The New House – Year One

So we bought a house a year ago almost to the date. Actually we bought it about a year and a month ago, but the painter that we hired took a month to paint it.  And a year later, I’m still shaking my head as to exactly why it would take ANYONE a month to paint the inside of a 2200 square foot house – say nothing about being an actual painter. I digress.

The first year admittedly has been a bit of work in. Sure, everything was unpacked the first week – which actually IS better than a lot of people do – but it takes more than unpacking a bunch of stuff to get moved in. We packed and moved light. A lot of the stuff we had was on the oldish side. Having cats across those years – and a bunch of them – had been one too friendly to the furniture. Scratches and claw marks here and there added up over 10 years or more in some circumstances. So it was time to start fresh.

While we did do a lot of preliminary shopping and collecting of new furniture for the house ahead of time, there were (and still are) things that we can use that would fit better.  We were able to hold down costs considerably when we moved in by going to local auctions.  While some may shake their head at the idea of actually buying anything but new furniture from the local furniture showroom, my fiancee and I are both fond of antique furniture.  We were able to find a lot of solid wood furniture that would literally cost thousands if it could even be found today.  A single piece that we got for the dining room would easily run in the several thousand dollar range. Compared to so much of the consumer grade furniture these days, these kinds of pieces are solid wood, and solid period!

We ended up having to replace a well pump, replace a lot of the plumbing under the house, carpets, finished out a 2 car garage (handily adding an additional 500 sf heated area to our home which now serves as my office). And yes, we went ahead and added a pool. We had talked about it and to me, that was going to give us the home that we really wanted. An acre and a half, nice yard, fenced backyard, 24′ pool, great enclosed porch area as well as a raised veranda area – that is absolutely perfect for plants – even an herb garden.

Modifications for this year? A fairly comprehensive landscaping and outdoor treatment. 4 small vegetable garden areas – maybe 600 square feet worth of veggies. Currently, I’m busy creating some new raised garden beds around the new berry bushes – a couple blackberry bushes, a raspberry bush and 3 blueberry bushes.  Add that to the 2 pear trees, teh plum tree and even a couple of fig trees.

It takes a while to get into a house and make it a home – but we are on to year two now.  Home improvements – ENGAGE!