Our Mini Renovation
Thanks in part to maybe the worst moving plan ever (I kid… but maybe), we went under contract on our new house just as we were preparing to move into a month-to-month rental. In our infinite wisdom*, we had sold our previous house first and negotiated a very long lease back period, assuming that nearly six months of serious house hunting would be enough.
Reader, it was not enough. Or at least not enough to make us feel safe that we wouldn’t be homeless when our lease back period was up on July 1st. So, in May, after losing out on a just-okay house we put a truly insane bid on (this was our lowest point in the house hunt), we secured a month-to-month furnished rental in our first-choice neighborhood beginning in July. The plan was to use the address to register our son for kindergarten, put our furniture in storage and continue to look for a house to buy.
We ended up going under contract on our little cape at the end of June, before we even moved in to the rental! Because we were worried about the appraisal on this home (because of the aforementioned insane real estate market), we decided not to give formal notice to our landlord until after our closing, and that decision combined with a 60-day notice requirement meant we have our rental until October 1st.
This leads me to the mini renovation we’re undertaking. We knew when we offered that there would be a number of things we would want to take care of to make the house more comfortable and safe for us. We decided to use the extra time before we have to move in to knock out the more annoying improvements to do once living in the space. In no particular order, we’re planning to tackle:
Floors Refinishing of the first and second floor hardwoods, and replacement of the luxury vinyl plank in half of the kitchen with white oak to match the rest of the first floor.
Interior Painting We’re focusing on the main living spaces to start: the kitchen, living room, dining room, and family room. The bedrooms will come later once I have a clear design for each space, and for now they are all painted a light cream, which I can live with.
Exterior Painting The trim, door and window munnions badly need to be painted, and we decided to go all in on the dream (my dream) and paint the body of the house as well. We’re using a mineral-based masonry paint which I hope will look just and beautiful as I imagine! The color scheme: soft white body, bright white trim, red door, black shutters. This is the one part of our initial work that I feel is less urgent, but it seems to make sense since we’ll already have the painter here.
Electrical A whole (expensive) smattering of electrical work, including fixing some safety issues, adding outlets where we need them, switching out a light, and wiring for sconces.
Picket Fence Adding a picket fence to the front of the house. Our new house doesn’t have a driveway, and with two kids and two dogs we love the additional layer of safety a fence in the front yard will bring. Also, it’s cute!
Odds and Ends Plumbing repairs, adding stair runners, removing some dead and overgrown shrubs, updating some door hardware- we’re going to try to get this all done before we move in but won’t let it delay us if it’s not done.
They just stained the floors today and I am thrilled with the little peak I got to see! I’ll share more when I can walk in the house.
*I feel I must mention that our realtor very carefully and thoroughly walked through all of the options with us and was honest about how competitive the market was (part of selling the house first was to make us more competitive in bidding wars). We made the decision to sell first with eyes wide open and we probably still wouldn’t have a house if our realtor wasn’t such a rockstar. If you need a Richmond-area realtor I am happy to pass along his name- no one will work harder for you.
