1004 Nuttin' Much

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Last evening it was 22 F outside. Today it was a little warmer, but the weather man says that a cold front is coming through, and the high will be in the low 20s for the rest of the week. Hibernation time, I think.

I was reading someone else's blog, an entry about home improvement. I've been living in this house for 12 years now, and I'm a little surprised that, except for getting the woods cleared of undergrowth, we/I have made almost no improvements.

Things we did do:

1. Jay cut a hole in the laundry room wall for a dog flap, and built an 8'x8' deck with a ramp outside the flap, for the dogs. We had talked about a dog-house kind of foyer arrangement on the deck outside the flap to keep the wind from coming in the hole, but it never happened. Now I have no dogs, but I have a big hole in the wall that the wind comes in. I taped a cover over it.
2. This spring I had the woods cleared of undergrowth.
3. About eight years ago we replaced the heating part of the heat pump with an oil furnace.
4. I had the roof reshingled this year.
   

And that's about it.

Things we talked about, but never did:

1. Finish part of the basement for a fourth bedroom, workroom, and family room with woodstove.
2. Put in a huge fancy whirlpool spa bathroom in the basement.
3. Replace the deck (20' x 10', no access to ground) with a wider deck with an octagonal piece that wraps around the corner, and "pull up" stairs (to keep wildlife off the deck).
4. Pop the attic roof and put in windows to recapture the view.
5. A stone wall at the end of the driveway, to fill in the bank that's so hard to mow.
6. Fence the backyard so the dogs can run.
7. Organize the garage.
   
8. Paint.

The painting is a real sore point. Every wall in the house is a dull off-white. When I first moved in, I remarked to Jay that it was next to impossible to wash the walls - the paint seemed "soft" somehow. I would love to paint it all in pink/rose/orange/yellow pastel shades of beige, sort of desert-adobe colors. The house was built to Jay and his ex-wife's specifications, and one day when I was going through the files, I found the builder's spec sheets. Under interior walls, it says "primer only - owner will paint". That's just primer on the walls! No wonder it won't wash!

But then I look around at all the furniture, all the things on and against the walls, all the bookcases full of books, the 12' ceilings, the open stairwell to the basement, and the thought of painting is overwhelming.

The carpeting is original, too. (Brown, throughout the house, except in the foyer, kitchen, and bathrooms.) It's 23 years old now. But it must be good carpet - it still looks ok. It would look better if I vacuumed more often.

Things I'd still like to do:

1. I'd still like to put in the family room with woodstove and fancy spa bathroom downstairs.
2. I'd like to paint all the walls.
3. I'd like to put in a patio outside the basement doors, and replace the sliding glass door with french doors.
4. I'd like to replace all the carpeting with hardwood flooring (if it's done at the same time as the painting, I'd have to move furniture only once).
5. I'd like to replace all the chandeliers and ceiling lights.
6. I'd like to put motion-detecting lights outside, on the porch and garage.

I doubt that much of it will actually happen. Not as long as I'm living here alone, anyway.

Things I'm going to have to do soon, like it or not:

1. Replace the heat pump air conditioning.
2. Resurface the driveway, and maybe add a loop.
3. Replace the deck, but I won't get fancy.
4. Have the siding washed and treated with anti-fungal stuff.
5. Put in water softener/filtering system.
6. Replace stove and dishwasher.
7. Replace/clean out all the plumbing fixtures clogged and corroded by hard water deposits.
8. Replace washing machine.
   

Not exactly improvement, more like just maintenance. But the cost of the above sort of eliminates anything fancier.

Why do I feel tired all of a sudden? Maybe Daughter and Hercules should rethink this home-buying idea of theirs. Don't buy your way into slavery! Rent!
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#619 I Need a hurricane

03/27/06

I got a shock today.

I had plans to do a lot of stuff on the house this year and next. I absolutely must replace the roof shingles, because they're curled and lifting, and there are leaks in three places. I want to resurface the driveway, because it's cracking, and sinking in several spots. I need to replace the deck - it's over 20 years old, made of treated lumber, and was never sealed, so at this point it's almost dangerous. I want to have the siding washed. It's dirty and moldy where vines had grown up it. And then sometime soon, a year or two or three, I want to have half the basement finished, with a lounge with wood stove, another bedroom, a sewing room, and a spectacular bathroom with a whirlpool.

The roof is the first priority. I don't know where I got the idea, but I thought it would cost maybe up to $5,000 at the very most, likely less. I've got that much saved up to do it. What's up there now is architectural shingles, very thick and made to look like cedar shingles. And they're lifting, curling, and buckling. Unfortunately, they are too thick to shingle over, and have to be removed before the new layer goes up. I asked for an estimate to replace them with the same type.

The Hunk says I have a big roof. It comes to "40 squares" (a square being 10x10 sections (feet?))
Materials cost will be $4,300, for 30-year architectural shingles and weatherproof underlining around the edges.
Labor will be $12,000.
Let me repeat that -- $12,000 labor.
(However, he also said something about $150 per square, which comes to $6,000, not $12,000. Did I misunderstand? Or is it $6,000 to remove and $6,000 to apply?)
Assuming no misunderstanding, that's, um, $16,300 total.
Actually higher, because I need something called a "cricket" built on the upside of the chimney to prevent future leak problems. He didn't figure that in.

Ack!