A Facelift for 7712

"How's the house coming?" Friends and family often ask us this question as we tackle a number of ambitious renovation projects on the home we bought in September of 2006. While most in our inner circle understand the magintude of what we have undertaken, there are those who think that "renovating" means slapping some paint on the walls and hanging a few pictures. They simply can't understand why the house isn't "done" and then joke that no house is ever really done, as if to reassure us that it's okay to still be working on the dwelling we've lived in for almost four years. You'd think they'd cut us some slack when we mention that we're doing all of the work ourselves...

In case you're wondering, here's what we've done so far:

• Removed the worn carpet and had the wood floors refinished (one of the only things we haven't done ourselves).


• Replaced 14 windows (all done by Mike, not by a window company).


• Renovated the guest room, which included tearing out the walls; adding insulation; putting up new dry wall; painting the ceiling; painting the walls; adding new crown molding and trim around the door, windows, and closet; building a chair rail; redoing the wiring; and refinishing furniture purchased at garage sales.


• Renovated the den, which included removing two layers of wallpaper tiny bit by tiny bit; tearing out the walls; adding insulation; putting up new dry wall; building picture frame paneling to go around the entire bottom of the room; painting the top half of the room; adding a wallpaper border just above the paneling; adding new crown molding and trim around the door, window, and closet; and redoing the wiring.


• Tore out the chimey, which ran right through the kitchen, and put in a new high-efficiency furnace that vents out a pipe in the back of the house. (We had someone install the furnace.)


• Put up new shutters.


• Grassed in two difficult-to-maintain flower beds in the yard. Got rid of the statue of the naked boy riding a fish.


• Cut down hundreds of unhealthy trees in the backyard.


• Replaced the water heater.


• Added an irrigation system for a flower bed in the front yard.


• Removed ivy from a 35' x 25' flower bed.


• Tore out the walls in the third bedroom, added insulation, put up new drywall, and redid the wiring.


• Installed built-in drawers in our bedroom closets (handmade by Mike.)


• Installed a reverse osmosis water filtration system.


• Added a patio to the backyard (4 tons of flagstone.) Colleen sledgehammered it herself to break the rock apart.


• Put in a new garage door opener.


• Built a 12' x 6' storage shelf in the garage.


• Rebuilt the exterior portion of the fireplace chimney (which would have cost $900 to repoint, but Mike rebuilt it for $150.)


• Replaced all door knobs.


• Installed a 6 ft. antenna in the attic.

We've done other stuff, too, but there's so much that we can't remember every single thing.

Our next project is our big kitchen remodel, which we're going to do completely on our own, except for digging the foundation for the extension. We've started this blog so that we can share our progress.

Wish us luck! We're going to need it.