henager.net

Home ImprovementApril 28, 2009

Yes, well…I haven’t had a blog for…a little over three years, I think. I’ve thought about making a new one… You can see the failed attempt at www.chiriohs.blogspot.com. Interestingly enough, it was a year ago this month that I tried that. I enjoyed learning about html more than blogging after a certain point. I blogged a lot when I was in my mid-teens, but after a messy relationship with my first and only boyfriend before Alan, I restarted my blog and mainly used it for html experimentation. So, since I was burnt out, it’s taken me awhile to even wrap my head around blogging again…but here I am!

Since becoming a first-time homeowner, I’ve discovered a new interest: home improvement. I knew I liked it a small amount when I lived with my parents because I was constantly trying to improve my room, but there’s only so much you can do with one room without too much effort! I still haven’t tackled a big project. Although I did PAY for my first big project. Alan and I paid a guy for a privacy fence. This was his first fence, and it wasn’t too bad. The only thing we have an issue with is the gates. I believe they can be fixed fairly easily, but I haven’t decided whether or not to try fixing it myself or having the guy come back and help or do it himself. The other thing we’d like to do with it eventually is level off all the pickets on the fence. We have a lot of uneven ground on our property, so the fence looks like it’s on an ocean. We’d like to trim some pickets and shuffle them around to get a nice even slope. Now that will be quite a job, but I think it will definitely improve the curb appeal. The fence looks nice, but it could look nicer. Especially the gates, lol.

There’s a lot I’d like to do to this house. I think we’ve pretty much decided that instead of staying put and potentially adding onto this house, that we’d rather raise the value and sell it. I don’t know what houses our size are going for in our neighborhood, but we’re guessing we can get about $90,000 for it. We bought it for $75,000, so that would be a nice raise for the money, I think. It is a rather large 2 bed 1 bath house, that’s for sure. Our property has 2 acres (and a wonderful view!!), and all of the properties surrounding us seem to have 2 acres or more. I believe this area is going to really skyrocket in value once the Duncan Bypass starts having businesses put in.

I can’t wait to finish our house, and I’m surprised at how excited I am about it. I guess it’s the supressed artist in me. I haven’t gotten to paint or made time for piano (or drumming) in a long time. And I wont be sorry if it turns out my new outlet will help make us some money!

My list of things to do is long…first off is to get completely moved in, lol. That includes giving the house it’s first deep clean. Hopefully that’ll happen soon. With Faith’s help, probably. It’s a big house to clean.

In order of priority:
1) Clean the house
2) Landscape the front and back yards
3) Paint the two bedrooms
4) Paint the bathroom
5) Paint the utility room and the storage closet
6) Replace carpet in the two bedrooms
7) Replace ceiling fans in the two bedrooms (to match the dining and den fans)
8) Replace siding with vinyl cedar shingle siding (will really look awesome)
9) Replace faux-wood floor
10) Remodel bathroom including floor (this might not happen)
11) Remodel kitchen including floor (this might not happen either)

We also plan to install a whole house sediment filter, among other small improvements.

Other projects include building a dog kennel, running electric wire along our fence (to keep the dogs in), hauling off junk from the back yard (looks like 2 or 3 surf boards(???), a big satellite dish, a small animal cage, some wood boards, some extra fencing, a kiddie pool, an old bag of dog food, and a couple bikes), filling in holes using the small mountain of dirt in the back yard, and taking the front-yard chinaberry trees out (because they’re dead or dying). All this on top of trying to keep the clean house clean once we manage to get it clean in the first place. The hardest work is getting it clean, the most challenging part is keeping it clean.

— Ruth Henager

Interests Abode