugly and filled with crackhead building solutions. Oh, like the toilet being tiled into the floor, the pipe from the bathroom that keeps the front door from opening all the way, a whole floor of uneven textured paint, and poorly installed plumbing and wacky wires. There are things I can’t blame on crackheads with tools, like the uneven floors, the crooked windows, and the lack of a 90 degree angle anywhere in the house. All that crap needs to get fixed, and now I gotta do it.
One big thing I have decided is that I am not going to have my addition built up. Two neighbors on my block got a boat load of more space when they knocked down their kitchen additions, which were one story, and replaced them with a two story addition. This created more kitchen space and allowed for a bigger bedroom, and just more space. I too wanted more space, but (saying to self slowly) I don’t NEED more space. At one point in history 11 people lived in my house with an average of 4 people between 1880-1930. I and the odd roommate, don’t need more space than the 4 or more people who came before us.
What I need are new windows, new doors, insulation, shoring up/improvement of one of the party walls, maybe get the floors evened up, get the wiring to make sense, and possibly throw in some air conditioning. I want to move the bathroom as that pipe blocks the door and I want/need a tub I can soak in. I also need to undo the crackhead building solutions, of which are numerous.
There is so much to do, I almost don’t know where to start.
4 thoughts on “Thinking about the house”
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My advice to you is to start on the stuff that you can handle. Maybe you can remove the plaster from the wall with uneven textured paint. It is a messy job but one which someone who is reasonably competent with tools can handle. Once the plaster is off, you can expose the brick or put drywall on it. I just did this project on one of my walls this weekend, as there had been a long time leek in the roof and everytime there was water damage on a plaster wall, they simply put more plaster on it.
It sounds like you have to redo the bathroom anyway so change the tile when you do and have it done right. Get them to check the wiring.
The uneven floors aren’t that big a deal ,it is part of an old house.
The wiring might not be so bad as you think. My wiring is old, but when I had an electrician look at it for some things, he said that as long as I don’t mess with it, it’ll be fine.
–John
Just make sure that whatever project you tackle that the work won’t be destroyed be later projects. I know it sounds obvious, but believe me people have made that mistake.
Yay! Congrats on getting the job!
K- thanks.
My general plan is to do one BIG job, not a series of little projects that I have been doing. One little project will be destroyed if I get what I want done. Years back, I tiled my bathroom, up to the ceiling. Now, I want to move the bathroom. I’m ok with destroying the tile job. I’m not ok with destroying the kitchen, which is one of the reasons why I won’t have an addition put on.
There is some stuff I can do myself, and there is a lot of stuff I will leave to a GC to do. Plumbing, HVAC, electrical work require a professional and I’m going to leave a lot for the professionals. And I will probably move out while that’s being done. Smaller things like painting, tiling, installing some fixtures, carpeting, that I’d want to do.
The thing I’m trying to do right now is clear out the basement (and later other floors) and look for off-site storage.