Homeowners

When you first bought your home, what needed to be done?

What projects are you currently working on?

The first week we moved in, we had to have a new septic tank put in and a new roof installed. About 2 months later we had to replace our furnace.

Currently we're remodeling room by room: installing new windows/doors, painting, installing crown & base molding and having the floors refinished.

There's always something.

we installed carpet, painted EVERY room, replaced the hot water heater and furnace (converted to gas), replaced the dishwasher (not by choice), replaced the dishwasher, fixed the floor in the laundry room and fixed the craft room (new floor, paint, make a new desk)

Just a few things!! LOL

De Funkify the decorating!

Rip the carpet off the wall in the Master Bedroom and paint, install new closet doors and carpet

Take the silver/neon blue paper down in the hall and paint - just finishing that up now
Rip up the matching neon blue vinyl tile on the floor

Remove the dark paneling in the DR - resheetrock and paint

Rip up the faded powder blue rug in the LR and paint

LR/DR and hall floors are going to be refinished shortly

Paint the Black paneling in the den

Paint the office

I forgot about the original 50s style front door that is coming down on Sat and being replaced by a new fiberglass with stained glass insert door.

Ill post before and after pics of these projects soon.

We still have the zebra/pop wallpaper in the kitchen to contend with and one completely cork covered wall in the guest bedroom but they will have to wait till the fall.

OUr home was move-in condition. Even had brand new wall to wall carpeting (which i hate, LOL). But at the time it was cozy and perfect.

Anything we've done was not needed urgently, but we want to maintain and upkeep the house, and of course always build upon what we have to make it what we envision as we go along..

As far as what we've done:
*Installed Central Air
*Bought a new furnace (we have 2 heating zones) we will probably replace the other one this year too.
*Put a new liner in the pool
*Put in brand new kitchen downstairs (Was very old). Got new fridge and washer/dryer.

Projects currently in process
*Ripping out carpets
*Refinishing hardwood floors
*Putting in PVC fence all around (over 1/3 acre )

Projects in near future:
*New windows
*Storm doors
*Add Bow window in front
*New siding
*Renovate Florida rm (fenced in deck).
*Laminate flooring throughout downstairs
*Furnish/setup gameroom
*Sliding doors
*Furnish/setup Playroom
*Fix setup of office.
*Get kitchenette set for kitchen downstairs
*Tiling in bathroom downstairs (not urgent

WOW, seeing it in a list-format makes it seem like forever and a day away !!

Well as my mom says 'Rome wasnt built in a day'


One by one, little by little. We'll get there !
Theres ALWAYS something to do to personalize your home once youre in it ! and one project snowballs into 17 others !

I'd hate to put a price list next to my task list, I might fall over.

Are you house hunting Jenn ?

You ladies sound like you have/will have incredible homes!!!

Anna WOW!! I'd love to see your home!

Fran, I almost peed myself reading your post!!!!!!
Is this possible??? Who decorated that way??

Anna, we are not house hunting yet, just want to see what most homes on LI are like when you first buy.

It gets discouraging sometimes to see that your on #5 of your 75 things TO DO.
But it IS a fun process to see your visions come to life and then create new ideas as you go along. and there are things you get ideas from as you go along that you might not have thought of before. AND your tastes change as you go along, so its better to focus on one thing at a time...

make sense, or did I just babble ?

This was everything we accomplished: YAY!!! (With the help of amazing contracters and friends)

Ripped all the walls down (they had homosote sp?) and new insulation in everywhere, put up sheet rock, everywhere.

New electrical system, before we couldn't have two appliances running at the same time!

Remove old furnace

Got rid of propane, and switched to oil

ripped kitchen completely apart, installed new cabinets, granite

had an architect redesign the house, with a new masterbedroom addition, and Master bath addition, and had it built.

Remove asbestos from basement!

New cesspool

Sanded the floors, and urithaned

California closets installed

Had decorator come in and design the all the rooms.

Got all new furniture.

Put in Central Air

Put in Alarm System

Added Deck

Bought a nice 8 person hot tub (My favorite purchase!)

Had a new driveway put in

New Fence

Repaired Bulkhead

There's more, but I just can't think of it right now.
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Our next plans for probably the next three years:

-Have architect design a two story foyer/entrance with big staircase, along with blowing out the front of the house to add 3 more bedrooms.

-Landscape (we're starting that in a few weeks)

-Refinish the basement into a movie room type thing.

THere will always be something!

Oh, I forgot these things we also did:

Bought all new appliances

Had our backyard leveled and topsoil put everywhere to start landscaping

ALL New HUGE WINDOWS....WHAT AN EXPENSE THAT WAS!

There's more.....

We also ripped apart our two existing bathrooms ...new tub, new everything, had marble installed.

Balcony built off Master bedroom.

Repaired chimney

New roof installed

New cedar shake shingles painted whole house, interior and exterior.

New moldings, baseboard, crown and decorative on walls.

Knocked out bearing walls, put up some huge steel beam and columns (architect stuff!)

I'm sure there's more...I'm on a roll!
All of a sudden I'm really proud of us, I didn't realize we accomplished all this is 3-4 years time. Wow! It's funny how you finish one thing, and immediately you think, what's next!

We also put in all new lights (hi hats), and put these cute latern type lights that line the length of our long driveway (it's a b#tch to get the mail or take out the garbage)

put up 2 new ceiling fans

Put in 6 roof windows (Really Really Really big skylights)

Okay, I think I'm done now!

Painting had to be done, we put hardwood floors in the dining room. It used to be a slate floor. I HATED it
We put carpet in two of the bedrooms.
We had a lot of stuff outside to do. The yard had so much brush on it, that we cleared the land, and knocked down some trees, and started from scratch on the seed. We also put new windows in, as well as a french doors.
There is always something to be done on the house.
It is a never ending project

Put a new roof on.
In the process of building a deck.

I won't even get into our 'To Do List' which includes french drains, 2nd story and a total house remodel. We may decide to move altogether before we begin that project in a year or two.

The only 'musts' in our house were
a new pool liner
a new fence
and
making a larger closet in the master bedroom

Our house was in beautiful condition, I just hated the decor, and I'm STILL working on it! It's going to take FOREVER to remove all the pink and teal.

Kathy, you make my TODO List look so simple!

I was at my new house painting last night.

I must say that my house is really in move in condition. Although as we clean and paint, we don't feel like it. We have decided to paint a couple rooms before we move in to our colors choices (we are leaving some of theirs because they had some great choices). We will paint most all rooms (fresh coat) but over time.

What we would like to do right away:
-Replace all Windows (all at end of life cycle)
-Roof (at end of life cycle - can go over existing)
-New siding (also want to put up shakers), columns, etc. (This is all cosmetic - in fine condition as is)

Eventual Projects:
-Clean/Replace fence
-Yardwork - fix exterior-cosmetic
-Fix up front shrubs, bricks, etc.-cosmetic
-New entrance to attic
-Replace back door

That's our list so far.....but we have only had the house almost a week!

We were lucky in that 99% of our home had just been redone as an investor brought the property from some old lady. But we painted most of the rooms so far (a few more to go), and we are working on outside stuff right now. We are also having a new staircase and railings installed this weekend.
We need a patio, deck, fence, some trees removed, we have a partial finished attic and want to have it totally livable, plus our garage I would like painted and organized with shelves. I also need a new shelving system in my walk-in closet.

My house is old like Moses so there is always something to be done.

When we first moved in we painted, restored the hardwood floors, tiled the kitchen and bath, etc... But then we didnt do very much aside from basic painting and stuff for a little while.

This year we had a few pipes break which needed emergency repairs. We are replacing our front windows after they collapsed. We need to (but dont know where we are going to come up with the crazy money needed to do it) replace the front and back doors.

Other smaller projects are fixing up my patio and front yard, painting a red wall in my LR, having a customade bookshelf put in to my dining room,etc..

Its always something.

I'm with Sonic. Our house is over 75 years old so there's always something to be done.

We needed to re-model the bathroom before we moved in.

We have carpeted the living room, one bedroom and stairs. Also painted the bedroom, living room and hallway. We painted and tore up carpet in the dining room to find a nice cherry floor - needs to be refinished (on the to-do list with the kitchen).

Washer/Dryer, Dishwasher

Replaced all of the old doors on the first floor and re-finished.

All new electric - the house almost went up in flames

A new heating system and integrated water tank.

In Process:
New Laundry Room
Re-finish Basement

To-do:
The rest of the bedrooms
New bathroom upstairs
New walk-in closet
New kitchen & dining room
Remove load bearing wall and expand living room into an extra bedroom on the ground floor.

Right now we only live on the ground floor until we can get to the to-do list and add the bathroom/re-finish the bedrooms upstairs.