Rose tinted glasses – The new house to do list

When you fall in love with something, you tend to see what you like first. Its always been the same, we walk into a house/flat I see plain walls, wood floor, SOLD.  It wasn’t quite like that this time. We spent more time working out dimensions, proportions and what needed doing. Surveys revealed minor work that was recommended but not in dire need right away and second and third visits allowed us to check out the property in more detail. We set a budget that we wanted to put aside for decorating and furniture and then came the “to do” and “we need” list. From moving several times we knew what we had stored away and what we needed but its always the little things that catch you, or you just miss them out of your first evaluation. 

We were of the idea that we just needed to sand the floors down, sand and varnish the front windows, put up some shelves and replace the back door. Everything else was going to be all the fun stuff. We moved in, got all the boxes in and then started to notice little jobs here and there that could do with being done or needed to be done. Then theres the ” have to be done regardless” jobs that are the really annoying ones. These included fitting a new heavy duty (like for like) front door lock immediately because you find out the previous owner still has a key! Then you discover that the washing machine is out of order and requires a £200 repair bill to get it up and running again – what a lovely lady we got this place from eh?

Now heres the scary part – THE TO DO LIST!

Expected

• Sand all exterior windows and doors and varnish
• Replace back door
• Sand and varnish kitchen counter top
• Put up new blinds on all windows
• Move radiator in living room
• Shelves in the kitchen
• Shelves in the living room
• Repair rear concrete patio area
• Add wood supports to attic
• Board attic floor for storage
• LOTS of garden maintenance and walkway construction

Unexpected

• Replace front door lock
• Paint every wall white due to dirt, marks and holes
• Fill a LOT of screw holes
• Replace 4 panes of glass due to weather seal failure
• Fix washing machine due to severe failure
• Scrape layers of grease and fat from kitchen cupboards, cooking area and backsplash
• Scrape grime and dirt from the bath tub
• Numerous trips to the dump/recycling centre to dispose of left behind crappy furniture and crates of ex husbands junk from the garden (10 years + old)
• Re-grout and seal the bath tub, shower door
• Replace shower head
• Fix rear door frame and bedroom door frame after being forces open
• Replace kick plate in kitchen due to water damage
• Throw away left behind veg in the freezer (maybe she knew we had bunnies!)
• Replace a lot of blown bulbs

The fun stuff

• Set up Hi-Fi and TV – always Jon’s first task
• Construct the bed
• Construct the MEGA desk
• Up-cycle dining room table
• Up-cycle second hand sideboard (once we find one)
• Hang pictures on the walls, lots of pictures
• Construct shelving in second bedroom
• Create chalk board wall
• Hang Walter and awesome mirror
• Tile kitchen backsplash
• Sort everything into its new home (no doubt a long term job)
• Shop for all the little details to really make it feel like home

The Unexpected list does sound a bit malicious on our part, but the day we moved in we were taken aback by things that were clearly left broken for the sake of it, and the grime and dirt left behind for us to clean up (which was simply laziness on her part). It took us a few days to fall back in love with the house, but we definitely got there.

So this is the list of pretty much everything we have to do in our new home. We will be blogging each step of the way, showing how the house is coming together, where we are getting our inspiration and even a few DIY and How-to guides, plus things we are learning as we go along.

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