second impressions

Well, we’re all moved into our new home now. After all of the commotion and excitement of the move, followed by a lovely Christmas, we had a chance to take a better look at the house we bought. We wanted to make sure all was safe and sound before Dave had to return to work.

We bought the property.  The lifestyle, the farm, the opportunity. The house came second. It’s winter, so nothing can be done outdoors yet.

After living in a new duplex, a 16-year-old raised bungalow, followed by a new raised bungalow, we were reminded what it meant to be in an old house. It means you have no idea what was done, who did it, and how. It was hard to see everything wrong, with a lifetime worth of things in it, and I’m pretty sure I would know what an inspector would say.

Enter Mike Holmes, saying “We’ll tear it all down and make it right.”

*Sigh* No Mike Holmes, and a constant internal voice saying, “It’s not so bad, you’ve been spoiled. You know how houses work, you can do this. Plus, look at the amazing property!! You can live your dream.”

Our first night here, the sump pump was on, and not shutting off. Our troubleshooting minds checked it out, and solved that one pretty easily. The pump raises the water to the basement ceiling, sends it all the way across the house, and exits under the back deck, to 30 ft of hose, frozen, under a snow bank. YES! Temporary fix: Cut the hose.

So, how about I show you just a few future renos? I’m not talking about hiring anyone. We’re on a budget, just a couple of pretty experienced DIYers. Please excuse all the super messy moving photos (eek!).

The living room has a big book shelf. I love it for now. I’m not sure what is going to happen there. For now the living room is okay. I would like to maybe move the wood stove up from the basement so it could be more useful at heating the house. Right now, the hot air stays downstairs or travels up the stairs to heat the laundry room. Not very helpful.

This stipple repair on the ceiling sure is a beauty. You can hardly tell it’s there. *cough, cough* It looks like there was a roof/addition leak at some point. I’m just hoping the leak was fixed properly.

The crown moulding, fan and 89 cent laminate flooring have to go too.

Here is the laundry room. People who have lots of stuff, need lots of shelves. You can bet your butt we’ll be ripping those babies out. I’d like to either get the laundry on the far wall (which would be more involved), or just move the sink to the opposite wall. It would be nice to not have to squeeze in there, just to half open the laundry doors. At least the space is just wide enough for my clothes basket.

Now check out this next beauty. Everyone knows that the proper way to close a dryer vent for 2 winter months, to prevent mice from entering, and heat from escaping is to stuff a can of pasta sauce in the hole.

This is the back of the house. The 2 storey part is the old, original house. The part on the left, two additions. To the right of the 2 storey part, most likely was the front porch of the original house.

Why do I think so? Well, the stone steps leading up to it, of course.

There are 2 rooms off the kitchen, built into this porch.

The office,

and the 2nd bathroom.

These rooms are COLD! The office is most certainly not insulated, and the bathroom may have a few pieces of insulation. There is apparently some sort of plug-in, in the office so that the pipes don’t freeze in the bathroom!?

Solution: Plug the heat registers, close the doors, use the other bathroom. Come warm weather, sell the corner jetted tub, gut those rooms and revert it back to a porch or deck. Problem solved and heating costs WAY down. I’m fine with one bathroom. We can build an outhouse.

Getting rid of those “porch rooms” would really help with the kitchen layout since there are currently 6 doors  leading off of it. The kitchen is okay, but I have my own dreams for it. My only real complaint is how dangerous the stove in the itty bitty island is, and that the oven door doesn’t close.

So easy peasy, right? Get a normal stove, rip out some cabinets, place the stove where the built-in oven is, beside the fridge. But that’s inefficient, heating vs cooling. That won’t do, for long. Close up the wall with the “porch rooms” then, reconfigure the kitchen. This is MY room. I have changes in store. Mwhahaha!

I’m way too scared to look above the suspended ceiling. There may be some 10 ft ceilings here, but then again there may be mice that made it past the pasta sauce. I think I’ll be living with this lovely offset pattern and green support rails for a while.

I must say the sink is clever. I like it. It solves a little pet peeve issue I have. When one sink contains dish water, and the other clean dishes, where do you dump your half cup of day old cold coffee?!?!

So, there’s my second impressions. I have a couple more posts in me right now, to get up to date. I’ll write more over the next couple of days. I’ll tell you about the toilet incident and show off what I’ve done with the girls’ room.

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