AW: updates on the house (so far)

emoflamingo

The front with the new storm door and the repainted front door. From 1962. Yep. We bought a new one and none of the holes lined up so my FIL took it off, sanded it down and repainted it. Looks brand new!

You can kind of see the landscaping. H and FIL added treated timbers along the house to keep the mulch out since it kept falling down towards the house without it. If we were staying long-term, I'd put stone there, but we're not.

We started replacing the timbers in the back around the box and tore out all the overgrown weeds and ornamental grass. We were going to put in more stone, but we decided to switch to cedar mulch since I had extra left from the front.

H and FIL also installed a new garage door opener which means I can NEVER lock myself out again. Which is good because it always happens when I'm in a hurry (like for my first job interview out of college and on a chilly day with DS when we weren't dressed properly -- it didn't feel cold until we closed the door and realized my keys were on the other side!), so that's a definite plus. The old opener was in need of about $100 in computer parts, so we spent $30 more on a new opener with a keypad for the outside.

Now, we need to get the grass to grow (we have the patch stuff down), new carpet installed (went on Friday night and they should be out to measure this week sometime so we can get it ordered) and wash the house/power wash the privacy fence among a few other small things.

shesthetoast

Looking good!

I loved the keypad for the garage door opener at our old house. It saved me from locking myself out of both the house and the car more than once.  

tbridetobe

Looks good so far.  Good luck with all of your updates.  Unsolicited advice, but I think adding some flower boxes under your windows would help with your curb appeal when you try to sell.  Don't know how expensive it would be but I think it would look really cute.

emoflamingo

tbridetobe:

Looks good so far.  Good luck with all of your updates.  Unsolicited advice, but I think adding some flower boxes under your windows would help with your curb appeal when you try to sell.  Don't know how expensive it would be but I think it would look really cute.

Yeah, I put bulbs in there and waited 3 weeks for them to pop up before we put the mulch down and nothing happened! I might buy a few planters to put on the porch (we're moving the can that has our aluminum to recycle that's on the porch now into the garage once we list) to make it prettier. 

Jhawks482

Very Nice! Your house is charming! And I don't even have a front door key at all. I couldn't even tell you where I would locate one in our house. We always use the garage door opener or keypad!

SSM&JLM

Looking good!

And ditto on the keypad.  It's just so nice to have. 

brianabrad

Looks like its really coming together. I bet you can't wait for the flowers in the box to bloom up. Very nice!

emoflamingo

Jhawks482:

Very Nice! Your house is charming! And I don't even have a front door key at all. I couldn't even tell you where I would locate one in our house. We always use the garage door opener or keypad!

That sounds like code for "so tiny" lol. (It totally is.)

We went and looked at a neighborhood of brand new homes this weekend and we can get a split-level 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with a 2 car garage built for like $120k, plus the lot (cheapest was $21k but it was not as nice as the $24k ones). There is a pond with a walking trail around it and a nice little playground next to that. I just don't know that we can get into a house that expensive comfortably since I can't find a FT job still. But it was nice to dream! Hopefully this will be on the market in a few weeks so we can seriously look.

Jhawks482

emoflamingo:

Jhawks482:

Very Nice! Your house is charming! And I don't even have a front door key at all. I couldn't even tell you where I would locate one in our house. We always use the garage door opener or keypad!

That sounds like code for "so tiny" lol. (It totally is.)

We went and looked at a neighborhood of brand new homes this weekend and we can get a split-level 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with a 2 car garage built for like $120k, plus the lot (cheapest was $21k but it was not as nice as the $24k ones). There is a pond with a walking trail around it and a nice little playground next to that. I just don't know that we can get into a house that expensive comfortably since I can't find a FT job still. But it was nice to dream! Hopefully this will be on the market in a few weeks so we can seriously look.

I got busted, lol! That house sounds nice! You never know! When we were looking at houses, we were seriously considering 2 homes that were nearly identical as far as floor plans (same number of beds/bath/garage) and square footage go. Both were brand new, but One was in a golf community and the asking price 30K more! We settled on the other one because we couldn't justify the extra 30K, especially since we don't golf. It's still in a really great area and I feel like we got a fabulous deal on our home. You guys will find a great home too, and hopefully you can sell your house for what you're asking! The nice thing about where we live, is that your money goes further. The cost of living is so great.

emoflamingo

Jhawks482:

emoflamingo:

Jhawks482:

Very Nice! Your house is charming! And I don't even have a front door key at all. I couldn't even tell you where I would locate one in our house. We always use the garage door opener or keypad!

That sounds like code for "so tiny" lol. (It totally is.)

We went and looked at a neighborhood of brand new homes this weekend and we can get a split-level 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with a 2 car garage built for like $120k, plus the lot (cheapest was $21k but it was not as nice as the $24k ones). There is a pond with a walking trail around it and a nice little playground next to that. I just don't know that we can get into a house that expensive comfortably since I can't find a FT job still. But it was nice to dream! Hopefully this will be on the market in a few weeks so we can seriously look.

I got busted, lol! That house sounds nice! You never know! When we were looking at houses, we were seriously considering 2 homes that were nearly identical as far as floor plans (same number of beds/bath/garage) and square footage go. Both were brand new, but One was in a golf community and the asking price 30K more! We settled on the other one because we couldn't justify the extra 30K, especially since we don't golf. It's still in a really great area and I feel like we got a fabulous deal on our home. You guys will find a great home too, and hopefully you can sell your house for what you're asking! The nice thing about where we live, is that your money goes further. The cost of living is so great.

From what the husband found out today, it will probably move to the bottom of our list. Since it's a new subdivision, we have to pay the specials ($200/month) and it'd put the mortgage just above what we'd feel comfortable spending. Especially since I'll be out of work for 6 weeks unpaid around the end of September.

Hopefully, though, we can find a nice little ranch somewhere that needs a little work but not a LOT of updating. Most of what we've seen so far has needed more updating than we're willing to do, especially when they are wanting full value on a house last updated in the 1980s lol.