I find this review of all the home improvement tasks we did really satisfying. So many are things that no one besides us would ever notice, especially in a year where hardly anyone else has been inside our house....
- We finished the stair shelf by putting up more cabinet doors and pretty paper backing on some more of the cubbies.
- Jack put smart switches on the porch light (so it goes on when it gets dark) and on the entry way chandelier (so it goes off after 10 minutes). They work 85% of the time, which is great, but also is why I won't be getting "smart" door locks or anything critical yet.
- Back in the summer of 2016 we hastily ordered and assembled the kids' IKEA closet systems in, just before we moved in. Both rooms needed a few more shelves to maximize the use of the space, but we waited long enough that IKEA had discontinued the line. Luckily we managed to find the few shelves and parts we needed on eBay. Especially now that they are filled out, I'm quite happy with the alcove + closet system + curtain approach we have. As the kids grow, we can re-arrange the parts to allow for more hanging space and we can replace the curtain fabric (which I sewed when we lived in Boston) if anyone starts to care about how their room looks. In the small bedrooms, closet doors would just get in the way.
- On the roof door, Jack installed a door closer, which was more complicated project than anticipated, requiring a lot of fiddling and replacement parts due to the thickness of the wall and the dyslexic instructions. He stuck with it and now it works, making the door not slam up on the windy roof and holding holding it open when it is pushed open all the way. Letting hot air out of the roof door is key for making the third floor more comfortable. We can stop wearing out bungie cords now.
- We washed all the windows and tried out some new equipment and methods.
- We put up some more electric blinds on the north wall of the second and third floor (blinds and leaking windows saga).
- We patched and painted the walls for the first time. Some look okay and others are quite obvious because the paint looks different. I don't know the trick yet. I think after four years (and the window issues) I have come to terms with the fact that there isn't really a honeymoon period where a new house is maintenance free. Since this is our first house, there are tons of small maintenance tasks we've just never done before.
- In December we pulled out the manual for our water heater and cleaned the thimble sized filter that pumps water in to the water heater compartment. It gratifyingly improved our shower situation from cold-scalding-icy-icy-icy to cold-scalding-warm. There are more issues to work out here, but it's a big improvement.
- On level two we still have some electrical weirdness. When Jack's computer is on, and the bathroom vanity light is on, and the printer runs, the circut shorts..... or something like that. Jack replaced the thing-a-ma-bob in one of the vanity lights and that seemed to help. We removed the vanity lights for a couple of weeks also, to test. One got broken while it was off the wall, so we ended up replacing both with a cheaper, similar looking version, which at least took less than half an hour (with both of us) to rewire. I *think* it's all working now, but when the printer runs the office lights do flicker.
I'm including organization here too because it is so satisfying, and requires time and effort also.
- We bought an enormous new heavy-duty shelf for the north part of the basement, which is a big improvement
- I organized arts and craft supplies in a big cabinet by the dining table, instead of on the stair shelf. So far D has been appreciative and tried to keep it nice. D draws less than a lot of kids but being home for almost the whole year has definitely made us do more crafts at home.
- We switched our ugly bathroom shelf to the entry way, where it is slightly more functional, and brought the cabinet from the entry to the bathroom, where it is at least super well organized. Bonus points were awarded for spending $0 on this.
- One easy and fun thing we did was put up this PEony (get it?) wall decal in the third floor bathroom, where we have spent quite a lot of time working on potty training
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