Life has been moving at a crazy pace lately! In just a few short weeks, we’ve bought a new house, started prepping our current home for sale, had a baby, and started some major renovations at the new house. Our goal is to have the home ready to move in within just six weeks of purchase which means we had to move fast.
There are three big projects on our “must do” list before we move in, and another list that will happen right after.
BEFORE WE MOVE IN
1. Foundation repair.
We’ve been told the home is structurally sound, however there are quite a few floor joists that needed to be replaced to prevent sagging in the first floor living spaces. The best time to do that? Before you install new floors. It’s not glamorous and no one but us will ever know we did it – but it was still the first project we budgeted for.
Thankfully we found a company who could start the week we purchased the home and they actually have already wrapped up the work!
2. New floors.
The house has four different types of floors, based on which room you’re in. The entry hall and living room on the first floor have quarter sawn red oak, likely installed some time around 1950. The rooms off the main living space and all of the bedrooms upstairs have a mix of flat sawn and quarter sawn heart pine (also called longleaf pine) floors in them. The harvesting of longleaf pine was largely ended in the 1920’s as the trees are incredibly slow growing and the high demand pushed the species near extinction. As a result, the pine floors also have a mix of more modern wood patches in them.
Unfortunately, the floors in the first floor of the house were damaged beyond repair. Nails were starting to show from too much sanding, and boards were starting to crack and fall apart in others. We were able to save the original floors upstairs, except for two rooms where the damage was extensive. New white oak floors will be installed where we had to remove the original, and then everything will be sanded and stained a consistent color.
3. Drywall repair and painting.
The foundation repair will likely result in new cracks forming in the drywall, so we will have that repaired once the foundation work is done. We have also been going through the house to remove old intercom and security systems, cable TV jacks, and telephone lines. All of those holes have to be repaired, too, then the interior of the house will be repainted.
PRIORITIES AFTER MOVE-IN
We have a list of items we want to tackle right after we move in. Our goal is to get our current house on the market over the summer, so we’ll have no choice but to tackle these renovations while we live in the house.
1. Bathroom renovations
All three full baths will need to be redone, and the half bath downstairs will need a little refresh. The primary bathroom will be a full gut job, and the others are still TBD. We may do a quick “phase 1” renovation now and a more extensive renovation in the future. It all depends on the condition of the bathrooms as we really start taking them apart.
2. Laundry room flooring
We love the size of the new laundry room – but hate the vinyl tiles. I have visions of a patterned penny tile. Thankfully, there’s enough space to move the washer and dryer out of the way after we move in and tackle this job.
3. Fireplace updates
I mentioned part of what we loved about this house was the four functional fireplaces. Over time, the tile surrounds have cracked and chipped, and the flooring work is likely to make that worse. We’re going to attempt to DIY new surrounds and potentially amp up the plain wood mantles as we fix each fireplace up. We plan to tackle the one in the entry hall right after we move in and then continue working our way through the others after we see how that first one goes.
We of course also have a long list of DIY projects planned for the next year, and a big kitchen renovation in 18-24 months. It’s a lot of work, but we’re so excited to revive this historic home!