Home Renos - What have you done / still have to do?

I hear that. This house was built in 1896, renovated at least once in the 1970s and possibly before, and man, does it show.

We've replaced the front porch steps and railings, and the back deck (also expanded the deck). Pulled all of the damned paneling off the walls in the downstairs bathroom (yes, it was paneled, and a lousy job was done, too) and tossed the washing machine downstairs. Replaced all of the appliances including said washer. Pulled a bunch of very bad "decorative" window boxy coverings (made of plywood and cardboard!) off the windows, thereby exposing the original molding which is far, far nicer. New fluorescent lights in the kitchen. Removed a bunch of old wallpaper, painted and added window treatments. I think that's it.

But -- to do -- about a million more things. E. g.

• replace skylight (currently boarded up)
  
• repair stained glass at second floor landing
  
• rip out carpeting, replace
  
• new windows or refurbish older ones
  
• redo downstairs bathroom, e. g. sink, floor, ceiling. Cover over a huge pipe with sheetrock, paint, add a light fixture, have that toilet reset
  
• redo finished basement (very low -- no pun intended -- priority)
  
• gutters
  
• small patches on foundation
  
• clean siding and paint exterior
  
• reseal driveway

I think that's everything but I'm probably missing something.

We have moved into our current home in November last year, and since it is only going to be temporary, we were not planning on doing too much work.

I changed the lamps in the office and the baby's room, that's how far it got.

I wanted the lamp in the living room changed and the one in the dining room moved - has not happened so far.
I wanted a mirror up in the office since it doubles up as sewing room. - has not happened so far.
My husband wanted to put mirrors in the guest-room which doubles up as gym - has not happened so far.

My guess: We will move out next year, and this will still not have happened.

Hey, cool thread.

We bought our house in part because it was so well-maintained -- we haven't HAD to do much yet. Our main expense has been getting all of the (big to enormous) trees trimmed. We have century+old cottonwoods that had apparently NEVER been trimmed, and there was a big branch (as big as most tree trunks) hanging over the house that made E.G. nervous every time there was a big storm. Got rid of that, thinned things out so there would be more light in the yard (that's going well), etc.

I've done a lot of yard maintenance myself -- getting rid of a staggering amount of poison ivy, seeding the back lawn, etc.

In the house, tons to do. The next big project is the roof, which is old and mossy and definitely needs work, but we wanted to get the tree project done first (rather than putting time and $$ into the roof and then having a tree fall on it...) We need to do the asphalt too (driveway). Deck needs to be power-washed. Wiring needs work (not everywhere, some specific places). The house is kinda tilty (1920's original house with 1990's addition, there has been settling) and while we had a home inspector check everything very thoroughly in 2004 we want to see if anything's changed since then.

I haven't painted a thing yet and want to get to that eventually...

Buying the house was a stretch and our margins are thin so we haven't had any extra money to do anything with thus far. We still don't have that much extra but we have a little, and we're starting to look at our next projects now. Roof will probably be first.

Ah yes, electrical. That we've mainly done although there are a few weird grounding issues in the kitchen.

As for what needs to be done, I had forgotten about the upstairs bathroom. It has a new shower area (coupla years old) but the floor needs replacing and the walls need either paint or wallpaper. Plus I'd love to replace the vanity cabinet as it is vintage 70s and all sharp corners. I've banged my elbow more than once, plus we need storage. There's an odd strip of space between the cabinet and the wall so I'd like to be able to actually use that.

And wallpaper -- ugh -- don't get me started. Every single bit of wallpaper in this house is peeling or stained or both. No exceptions. It all has to go, and the dining room is probably the worst offender.

bookmarking

your description got me excited mame....we've basically rebuilt our house too.

will come back later when I'm awake to list.

the bathroom reno started when we found that termites had eaten through the exterior wall!!
so while we were at it, we cut out a space for a glass block window

Much nicer, Panzade! I like the blocks there... you get light but can't see in.

We replaced all our windows, too, (27 of them!) and added three skylights, so now we have five, four of which open. I wonder if I have any pics of the house on my laptop... I'll have a look.

We also ripped all the wiring out and replaced it with new, and did all the floors as well... I think we have spent nearly $175K on this piece of &%%$ so far

One thing I have thought of doing is compiling a little book of great contractors... my neighbours had some fantastic work done on their deck which I will need to do - some contractors are shite and some are fabulous...

Well...................recently we:

Got a new roof.
Added additional gutters.
Got a new dishwasher, washer and dryer, and two HDTVs.

As we speak, I am waiting for the carpet cleaners.

I would like to:

Add another skylight in the living room.

Have the inside of the house painted, and the bathrooms repapered.

Actually, what I would REALLY like to do is rent a dumpster, and clean out all the junk that Mr. P. has collected in the garage. That garage is like a minefield! He refuses to get rid of any of it.

Nice purchases! And those roofs can be expensive! Ours is a torch on with a slope, so it cost us a small fortune.

Ours was very expensive. We bought an extra heavy grade, 'cause of the hurricanes.

Hurricanes! I've only seen them on tv - what do you do for your windows? Shutters or board them up?