Project Status Update

It’s well over 6 months since we last shared a project status update, so checking in on our goals and house to-do list is well overdue.

Half a year seems like a long time, but in terms of home improvements it seems to flash by quicker than you can say “where’s my hammer”. With less obvious big jobs around the house to complete, it feels a bit like we’re slowing down and aren’t achieving as much, but in reality there’s still a lot to do.

Sanding hundreds of metres of skirting board, painting the cellar floor and digging up tonnes of soil for the driveway may not seem like the most exciting projects ever, but they are all a necessary and an important part of actually getting this house completely done.

But enough of me babbling on, here’s the update on roughly how far along we are in our home improvement efforts.

Front Garden – 25% Complete (was 25%)

• Level out grass area
• Rebuild gate posts
  
• Replace garden path & add steps into house
• Come up with a general plan & add more planting
• Install lawn edging
  
• Tidy & mulch bed along wall

Porch – 10% Complete (was 10%)

• Strip, sand & paint window frames
• Repair & clean stained glass
• Paint front door
• Paint doorstep
• Install sealing strip around door
• Ultimately replace porch (if we wait much longer it may actually just fall off the front of the house! Seriously.)

Hallway – 45% Complete  (was 40%)

• Remove laminate flooring, sand & varnish original floorboards
• Source more furniture
• Possibly replace lighting
• Paint everything
• Strip, sand & paint skirting boards
• Strip, sand & paint dado rails
• Remove Artex and skim walls

Living Room – 90% Complete  (was 75%)

• Repaint woodwork – for the most part it’s still looking great, but in some areas it’s a bit scuffed and (psst, don’t tell anyone) in some areas we never quite completely finished the painting
• Repaint room – it doesn’t necessarily need it, but we feel like it’s about time for a freshen up
• Source armchairs & new sofa
  
• Possibly replace couch
• Add cushions, art & more personal touches

Kitchen & Dining Room – 35% Complete  (was 20%)

• Knock through wall between kitchen & dining room
• Install wood burning stove
• Update shelves
• Sand floors
• Sort heating
• Sort electrics
• Paint everything (although everything is painted, ultimately we’ll have all walls skimmed, so it will need doing again then)
• Strip wallpaper
• Skim walls
• Replace patio door
• Sand floor under shelves
• Plaster everywhere
• Buy bar stools
• Add art & personal touches
• Insulate under floor

Staircase – 98% Complete (was 98%)

• Strip and sand staircase
• Paint and varnish staircase
• Install runner
• Possible repairs after installation of new staircase up to loft

Upstairs Hallway – 35% Completed  (was 28%)

• Remove flooring and sand & varnish floorboards
• Sort noisy heating pipes
• Strip, sand and paint skirting
• Skim walls
• Repaint everywhere after plastering
• Replace window on landing

Master Bedroom – 90% Complete  (was 80%)

• Fill crack in ceiling
• Paint everything
• Find mirror for over fireplace
• Add art & personal touches
• Add rug
• Paint door – we decided to strip and wax the doors instead of painting them
• Strip, sand & paint door frame
• Paint picture rail
• Replace windows
• Add architrave and windowsill
• Skim wall around window

Guest Bedroom – 100% Complete  (was 90%)

• Strip & skim walls
• Strip ceiling (now that we’ve painted the ceiling we actually love the wallpaper, so it’s staying!)
• Strip, sand & paint skirting
• Strip and sand door frame
• Paint Door – we decided to strip and wax the doors instead of painting them
• Find artwork & add personal touches
• Add lampshade
• Install fireplace
• Sort electrics
• Replace radiator
• Replace window
• Find bedside tables
• Paint everything
• Install picture rail
• Install & paint architrave around window
• Remove laminate flooring and strip & varnish floorboards

Bedroom 4 – 80% Complete (was 80%)

• Strip wallpaper
• Sort electrics
• Install flooring
• Move and replace radiator
• Skim room
• Replace window
• Strip or replace skirting
• Repair floor
• Replace ceiling
• Move boiler
• Box in steel over window, skim and paint
• Add architrave
• Add rug, pictures, shelves, stuff in general

Office – 95% Complete  (was 85%)

• Fill cracks in wall
• Find desk lamp
• Buy desk chair
• Improve organisation and storage (we added a corkboard wall which is great)
  

Bathroom – 0% Complete  (was 0%)

• Renew silicone around bath (as temporary quick fix)
• Have door dipped to match other upstairs doors and restore
• Replace radiator with towel radiator
• Replace window
• Replace everything!
• Retile everywhere!

Loft – 0% Complete  (was 0%)

• Complete planning
• Choose everything
• Remove back chimney
• Sort calculations with structural engineer

Cellar – 88% Complete  (was 60%)

• Add more lighting
• Finish ceiling
• Tidy cables
• Add (even more) storage
• Paint windows
• Replace stopcock
• Install new water mains connection
• Remove old floor
• Add new floor
• Damp proof walls
• Paint stairs
• Add radiator
• Remove more walls
• Insulate Ceiling
• Paint floor
• Add storage

Back Garden – 40% Completed  (was 22%)

• Work out general plan & implement garden design
• Start to sort out garden
• Have new raised bed rendered
• Plant more plants
• Build decked area
• Rebuild garden wall
• Add fence
• Replace garden gate
• Replace driveway – we’ve started on the prep work and have already cleared two big skips of tarmac and rubble
• Replace tarmac with grass (halfway there)
• Build logstore

Garage – 90% Complete  (was 80%)

• Strip & paint garage door (we completely replaced the door)
• Paint all timber including the window
• Replace garage roof possibly install roof light
• Replace missing fascia boards and other timber
• Rebuild gable wall
• Replace locking mechanism
• Sort electrics
• Finish painting
• Finish replacing timber around the garage door opening
• Clean paint off the wall – started, but we need to apply another coat of paint stripper
• Add wall light
• Freshen up inside of garage

Exterior – 30% Complete (was 10%)

• Repoint house
• Paint gable wall
• Repair/renew timber
• Repair & repaint front gable – it really was only a temporary solution, but really the whole gable could do with repairs and a refresh
• Paint windowsills
• Replace cast iron gutters and downpipes

As you can see a lot of areas of the house haven’t changed at all. Now that some of the rooms are close to completion and are in a much more habitable state, our priorities have somewhat shifted more towards finishing a lot of projects we’ve started.

For the first time in 5 years we can however count one room completely finished! It may have been almost complete, but it’s still a great feeling to see 100% next to our guest bedroom! The other main areas that have seen big jumps are the cellar (where we recently painted the floor), the exterior of our house (we’ve finally had the back wall repointed) and our garden (where we built our slatted fence and have at least started on the driveway).

All in all I’d say that we’re slowly getting there. We have a huge amount planned for this year, so hopefully we’ll see a few more areas with 100% next to them by the time we share our next update!

Do you also have an ongoing home improvement list? Have you already been able to tick a project of your list for the year? What project is at the top of your priority list? Is it something home improvement related or something completely different?