10 posts tagged “home improvement projects”
Happy July, folks!
I am alternating between being tired and cranky and neither makes for uplifting and entertaining bloggage. So I have been practicing avoidance therapy. It works!
What have I been doing lately?
Fixing toilets... check... so proud of myself!
Finding a new home for my fish tank. Here it is at my place and in process of being dismantled...
And in its new home... GORGEOUS!
Since I was silly enough to let it slip that I did synchronized swimming in college, my colleagues honored me with a routine of their own... This was truly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. The best part is how serious they all are.
Slow but steady progress...
Yesterday...
Today...
After delay after delay after delay because of rain, the staining has FINALLY begun on my house. My little brown cabin will still be a little brown cabin, so it won't appeal to someone looking for a Cape Cod or Ranch house. But my oh my, it will look sooooooooooooooo much better.
Newly Stained Section
Cross View of Stained & Unstained Sections
At long last, I am excited to announce my house is finally on the market. The info from the Realtor's website:
These last few weeks have been exhausting. I apologize for all but disappearing from my Vox neighborhood. I have read through postings but I just haven't had the energy to post comments or write my own stuff.
I honestly feel like I have been sprinting a marathon. The list I have to fix up the house just keeps getting longer. It's funny how that works. Just when I get most things crossed off I start noticing a whole bunch of other things to do.
The other problem is every time I start typing one of my cats comes over for attention. It's been rough on them too, all the people in and out, all the chaos... So of course I want to give them some attention and comfort.
Well, I am happy to say that I met with my Realtor on Thursday and did all the paperwork and my house officially goes on the market on Monday!
Yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
He was very pleased with how it looks and thinks it's going to be a competitive seller. One similar house in my area sold within a month recently. Egads! There are others that have been on the market a bit longer, but most are selling within 4-6 months.
The advantage I have is how fabulous it looks cosmetically. All the improvements are really going to set it apart. Some of the other house that are priced comparably with similar square footage are PITS! It looks like the owners had not done anything for years. Dirty, old, ragged...
The disadvantage is that my house is a two-bedroom, two-bath so it won't appeal to families with several kids. There is a 400 sq foot unfinished part of the basement that could be made into another room if the new owners wanted, but then they'd lose the storage space.
So, I'll post the info from the web next week once it's online. I am thrilled at how everything is working out. Excited to start the new chapter in my life and live in a new place, but I will miss this cozy little house. It's got a lot of my heart.
Of all the five million billion projects I'm doing to get my house ready to sell, I think the one with the biggest cosmetic bang is painting the outside of my house.
I live in a cabin, dark brown siding on top and stucco on the bottom. When I moved in the stucco was not looking great. See... Peeling right off so you could see the cinder blocks under the stucco. Not good.
So I patched all the crumbling spots with cement. The dark grey spots are the patches. Oh boy, don't you want to buy THIS house. It's beautious.
Better Homes and Gardens, here I come! A shoe-in for "Home of the Year" if I do say so myself.
But I worked up the courage and strength and tackled the outside with the stucco cocktail called Drylock. It is used for waterproofing walls as well as repairing broken parts, cracks, etc. Let me tell you... That Friggin stuff weighs 500 pounds a scoop. It's so heavy you can't apply it with a paint brush or a roller, you have to use an industrial strength wish broom or trowel. True. I did two walls last weekend and thought my arm was going to fall right off my body. Ouch. Finished the third wall on Saturday. Though it was HARD, I am pleased with the results. It's not a professional job, but I think it's pretty good and 150 times better than it was.
Ta Daaaaaaaa...
Here are some shots of my new kitchen and bathroom floors.
The old kitchen floor still looked pretty good. The reason I switched it is that I got a new counter top about two years ago called something like mocha chocolatte or something like that. I love it. It's got lots of brown and black and cream tones. My kitchen floor, unfortunately, was a gray slate color. Not so much matching. Not so much blending cohesively. Lots of weird double takes. So, I picked out a new beige stone type floor and I think it looks fabulous. It really brightens up the room. The only draw back is that it shows dirt so much more than the old floor. Eek!
The lighting is weird in all these photos. Some seem too yellow, some seem too white. So I posted both because the truth is somewhere in between.
Alrighty, for your viewing pleasure here are the before and after shots of my new light fixtures.
I replaced two other fixtures about two years ago plus had all the ceiling fans replaced and they all match pretty well with brown and black wood/metal features and white glass. There were three other fixtures in close proximity that truthfully I never even notice because I don't ever use those lights. But when my realtor walked through he said it looked funny that they had not been updated too. So I took his word for it and switched them out.
Here are the before photos. I call them Boring and Boring-er because they are... well... boring.
Just your basic, white light fixtures. Easy to see why I didn't notice them.
Here is the one I installed in their place. All three are the same to give it flow or connection.
I have to say they do look nice and I LOVE the shadow they throw on the ceiling. Very lantern-like. They are actually indoor/outdoor porch lights. If love love love them and want to go get your own, here's the box:
And... drumroll, please... Here's the best part:
I do love a bargain! They look great and they were dirt cheap. Woot woot!
Egads, I've been a slacker Voxer lately! Just lots of stuff going on, no excuses.
I'm in the final push towards getting my house on the market, so I've been working on lots of projects. Painting, staining, replacing light fixtures, a little electrical work (thanks, Joe!), arranging for new carpet, putting down new floors, getting a new closet built & equipped. Yeah, man. It's been a lot of work, but also fun.
Hopefully my house will be on the market in the first half of February. Then, fingers crossed, it will sell within six months. I am optimistic. Despite the housing crunch we've heard so much about, our part of Virginia is actually growing. Plus my house will be in the under 200K price range which are generally selling in approximately six months - or, as my Realtor puts it, there is a six month supply of homes under 200K.
He recently said that there are only 168 single family homes in the entire city/county area under 200K, that's gotta increase my odds a bit. There are tons of townhomes & duplexes in my price range, but not too many single family homes. Plus my house is darn cute. I would buy it! Oh yeah, I already did. Ha.
I'll post before and after pictures as projects are finished.
Welp, I'll probably be putting my house on the market in the next month or two. Here's what I've accomplished to date:
power wash house & decks...................decks are done, house has not been started yet
paint trim on house...............................no clue how I want it painted yet
paint lower part of house........................ditto
add window box to house.......................not yet
fix driveway............................................nope, but probably not going to
build up block wall.................................nope, but probably not going to
landscaping...........................................done
fix broken rail upstairs deck.....................nope
add railing to downstairs deck..................done
replace 3 hallway lights...........................fixtures bought, just need to install
caulk ceiling crack by wood stove............not yet
paint living room & top part of stairwell......nope
replace window glass (broken vs all)..........done
new carpet..............................................going to get quotes during the (hopefully) amazing Presidents' Day sales
new floor in kitchen..................................bought the tiles, just need to install them
fix ice dispenser......................................done, thanks to the power outage
paint shelves in pantry white.....................done
replace sinks & toilets in bathrooms..........nope
replace bathroom light fixtures...................nope
new floor in downstairs bathroom...............bought the tiles, just need to install them
add closet downstairs...............................85% done
