As of this week, we’ve lived in our home for 6 years. As I’ve done semi-annually since we moved in, I will hereby provide an update on improvements we made to our home in the past six months.
By the way, if you’re interested, here’s the blog post detailing what we did during the six months prior to these most recent six months.
ATTIC
-Replaced the thread-bare too-short piece of yarn hanging from the light with a proper pull chain.
ADULTS’ BEDROOM
-Replaced beige outlet with white one.
We have some beige outlets in the house, which were installed by the previous homeowner. Beige is a terrible color for outlets since it just makes them look dusty. I replaced most of them with white outlets, but every once in a while, I find one I had neglected to replace. This outlet was hidden behind some furniture, so I don’t see it too often.
-Removed intercom and patched up wall.
Yeah, that stupid intercom messed up about fifteen places around our house. Though I removed the intercom from Owen’s room, the kitchen, and the front door, I never got around to removing the one in our room. Here’s the progress I made:
Here’s the ugly, useless intercom.
Here, I’ve removed the screws holding it in place.
Here, I’ve removed the wiring and thus the entire intercom is now gone.
Here, I’ve patched up the hole. Yes, it’s very ugly. Stay tuned for my continued progress in assimilating this eyesore of the wall to the rest of the wall.
UPSTAIRS BATHROOM
-Installed exhaust fan.
Yay for us! Can you believe we lived over five-and-a-half years in our house without having a fan in our bathroom?
Here’s the accompanying switch that my brother-in-law skillfully helped me install:
UPPER STAIRWELL
-Replaced beige outlet with white one.
DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM
-Removed handrail from shower.
Well, one of the handrails, at least. There are two horizontal bars that I like having in the shower, as they are great places to keep shampoo bottles and face cloths. But there was one vertical bar that just got in the way:
It’s gone now.
SPARE ROOM
-Removed wood planks from ceiling.
Not sure why, but there were about a dozen ugly planks of wood nailed to the rafters in our spare room near the fuse box. Each one was about three inches wide and three feet long. I removed them in preparation for having a proper ceiling one day. They gave me lots of splinters. And they were very dusty, so I had to wear safety glasses while removing them.
YARD/HOME EXTERIOR
-Removed security system motion detector from above the back door light fixture.
It was useless. And ugly.
-Trimmed back hose spigot and installed sleeker piping.
The pipe connecting our hose spigot to the house used to be 10 inches long. This was probably to accommodate the side-opening that allowed for the plumbing for the sprinkler system. I removed the sprinkler system years ago, but the valve for the sprinkler system just sat there, turned off, doing nothing. So I cut the pipe so that it now only sticks out from the house by four inches. In doing so, I also removed the side opening. So now it’s both shorter and sleeker.
-Installed hose winder.
Oh yeah, the main reason for doing the work on the hose spigot was so that I could fit this:
-Chimney shortened, tuck-pointed, and top grate reinstalled.
I didn’t do this; I paid someone else to. Actually, to this day, I’ve still never been on the roof of our house. The contractor I hired removed four rows of bricks, which weren’t even cemented in anymore, and thus brought the height of the chimney closer to code.
-Caulked small hole near back door.
Not sure why, but there has always been this small hole just below the doorbell. I caulked it closed.
-Stained lattice work on north side of deck.
GARAGE
-Added bracket to hold up electrical wire piping.
-Replaced broken siding on east side of garage with new pieces.
Actually, they weren’t “new” pieces; they were pieces that had never been used, just sitting up in the rafters.
-Installed sheets of chipboard into rafters for storage.
-Removed keyhole from center of garage.
This keyhole, which presumably used to open one of the garage doors, served no purpose. I removed it. I’ll patch up the hole later.
-Installed keypad for garage door entry.
-Replaced broken siding on south side of garage.
One small piece was broken. I used one of the broken pieces I had removed from the east side (above), and cut it down to size, being careful to only use the in-tact portion.
Here is the keypad itself:
And here it is with the flap closed:
-Replaced outlet on west wall.
It wasn’t working. And it was beige.