Determining Priorities
One of the hardest things in renovating a house is figuring out what to do first. Especially since I love to start new projects, but I am horrible at finishing them. With our house, I can remember gutting the bathroom at the same time as I started reglazing a window from another part of the house and at the same time as tearing out carpeting in the house and at the same time as tearing out the previously-enclosed front porch. It’s been that way all along, but lately I’ve been getting better at pushing myself to finish a project before moving on (as much as possible).
These were all taken on the same day (the day we closed on our house – April 17th, 2005):
As we started working on the Sheridan House, we decided the first priority HAD to be the roof. It was in really bad shape and there were several leaks. So that was an easy decision to do first. We decided the second priority overall needed to be the front exterior of the house. If we do end up selling the Sheridan House, we want the curb appeal to be there as soon as possible – if there are a few details left inside that need to be finished up, there’s no reason a ‘for sale’ sign can’t go up out front. If the front of the house still needs obvious attention (or lacks the eventual curb appeal), then we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?). With our current house, the outside has ended up being the last priority – the inside of the house is almost complete and here we are 2+ years later and the outside (front of the house, anyway) still hasn’t had anything done to it really and we have yet to paint the house and give it any measure of curb appeal. But, that’s what the priorities are all about – we decided that livability was the highest priority overall, whereas with the Sheridan House, visual appeal was.
Plumbing was up there on the priority list, though, because it’s really hard to work without running water. (Thanks, neighbors!) Getting the bathroom done is high up because, again, it’s hard to work without any toilet or sink. The electrical service upgrade was essential because that would allow us to sleep at night not having to worry about the ancient electrical service.
Personally, I love problem soving and planning out priorities is really just one big puzzle; you just have to figure out the best place to start and then put the pieces together one by one. Hopefully this gave a little insight into the method behind the madness when starting to tackle a project like this. It’s been a lot different not living in the house while we’re working on it.
On a different note, it’s been hot this week (90+) and working inside without A/C is killer, especially when it’s as humid as it has been. I’ve still been getting work done on the house, but unfortunately at a bit slower pace than I would have hoped. Expect more progress updates this weekend.