Home Improvement is Done!
Jul. 18th, 2015 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWe had painters in the house three and two halves days last week. I always find this sort of thing exhausting because it involves people interactions and folks being in my space. Also: early awakenings.
However, it's now done, and we're very happy with the results.
This was the finale to some work that's spread throughout the year. We've been rehabilitating the back (really, the southwest corner) of our house, which previously had 1 boarded up window (from before we moved in, patched on the inside to look like there was no window there) and 2 badly damaged windows (of which I tried to clean up one of them maybe a decade ago, but without sufficient expertise).
So the two damaged windows got redone in March, and then we decided to get the boarded up window (which had also been sized down at some time, but never reframed, so I have no idea what it looked like before the boarding up ... but my guess is not good) rebuilt, reframed, and rewindowed too. That bonus window got done more recently, in May or June. But at that point we had a back-of-the-house which was a mess. It had always been cracked and flaky, but now there was fresh stucco and primer standing out in contrast to the stucco itself.
The big part of this week's painting was thus the repainting of the southwest corner of the house. Beforehand, it was so bad that when the second time we tried to refinance the house, they refused unless we redid the whole exterior of the house, with particular concern for that boarded up window. (Or, at least that was the claim; I'm pretty sure there was also some discrimination going on, so we ended up dumping them, sure they'd keep finding one "problem" after another.) Now, it looks mostly pristine with major windows all reframed and the older trim on the upstairs deck all cleaned up and everything painted over. Whew.
We also got a bit of work done inside the house. The laundry area got repainted because we'd messed it up by taking out a shelf to free up the space for the aforementioned new-ish window. Then the back of the kitchen got redone, because our contractor had replaced a window there too, right above the sink, and put some primer on the wall, and never told us that it was just primer and not waterproof. So over time it became clear that the wall's paint wasn't aging right.
At this point we are very done with home improvement. I mean, we've spent as much money as we should for several years. But we've also spent as much emotional energy as we have at the moment.
I could certainly point out more things I'd like to see done (replacing the single-paned windows in the sun room, specially the ones in my office; touching up some interior paint on some of the areas where windows got reframed; buying a new dish washer), but none of it's a priority, so I'm happy to let it sit for a few years at least.
However, it's now done, and we're very happy with the results.
This was the finale to some work that's spread throughout the year. We've been rehabilitating the back (really, the southwest corner) of our house, which previously had 1 boarded up window (from before we moved in, patched on the inside to look like there was no window there) and 2 badly damaged windows (of which I tried to clean up one of them maybe a decade ago, but without sufficient expertise).
So the two damaged windows got redone in March, and then we decided to get the boarded up window (which had also been sized down at some time, but never reframed, so I have no idea what it looked like before the boarding up ... but my guess is not good) rebuilt, reframed, and rewindowed too. That bonus window got done more recently, in May or June. But at that point we had a back-of-the-house which was a mess. It had always been cracked and flaky, but now there was fresh stucco and primer standing out in contrast to the stucco itself.
The big part of this week's painting was thus the repainting of the southwest corner of the house. Beforehand, it was so bad that when the second time we tried to refinance the house, they refused unless we redid the whole exterior of the house, with particular concern for that boarded up window. (Or, at least that was the claim; I'm pretty sure there was also some discrimination going on, so we ended up dumping them, sure they'd keep finding one "problem" after another.) Now, it looks mostly pristine with major windows all reframed and the older trim on the upstairs deck all cleaned up and everything painted over. Whew.
We also got a bit of work done inside the house. The laundry area got repainted because we'd messed it up by taking out a shelf to free up the space for the aforementioned new-ish window. Then the back of the kitchen got redone, because our contractor had replaced a window there too, right above the sink, and put some primer on the wall, and never told us that it was just primer and not waterproof. So over time it became clear that the wall's paint wasn't aging right.
At this point we are very done with home improvement. I mean, we've spent as much money as we should for several years. But we've also spent as much emotional energy as we have at the moment.
I could certainly point out more things I'd like to see done (replacing the single-paned windows in the sun room, specially the ones in my office; touching up some interior paint on some of the areas where windows got reframed; buying a new dish washer), but none of it's a priority, so I'm happy to let it sit for a few years at least.