By Adam Stewart
From the Newsroom
In the summer of 2020, after years of saving and a false start in 2017, I finally bought a house.
The timing was right: interest rates were low, I had saved a nice nest egg since paying off my student loans in 2016, and I qualified for some down payment assistance. On top of that, Michelle and I were talking seriously about marriage, and she joined me as I was house-hunting, and we found a century-old craftsman-style bungalow that she loved and was well within budget.
The catch was that it was quite a fixer-upper, which isn’t surprising for a century-old house that was well within budget.
Other than interior painting before moving in furniture, most house projects would have to wait until after our wedding the next spring. (Michelle’s rings arrived a few days after closing, and we didn’t need or want a long engagement.) But since then, it has been one project after another, whether saving for, planning, or actually doing the projects.
Some of the projects have been small, simple and satisfying, like teaching ourselves how to fix a couple of leaky faucets. Others have been big enough that they took multiple days and required enlisting friends or family members, like pulling out the shabby, overgrown fence in our backyard.
I’m sorry, did I write “fence?” I meant “fences.” There were as many as three layers of fencing in spots. I suspect a former resident had a pet that was an escape artist on par with Houdini.
The first half of repainting our house and garage fit into the same category, satisfying, but a lot of hard work. We eventually had to turn it over to professionals to finish before the weather turned too cold to paint, though.
On the subject of painting, the Brush Up Hutch program is great, if you qualify. It helped us with the cost of paint and convinced us to get a paint sprayer, which made painting our cedar shingle siding dramatically easier.
This weekend, we have another of those fairly large projects made possible with a helping hand from family. One of Michelle’s uncles is going to be visiting from out of state and taking the lead on replacing our front door and storm door. But it’s a little more complex than simply taking out the old doors and putting in the new.
Because our house is a century old, there are a lot of elements that aren’t standard sizes that you can get from a store. We learned that lesson when we got most of the windows replaced five years ago. This time around, though, we decided it would be better to get a door in a standard size and reframe around the new door than to shell out the amount a custom door would have cost.
While we’re at it, we’re going to tackle a few small projects that make sense to do at the same time, like fixing a couple of doors that don’t latch and changing out a few door handles.
All of these projects contribute to make our house “better” in some way. Replacing windows made the house quieter and gave us the ability to let fresh air in when the weather is nice. Having the wiring updated made the house safer. Repainting protects the siding from the elements. But they also make the house more uniquely ours, because we make the decisions about them.
The house projects also give us stories to tell. The last straw before starting the rewiring project was when we hosted my family Thanksgiving and we kept tripping the circuit breaker for the kitchen by having the oven, all four stove burners, and a slow cooker running at the same time. (We eventually got the dinner on the table, but it took longer than planned.)
Because our house is a fixer-upper, we have years more of projects—and stories—ahead of us. After the door project, the next thing on our list is a total bathroom remodel.
Wish me luck.
Adam Stewart is the assistant news editor of The Hutchinson Tribune. He can be reached at adam@hutchtribune.com.