and other things involving lots and lots of boxes. And packing popcorn. And bubble wrap. And paint.
I'm packing things up.
15 days - counting today - until I get possession of the new place. That's also 15 days until I sign the papers to go into a large amount of debt...larger than I've ever had in my life. Granted, it's a long-term repayment (mortgages usually are), and it's building equity. And it's my housedetached condo, dangit. I can do whatever I want. (Well, almost. If I took leave of my senses long enough to think that neon fuschia with chartreuse trim was a good exterior paint combination, the association would overrule me. And possibly have me sedated.) This is a detached condo in an area that I love, it's got room for me/cats/stuff and then some, and it will appreciate in value as time goes on. (In the short term, it will lose value...but that's only because housing markets will continue to fall for a little while. Though this area isn't as hard-hit as other parts of the country.) Plus...it's a roof over my head. This is the first place, other than Vancouver BC Canada, where I've felt content enough to want to put down roots and buy a house.
I'm already planning several things:
- repaint the downstairs. Everything's a dull white, so either the homeowners really really loved that color, or it's still the original color the builders put on the walls. But it's a *dull* white. It doesn't even brighten the rooms. So I'm changing the color. (The stairwell needs repainted, anyway. You can see spots on there where the original homeowners had all kinds of scrapes on the wall, and repainted...inexpertly.)
- pull down the trim in the living room. They used the baseboard, and they didn't apply it well. There's no caulking at the ceiling line, the cuts aren't smooth or even, and the nail holes weren't filled in properly. So, yeah, several reasons to take that down (besides the fact that I don't like it.) I'm already thinking up alternative crown moulding...possibly multiple pieces, with one small thin piece about an inch down from the rest, so that the wall and wall color shows between?
- I was contemplating putting up high shelves all around the office and library, so the cats would have a nifty high place...but the ceilings are only about 8 feet high, so that would really make the rooms look smaller. Plus I'd have to do something creative when the shelf crossed over the windows. I haven't discarded the idea, but it won't be happening right away.
- The master bedroom closet has no doors. Since I have cats who looooooove to twine in anything hanging, closet doors are mandatory if I don't want to have all my hems festooned with cat fur. (The MBR closet is more of a nook with wire shelves, rather than an actual real closet; so I need to put in hanger dowels, too.)
- All the windows are those nifty vinyl dual-paned jobs, which is excellent for heat conservation (a bit more important here in the Pacific Northwest than where I used to live.) Right now, they all have aluminum blinds...which are serviceable, but kind of "bleah". It's a large-ish cash outlay, but I'm putting cellular shades in every window, including the patio door (which currently has only a decorative curtain, not anything that actually provides privacy, let alone a thermal barrier.) Those cellular shades will also help when summer comes - especially a blackout shade on the south-southwest patio, which gets full afternoon sun. They'll keep the place cooler.
- The doors are...well, they're architecturally stupid, is what. Not the doors themselves, which are just cheap rather than stupid. The floorplan is such, though, that the doors take up space in weird ways when they're open. In the library, the open door blocks the front window. In the master bedroom, the open door blocks the passthrough/closet/hall into the bathroom. In the kitchen, the door from the library...well, that is going to be walled up, so I don't care about that one so much. But you get my point. In most cases, the doors can't just be hinged on the other side because they'd then block the heat vents when open. Replacing all the interior doors with double doors that open down the middle will take care of that particular problem. (The doors will also look better than what's currently being used, which is a hollow-core door with that wood-grain-look paper over it. It looks very...not completely "cheap", but "lowest bidder" or "builder's bulk special".) I don't know how much it will cost to replace the doors, though. That one could take a while.
- The fireplace is nifty...but the mechanism that blows the heated air into the living room isn't working. I'd like that replaced, since blowing the air back into the house in winter would be another heat source. The cats will thank me by becoming near-permanent living works of art, ensconed on the hearth under the warm air stream. Picaresque *and* calming...and then they won't all be trying to walk all over the keyboard while I'm working, so it's a win-win-win.
- Speaking of the fireplace, it needs a mantel. I can see the line above the fireplace where the owners removed a shelf-mantel that was effectively just glued in place. I want an actual mantel that I can put stuff on - so it needs to be better supported. Since this isn't a "real" fireplace, I'm toying with the idea of having shelves or display nooks down the sides. They wouldn't be deep enough for even a paperback book; but some of my smaller dragons could probably go there (as long as I can convince the cats that these are not toys. That bit might take some doing.)
- Longer term, I'd like to replace the kitchen cabinets. They don't go all the way to the top of the ceiling...and I'm very tall, but I'm not so tall that I could keep things up in that 7" gap and be able to get at them easily. I know why they did this. Kitchen ceilings are not always at a strict 90 degree angle to the kitchen wall. If they slope upward a little bit, no problem...but if they slope down, there's a chance that open cupboard doors would scrape along the kitchen ceiling (or not open all the way.) By moving the cabinets down half a foot or thereabouts, the builders effectively save on labor because they don't have to hire someone who knows all the tricks of hanging kitchen cabinets. They can just get any builder to securely affix the cabinets to the walls, et blammo. (Plus, if the ceilings dip down, any potential homeowner won't notice, and thus won't complain / decide to go buy something else.) The trick here will be to just get cabinets that have about two inches worth of "framing" which would give me back my cabinet space, but neatly avoid any problems with scraping cabinet doors. That will be about $3,000 (thank you, Home Depot pricing guides. I now know how much I have to save. And, crap, it's another large-ish expense. So that project automatically goes out a few years...)
- My biggest project, in terms of cost, labor, and value it will add to the place, is to push the upstairs walls into the attic about four feet. This will give me another 150 square feet of liveable space in the office and bedroom. However, it will involve having the roof-supporting joists redone so as to clear that additional space. The hot water heater also resides in the attic, so that will need to be repiped. But I'll be able to put a closet in the office, thus making the house into a 3BR; and I'll be able to potentially add a small window seat and another window in the master bedroom, as well as have more space. (Or possibly add a walk-in closet. I haven't quite decided yet.) This project will probably run me close to $20K, so that's at least five years off. (There's no way I can save that much in five years...but I can save a goodly chunk of it, which will help when I go to apply for a home loan.)
- If I had a full bath downstairs instead of a half-bath, I could rent out the downstairs room and the renter would be able to shower without having to troop up through my bedroom. I'm really, really hoping that things don't get so tough that I need to take this step - but it would be nice to have that option. (Plus it would add to resale or rental value, having two full bathrooms instead of 1.5. And if someone came for a week to visit...again, they could take their morning shower without having to go up the stairs and through my room. Which could save some awkwardness, especially if they wake up earlier than I do. No, wait, that could save potential minor violence, not merely awkwardness. Still...it's a good, worthwhile project.)
I should be able to do many of these smaller things within the first month - the painting, the duettes, possibly replacing the doors. The bigger stuff will have to wait a while. I want to get my savings built back up so that I have enough in there for six months of mortgage payments (at least). And then within the next year I have to buy a new car. Mine is twelve years old. It's a trouper, but it's over a decade. Time for it to go finish its life at, say, Volunteers of America or a women's crisis center or someplace like that.
(Apologies for talking so much about things that cost money, especially with the economy in the shape that it's in. It will get worse before it gets better, I know that. Our country has been living too high for too long, and we're going to have to pay the piper. Whomever had gotten elected this past Nov 4 (yay!! Obama won!!) would have been faced with a big mess to clean up. But I've been smart with my spending. The worst thing that can be said about my credit history is that I don't really have any. And my job, while not 100% secure, is pretty dang secure...and I'm versatile enough that if I lose this job, I can get jobs in many other industries. I can even switch career fields temporarily, if necessary. I don't want to, but I can.)
Now, the Search for Wardrobe Boxes. I need about six - some tall, a few "short". And Craigslist isn't cooperating today...
Posted by Laughing Muse • 191 views • Share this link • Newer • Older
