We have lift off!

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week (I know all 5 of you that read, were wondering what was up) but we were busy buying a house!!!!!! We put an offer in, they countered, we countered, and they ACCEPTED! WAHOOOOO! So, now all that comes in the waiting to hear if we’re able to get a gigantic pile of money, putting us into crazy amounts of debt, that we really don’t even get to hold in our clammy little hands, to even pretend it’s ours! That is what’s causing us the most tummy flips, is just thinking about the debt that we’ll be in. But, it’s a good sort of debt, a “you’re moving up in the world” sort of debt…debt that is easy straightforward to pay off. (which we plan on doing in under 20 years.) On the flip side of gloom and doom debt, comes the extremely exciting task of updating our little diamond in the rough...and believe you me we have a loooooooooong list of things that we plan to do with it. Some right away (like the kitchen), some within the first year (like the bathroom/bedroom upsize), and a lot that will be done as we have the time and money to do them. So, here's an idea of all that we have planned for our special little place.

  (Note, that these are in no order of which we want to get them done...just as I could think of things hah)

The House "want to-do" List

INSIDE:

• completely redo the kitchen (to be completed by my birthday)
• add a half wall in the living room - to define a proper entry space (when we're doing kitchen)
•  move the laundry room to the basement
•  bump out bathroom and bedroom 1 to make them both larger (to be completed by the end of summer)
•  get rid of linen closet to make closet in bedroom 2 larger (we'll be adding significantly more storage in the bathroom when we redo it)
•  replace the grody carpet in each room (probably with laminate)
•  close off "old" front door in dining room
•  replace all windows (some will need to be done soon, but most appear to be on the newer side)
•  rip up carpet on the stairs & refinish (however we may have to) - needs to be done for both sets of stairs
•  Redo master "suite" to make it more sweet (hehe)
•  Replace furnace (this needs to be done right away) - and the forced air needs to be added upstairs at this stage
•  move water heater (& softener) over to where furnace & electrical panel are (so they're all in one space for the "utility room" down the line) - Jase also wants to get out of the lease for the water heater & install our own (which apparently has to happen right away haha - good thing he's a plumber eh?)
•  Finish basement (adding "utility" room, "mancave", playroom, 3pc bathroom, 4th bedroom & family room)
•  Fix cold air return vents, by making them flush to the wall
•  Blow spray insulation into the attic & basement  

 

OUTSIDE:

•  Fill the few small foundational cracks
• Get rid of out of control bushes at front & back of house
• Prune tree in front yard so it doesn't block so much of the house
• Power wash front patio
• Take off awful awnings
• Tear down tiny, crappy, astro-turfed porch off dining room
• Fix the converted garage so it blends better with the rest of the house
• Build a larger porch off entry (as opposed to opposite end of house where it is now)
• Redo driveway (pave it? instead of the patio stones)
• Remove old, rusted TV antenna & dilapidated laundry umbrella
• Make the raised garden bed usable again (and perhaps even grow a few things, har-har)
• Put up a fence at the end of yard (possibly on other side also)
• New roof (shouldn't have to be done for around 5 yrs) (garage will also need new roof)
• Put remote opener on garage door

So, as you can see we have some big, big plans for this place (and I even gave you the Cole's Notes version hehe). We plan on this being either our forever home - or until we outgrow it home. So, all that we have planned will be for over the course of a number of years. We are SOOOOOOOOO excited to get started, and can't wait to keep everyone updated with our reno's, demo's, diy's and just all around fun (and probably a lot more not so fun) stuff we're doing!

P.S. We get possession Dec 22, so everyone is more than welcome to come to our "trash-the-kitchen" party!