crystal's capers

Our House, in the Middle of Our Street

The Plans:

1. Put in new carpet - DONE. We thought it would be easier, and cheaper, to replace the 20-year-old emerald green shag before we built up all our furiture. The new carpet is 'almond cream' and covers the stairs, landing and 3 bedrooms.

2. Wallpaper removal. This is the first reno we have planned for early in the new year. Hopefully we'll be able to do it ourselves (e.g. not have need to re-plaster) and it can be a fairly cheap project. Unfortunatley, the ENTIRE house, including ceilings, need re-doing. Ugh. I think we'll start with the fantastic green-and-pink dealy in the entrance way, stairway and landing first.

3. Add-on the lean-to. We have a brick built lean-to out back, which is attached to the house, and was constructed with the original house. Now it houses a little mud room, the aforementioned 'Outhouse' (a toilet room - no sink, no hot water), a small storage room, and a small workshop; our goal is to unite it all, bring the floor up to house level, insulate, add electrical and hot water, and make it into a utility room and full second bathroom. This is a BIG project, which will involve a BIG budget, so will definitely happen well after the wedding.

4. Reno the upstairs bathroom. Once we have a functional second bathroom downstairs, we are thinking of tossing out the tub upstairs and adding a nice shower stall instead; the upstairs bathroom is so tiny, you have to close the door fully just to walk to the sink. Plus, the suite is in a lovely almond-coloured shell motif that just doesn't suit us, or any potential buyers.

5. Loft conversion. We can't fit up the trapdoor at the moment: we have to have a bigger hole put in asap. The idea, though, if the roof is high enough, is to convert the loft into a fourth bedroom, with perhaps an en suite. Remarkably, there is enough room in the landing for a steepish staircase.

6. Open up walls between kitchen, living room and dining room. This is my own wishing and dreaming, and as such, will likely never happen. We expect to have to replace our boiler (hot water and heating) in the next couple years, which will then free up a great deal of wallspace: for some reason, in the 50's, they thought it smart to put these boilers behind the fireplaces, fully enclosed, in the middle of the house. When we change to a small, modern boiler (which will likely go on the wall of the new bathroom) we can, ideally, take out the wall between the kitchen, living room and dining room altogether, opening up most of the main floor. At this point I would choose to up-date the kitchen as well. Anyone have £20,000 they want to give us???

So if all these reno's are needed, why did we buy the place? Well, for starters, we got it at a steal. At least we like to think so. We think the area, King's Heath, is up-and-coming; particularly our street, which since the closure of the local pub half a block away has seen a major upswing. There are tons of new developments in the immediate area, and a reduction of council housing (city funded housing). The gardens are really nice - a drawing feature for us both was the lovely landscaped back garden, with room to expand the house! The most imporant thing though, was the size of the rooms - the bedrooms, in particular, are much more sizeable than any other place we looked at.

We think, with some minor updates (e.g. not everything I've listed above), the house has potential to make us money... but who knows, it's a gamble.