If you have been following our housing journey thus far you will know that it has been nothing shy of a roller coaster. BUT I am super happy to announce that we do in fact have a house! We closed and are waiting for the final things to happen. We officially own the house on June 30th however we won’t be moving until the following week or so. We want to be able to hopefully hook up internet on a day that my dad is off and he can check a few things.

The house we bough is straight from the 70’s. There is wallpaper in some rooms not completely but there is some which we will be removing thank god. And on top of it there would be some shag carpet that has got to go. Cosmetic wise there is not a whole lot. It is a split entry, 3 bedroom upstairs, downstairs has a place we can easily make a 4th bedroom for when our kids get older and want their own space. It also has a living room upstairs and downstairs it also has a rec room. We will eventually open up the space a lot more but for now the focus will be a lot of the upstairs. I will be taking the opportunity to be paint the entire house first upstairs and then downstairs. And the flooring my dad will be able to help us as well too. That will be huge save on money as we will just buy the flooring and he will help us when he is off for a day. This shouldn’t take too long but these simple fixes will also be nice to make the place our own. I already have colors picked out for them, my boyfriend is basically giving me all the freedom in terms of paint colors. Right now it has pale yellow in the kitchen, as well as white walls everywhere and a super retro bathroom also too.

Now on to the major things. The bigger things that we needed to have done was number one electrical. The electrical is dated for sure. Hopefully we can find a reliable person to check it out after we do our 2 week quarantine. This is a bigger issue we need to have fixed. The inspection had said there was an outlet in the bathroom that was humming. Due to being dated and for whatever reason. There is also a few plugs like one in the hallway that doesn’t have power to it. We need to address these in case something were to happen. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive however this was a huge thing that we need to address immediately before it becomes a bigger issue.

Next is there is a few cracks in the foundation. They are about or under a centimeter. I’m not entirely sure as I never received the reports (Boyfriend handles this thankfully!) and they also need to be checked. Whether they be repaired and see what happens. What we do know is that they are not leaking which is a huge thing. If they were leaking that could be a lot more problems for us in terms of mold or what not. But the fact that it is not leaking is great though the cracks being the size they are is a reason we want them addressed quickly. We do not want to have to worry about leaking in the future or if they were to get worse. The fact is a home over 40ish years old having cracks is not abnormal. It’s just taking care of them before they become un-fixable.

Lastly there is just figuring out the home and what not. Most of the things we would like to do is cosmetic. And once we get some of the bigger issues done we would also like to do things in terms of creating a backyard oasis. The good thing is behind our home is forest to there is not going to be any one building behind thankfully. We would like to get a fenced in yard as soon as possible whenever that might be. Not the entire yard but some of it so that the dog and kids can play safely. We also would like to have a gate towards the back to be able to explore and what not when the time comes too. This year we will probably get a quote and see what happens with the other two issues before doing the fence. Just because it might be pricey. We will be doing it in metal due to the price of lumber and so hopefully that is the cheaper alternative.

Overall we do want to get things like a swing set, an above ground pool, build a fire pit hopefully this year also. A fire pit will probably only cost a few hundred bucks for the bricks as we would like to build it. This is more of a nice relaxation spot for us when we have a bit of downtime to sit by the fire and relax and hang out in the cool air while roasting marshmallows or eating hot dogs too. Not to mention smores also! This will be a nice change and since we haven’t really ever had our own nice fire pit before this will be a good thing we both are looking forward to. We also would like to kind of map out the yard though to plan a bit where everything will go from the pool, to the hot tub eventually (Boyfriend would like one of those not me!) and then the fire pit and swings. The home is on septic so finding out the pipes and things will be huge in planning the backyard but I believe we have plenty of space to figure this out though.

Overall I know there will be some work to be done but this is our forever home and we couldn’t be happier. With the market the way it is there could have been a lot worse things happening in terms of housing and any house unless built under the last 5 years will have some sort of problems. It just is how much are you willing to do to it? Not to mention, if we were to pay more for a home with the same problems it might have been super skimped on trying to upgrade it and make it our own.

Oh yeah, And before I forget, Yes! I will be adding a section for home renovations to this blog so you can see what is being done in terms of before and after’s. I will also be posting these on pinterest as a lot of our inspiration has also come from there. Plus with a home so dated, why not share the progress as well with everyone!

Have you ever done major home renovations?
What was some of your biggest challenges for it?

Let me know in the comments below so I hopefully don’t make the same mistakes!

– Stacey

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