Home improvements - Posted by Steve Mount
Karen and I have settled on a plan for our new house, and showed it around to everyone who would look at it, and have gotten universal approval (if you didn't like it and said you did anyway, thanks). It has five bedrooms (one for future guests, which is good because any guests now have to sleep in a futon in the basement next to the furnace), four baths (or three and three-quarters if we change the downstairs tub to a shower only), a family room, dining room, office, and rec room. It is just about 3000 square feet. We are worried, though, that we have picked a design too large for our budget. We plan to meet with the builder in a few days to get his estimate. Our realtor (who is, conveniently, the builder's son) says that if things are tight, we could skimp somewhere, like using formica for counters instead of granite (I don't like granite counters, so that's not an issue, but it just an example).
In addition to all that work, we also had some things to do around our house to make it presentable. We had a small sinkhole open up next to the foundation in the front of the house, so I ripped up the asphalt and filled it all in with pea stone, then put a layer of cold set blacktop patch on top of that. What a messy job, blech. Next time I'll be happy to let someone else come and to that job. We had a stopper assembly to replace in the master bathroom, we had to replace our doorbell, and we had to clear out the piles of clean laundry from the basement. They look better in the various dressers anyway.
There are a few other things we need to do, but nothing too big. I want to strip the border out of the master bath and paint the walls - the border is about five years older and peeling in too many places. The caulking around the top of the tub/shower needs replacing, too. And the baseboard heater in that batchroom needs to be sanded down and painted. I think all the pieces come off and I can just sand them down to metal and give a coat of Rustoleum. The realtor needs a couple of keys to the house now, and he can plant a sign in the yard and wait for the calls to roll in.
Damn, I just realized we never mowed the lawn this weekend... oh well, that gives me something to do on the 4th.
In addition to all that work, we also had some things to do around our house to make it presentable. We had a small sinkhole open up next to the foundation in the front of the house, so I ripped up the asphalt and filled it all in with pea stone, then put a layer of cold set blacktop patch on top of that. What a messy job, blech. Next time I'll be happy to let someone else come and to that job. We had a stopper assembly to replace in the master bathroom, we had to replace our doorbell, and we had to clear out the piles of clean laundry from the basement. They look better in the various dressers anyway.
There are a few other things we need to do, but nothing too big. I want to strip the border out of the master bath and paint the walls - the border is about five years older and peeling in too many places. The caulking around the top of the tub/shower needs replacing, too. And the baseboard heater in that batchroom needs to be sanded down and painted. I think all the pieces come off and I can just sand them down to metal and give a coat of Rustoleum. The realtor needs a couple of keys to the house now, and he can plant a sign in the yard and wait for the calls to roll in.
Damn, I just realized we never mowed the lawn this weekend... oh well, that gives me something to do on the 4th.
posted by Steve Mount at
8:39 AM
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