Steve Symington’s Blog

My wife and I recently purchased a home (we moved in on 8-18-06, closed on 9-1-06). This home needed a lot of work to bring it up to par, and we’ve gotten a fair amount done. Some of our tasks were small, but made all the difference in the world. I’m posting this to give everyone an idea of what we’ve finished. Here’s the list.

So far, we have

• painted the ENTIRE interior. Most of the paint was wicked and old, and we repainted the newly colored walls to remedy 1.) terrible cutting ability (the previous owner hadn’t bothered to paint within 2 inches of the corners in many rooms), and 2.) previous nasty color choices (think of an entire room completely deep, bright blue…shades, trim, outlets, closet, everything, and think of another with one green (or was it blue?) wall, three walls of different shades of terrible pink, and a tan ceiling),
• had a Radon mitigation system installed (the Radon levels were three times the acceptable level),
• cleaned the back yard. This is something most people take for granted. Highlights include a first-in-several-months mowing/weedeating, lots of trash and, my personal favorite, a grill left behind complete with several old hot dogs still on it. There were also several spider-infested hay bales against our fence, previously used as an archery target; nevermind the poor neighbors next door having to worry about arrows being lobbed toward their dogs…
• installed new towel racks, TP holders, towel rings, cabinets, toilet armoirs, and new faucets/sink drains in both bathrooms…also will soon replace the $10 bathroom fans with something that actually works,
• installed curtain rods and bought new curtains (it’s the little things that matter, like keeping people outside from seeing me naked…I’ve realized, however, this only works when I’m inside),
• carpeted the stairs and the entire basement (update, 3-14-06: also had new carpet installed in the two upstairs bedrooms),
• thanks to my Dad, installed six new baseboard heaters (more to come, hooray for safe, even heat!), installed new outdoor lights in the front and back, and replaced four (update 2-13-07: the number is up to ten) old, unsafe light fixtures (so far)…also got the hell shocked out of me by one of them (turns out the hot wire was exposed and resting on the ground…woohoo for do-it-yourself electricians!). I also had my Dad (a master electrician) go through the main panel and make it safe (what a rat’s nest that was!)…soon we’ll replace the main panel, and run wire for smoke detectors (only one detector currently works)
• thanks to my father-in-law, installed an above-the-range microwave , leveled the fairly new cabinets (had to lower one side just over an inch to fix the previous install), flipped the cabinet doors around (they no longer open backward!),
• replaced the upstairs tub (yay for no rust!), installed hardy-backer cement board around it instead of the old drywall,
• tiled the upstairs bathroom around the tub, up to the ceiling, installed new tub faucet/drain/handle/showerhead…very proud of this one, though it took far too long. It’s got four-inch white tile in a straight pattern, with a decorative strip in the center (patterns were chosen by my wife…kudos to her). It turned out nicely and we now have a functional upstairs bathroom!
• recaulked, retextured (knockdown texture) and painted the downstairs bathroom
• Replaced eight interior doors and frames, including two bedrooms, two bedroom closets, a linen closet, a coat closet, and two bathrooms
• (updated 4-6-07) cut, painted, and installed trim around all the new doors/windows/closets, replaced baseboard upstairs, replaced trim/baseboard in downstairs bathroom,
• (added 2-13-07) so far have replaced half of the light switches and electrical outlets,
• (added 2-20-07) replaced the doorbell…the old doorbell was yellow, dangling from the wall, and not even hooked up, and I got tired of looking at the stupid thing every time I went down the hallway. My dad was nice enough to supply us with one he had.
• (added 3-14-07) removed three trees from the back yard (one was freaking huge, and I need to get a stump grinder up here now!) *Update 4_6-07: had the three stumps ground out, god rid of over 200 gallons of mulch I couldn’t use and didn’t want to store. We also had three monstrous sets of lilac roots ground out, and had to our front yard’s tree thinned (likely its first time EVER),
• (updated 4-6-07) new windows are on their way, installed four new windows…the fifth (and not surprisingly the largest, for which we were very excited) was ordered incorrectly, so we’re forced to wait another couple weeks. The new windows we have now, however, are absolutely beautiful.
• (added 4-6-07) replaced the $1.00 hose holders in the front and back,
• (added 4-6-07) weeded the flower beds…sounds like no small task, but it took my wife and I over 15 hours to finish completely. I removed three wheelbarrows full of rocks (some watermelon-sized), and filled three 42-gallon trash cans with cat poop and weeds,
• (added 8-10-07) installed Pergo (Naturals, Aged Cherry) floor upstairs through the living room, hallway, dining room, and kitchen. Oh, what a difference gorgeous floor makes in a home! I suppose the worst part was tearing out an unnecessary sub-floor in the kitchen and dining room to make them level with the living room for a single, seamless floor. How do you tear out a sub-floor, you ask? Chunk by chunk.
• and found lots of fun stuff to decorate the bare walls…this is almost all Ellie because I’m terrible at picking out that kind of stuff.

So that’s the majority of it…I’m not sure if I’m missing anything.

Next up on the list is new doors and installed trim (as noted above), new carpet for both upstairs bedrooms (the master bedroom still has the original carpet still installed…yep, that’s from 1978), a vent through the ceiling above the stove, new light fixtures for all lights not previously replaced, remove a couple trees that look as though they came straight out of a horror movie and new electrical fixtures (plugs, switches, etc.). There’s more, but those (I think) are the most imminent. I’ll update this list as we get more done! I’ll also get some pictures up soon!

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