Remodelling for resale

Now, I didn't actually chose this floor based on V.White's ability to blend (she's a gigantic white dog, she doesn't blend at the best of times anyway). What I decided to work on most sincerely were, and are, the things that contribute to resale.

For most markets, kitchens and bathrooms rank highest on interior modifications that recoup their cost and improve the value of the home. I found a lovely primer at Stacks and Stacks' blog. As one commenter pointed out, almost no-one is in the market for a fixer-upper, as they are too costly to fix now.

This house, for example, was an epic mistake. While the location is good, it just needed so much work to make it presentable, and it's not over yet. I have done a resoration job, and even I wouldn't take this place on. You have to be really good with looking at the bones of a place, and estimating the costs (and not overestimating your desire to do the work yourself) and the amount of time it'll take before you jump into a real pit.

There are inexpensive things you can do to improve the value of your home, as well as more major renovations. Never underestimate the power of a good clean either! Freshening paint on the trim, pressure washing the sidewalk, cleaning windows...all of these can help!

Of course, if there's something dodgy in your house, you'll probably want to address it before the home inspection happens. It pays to have a real estate agent in before you decide to put your house on the market to give you advice on how to best present your home.

In the meantime, I'm busy cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Getting rid of the clutter (think: packing for the move NOW) and getting systems in place so that Himself can sell the house as quickly as possible when the time arrives. Of course, it never co operates weatherwise in Halifax, so sometimes jobs get postponed due to 100% humidity, which makes me wonder how anything gets painted here- EVER.

I did manage to find the link for the beadboard wallpaper improvement for cabinets...you can check it out from my last kludge post. :)

Kids' Stuff!

This is completely unrelated to house stuff, but I thought I'd brag. Jimmer and I did the Kids' Navy 2.5km run this past weekend. Speaking of, next year is the 25th Anniversary of the Navy run, and you can even enter already (which gives you one year to prepare, I suppose!).
I'm trying to set a good example, which means doing the opposite of what my parents did, as far as healthy living goes. To that end, we did the run, and while it was lots of fun, it'll be even better in the next few years when Jimmer isn't sick with a head cold and is a little older too.

And hey, speaking of kids, did you get to OhMy to get in on the draw? No? THEN GO!!!

Fun with technology and kludgery

Well, here I am, fully embracing the 21st century (finally). I got myself a TweetDeck account set up, and the iPhone application to boot. I am even using my Twitter (@thisoldpmq) as well. Wonders never cease.
And heck, I may even use it for good instead of evil...barring any kind of strange house-fails that I might have to use strong or vulgar language to describe.

So, in the meantime, how about some actual house type photos?

I suppose I owe everyone an explanation: what I did was remove the outrage that was happening as the 'non backsplash', and used a tip from another blog (Update: I told you I'd find it! It's from this blog...http://southernhospitalityblog.com/beadboard-wallpaper-project/) to use simulated wainscotting wallpaper to create a backsplash. Quite successful, I thought. Apparently, Himself complained that the ONLY place the adhesive cured completely when he needed to remove it to do an actual tile backsplash was the part that wasn't covered by the new tile. Ha! That'll show him to procrastinate when I ask for something!

I realized that I also didn't take a good picture of my lovely finished product before it was demolished forever, so instead I'll show you the lovely tile. As usual, in this house, nothing ever goes completely right. So instead of subway tile, it's 4x4 tile, but hey. As we say here "Better than before", which may be the house motto.

Contests you need to enter

You simply must enter this contest, to win cool stuff! Also, for anyone who likes awesome kids' stuff and kid friendly art, this is the place to be. And if you're a mom, well, I'm frankly surprised you don't know about it already! ;)

Today's new stuff

Well, it's now 2010, and when I started it was with the intentions of updating this house (not mine, but my spouse's) and documenting it. Since I had had so much fun doing my own renos to a century old house before I ran off and joined the navy, I though this time I might actually record it for posterity. Or perhaps to incriminate me later.

Right at the moment, we now have new floors. Well, almost all new floors. One room remains, but it's better than zero. Also, we are getting ready to have lovely new countertops installed. Sooo much better than when we started, at any rate. Also, we now have a blacksplash, which sure beats the nothing we had before!

In the meantime, I guess furniture is going to become important, especially since he will have to sell the house when he gets posted. Right now, because the house is TINY and there are three of us, plus dogs, and just the couch he bought for himself without regard for appearance or it fitting the space, we are going to need grown up furniture.

I am going to start with a new kitchen table...a real one. We've had random Ikea table and mismatched chairs, for which I get in trouble all the time for 'putting outside', mainly because THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE FOR THEM TO GO if you need to clean the kitchen or even wipe the chairs off. At any rate, new is needed, so I'm on a quest. The table I've had has been good enough for now, however, it has kind of reached the end of its useful life.

Also, it's going to be one of my "Labour Day Resolutions" to learn how to format blog posts better, so that the pictures don't go all wonky and the whole thing looks a bit more professional. Pray for me!

Stuff I like for my old PMQ

Yes, I'm a terrible blogger. I guess I'm too old to learn about "blog first, do later" or "blog while doing", so I lapse for lots of time.
However, one of my amigas has gotten on board with this Oh My Handmade Goodness site, which means that by proxy *I* have gotten on board. Too bad I like the damn stuff, which means I buy it, which is really just enabling her.

For example:
Things from OMHG (which I always read as "OH MY HANDMADE GOD!", a sort of crafty-person cuss or something) like this giveaway from HJRD.
Yeah.
I already got sucked into Zukzuk and this print that I HAD TO HAVE.

See how the snowball rolls down the hill?

Now go support independent artists! Or if you hate that idea, try Regretsy (you won't regret it!).

I thought I'd share

Since I've been a bit down lately, I have been up late (LATE) at night, surfing these beloved series of tubes we call the interwebs, and found some truly magnificent blogs. They are inspiring (teacup birdfeeder) and funny, and full of great ideas. I won't lie and say I don't covet the houses and their decorating budgets from the core of my being, but at least they share their design techniques and thift store finds, as well as lots of step-by-step projects...with pictures. This is key, since I need to "read the pictures" often to figure out what's going on!
Here are a few of my favourites. And their blogs have links that will take you all sorts of interesting places:

Butteryum. Lots of great recipes here. I made the stuffed shells and they turned out great. I can't wait to try the spaghetti sauce recipe.

Homebody.She's all about the thrift store furniture. I wish we had as good a system up here as craigslist seems to be for them (kijiji doesn't come close here).

The Pleasures of Homemaking. Check out her deck. I'm not sure if it'd work up here (the sea salt might eat it) but it looks great!



Living with Lindsay. She recovers a chair and it is magical. I wish I was this fabulous.

Southern Hospitality. Thanks for introducing us to beadboard wallpaper!

The image here is from Lavender and Roses.
Hopefully you'll visit these and be inspired too. :)

What I've been up to while The Owner is away

It's been a busy week here, with lots of time to get things done. And by that, I mean tackle all the projects that have been sadly lacking in completion until now.
So, as a brief rundown, I have:
1) Put up a curtain to hide the mess in the half-finished cabinet, which looks pretty fabulous if I don't say so myself
2) Put together a post for my mailbox
3) Stained the stairs
4) Finished painting around the front door, ceilings and living room touch ups
5) Installed a new peep hole
6) Retouched the paint on the door
7) Found and installed a brass mortise lock doorknob for the front door
8) Done a really cute project involving a teacup birdfeeder I found online

However, I only have photos for a few of these things because I only have my iCamera and it's dark here.

So here's some evidence of what's been happening:


The Peephole! This is the old one, I haven't taken a pic of the shiny new one yet. It is brass to match the new knob set.


The Stairs. The bottom one is unfinished, the top one has a coat of Varathane in "Cherry" on it. Because the stairs are pine and in kind of rough shape, they're not taking stain evenly, which I hope will be less obvious with a couple more coats. Also, it's so humid here that it takes about 3x longer to dry than usual.



All the stairs. The risers still have to be painted to make it look crisp, and I think it's an improvement, but only The Owner will decide.

The "I haven't posted lately" apology post, with unrelated pictures

So, just so that nobody thinks there hasn't been some kind of progress here, I'd let you know that I think I'd be a perfect field-test location for anyone who wants to see if their floors will withstand 6-10 washings with industrial cleaner during the day.
Also, I could test break/crash/fire/baby- proofness of any object!
I don't get how something so small can be so angry.

But since I don't have any progress-pictures, I guess I'll provide you with something interesting: some of my pictures from my great-grandfather, who managed to survive both the Boer War and First World War as a sergeant bugler (and later rampant gambler and drunk, because PTSD wasn't a "thing" then, so you simply poured liquor on your memory).

Interesting fact: Daniel (my great grandfather) had a brother named "Enoch". Now there's something you don't hear any more!


More relatives circa WWI.



Great Grandmother Elizabeth:


And this is a brother. Or someone. Someone to whom I am related, but no one is really sure any more. My grandmother thinks he survived the war, at any rate. It's hard to say,so many did not.

"Ya can't stop progress!"

(Points to anyone who catches the film reference above.)

Okay, so here I am, a single woman again, and now it's up to me to continue with the plan to make the house kid-safe and mostly habitable.

So...today I decided, "you know what a door needs? A handle!




Then I thought, "this handle will compliment the new curtains I made quite nicely." And while the whole effect isn't complete (because there are sheers to go underneath it all), you get the general idea. They do look more grey in photos than they really are...there is a lot of blue in them which I will try to pick up with more colour in the room in general.