Last year in April, we bought our first home, a 1930's farm house. It was in bad shape, kind of gutted, nothing worked and farm animals lived throughout.
No pictures yet, but I'm working on it.
Half of the clapboards have been painted, the 3 metal roofs of the extensions have been sanded and painted. We will have a company come out later this Spring when it's warm to paint the original 2 story roof and the second floor of the clapboards. We don't have a ladder nor the equipment to risk our lives painting them.
We tore out all the rotting, moldy, urine and poop covered carpets. Underneath we found original wood floors, water damaged, stained, painted and a mess. Been slowly pulling out all the nails and other odd things in them. I added a handrail in the stairwell, we painted that hall a fresh white. It was burnt, grimy and full of weird holes we cleaned and patched up. Livingroom has plywood flooring, no idea why or if anything is under it. Had the gas heater cleaned and fixed, it's wonderful.
Started soaking and scraping off the mop-corn ceiling. Reinstalled most of the original doors in their proper place, a few doors are missing. Added a doorbell, changed and fixed all the lighting and electrical outlets. Also have started adding cabinets in the kitchen, closed off the crawlspace and cellar holes, mice still find their way in. Going to concrete the porch steps closed and see if it helps with the mouse issue.
Bought 3 gates, reused two old gates. Added a lovely Tar and Chip driveway, a new mailbox and painted the horrid, plastic shutters brown to match the roof. I will be replacing them in time with real, working wood shutters on all windows this Summer or Fall! Cut and attached missing picket fence boards, added a lot of dirt to get water moving away from the house.
Half way installed gutters on the Chicken Coop, Barn and Well House winter came and I had to pause it. Installed a huge, whole house filter, new water heater, new fixtures in the sinks and bought a new electric stove, the gas stove housed mice and the pipe connection was iffy, so it was closed off.
We will also be tearing down all the exterior wood from the laundry room, most likely the inside as well and redo it all. I will slowly be adding clapboard to it to make it seamless! Will also insulate the ceiling/roof at that point.
$600 worth of shower tiles were bought this weekend, insanity for such a small room! We have to tear out all the walls surrounding the tub and remove the floor around the toilet. We chose a floor tile, shower wall tile, shower frame tile and paint color for the rest of the bathroom walls. Small upgrade for now, will replace the sink with a pedestal sink, new lighting and get the tiny gas heater in there working. Since that wall will be removed, shower pipes will be upgraded to 3/4in piping for real water pressure! Kitchen sink, bathroom sink and toilet pipes will remain at 1/2in since they do not need the upgrade and it would require demo of a lot of walls.
Root cellar will be dug out, repaired and sealed from moisture. A floating floor will be made and installed for a real ,working cellar.
We have gone with a very pale yellow for the clapboards and a nice, rich brown for shutters and roof.
Barn roof will be patched, painted and walls will be repaired. Fencing will be stretched back up and repaired.
I think that is everything we have done and needs to be done soon. We are hoping to sell the house once the market is up and proper again. Paid 70k, but with all the upgrades, hoping to at least meet what the house was originally worth before the market crash, even in it's deteriorated state. Obviously, 150-200k would be amazing. Possible to get 250k in the best situation, though we do not have a garage or other odd ends other houses have.








