House stuff

[dancerjodi]

Its weird, after putting off so many house things for so long, I've been kind of energized and excited to do them, not in that "I have to suck it up" sort of way but in that "I want to do it" sort of way.

While making dinner last night I took the spice racks off of the back of our basement door and relocated them to the little fridge nook on the wall and out of the way. We took the door off, Brian cut it up and put in the trash, and that corner looks HUGE now. Since we have a litterbox for the cats in the basement we need to keep that door open all of the time, and we thought it would look and fit better to have a bifold one instead. Hopefully we can pick one up soon - I measured last night. They are fairly easy to install.

Brian has wanted a new bookshelf for his room on the 2nd floor to fit taller books, and be a more efficient use of space. He finally found one that fits with the decor and fits sizewise at Linen's and Things for only $50 (super easy to put together quickly), and we grabbed it last night. The small black wood one he had is now in our dining room on the wall opposite the china cabinet. The wood is cut in the same style, and it looks like the two are part of the same seat, which is neat. I put our nicer gilded/hardcover books on the shelf, freeing up some space in the den, and in the process started weeding out books I no longer want to keep. I want to get some kind of Dante Gabriel Rossetti print framed to put on that wall, because it looks quite naked and though Rossetti is my favorite preraphaelite, I don't have any of his prints.

EDIT, I found this one on e-bay for $4. I'll get it framed at the place on Moody Street, which is fairly inexpensie. I've always loved this painting, and the story behind it is neat:
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/libraries_archives_museums_galleries/guildhall_art_gallery/collection/ghirlandata.htm

This weekend we're going to make the wiring in our attic safe (its about time, what were the former homeowners thinking?) and we'll add another circuit up there in the process (the whole 2nd floor is only on 1 circuit!). We'll also finish mapping out our entire circuit box, so we know what switch goes to what (yay for walkie talkies!). I'm hoping we'll have time to finish the small masonry repair that's left (the bricks around our front yard), so we can just be done with it. This will all be tough, because we'll have Sunday to do it, and need to go to our nephew's birthday cookout at noon . . .

To come:
-scraping and painting our front and back porches
-taking off our butt ugly shutters
-more landscaping/cleanup
-building up the garage as a workshop (a tool bench, some free-standing bench-mount stands for our various table saws, organizing)
-fixing the leak around our chimney once we're able to get someone out to look at it (we think it just needs the flashing repaired)
-a go through of our heating system in the fall by a plumber to make the den less clangy, and fixing stupid and/or leaky plumbing in the basement from the former homeowner.

To come further down the line:
-a new (larger) whirlpool tub, a new floor and tiling the shower sill in our upstairs bathroom. We'll need to be creative about this, given our lack of storage in there already.
-new roof (estimated that we have 5 years to worry about)
-new siding
-new garage doors
-making our attic more living space and less storage
-if we have kids, that whole lead testing/deleading monster

To come even further down the line:
We've talked about at some point adding onto the house, building code willing. We do have a yard but its not massive, and things need to be x feet from the property line. It would be nice to have a reasonably sized room added on that's 2 floors. I could see us possibly getting a hot tub, a larger family room w/ fireplace (maybe a window seat? I've always wanted one) closet space, and on the 2nd floor on top of that an additional bedroom. We could put a wall into the current front room which would make it smaller and more like an office than a bedroom, but it would give the bathroom its own entry hallway separate from that room.

Yes, these are all the things that go around in my head :). Its genetic!

Comments

[wench33.livejournal.com]

I love window seats & hot tubs !