It's begun. Although, making decisions together is a regular part of married life; now that we are co-owners of a house the decisions are coming at us fast and furious. Here are just some of the things we have to decided:
1. In our 3 bedrooms we need to pull up the existing carpet and replace them with something before we can live in them. Our Master bedroom window is leaking mould onto the carpet and the carpet in the other two rooms are very stained. It would be great carpet if it wasn't stained. So the decision to be made is whether to replace this flooring with more carpet or to go with laminate (hardwood being way out of our price range). I've always been partial to carpet only because of the way it feels on my feet. The other good thing is that someone comes in to install it so there is no work involved for Reuben. But the downside is that it's harder to keep clean, collects more dust and allergens and gets stained more easily. Laminate is approximately the same price as carpet but doesn't include installation, which Reuben, with the help of my brother or some other knowledgeable helper would have to do along with all of the other projects in the house.
2. To redo the kitchen or not to redo the kitchen, that is the question. It's a hideous shade of peach and cream. The counter top has a huge stain. The faucet is dangling in place. The cupboards, while fairly sturdy, are outdated and dirty. The tile leaves something to be desired. But redoing a kitchen is messy and costly, especially if we redo the floor too. I think we've come to some agreement that we won't be starting on that project too soon. We were going to try and complete it before we moved in but I think that would give us too much of a headache. Shopping for kitchen stuff is fun, though!
Other things to do around the house;
-scrub down all the walls and floors
-paint everywhere
-plant some bulbs so we have some nice color in our garden in the spring
-replace the Master bedroom window
-put facia up where it is missing (am I spelling that right?)
-mega-scrub mould out of the tile in the bathtub
etc, etc, etc ....
2 comments:
Congrats on finding & buying a house! Exciting times in your future :) Here's my two cents worth, coming from a fellow home owner.
1. Tackle the mold asap. The longer it sits the more damage. To remove mold use bleach diluted with water. Or I like to use straight VIM with bleach. We have mold in our house that shows up in the winter and I literally go around with a toothbrush to scrub it off/out.
2. When replacing your window find a company that will rip the whole thing out as opposed to just putting a new window in the existing frame, especially if you have mold problems there. It is most likely rotting around the window. This will cost you more up front but save you in the long run on your energy bill. And if possible do it before winter.
3. I would personally put laminate down instead of carpets. For the exact reasons you mentioned. And you can always get some nice area rugs. From what I understand it's not that hard to lay either, just time consuming.
4. If you can do your kitchen right away then go for it. you will be so much happier. Our kitchen needed doing when we moved in too and that was 6 years ago and i'm still waiting. Other things always seem to creep up.
Hope that helps. Have fun moving in and making it your own!
Thanks, Laura!
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