Looking back on the third year in our house it has been quieter than the second year, but we’ve continued to make progress in a number of areas. However, I’m hoping we’ll take bigger actions in the fourth year, including finally knocking down some walls.
Done
The best thing we’ve achieved is to cut down trees in our neighbours’ gardens. All the trees were overhanging the boundary and were either significantly blocking light or there was a risk they may fall onto our property.
Other activities in the garden include:
- repairing part of the fence line
- fitting a new drain cover
- seriously weeding the raised flower bed including removing a tree and buckets of bulbs of some unknown plant that doesn’t appear to flower
- planting a hedge along the boundary
Inside the biggest change has been installing a new water tank higher in the loft to increase the water pressure. At the same time my husband and father in law removed the flow restrictor from the bathroom meaning we now get more than a dribble from the shower and once we get a shower screen or curtain we’ll have a usable shower (and who would think I’d make a video of showers?)
Other activities include:
- getting superfast broadband
- installing a shelf in the staircase
- getting a Sonos soundbar meaning we’ve removed lots of clutter and wires from the lounge
- redecorating the dining room; this included removing lots of electrics that were used for the bubble tube and mirror ball by the previous owner, painting the walls, removing the carpet and lying laminate flooring (unfortunately over part of the carpet that remained glued to the concrete as we haven’t worked out how to remove it yet)
Not dones
There are still many things we haven’t done; and you’ll recognise most of them from my 1st anniversary and 2nd anniversary posts. We haven’t:
- fixed the hole above the ensuite door
- removed the automatic door closures from the walls
- removed the door that opens with a push button
- got hot (or even warm) water in the downstairs WC
- reduced the deadleg in the kitchen so we get hot water without running taps for five minutes
- sorted the plumbing between the two sinks in the kitchen so we can run the taps at the same time
- removed the sink in the other bedroom
- sorted the gradient of the ensuite floor so the water drains properly
- fixed the leak from the shower into the lounge
- removed the fire safety signs
- removed the fire alarm break glass points
- removed the emergency lights (although we are thinking of looking for some nicer looker ones to install as they have proved very useful during power cuts)
- removed the lift (this will be a major structural change as some of the roof joists were cut to install it, so when it comes out we need to support the roof with several steel bars)
- fitted a shower screen or curtain
- removed the glue from the carpets stuck to all the floors
Plans for year 4
I’m really hoping that we will finally start on some structural changes. The first step is to knock down the wall with the children’s mural to combine two bedrooms and start creating the space for our new study which will mean we will be able to give the children a playroom (and get the toys out of the lounge).
Do you have plans for your house this year? How long does it take you to start work on your house projects?
Ha ha, 14 years in our house. It was only a couple of years old when I moved in with the OH, and since then, it’s mostly been repainted (the same colour – the OH is against anything other than magnolia – not sure how my SIL managed to persuade him with orangey colours in the living room), and the upstairs bathroom has had a new white bathroom suite and shower, and painting. But nothing’s really finished apart from the living room which my SIL did when they lodged here for a bit, and that needs redoing. I need to finish off the decluttering so we can deep clean properly and then do the whole house. We need a porch putting on, yet another front door, bathroom/cloakrooms doing, utility room sorting out, as well as general decorating. I’d love the garden to be done because that’s still a paddock and I don’t think the OH would agree to a new kitchen but it really could do with one. This one’s terrible.
My OH is a fan of magnolia as well. I’m keen to try wallpaper on one wall, but I think that maybe too much for him. Yes I’m doing the decluttering as well, so that is not an excuse to stop us moving on. I’ve sorted through and removed or packed more sensibly lots of the things that should be in the loft and really really hope we can knock that wall down soon. You never know maybe I’ll get so frustrated I’ll do it myself, after all it is only a non supporting stud wall …