In just a few days, barring any major financial issues, we will own our first house.
I’m ready.
The first 38 years of my life have been preparing me for this moment. From the time I changed my first flat tire on my bike, to the the time I put a washing machine into useful operation after rescuing it from a grassy field in Israel. I’m handy. I know it. And I can’t wait to take it all out on popcorn ceilings, ratty carpet, and weeds in the front yard.
Now, I’m no Bob Villa, Norm Abrams, or Tim Taylor (although I do have Eyebrow issues). But I know how to swing a hammer, or drive a screw, or whatever the lingo is that home contractors use.
We have big plans for our move in ready fixer –
1) Carpet comes out. Out of the bedrooms, out of the hallways, and definitely out of the bathrooms. Who the hell carpets bathrooms, anyway?
2) Wallpaper gets peeled of of every horizontal and vertical surface. Peeling wallpaper is cathartic to me. It’s like peeling away that dead skin that’s left after a bad sunburn, you don’t know exactly what you are going to find underneath, it’s always a surprise.
3) Every drawer, wall, and cabinet will be washed down with TSP – yes I know this dulls finishes, but nothing removes another person’s grime like TriSodium Phosphate. Their dirt out, our dirt in.
4) There is a whole list of small issues that came up during the inspection that I will address – GFI outlets, re-connecting air-conditioning vents, and replacing the drain in the tub.
5) Get the locks changed. I don’t know if some guy loaned his keys to some buddy to crash at his place 3 years ago. The last thing I want is some wierdo walking in like he owns the place.
What did you do when you moved in to your first place? Send me an e-mail at Eric at EricHegwer dot com (may be published) or leave a comment below.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
we’re going to be forever doing projects in this house! let’s see… painted all the rooms, refinished all the kitchen cabinets, redid all of the landscaping, built a deck, built a fire pit, put in a garden, hung a new back door, replaced light switches, fixed the dishwasher and the garage door opener, put new hardware in the bathrooms, refinished the fireplace, and i can’t even think of what else! we still have an unfinished pergola outside, ceiling beams to paint, landscaping to put in around the deck, a dryer vent to fix, a broken built in microwave, etc. etc. welcome to homeownership eric! the list will NEVER END!!!!
We did a lot of these things – we had to do a bit of repainting (the previous owner’s couch had left a nice dark line along a wall). We always repaper shelves and cabinets and drawers in the kitchen and bathrooms – it’s a pain but probably worth it.
Also – make lots of extra keys! We made 8 which seemed kind of ridiculous at the time, but lo and behold we’re down to 1 spare…
Congratulations on your home-ownership! As far as our home improvements — oh my gosh, what didn’t we do! Removed popcorn from ceilings, repainted everything, completely gutted & remodeled master bath (incl. installing skylight), remodeled half of guest bath, replaced/updated everything in our kitchen except the cabinets, installed recessed lighting, replaced all the interior doors … If you need a good contractor I can recommend an *excellent* one — she did all of the above in 6 weeks!