Yesterday was a huge milestone for my husband and me.  It was the one year anniversary of buying our dream home.  July 16 will forever be ingrained in our heads as the day we bought our money pit.  Don’t get me wrong, we love our house!  But, let’s call a spade a spade, it’s a money pit.  It is very fitting that the traditional gift for a one year anniversary is paper, ie money.

The Dream

Like many home buyers, we had a dream when we bought ths house.  We drew up a To Do List the day after we had our home inspection and vowed we would have these items completed by July 16, 2008.  Let’s see how we did.

The List

1.  Re-wire House – During our home inspection we were informed that this home had the most active knob and tube wiring the inspector had ever seen!  On top of that, the previous owners had installed a central a/c unit in the attic and had decided to upgrade the insulation at the same time.  (Thanks for the central a/c, not so much on the new insulation).  The new blown insulation was laying on top of the exposed knob and tube wiring.  Can you say fire-hazard?  So how far did we get?…

Not too shabby.  After creating a trunk to run all the new wires, we are on our way to being a house with modern electricity!  We are also now wired for phone, cable, and ethernet in every room.  We have a ways to go, including setting the new electric panel, upgrading to 200 amp service, and patching the holes; but we are almost there.

2.    Paint – This was not supposed to have been done until after we were done re-wiring, but we soon realized that we needed to multi-task.  So…

I invited friends over and we painted 6 rooms in 6 days.  (P.S. We are still friends after this and hubby and I are going to their new house in 2 weeks to help them paint!)

3.  Fix Random Hole in Dining Room Floor – Yep, there’s a random hole in the Dining Room Floor. 

Here it is!                                    

Here’s the fix – a small area rug over the hole.  This helps prevent the cats from running thru the Dining Room and accidently falling into the hole or one of our dinner guests putting their chair leg in the hole.  Eventually we’ll get that hole patched.  I promise!

4.  Yeah, the “Basement That Never Leaks,” LEAKS!!!!!

We have a FAIL on this item.  This has been moved to the Will Handle When We Put Up That Addition List. 

5.  The Chimney Allows Carbon Monoxide to Come Billowing Back Into the Living Room – Eeeek!  This was a must get done before winter sets in item. 

The old chimney came down and the new, safe chimney went up!  This took about 3 days to complete.

The Verdict

All in all, I don’t think we did that bad getting items checked off our To Do List.  Most of the safety items have been taken care of, some of the cosmetic items have been postponed for that addition and my husband has learned when it is just easier to hire someone else to do the work.  If I had to do this all over again, I would still purchase this house.  By the time we finished, in say 5 more years, it will truly be our dream home.  It’s amazing what you learn to live with in the interim!