Check out our #totsreno introduction post and follow along with our journey.
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Decade of Renovations to Come
With a decade of renovations to come my wife and I have just begun month four of our 10-15-year renovation of our new house.
We went into the purchase knowing how much work would be involved and how much money, realistically speaking, we would have to spend to make the necessary improvements to make it livable.
But we wouldn’t have reached even month four if we hadn’t carefully planned out the expenses, plus a little extra, and figured out the order of how each project would impact the next.
There will be plenty of posts in the future related to individual aspects of the renovations so far but this one will focus on the big, overall picture at exactly the three month mark.
Firstly, I should point out we are working on a 100+ year old rural farm house.
To date, we have several issues professionally addressed including leaky pipes, some old electrical which was out of date, new windows and a new high-efficiency furnace.
Refinishing Old Hardwood Floors
The first thing we did ourselves was redo the original hardwood floors in the three bedrooms, office and living/dining rooms.
These were done in two days each, two weeks apart with rented equipment.
We wanted to start with something we would see results with right away to stay motivated and that’s what we got.
The added benefit is access to the upstairs comes via two rooms now instead of just through the playroom.
We’ve also been through gallons of drywall compound and paint and my tool collection has increased exponentially with each project.
We have tried to plan our work out ahead of time to mixed success.
We have found it difficult to balance progress which can cause regression in the big picture.
Unexpected Kitchen Project
When the electrician needed the ceiling removed, it added a major project we had to do. It also meant we couldn’t do other kitchen jobs because of the mess of taking down the ceiling.
This also meant when it was time to redo the ceiling, we also couldn’t work much on other things because of the dust I was making.
In reality, we found drywall dust throughout the house from our “kitchen ceiling.”
How to Manage the Dust?
And you don’t want to pain a dusty house. You really need to get all your messy jobs done first then you can start doing fine work.
With the ceiling done, I moved on to floor trim throughout the house, a messy job with all the cutting.
But, partway through that job, a memory of my parent’s house popped into my head.
My dad had a vacuum hooked up to his mitre saw in the basement so there was no dust created.
A quick modification to our shop-vac later, I stopped making a mess with the saw.
We have managed to make this building feel like home faster than I believed we could but we still have a decade of renovations to come.
There is a certain pride of doing work yourself and doing it well.
I knew I had the basic skills to do the work but I have surprised myself with some of it.
And, I have even started to conquer my fear of electrical work.
Good thing too because I have a couple dozen or more outlets and switches to change and we continue on.
Reno reading; 5 Things to Know Before Refinishing Old Hardwood Floors, 10 Unique Jobs For Teenagers and 10 Tips for Living in a Hotel Room with Kids.
