It’s Sunday evening and I’m sitting here trying to unwind from a busy day.
Home ownership is just as I thought it would be; my mom always owned our homes when we were growing up so I knew what it took. She was a single parent so my brother and I pitched in as much as she could convince us to, to help weed the garden, mow the lawn, paint, clean and do chores.
It’s not a huge surprise that owning our home means that there’s always something to do. Especially since it’s a house, not a condo or a townhouse. It has quite a large, which means quite a bit of yard work.
Since we moved in, we’ve:
- Re-insulated the attic
- Installed a kitchen in the basement
- Painted the bedroom
- Painted the bathroom
- Redid the stairs up to the back porch
- Re-located the washer and dryer and redid the venting
- Vented the bathroom
- Decorated the spare room
- Installed racks in the closets (just hanging racks, the house didn’t come with them)
- Lifted the range (a larger job than we originally thought)
- Re-routed a garden (just a small one, but it required re-seeding the grass)
- Patched a big hole in the ceiling where a vent to nowhere was
- Put a deadbolt on the front door (for some reason, there was only a knob lock)
- Installed a door in the basement
- Sealed and caulked a drafty part of the wall in the basement foyer
- Cleaned the furnace, replaced the filter
- Weeded several of the gardens
- Reweeded several of the gardens
- Put weed plastic/fabric stuff over the gardens to nip this weeding/reweeding cycle in the bud
- Installed shelving in the garage
- Built a gate and installed in the backyard
- Replaced the roof.
There are likely projects that we have done that I don’t remember, but I’m too tired to think about it anymore.
We moved in less than four months ago. Each and every week we get more and more done. Just a few weeks ago I weeded one of the front gardens to get it ready to put lava rock over top, but by the time I finished everything else, the garden needed weeding again because it took so long to get the lava rock.
The fun doesn’t end here, either. Here’s what left on our to-do list for the house:
- Finish the gardens
- Plant the vegetables
- Install some sort of storage in the basement bathroom
- Repave the driveway (sometime in the far future)
- Make a front patio (less to mow)
- Install some fence panels in the front
- Gate off the front yard
- Weed EVERYTHING and put that black stuff down to make sure we don’t have to do it again
- Deadbolt the downstairs door (it has one of those tricky button deadbolt things so we’re just going to go old school)
- Install shelving in the closets
- Put the back splash in the bathroom
- Make the office into a real office
- Build and install porch furniture on the back deck
- Put a closet in the loft
That’s just what is on our radar for the next 2-3 years. There are a few of these things that are on the immediate radar (roof, weeding, gate, deadbolt) and some that just aren’t going to get done for awhile because they aren’t that important.
I’m sure those of you who have ever purchased an older home know what I’m talking about, but you’re never bored when you are a home owner. I am sure when we get all of this done, there will be more things popping up.
I’m not complaining; I actually really enjoy it. I find that doing things to improve something that you own is a pretty amazing feeling. It’s just noteworthy – if you don’t like to stay busy around your home, don’t buy a house. Particularly not an older house with a lot of yard.
Do you have a never-ending to-do list?
It looks like you have done a lot of work on the house. You still apparently have a lot more to do, but I think that kind of work is rewarding, especially once you see it complete. Nice job.
Now that is impressive. There are a few things on my to do list as well but nothing that large. Keep up the good work. I saw the post on the redecoration from a week ago and you did an amazing job on that so I would assume nothing less on the other projects.
Looks like a good list… I am very impressed that you’ve managed to get so much done in the short time you’ve been there. It was winter, to boot!
Keep on trucking. The projects will become fewer and further between as time (and financial restrictions) goes on.
HOLY SMOKES! You have done an awful lot from just living in your home for 4 months. I tip my hat to you! I also have an old home that the past few owners didn’t really take care of so it seems as soon as we get one thing done something else pops up. It feel so satisfying and yet overwhelming some days. I am looking forward to read about your next steps in tackling the to dos
Every few months I have a mini-breakdown simply since I realize that I will never have a completely empty to-do list. Then I remind myself that I am an adult, that’s normal, and I have to suck it up. Poopers. Our home to-do list is happily less extensive since we had it built as we wanted so shelving and whatnot has already been handled, but we still have a ton we can do chore-wise and our dogs have pop up issues too…
Yup – I know the feeling. I feel like I could spend every waking hour working on something around the house and still have things to do. Good thing I like to keep busy, weeding is a full time job here.