Home Makeover?

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Blair and I spent an hour plus today reviewing finances and outlining our financial goals, plans, and dreams for the future. Since we're no longer funneling money into the cabin fund, we needed to make some decisions on where the extra money should go. Once Blair vetoed my idea of just handing it over to me and letting fate float the money where it may, we got serious.

Number one priority is the money pit, aka, our home. I love our 100-year-old home with its 6 (non-working) fireplaces, hardwood floors, high ceilings and wide, worn staircase. I do not love 6 non-working fireplaces, outside doors with cracks big enough for a small cat to crawl under, 30-year-old carpet in the front bedroom and popcorn ceilings. (To whomever sprayed popcorn texture in our historic home: When I find you, I will hurt you.) 

So now we have a list of home projects that include:

  • Making 3 of the fireplaces operational. (This will need to be done one at a time. Expensive as crap to drop liners, plus they are coal-burning fireplaces, very small, and needing special gas systems.)
  • Replacing the back and side doors.
  • Redoing the front bedroom into a writing room for me. Next week will be phase one as Blair scrapes the popcorn texture off the ceiling. A messy and thankless job if ever there was one.
Longer term projects include buying rugs for the hall (It's been 13 years so it's probably time...), adding artwork around the house, building a back screened-in porch/deck, scraping popcorn textures and painting ceilings throughout the house (preferably without leading to divorce), new light fixtures for the hall, redoing the library so it actually resembles a library with bookshelves and furniture that fits the room, ... The list goes on.

We're also looking at taking a trip to Egypt in May. I know, rather random, but Rockingham Community College is putting together a group tour and apparently we've crossed some line, somewhere, where we now consider it fun versus lame to travel with a group of people from our area to a foreign land. We're eyeballing expense and I am NOT happy about leaving the cats for 11-12 days, but I suppose I'll learn to live with it.

Of course, we'll see what pans out and what doesn't. Blair's car is probably in its last year or two of service so we've started saving for that expense, and God only knows what will cave, crash, or fall in around the house on any given day. Still, it's a good life.

And it will be a stellar life once we get those fireplaces working... ;)