New Home: 3 Month Progress Report

We’ve officially been in our new house for 3 months and it felt like a good time for a progress report!

Let’s recap: We bought a 1953 colonial that’s not quite a fixer upper, but not quite turn key, either. She has a lot of character, a few quirks, and a ton of projects!

*The day we closed on our first home April 2021*

Before we moved in we had a few big projects tackled with the help of a contractor.

We ripped out the non-functional, original cast iron baseboards, patched up the wall, fixed the floor where the heaters were, and added in matching baseboards. It was a bit of a production but I’m so glad we did it, and did it before we moved in! We also had the treads on the stairs replaced, because many of them were cracked.

Then we painted! Every room got a fresh coat on the walls and the trim. (To be honest, some of the trim still needs freshening up, but geez it takes forever!)

Once walls were painted, we moved in and got to work a thousand tiny projects and some bigger ones too.

Swapping lifts on the window sash, scrubbing grout lines, painting closets, tree removal (sad, but necessary), cleaning nooks and cranies, pulling weeds, raking out old dead leaves, more painting, painting, and painting. We also had the front door replaced which was a huge deal to me!

I also started to create mood boards and mock up spaces for decor and styling ideas. We bought a few rugs and some key furniture pieces, but still are very much in process. It’s hard to focus on design details when the baseline projects aren’t yet complete. I installed some shelving for storage and started organizing, but many spaces are not well organized yet! We’re still unpacking a little bit and until certain spaces are finished, I’m working with interim setups.

We also started cracking away our next big project: the garage studio apartment. A previous owner converted the garage into an in-law suite and the owner before us sealed it off from the house and rented it out. We are in the process of converting it into an office and guest suite that we will reincorporate to the main house. It’s a big project that we are currently tackling on our own.

Not a single room is done, but every room has made progress! It sometimes feels like the list is never ending and that we’ve barely accomplished anything. It’s nice to take a moment and reflect on all we have actually done. It’s a lot, and I’m itching to do more! I can’t wait to see where we are in another three more months! Stay tuned!