I'm off to a start with my home renovation plan.
My house is about 35 years old and hasn't had any major updates besides paint and a newer furnace in probably the past 20 years.
I've decided to take a top down / inside-out approach. Since my plan involves basically replacing or updating pretty much everything.
1. New roof - Just got this done a couple of weeks ago. The previous roof was in really bad shape and I had patched various holes in it through the years. Plus there was unfortunately some animal damage that had occurred. As part of the roof, I had the soffits and fascia repaired or replaced and freshly painted. Also I got new seamless gutters installed.
2. All new windows. The windows I have currently are basically builder grade single pane windows from 1985. Even well maintained, they have a really crappy energy rating. I have already ordered enough windows to replace every single on in the house. Hopefully that saves on heating and cooling costs in the summer and winter, also I think they will look a lot better. I'm also have the aluminum cover things placed on the outside of the windows to help ease up maintenance moving forward in the future. Its gonna be a few weeks because they are custom built but I'm looking at early October as an install date.
3. New exterior doors. At the least, I'm planning on getting a new front door and storm door. I have a few picked out but I'll probably be having this done at the same time as the windows, and by the same people.
4. Exterior paint. I actually already bought enough exterior paint for the entire house. Unfortunately I changed my mind about the trim color, so now I'm stuck with 5 gallons of trim paint I'm not going to use. On the bright side, I got a huge rebate when I initially bought the paint so it was cheap. I have to buy more, though, to match the color I decided to go with. I'm changing the whole color of my house, though. As part of that, I'm going to have to have a ton of siding repair (I have cedar siding) and caulking done first. Also power-washing.
5. New furnace. Seriously considering replacing my entire heating and air conditioning system. The one I have now is literally a dinosaur and it seems like every year it runs worse and worse. I'm thinking this may be the last season I'm going to use the air conditioning unit in it, and it probably has another heating season in it. But why wait until it completely breaks down before replacing it? Better to do it now while its still functioning.
6. The deck. I'm halfway done with ripping the deck off the back of my house. Its old and not exactly square anymore. Not fixable. Whoever thinks its a good idea to put a deck near a tree...well its just not a good idea. Think twice before you ever do that. The tree has destroyed the deck. I'm thinking about just building a retaining wall at the line where the deck goes out to now and replacing it with a lower maintenance and more permanent stone patio.
7. Front porch. My current front porch is likewise not exactly in good shape. Its survived many summers in the Georgia sun. Its solid enough, it just isn't really looking good anymore. Like the back deck, I'm considering replacing it with stone or maybe even concrete.
