Blah

We've been really lazy on the house.
There's nothing much we can do right now, with the exception of continuing to destroy our yard.
We have a ton of plants that we still want to dig up (because it's apparently the only way to kill 'em) and we have to move all of the paths around and rake tons of gravel.

Other than that, we have a light fixture we bought awhile ago that I'm going to install in the living room.

I have three outlets outside that need to be replaced with outlets designed to be outside - GFCIs with waterproof enclosures. We already bought these too.

Everything else requires money.

We have to buy a new lock for the door to the (currently enclosed) back porch, so that after we pull down the plywood and insulation, replace the beams that were torn out and remove the flower bed cemented onto the steps, we can lock it when we leave. Right now there's a dead bolt and a handle lock. This will probably be the door we use most often and is on the back of the house, so I'd like to replace it with a nicer handle and a keyless entry lock. $150-$???

We have to replace a load bearing wall, add an adjoining wall that was ripped out, and gut and drywall the dining room and living room. For this we need to buy the support beams, 2X4s, screws/nails/etc, drywall, tape, mud, electrical fixtures and wiring, insulation (primarily for soundproofing) and molding/trim. We also need to rent a drywall holder thingy and/or get drywall stilts, and probably get a new ladder or two. Since the entrance from the dining to living room is a wider entrance and public space, we need to find nicer molding to go around it as well. $1500-$2500

We also need to strip, repair and rehang every single window. $???

We have to strip the paint from the stairs and refinish them. $???

We have to buy a few spools of wiring and rewire the entire house, starting with the flying splices under the house. $1500-$2000, unless we hire it out. Then I bet we're looking at $3k+ to even get started.

Once all of the wiring is done, we can insulate.
That's going to be an interesting chore, because we can't figure out what kind of insulation we want or whether we're going to hire it out. I would love to go with the spray foam insulation and I've found a few places online that you can buy it so you can DIY. However I've seen a lot of places that say it's terribly difficult and should only be done by a qualified professional, etc etc. I'm betting playing around with the electricity is probably the same, but I'm already fiddling with that. When was the last time anyone cooked themselves spraying insulation?
Anyone have any experience with this stuff?

I haven't felt like posting much, because I can't say I've been able to actually do any of this. I hate the idea of doing more stuff to the yard, because until we can start planting next year we're just ripping up green and leaving brown.

Blah.

posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, August 09, 2006