help! i don't know where to start in fixing up my house

[mandib50]

i live in a 25 year old 4 level split, nothing special at all and it's not even a home i'd choose to live in except at the time, it was all we could afford and it was much better than the option of living in an apartment.

problem is ... it needs sooooo many repairs, and i'm tired. i'm tired of doing the floors, the painting, the trim, the landscaping, the repairs and all the other things that really need to be done. i redid my kitchen countertops and put in tile. we need to redo the stairs, windows, ceilings in the basement levels, flooring in basement levels, we need to build a room in the basement area for my ds, bathrooms are gross and need redoing, and the list goes on and on and on. i just want a nice, finished house. doesn't have to be extravagant but finished. but i don't want to do any more work but hiring people for small jobs is very very difficult and moving is not an option because of course cost of housing has jumped and i don't want a $1500/mth mortgage payment.

: i need ideas ...

[Jane]

Is there no way to be happy the way it is? Sometimes I watch too much TV and think I want a spa bathroom too.

Can you have a work party and try to get a bunch done over thanksgiving weekend?

[Jane]

eek double post

[mandib50]

hi apricot, i do appreciate many things about my house and i know it came across really whiny... but the bathrooms, well the sink taps leak so easily and the vanity is rotted out on the bottom so it's basically a health issue because i'm worried about mold too. i don't want the fancy fancy stuff, just stuff that isn't falling apart and so it looks finished. the work week-end idea is good once we get money to do some renovations.

[Elowyn]

With my house (see sig for before & afters) I did it room by room, making all the (financially feasible) changes I wanted for that room, then that room was "done" and I moved on to the next. It's taken months, and there are still two rooms left, but it's worked for me!

[Jane]

I'm sorry my post was a little snary sounding, it was unintentional.

I have two broken sinks - one has a hole in it, one is cracked. I want to replace them, but I want to do more, so I don't because I don't want to get a vanity that doesn't work with whatever I eventually decide to do.

I have fallen in love with a sink/cabinet at IKEA. $260 for sink, cabinet, and faucet is so cheap compared to what else is out there. But I don't have $260~!

Now I'm off to look at Kate's house!

[Irishmommy]

Do your bathroom first. Leaky sinks/baths will lead to worse problems that you don't want to have to deal with.

Can you get a neutral colour of paint that you really like (not white lol) and just blitz the whole house in that colour, just to freshen the whole thing up?

We have a 40 year old 4 level split, so I do know where you are coming from. You need to prioritize what you can put up with and what you can't. For instance, my front hall is tiny, but I have an 8x8 covered porch right outside. I want to bump the front door out to the front of the porch and make a big interior hall. I also want a new kitchen. I just have to decide which is more important (when we get the money, that is lol). Right now, a new hall wins!!

[mandib50]

hi apricot, no your post sounded just fine kate, you have a lovely home! what i don't like about my home is that it was put together cheaply and the cheapest materials were used for doors, flooring etc. while we've taken care of most of the flooring (it's all been replaced upstairs), it's still cheaply constructed. i'm not a carpenter at all and so replacing doors and jambs would be a disaster and my dh isn't good at that type of thing either. i just need motivation to keep going. i've painted every single room in the house, redone all the floors in laminate(except basement), did my kitchen countertops, built a new deck (well, dh did that ), replaced alot of the trim, all the doors/jambs have been painted, front door replaced, ceilings painted (except living room), installed a wood stove and made a den in the basement level.

my biggest problem is that i really don't feel like doing any more work on the house but maybe if i can figure out how to post pics you guys could give me some feedback? thanks for your help

[Jane]

I love house pictures.

I tell you - you can do trim work. I did! There's an LP trim that's a wood look plastic product (link). It's really light, cheap, looks good, and soooo easy to cut. I bought a plastic miter box and a pull saw ($30) and re-did all the trim in my old house. If you did the trim, you could reuse that trim on new doors if you ever got them in. My husband was somewhat surprised, but impressed!

I really want to replace all the hinges on my doors. Ebay has beautiful dark metal hinges. I could do all new doorknobs and new hinges for about $150.

My husband and I talked a bunch last night. We're going to add a bath to our basement and make it a MIL appt because we need the $$. We think we can add the bath for 1 or 1.5 month's rent. We're going to replace the rest of the plumbing at the same time because it's steel and about to rust through. We already have 2 buckets in use.

[Jane]

My old house. If you see trim in the picture, I did it.

[mandib50]

hi, nice house apricot i've done the wood trim, so i think i've figured out how to do it not too badly. i don't know what to do where there is a difference in floor levels tho and i did replace the door trim. i'd like to do all the door knobs and hinges, that's a great idea, it would make a big difference. i live in small town hicksville but we are getting a RONA in january so i'll be going there to get my supplies, so thanks for all the ideas so far!

[Jane]

thanks, mandi. I miss that house.

I had that plastic stuff, so where there was a change in floor, I just carved it out from below to make it fit.

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by Elowyn

With my house (see sig for before & afters) I did it room by room, making all the (financially feasible) changes I wanted for that room, then that room was "done" and I moved on to the next. It's taken months, and there are still two rooms left, but it's worked for me!

Nice job!!!

[Amys1st]

We also have a 35 yr old split level- is that all they built then???

When we bought it, it as my mil says- needed new owners. We had a gold (yes gold) bathroom with a weird pinky color tile in the tub. Also black fixtures. Thankfully we also had another bathroom that wasnt too bad in the lower level (they also did an inlaw arrangement) so we used that for the duration before we gutted that bathroom. We had it done within a few months of moving in.

But I also think start w the bathrooms. Esp if you think it could be a health issue. you can start small- maybe replace the floor with a new tile, add new fixtures on the sink, bath and wall? That might help a bit.

We did it ourselves twice and its was not as expensive since we could not afford to have someone do it. But dh is very handy. We also painted the whole house after ripping out what seemed like a million yards of velvet wallpaper. We waited a few years and ripped out the kitchen and then a few years ago took out a wall to make it seem larger and use the space to its fullest.

It seems like a lot, but It took us all together about 5 years on & off and we have lived here for 9. Now thats it all done, we are planning on selling in the next 18 mos since we are growing our family and out of space.