With my extracurricular season at school ramping up, work on the house has not progressed much in the last month. However, decorations are a different category, and so on a cold and drizzly Sunday afternoon I strung lights on the house.
I took a crate of lights from Mom and Dad last year, and I thought there were way more lights than we would ever use. But once I weeded out the burned-out strands, I used almost all of them on the bushes and gutters (which are only on the two sides of the house as shown). The new gutter clips I bought made installation a snap, other than moving the extension ladder. Rachel wanted to put wheels on the bottom, like a library ladder, but I decided that was not a great idea.
On the inside, there has been a modicum of work done on the basement. Last month I stripped one of the storage rooms in preparation to build a larger workshop, and found some water damage to the interior wall that will probably need replacement. We are now negotiating on how to design the area...
Finally, I mentioned long ago that we received a grant from the Bungalow Association to have some energy efficiency work done. Well, their contractors came in and insulated like mad! They blew in insulation between the first and second floors, added insulation in the crawlspace under the roof, and sealed the cracks between the basement and the first floors. To top it off, we replaced our 40ish year old water heater with a brand new GE model. Not bad for filling out a 2 page app, eh?
The only problem was that they used that spray foam to seal in all my access to the bathroom plumbing (shown above) which will make things inconvenient whenever I decide to work on that bathroom!
Long-term plans? (in no particular order)
Build storage areas along our north basement wall, next to the new laundry table. Build the workshop. Build a family / rec room in the basement. Rehab the first floor bathroom. Buy and refinish old wood doors for our bedrooms. Refinish the faux fireplace and get an electric insert. And so on and so on until we are broke.....
-alan
I took a crate of lights from Mom and Dad last year, and I thought there were way more lights than we would ever use. But once I weeded out the burned-out strands, I used almost all of them on the bushes and gutters (which are only on the two sides of the house as shown). The new gutter clips I bought made installation a snap, other than moving the extension ladder. Rachel wanted to put wheels on the bottom, like a library ladder, but I decided that was not a great idea.
On the inside, there has been a modicum of work done on the basement. Last month I stripped one of the storage rooms in preparation to build a larger workshop, and found some water damage to the interior wall that will probably need replacement. We are now negotiating on how to design the area...
Finally, I mentioned long ago that we received a grant from the Bungalow Association to have some energy efficiency work done. Well, their contractors came in and insulated like mad! They blew in insulation between the first and second floors, added insulation in the crawlspace under the roof, and sealed the cracks between the basement and the first floors. To top it off, we replaced our 40ish year old water heater with a brand new GE model. Not bad for filling out a 2 page app, eh?
Long-term plans? (in no particular order)
Build storage areas along our north basement wall, next to the new laundry table. Build the workshop. Build a family / rec room in the basement. Rehab the first floor bathroom. Buy and refinish old wood doors for our bedrooms. Refinish the faux fireplace and get an electric insert. And so on and so on until we are broke.....
-alan
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