One Year Of Home Projects
As I’m sitting here writing this, it’s been exactly one year since we moved into The Cupid Colonial. As I’ve shared before, we purchased sight unseen. We hadn’t even been to the city before the purchase was complete! And while we didn’t see the house before we had our keys in hand, we did have inspections done by a variety of professionals. We closed on the house with a good idea of what repairs were needed.
Or so we thought.
Right away, we realized the house had a significant foundational issue. And the first rain in the house caused the entryway to flood. The house wasn’t staying warm. I noticed every single crack in the plaster, slope in the floor, and bounce the house had when walking around.
About a week after moving in, I laid down on the kitchen floor and cried. I sobbed so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath. I was breastfeeding full-time and was devastatingly sleep-deprived, we just moved out of state to a city we never even heard of, a stomach sickness was traveling through the family, and I felt like we were already drowning in unexpected repairs.
What did we do? We were building a brand new house! It was beautiful and effortless and new. Why did we do this? What were we thinking? How are we going to afford all of these repairs? Did I fail my children? I honestly thought we made the biggest mistake of our lives.
But sometimes we just need a good cry, right? It’s therapeutic. It’s releasing. It’s cleansing. It can open us up and help us move forward. And that’s exactly what it did for me. I laid there and cried. And then I got up, looked around, and realized we can do this. We were meant to do this. And one way or another, it was all going to work out in the end. I mean, it had to, because we already purchased the damn house.
And for the next year, we did it.
One Year of Projects:
We had the roof replaced. This wasn’t expected. During the first rain, we had flooding inside the house. We ultimately went with a white, shingle roof because they are the most energy-efficient option. I would have loved to put on another metal roof but it wasn’t in the budget. Can you believe that four different roofing companies quoted us around $70,000 for a metal roof?
We had a 13ft steal support beam installed in the basement. This wasn’t expected. The joists were built with more spacing than what is up to code today, and they were failing. This was a necessity for both livability and safety.
We repaired plaster and painted the dark gray walls white. This was expected. We knew we wanted to brighten the house up. The dark grey walls made the house feel like a dungeon.
We pulled up all of the grass and laid down gravel to start on a more sustainable landscape. This was kind of expected. I do not like grass lawns. More about this in a future post!
We had the exterior siding repaired and then the exterior re-painted to the house’s original colors. This wasn’t expected. But the siding needed attention and there were several shades of beige all around the house and carriage house.
We painted the interior trim and doors. I would have absolutely loved to strip the paint down to the original wood, but I was already overwhelmed. I picked my mental health over that… for now!
We stripped the paint off of all the original hardware that we could find.
We had electrical work done. We had a few outlets updated, attic fans installed, and a ventilation fan installed in a bathroom. None of this was expected. We also received a few quotes to update what’s left of the knob and tube and that is just something we can’t afford at this time. Don’t worry, all the electricians assured us the knob and tube is in good condition while we wait.
We refinished the living room mantles and entryway banisters to a transparent black so that it adds contrast but we can still see the beautiful grain and texture of the wood.
We pulled up the carpet on the main staircase, repaired the risers, and painted the stairs green. After a few weeks, I didn’t love the green so I re-painted the stairs black. But now I’m thinking about painting them back to green again. Ha!
The stove broke, so we replaced the kitchen appliances. This wasn’t expected. In the kitchen, we also added brass knobs and handles, replaced the lighting, and replaced the faucet.
The washing machine broke, so we replaced the washer and dryer. This wasn’t expected. Because of this, we ended up doing a little bit of work in the laundry room. We painted the existing shiplap from white to green. And because we changed the washer and dryer from a side-by-side set to a stacked unit, we were finally able to add storage in there.
We built raised garden beds and installed window flower boxes. Then, we grew a beautiful produce and flower garden. The garden even won the city’s Fall Landscape Award. This honestly makes me so proud!
The previous owners painted the dining room mantle white. I painted it green and didn’t love that. I painted it black and didn’t love that either. It’s now red, and I don’t not love it… yet.
We found out our furnace had a gas leak. So, we had to have that replaced. This was not expected.
We found out a bathroom had ongoing flooding underneath the flooring. We had to replace the subfloor, flooring, and repair damage on the walls. We also pulled out the vanity and built a new vanity out of a vintage dresser. We replaced the mirror and lighting. And we painted.
We moved with very minimal belongings, so we had to furnish the entire home. Most of our goods were carefully thrifted. This took time and is still being worked on!
We also did a thousand little things like updating light fixtures and hanging pictures.
Some days, it doesn’t feel like we got a lot of work done. I look at the list and wonder how it took an entire year just to do this. But other times, I try to give myself some grace. We have five children that we homeschool. I own a business. My husband works full time. We’ve been settling in and have had family visit us and have taken stay-cations and have had back-to-back illnesses and have just been living. This house wasn’t supposed to be full of projects. So, I try to know we’ve been doing alright.
Now that so much foundational work is completed, I’m so excited to really start personalizing the home. I have so many plans… there are even secret rooms that we will be opening up!
I’m looking forward to what the next year of projects brings.