Foreplay at Home
Jan. 5th, 2004 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saffronhareSo, some of you probably noticed that I wasn't at ritual yesterday. Part of the reason was that Fiona really wasn't quite back to herself and needed some quiet time; the other reason was that I was at home, being in love with my house.
Saturday afternoon, I decided not to nap after all (gasp!) and went to Home Depot instead -- where I purchased a heat gun and a wallpaper steamer. After some thought over the last few days, we'd realized that winter would be a great time to begin stripping down the interior of the house. That means we'll be ready to paint and refinish and such as soon as spring rolls around and we can get the foundation fixed. Steaming off wallpaper and melting linoleum off hardwood floors is tough work, but it's cheap (less than $100 up front for equipment and trash bags) and can be done a bit at a time.
Living with temporary ugliness is a small price to pay for finally getting started. This is what I would have wanted to do a year or so ago, but we were busy growing a baby and trying not to go bankrupt...
So now I can protest that my house is a mess not because I'm a lackadaisical housekeeper, but because we have home improvement projects going on, dammit. The crazy project list goes something like this (items appear in no particular order):
Items appear in no particular order:
1. Organize linen closet and crap hallway again (figure out another sewing location?)
2. Basement cleaning — will involve a lot of bleach and organizing; purchase of some Rubbermaid storage boxes (for water-tightness); re-shelving a few areas; maybe installation of some lighting?
3. Removal of wallpaper all over the fecking place — need to price and purchase a good steamer. Yeah, I know it’ll make things ugly for a while until we can resurface/repaint, but this is something we can do a bit at a time pretty cheaply.
4. Removal of linoleum flooring in hallway and entryway — need to price and purchase a good heat gun
5. Redo upstairs bathroom - lay down a new floor (can probably go on top of vinyl already there bc it's in good condition and pretty level); repaint walls (tile can stay); put up new shade and curtain
6. Remove tile in downstairs bathroom. Again, temporary ugliness is an acceptable price for feeling progress, IMHO.
7. Pull up living room carpet and put down an area rug instead. This is more practical now that Kira is walking so much more than crawling.
8. Strip and refinish some bits of furniture - Andrew’s old coffeetable; some of the dining room chairs (not the newer ones, not the red ones)
9. Begin replacing shades and making curtains for rooms. It’s about time.
10 Reclaim the damn porch for human use again.
After foundation work (which I honestly hope will incorporate pouring a new floor for the basement so it’ll be readier to finish):
1. Painting downstairs
2. Stripping and repainting kitchen cupboards? Replacing cupboards?
3. Resurface entryway (better as tile or something, I think)
Expensive things; things requiring outside help
1. Refinish downstairs wood floors; pull up kitchen floor and refinish??
2. Redo upstairs bedrooms - gut walls and add insulation; put up drywall and install new windows; repaint; new carpet
3. Expand downstairs office - knock down walls into closets and crap hallway; incorporate into a single room with crafting/sewing area? (or perhaps break up into two rooms?)
4. Finish basement - What do we want to do down there? Workbench, brewing area, play area, etc.? - perhaps relocate some walls and install some built-in cupboards/storage instead of haphazard shelving all over the place (do we really need to keep the piano?); replace windows; improve lighting; insulate walls, add drywall; pad the floor and add carpet (carpet tiles?)
Saturday afternoon, I decided not to nap after all (gasp!) and went to Home Depot instead -- where I purchased a heat gun and a wallpaper steamer. After some thought over the last few days, we'd realized that winter would be a great time to begin stripping down the interior of the house. That means we'll be ready to paint and refinish and such as soon as spring rolls around and we can get the foundation fixed. Steaming off wallpaper and melting linoleum off hardwood floors is tough work, but it's cheap (less than $100 up front for equipment and trash bags) and can be done a bit at a time.
Living with temporary ugliness is a small price to pay for finally getting started. This is what I would have wanted to do a year or so ago, but we were busy growing a baby and trying not to go bankrupt...
So now I can protest that my house is a mess not because I'm a lackadaisical housekeeper, but because we have home improvement projects going on, dammit. The crazy project list goes something like this (items appear in no particular order):
Items appear in no particular order:
1. Organize linen closet and crap hallway again (figure out another sewing location?)
2. Basement cleaning — will involve a lot of bleach and organizing; purchase of some Rubbermaid storage boxes (for water-tightness); re-shelving a few areas; maybe installation of some lighting?
3. Removal of wallpaper all over the fecking place — need to price and purchase a good steamer. Yeah, I know it’ll make things ugly for a while until we can resurface/repaint, but this is something we can do a bit at a time pretty cheaply.
4. Removal of linoleum flooring in hallway and entryway — need to price and purchase a good heat gun
5. Redo upstairs bathroom - lay down a new floor (can probably go on top of vinyl already there bc it's in good condition and pretty level); repaint walls (tile can stay); put up new shade and curtain
6. Remove tile in downstairs bathroom. Again, temporary ugliness is an acceptable price for feeling progress, IMHO.
7. Pull up living room carpet and put down an area rug instead. This is more practical now that Kira is walking so much more than crawling.
8. Strip and refinish some bits of furniture - Andrew’s old coffeetable; some of the dining room chairs (not the newer ones, not the red ones)
9. Begin replacing shades and making curtains for rooms. It’s about time.
10 Reclaim the damn porch for human use again.
After foundation work (which I honestly hope will incorporate pouring a new floor for the basement so it’ll be readier to finish):
1. Painting downstairs
2. Stripping and repainting kitchen cupboards? Replacing cupboards?
3. Resurface entryway (better as tile or something, I think)
Expensive things; things requiring outside help
1. Refinish downstairs wood floors; pull up kitchen floor and refinish??
2. Redo upstairs bedrooms - gut walls and add insulation; put up drywall and install new windows; repaint; new carpet
3. Expand downstairs office - knock down walls into closets and crap hallway; incorporate into a single room with crafting/sewing area? (or perhaps break up into two rooms?)
4. Finish basement - What do we want to do down there? Workbench, brewing area, play area, etc.? - perhaps relocate some walls and install some built-in cupboards/storage instead of haphazard shelving all over the place (do we really need to keep the piano?); replace windows; improve lighting; insulate walls, add drywall; pad the floor and add carpet (carpet tiles?)
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Re: Months? Looks like years...
Date: 2004-01-05 08:38 am (UTC)It's sort of an incremental plan. We can only do so much prep before we're stalled until foundation work is done. Then, budgets will determine how other stuff will proceed over the next few years. I'm focusing mostly on the stripping down phase for now.
Re: Months? Looks like years...
Date: 2004-01-05 08:48 am (UTC)Touché.