House Post: Year One Roundup

Today is our official one year anniversary of owning a house!

I really kind of love it. Both the house, and the actual thing that is owning a house. Even though we started with the vague thought that we might purchase land, I don't regret going with a "city" house. It's the right fit for us.

So, what did we accomplish in year one?

The first big project was rewiring, in which I learned that I really liked electrical work.

We also stripped wallpaper from and repainted four rooms: the master bedroom, the library, the downstairs bathroom, and the kitchen. (No post for the kitchen yet; I'll cover that soon, but it got finished just in under the deadline.

We pulled carpet and exposed gorgeous hardwood floors in three rooms: master bedroom, library, and dining room. (Apparently I never blogged about the dining room? Whoops.)

We also stripped wallpaper from two additional rooms: back guest room and front entryway.

Our biggest $$$ project, by a pretty large factor, was insulating the attic. It was also the most frustrating project, as the contractors were way overbooked and really terrible at communicating.

We tackled a project that was seemingly little but actually huge and complicated: installing vent fans in both bathrooms.

We started a project that is still under way, and is the largest structural change to the house: building a wall in the basement to make it into a true garage.

There were also a host of smaller projects, like gardening in the front yard, installing low-flow faucet & shower heads, adding a shower to the upstairs bathroom, putting in a new Nest thermostat, re-organizing the basement (post soon), getting a new washer & dryer, stripped & repainted two radiators, and got some new furniture.

So what's on deck for year 2?

Here's the wishlist:
- finish garage (and by extension, basement reorganization)
- gut weird back room and turn it into a man cave
- strip wallpaper and repaint: back bedroom, front bedroom, office, front hallway, nook area/game room
- conserve front entryway mural
- sleeping porch: repaint, replace glass panes, finalize furniture arrangement there
- most remaining radiators stripped and repainted (will probably hold on sun room and living room for now)
- landscaping and yard, including some raised beds for gardening
- drainage work along the north side of the house to prevent flooding problems

Which paves the way for big idea projects in year 3, like planting hedges, new kitchen counters, re-imagining both bathrooms, and the final rooms to strip & repaint, the sun room and living room.