Hello. I thought I'd throw this out to the collective minds and get your thoughts. I have multiple possible house projects, I had a plan, and now I'm considering redoing the plan due to annoyance.
Projects under consideration:
1.Encapsulate the crawl space (probably need permit)
1a. Repipe crawl space (need permit)
1b. Replace cement along side of house (need permit)
2. New carpet
2a. Some redoing of vent covers and woodwork (DIY/some help)
2b. Installation of tile by front door (DIY/some help)
2c. Painting all woodwork (DIY)
3. Replace fence (need permit)
3a. Need a survey.
4. Patching walls from electrical project (DIY/some help)
5. Redo half bath on first floor (DIY/some help)
Other current/planned projects not an issue: repainting the garage, grading various dirt, removing a metric ton of river rock, painting the exterior windows, painting interior everything.
Here's the situation.
- Last winter, my 1st floor was FREEZING, all due to the crawl space. It was bad. My elderly cat basically lived upstairs.
- Also last winter, I did a massive project to rewire my nearly 100 year old house. This left holes in the walls/ceilings from where they had to cut for access.
- My fence is 20-25 years old and is falling apart. It will not survive winter, in fact one of the gates didn't survive the thunder storm last week.
- I had to remove the carpet in the house because the previous owner's dog peed all over it and it stank. I left the carpet on the stairs (said elderly cat needs carpet to navigate stairs), but it also smells when it's hot and humid.
- My crawl space does occasionally get wet. It happens when it rains so fast and hard that the gutters are overwhelmed, and the sidewalk on along the house is tilted towards the house (thanks tree!), so it drains into the crawl.
- Old house = old plumbing. I've got a bunch of galvanized pipes, and they're basically end of life. They could go any time.
- First floor bathroom is stick on tile over 1/4 inch plywood that had stuff that should have gone into the toilet smeared behind the sink, which then melted into the floor. (Previous owners had boys, didn't supervise that well, and didn't clean that well). Also, the toilet is named stupid toilet, I've got a choice of it flushing without holding the handle for 30 seconds or the flapper leaking. Currently holding the handle. Plus, it requires regular plunging as we're pretty sure there's some toy or other stuck in it.
My original plan was to do basically everything on the list this year except the bathroom. Note: I've got money set aside to do everything, and some things on the list I will DIY anyway. That isn't a concern.
My problem is my neighbor. I screwed up on replacing the concrete, I didn't realize I needed a permit (I know, I know, I'm new to this). Anyway, long story short, my neighbor flipped her lid and is threatening me with legal action (lol, but I'm making sure to cover myself), but more concerning, she's married to a public official and the building dept is slow walking the permit. At this point, I don't actually care about that particular project that much - the work will get done.
But I'm getting annoyed. This neighbor is mentally ill, is not rational/reasonable (she called the police because I had my trees trimmed!), is escalating slowly, and CAN NOT BE ENGAGED. Don't even suggest it. I'm not comfortable approaching the husband either, cause he was threatening the concrete guy too.
So I'm considering postponing some of the projects until later, once things have hopefully calmed down a bit. Mostly because I don't want to deal with the crap.
The fence I'm going to do anyway, I know I need a permit for that, but it's in bad enough condition that I can't postpone it. I'll be hiring it out as I don't have the time for DIY, in process of getting quotes. I'll have the survey in early August.
The concrete I'm doing, it's already started.
I'm considering not doing the repipe or crawl encapsulation this year, but instead doing the carpet. Hopefully carpet would be enough to keep the floor from being so cold this winter. Then, I'll have data for next year to know if I want to bother with the encapsulation, or if the carpet was sufficient. If I do the carpet, then I need to get some tile installed by the front door and finish the woodwork, which involves a bit of rework on 2 return air vents and surrounding woodwork.
Do the repipe next year (assuming it doesn't become an emergency), and the bathroom at the same time. Probably throw in the kitchen piping so the whole first floor will be new, and pray the upstairs isn't galvanized (from what I've seen, it's either copper or old style cast iron).
Poke holes in the plan please :)