DIY SAHPs with fixer uppers - Page 2

[BarefootScientist]

Great thread. I am in awe of all you ladies. I wouldn't exactly call our house a fixer-upper, but there is a lot of work to be done. We are looking to (hopefully) sell it this spring so we need to do a lot of painting, some minor fixes, major decluttering, etc. It is very difficult to get any of this done with a 2 yo tagging along!

So I'm subbing.

[mata]

My people!

we're in the middle of a remodel-so far we've done the kitchen )new appliances, floor, countertops, backsplash,) the first floor bathroom, scraped popcorn ceilings on the first floor, done some minor demolition of interior walls, cabinet removals, etc. We've painted the downstairs, except I'll do the bathroom this week. We need to paint the kitchen cabinets and the trim throughout the whole house (including interior doors,) then we get to tackle the upstairs, which will need popcorn removal, painting, and 2 bathrooms to be updated. Oh, and we also have to resurface and tile the pool. We have a ton of landscaping work to do-we have trees that have been neglected for 20+ years-13 beautiful Cypress trees that are about 5 stories tall that had to have ivy cut out from them. Some of the ivy stalks were as big as a man's arm. I got a quote from an arborist-to get everything into shape front, back and side would cost over 10K, so we will need to DIY as much as possible. I've cleared land before and I'm not afraid to do it-it's just a huge job. There's so much undergrowth to keep on top of, and we really need to clear it out because of bobcats and mountain lions. We moved here last March and quickly realized our backyard was home to a bobcat and 4 bobkittens-they moved on, but I don't want them back!

To add another layer of fun to the mix, we've also been dealing with our share of plumbing leaks. First was a geyser from the landscaping (needed to be fixed twice,) then came a leak in the wall of our first floor bath, then I discovered a slab leak under the kitchen floor. We have copper pipes and apparently they start to go right at the age our house is (25 years)-replumbing may be in our future. I read that all of the hi tech wiring impacts old plumbing, which I found to be interesting.

We have wonky electrical issues. I'm choosing not to think about them.

At least the roof and a/c units are new.

changing seasons-yeah, I'd definitely be farming that one out! Our slopes are covered with ivy, and I loathe it-harbors all sorts of rodents. We hopefully sealed everything up well, though! We did have a bee problem when we first moved in-they were swarming down the chimney into the house!

[Shahbazin]

We're not exactly doing it all ourselves, but we are about to start a lot of renovations, & have 2 toddlers in the mix. We moved in with DH's parents 2 years ago after losing our home in a wildfire, & after MIL passed away last spring, we ended up buying the house from FIL last month. It's 1200 sq ft, late 1950s, with old hardwood floors buried under 1970s orange shag carpeting, & much in need of maintenance. Since moving here, weve renovated both bathrooms (major leaking & rot issues in both, tub in one with a rusted through hole in its side) & put in fencing for one of our dogs, but the kids & we have all been living in one bedroom (it's bigger than the other 2 bedrooms, which are about 11 x 11, but not by much), FIL has 1 bedroom, & the 3rd has been a home office (computers, file cabinets, & clutter - almost all of it FIL's). We're replacing the whole back 1/2 of the roof (falling apart, full of termites), & turning the back porch slab into a small family room (aka new office room) & a tiny den for DH (adding insulation, which is lacking), freeing up the old bedroom office for the girls. Remnants of old wallpaper in that room need to go, as well as the carpet, refinish floor underneath, repaint, etc. It does have a new window. Then the whole house will need to be tented for termites - ick. Will still need to replace the kitchen floor - has a big soft spot, will redo in tile, & get a new garage door.

[Masel]

Originally Posted by BarefootScientist

Great thread. I am in awe of all you ladies. I wouldn't exactly call our house a fixer-upper, but there is a lot of work to be done. We are looking to (hopefully) sell it this spring so we need to do a lot of painting, some minor fixes, major decluttering, etc. It is very difficult to get any of this done with a 2 yo tagging along!

So I'm subbing.

I'm in the same boat. We need a bigger house (or at least one with the same square footage in a better configuration). I figure my job in the next couple years is to get this place show worthy. The worst is the yard. It is very overgrown with some sad flowerbeds made of old timbers.

[Latte]

Great thread! After having NO maintenance whatsoever for the past 6 years, indoors or out (we were renting part of the time and living in a brand new condo the rest), we have just bought a more-than-100-year old fixer-upper with an acre of land. I'm thrilled, but also, EEEeeeeeeek!

I am wondering -- has anyone with young kids figured out a way to incorporate them into the house fix-up process? Obviously it is tough with the toxic stuff like lead paint, and plaster dust, etc., and they also can't use many tools at this age (6 and 3). But, my husband and I just made a major lifestyle change, a big part of which was to allow my husband to spend less time at work and more time with our kids, and I don't want to just replace time at the office away from the kids with time working on the house away from the kids!!! Pre-kids we owned a 150-year old house (before the blissful 6-year maintenance-free period), so know there is a lot of work involved. Are we unrealistic to think we'll be able to make the fixing-up, or at least some of it, a "family project"? Any ideas?

Here's what we've come up with so far. We are lucky that we have some time to work on the house before we actually move in. My husband thought of the idea to buy mops and let the kids mop the wood floors to their heart's content, which they loved. Also got them hardhats and toolbelts. Right now we are in the "ripping stuff out" stage, and they've been really interested to see what's behind the walls and under the floors. Also, very interested to learn the names of tools and their purposes. Anyone have any more ideas how to make the house fix-up a family project and/or sort of like a homeschooling project? Is anyone else trying this approach? I read this one book where a homesteading family built an entire house by themselves in the redwood forest of California, so I figure there's got to be a way to incorporate the little ones into this fix-up project.

[sky*hawk]

I am subing for now, but will definitely be back to read previous posts and tell you all more about my fixer-upper. We just removed the top half of our house and had an entire second floor put on! And we have no insulation on the first floor between the walls and the brick! It feels crazy sometimes and I'm glad I am not the only crazy one out there! Thank you for starting this thread!
More later...

[HeatherAtHome]

Can I sneak in here? We're renovating but without kids (which makes it so much easier!) I just had my 3.5 year old niece over for 5 days and had to constantly keep an eye on her. She kept wanting to use the new bathroom because the old one was "ewwwy". Except the new toilet wasn't hooked up yet.

We're hoping to have kids soon, once all the hard(er) work is done.

So, details: Moved October 1st into our 100+ year old home on 1/3 of an acre in the country. Shortly after, our galvanized pipes gave out. We were planning on putting in a new bathroom in a different location *then* ripping out the old, so there was no sense redoing the pipework to the old bathroom. We thought we might be without water for 2 weeks while we gutted then rebuilt and installed everything in the space we were putting the new bathroom.

Everything takes longer than expected though and those two weeks turned into 2 months. I didn't mind so much except having to admit to people that it was taking so long. During that time, we (mostly I) carried water from the neighbour's house (used outdoor tap). Showered and did laundry at my sister's place nearby. We're finally, finally, finally just about finished with the bathroom.

DH works evenings so doesn't have a lot of time during the week to work on house. I'm unemployed and working "full time" on our house. People look at us odd when I mention the stuff I do (demo work, build walls, put up gyprock alone, heck, even clear snow from the driveway) because they consider it "man" work. How insulting!

We have finished:

• cleaned and insulated attic
• New bathroom: ripped out some walls (and found out we live in a LOG HOUSE!) insulated, rebuilt outer walls, built a dividing inner wall, ripped out 2 layers of flooring- put in one, hung cabinet, converted dresser to vanity, installed tub etc
• painted galore
• painted kitchen cabinets, kept old sink, added new faucet
• ripped out carpet upstairs,
• insulated around some doors and windows
• I feel like we've done lots more but can't think of what

Still to do:

• lay floor in kitchen/dining room/soon to be playroom
• install new counter top
• do something with wood floor in living room
• paint living room, playroom, 3 bedrooms
• fill in gaps in our fieldstone basement walls
• insulate headers in basement
• tear down slanted ceilings and knee walls upstairs to insulate
• OMG the addition-do something with it. It was tacked on it the 60's very cheaply. Has no insulation in floor and is *extremely* cold. Hardly any insulation in ceiling/walls. Had water damage 3 years ago and while leak was fixed, ugly spot/holes in ceiling were not. It is also where the old bathroom is so it will be full of holes once toilet etc is out.
• *sigh* check wiring, there are a couple not so new looking bits
• pull off a couple layers of siding from the house, wrap with rigid insulation, add nice siding.
• install eaves and drainage
• when we can afford it: have the septic everything redone
• in 5 years: the roof
• figure out how to brace part of the second story as I think they (someone before us, God knows when) pulled out a load bearing wall.
• and a lot more stuff I'm not even thinking of right now.

Bonus stuff when we have time:

• clear weeds from back half of property and plant garden
• build small greenhouse
• add patio door to addition (which will be a playroom/family room) and build a patio

At least our windows are new, we have new electric heaters and the electrical panel isn't outside anymore. (for real, the old fuse box kind was in a wooden box by the front door!)

We got our house very cheaply and we're paying as we go on renovations. Looking forward to tax breaks, and $ from government programs. Once the bathroom is completely in, I believe we're taking a bit of a break as we're low on funds. It's fine, too cold to do anything now!

[sky*hawk]

just subbing for now

[MJ13]

We're about to get started on another big project and I can't wait!

MIL, FIL & BIL are coming in on the 26th for 2 weeks+ and in that time we will *hopefully* have 2 new master bedroom closets, a bigger master bathroom with a whirlpool tub , refinished hardwood floor in master and they are removing an old useless chimney that goes through the middle of the house and then moving a door and widening a closet where the chimney is coming out...

It's going to be an interesting couple weeks!

I should also mention that DH & I have been sharing a small bedroom with the kids for a year now so it will be really nice to be able to spread everyone out a bit when this is done... not that it will keep DS in his bed but it should give us some more room!

[thixle]

I'm home.

Subbing for now. OMG, it's almost Xmas! The girl's play kitchen (present) isn't finished yet, but the insulation, drywall, and purple paint are done in the playroom!!!

Anyone else going bonkers from the stress? We moved in Oct 31st last year-- DD2 was born 9 days later So, 4yo DD1 and 1yo thumb-tack-eating DD2 under foot. Hubby works all day and I'm : stuck in the middle.

How do you unwind when it gets overwhelming? I hate being surrounded by the mess, but we've had to do little by little, and there isn't a single room "finished"

[HeatherAtHome]

Originally Posted by thixle

How do you unwind when it gets overwhelming? I hate being surrounded by the mess, but we've had to do little by little, and there isn't a single room "finished"

I curl up in bed and cry? Just kidding... kind of. We have our kitchen/dining room close enough to be called finished... but the junk piles in from the other rooms being worked on. Someone my house collects piles of tools and bits of odd wood.

We're almost finished with the bathroom and then we're taking a break from major renovations until spring. Unless we do the flooring. Yeah, we'll probably get bored after a couple weeks and jump in again.

[wildmonkeys]

So glad to have this mdc tribe! Today we are putting pergo-ish floor in the laundry room! I am pretty proud of this find because we got two slightly damaged boxes at lumber liquidators for $10 total and I painted the room with a $5 can of whoops paint in a dark mossy green. We do need to buy a few quarter rounds to replace the ones that splintered when we tore them out, but it is going to be a cute $20 mudroom by the end of the weekend!

We are trying to set goals for the New Year and we have lots to do to the outside which should be fairly inexpensive for now (we have some big outside projects planned longterm) and the easiest to involve the kids in (Latte - we find that sort of digging, planting, trimming to be completely easy to do with the kids )


Anyway, we are thinking about trying to find the money and the time to finish the basement. Has anyone done this themselves? How much did it cost you? We have someone that can do the electric and someone else that can help us with the plumbing, both for bartered services, and we can do the rest (framing, floors, drywall, and ceilings) ourselves.

Anyone with basement experience?

[caiesmommy]

We've slowed down somewhat fixing up but our house is from 1847...yeah beat that! WE're freezing our tushes off right now. We've redone the bathroom(green CARPET, pink wallpaper, pink toilet green sink...horrid..patched painted new everything), redone the living room(6 layers of wallpaper, then we landed on paneling, then 4 more layers of wallpaper then mold. Cleaned the mold, yucky bleach, multiple times, redrywalled in spots and painted), then our bedroom(4 layers of wallpaper, endless layers of newspaper, then mold right above where the old lady slept, then redrywalled in spots and painted), then ds's bedroom(1 layer of wallpaper..thank god! and painted). THen the dining room(paneling, half paneling/painted top half) then patchwork, then painting, oh and the ceiling that was wallpaper too, that came down and the ceiling cracks were fixed)

Ive thought of painting the kitchen. Has nasty brown EVERYTHING! but it really needs a full redo, so whats the sense. Won't get into the family room which is BLAh with nasty brown paneling.

Sometimes I want to shoot myself in the foot for buying this house. If it wasnt such a good price for the nicest neighbourhood around/walking distance to pretty much everything/next door to my inlaws(literally nextdoor..we cut a hole in the fence, its great!) we wouldnt have bought it. I know what your thinking but seriously its great living next door to my inlaws..i dont even count how easy the move was since we were living with them at the time

[wildmonkeys]

How is everyone doing? It has been awhile.

We are taking a break from the inside to work on the outside which is also a mess! Last week we dug out several trees/bushes that were really badly placed and yesterday I had a tree removal company come out to look at 3 huge dead trees that are on a slope and leaning towards the house (dh wanted to climb them and cut them down branch by branch with a chainsaw, but I really thought it sounded so unsafe that we would at least get estimates) Anyway, at $100 per tree we have decided it is worth it

We are going to do some work regrading and creating french drains ourselves and put up a fence ourselves.

We also need to replace the front walk - we were going to put bricks or pavers down ourselves, but I am sort of curious about stamped concrete. Does anyone know how much it costs to pay someone to do that??? They look nice and I am wondering if it might cost about the same as buying bricks?

[changingseasons]

I've been flipping back and forth from the outside to the inside too. It's hard with the weather getter nicer to focus on indoor projects. We've ripped about 20' of shrubs (4'-7' wide in spots) out of the front yard, and I'm breaking it all down by hand to fit into our yard waste bins, because we're too cheap to hire someone to haul it.

This afternoon- I pulled carpet & pad out of the first room that is getting remodeled! I have half the walls spackled, just need to finish a few more holes, do some sanding, and then I can paint. Oh- and then it's the big project of cleaning up the hardwood floor- getting the carpet tack strips off, filling holes, all that fun stuff. But the wood itself seems to be in excellent condition, so I'm hoping that we don't have to sand and refinish.

[wildmonkeys]

Changing Seasons - Not sure if it is the same there, but if you brought the shrubs to the dump here there is a composty area where they take yard waste for free. Might be worth checking if you are breaking them down by hand!

Good for you - glad the hardwood looks like it might not need refinishing!

[changingseasons]

Originally Posted by wildmonkeys

Changing Seasons - Not sure if it is the same there, but if you brought the shrubs to the dump here there is a composty area where they take yard waste for free. Might be worth checking if you are breaking them down by hand!

Good for you - glad the hardwood looks like it might not need refinishing!

Nope- they charge here. AND we don't have a truck. I checked prices from a few independent hauling guys, and it worked out to be a lot cheaper just to pay $10/mo for yard waste and cut it up myself. Lots of time... but it give me an excuse to be outside in the sunshine.