We’ve had another year in our house. That’s another year of turning it in to our family home.
It has been a quieter year compared to year 5 when my husband and father in law built walls downstairs. The biggest reason for the slower year, is we’ve been busier than normal being social, from weekends with friends, parties to concerts (maybe these have also contributed to me being a poor blogger as I haven’t written about most of them).
Dones
My husband has planned and installed ceiling spotlights in our new study. He has also fitted and hung the study door, as well as the utility room and shower room doors.
There has been progress on lots of small tasks, such as sealing shower room tiles, fitting skirting boards. This means these rooms are almost ready to use. and will make a big difference to how we use the house.
Someone kindly gave us a large amount of wood, however it required a lot of chopping to use it in our wood burner. To reduce the physical impact we hired a motorised log splitter, and it made a huge difference. We cut and split two years worth of wood in one weekend.
Not dones
There are still many things we haven’t done; and you’ll recognise most of them from my previous anniversary posts. We haven’t:
- fixed the hole above the ensuite door
- removed the automatic door closures from the walls
- got hot (or even warm) water in the downstairs WC (although this may be redundant now we almost have another downstairs toilet)
- reduced the deadleg in the kitchen so we get hot water without running taps for five minutes
- 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)
- removed the glue from the carpets stuck to all the floors
- complete the builder’s specification
Plans for year 7
We currently have two focuses 1) finishing the study and 2) changing from oil to another source of heating.
The study is almost finished and we will be able to order the carpet soon. The big question is what do we put in there once it is complete. It would be lovely to furnish it as the study we want, however is that practical when at some point all four of us will need to sleep in there, when the major renovation work takes place.
Our central heating runs from an oil boiler meaning we have an oil tank near the house. The tank will need replacing soon so we’ve decided to change to a different heating source. Based on the research we’ve done, it looks like we’ll move to gas, as it is available, it is more efficient and should be cheaper. However, we are are also considering more sustainable options.
So although its been a slower year on the house, we have still made progress. I is important to remember that any, and all, progress moves you closer to your goal and should be celebrated. It is absolutely okay to move at the speed you want.
Do you have plans for your house this year? What would you love to do to your house? What do you prioritise over your house?