What Have You Done That Has >"TOTALLY CHANGED"< Your Home?

[AchingBack]

When I built my deck I included a ramp to transport my firewood to the front door.

 

[newbury]

House in Alexandria, Virginia -
Bought in 1984 at an extreme discount. The previous owner was retiring with his wife to West Virginia. Don't think he could tell a screwdriver from a hammer. They had been in the house since 1972 when it was built by a very respected builder. The house has a walk-out basement with a cellar hole about 3' deep. There is a porch off the back, about 18x12. He had let the back porch ROT AND FALL into the cellar hole and the realtor had not yet gotten him to remove it. There were sliding patio doors to an 8" DROP! The rest of the house showed similar neglect. Wallpaper in places was peeling up. No storm windows. Two fireplaces virtually untouched.
It took me a year or two to build a deck back on. TOTAL CHANGE could walk out back. Installed storm windows all around TOTAL CHANGE could no longer fly kites inside with the wind stopped.

House in Fulton, Mississippi - Similar situation - previous owner was an Insurance agent, with similar skills. They had a tight spiral staircase to the basement, we had that replaced by a wide stairway. TOTAL CHANGE - I can carry a basket of laundry down and upstairs. There initially had been a 16x20 garage that had been professionally converted into a room with a full attic (12'x20' x 8' height), with one window at the end. The PO had been using that as a massive (to me) walk in clothes closet. We had 2 good sized dormers put in for light, A/C, more electrical, and SWMBO uses it for a craft room, she paints and makes jewelry. TOTAL CHANGE plenty of light. And a big "she cave".

I on the other hand have to settle for a measly 5,500 sq ft workshop w/ apartment

 

[plowhog]

The big thing in the code for windows here is low-E, which reflects a lot of infrared and UV energy. The idea is to reduce the heat load from the sun in the summer to lower AC energy requirements. It's really noticeable how much less heat comes in when the sun is shining through in the summer.

The newer, modern low-E capability of glass is something I have found many people are unaware of.

Our NV home has a 10' x 15' movable glass wall (nanawall.) It provides a nice view of the Sierra Nevada mountains, but faces due west. It gets hammered by hot sun and high UV in summer.

We paid for the best low-E glass offered. It is worth every penny. In summer you can't touch the outside of the windows because it is so hot. The inside is room temperature.

 

[lman]

We put new windows on the south side of our house a couple of years ago and my wife commented the other day when it was about 20 degrees and sunny that the rooms with the windows were colder now. In the summer, shade trees keep the sun off the windows. I guess we won't have the solar warming now but the sun doesn't expose itself much around here in the winter anyway.

 

[bdhsfz6]

We have lived in our home for over 39.5 years,, and LOTS of changes have occurred,,
Some good, some not so good,, BUT, a few have TOTALLY CHANGED the home!!

Spring will be here soon, I might need time to get materials for another project,
so, I am hoping that you will share some of your home changes that REALLY made you much happier with your home.

Some of our big hitters have been (in no particular order)
1) Changed from carpet to hardwood floors

2) Replaced ALL the light fixtures that previously had incandescent light bulbs
(YES, we had to change all the fixtures, not just the bulbs)

3) Added a screened-in porch.

I could write a chapter of a book on how each of our changes have enhanced our life,,
(like the light fixtures, the heat from regular bulbs destroyed ALL of the wire insulation,, I am sure we were close to a fire)
but, that is WAY too much for this thread,,

I am sure that I could come up with more than 39.5 changes that we have made to our home,
that is because we change something MAJOR every year,,
(My wife ALWAYS jokes about how we have had to buy grass seed EVERY year we have been here,, I ALWAYS dig something up)

So, share with us your favorite home changes that have happened at your place,,
(or even someone else's home,, that will work, too!!)

I built my own home and, like you, have lived there for 40 years or so. Many, many changes / improvements have been made in that time but these are the two we appreciate the most:

1 - Replaced the original 10' x 12' deteriorating treated wood deck with a 14' x 20' deck made of aluminum. It's maintenance free, waterproof and it provided us with a dry patio area underneath.

2 - Replaced a 25 year-old ductless AC system with a new, more efficient ductless mini split heat pump system. It provides A/C or heat anywhere it's needed at a considerable savings. I even added a zone in my workshop and can now work out there in year round comfort.

 

[Fxfymn413]

I don't think this really qualifies as a DYI but we added a 450 acre lake to the rear of our property courtesy of the local county who built a reservoir there. That was a life changer! Who says they don't make new waterfront property?

The DW and I did add the garagemahall a few years ago; 36x36 three bays. I had the foundation put in and the floor poured and then we did the rest with the help of a couple of friends to get the trusses set and the roof ply on. My wife is a worker and she knows her way around a building site. We started framing on a Monday morning and had it under roof with the paper on the following Sunday. I did have someone do the drywall and the siding.

 

[ap0915]

Most recent improvement I’ve made and probably also the best is 2 mini split heat pump systems. The first is a 36k BTU single zone and the second a 27k 3 zone system.

100% self installed and saved about $10,000 in labor costs had a contractor done it.

Able to provide enough heat in winter along with the wood stove that i was able to get rid of the propane furnace and stop getting ripped off the the propane monopoly we have here.

 

[JasperFrank]

I built the house on my own... The Second Wife asked me to make it a home, she would like, and eradicate a great deal of the prior work. Working the best I can. Way too many changes, to the original ideas I had, and still working on my original ideas, that don't work for her. Marriage is a hard thing to work out some times, if you think you have some sort of art you want to express. And if it is important, to one party, it should be important to both.

 

[Xfaxman]

What Have You Done That Has >"TOTALLY CHANGED"< Your Home?​

So, share with us your favorite home changes that have happened at your place,

Moved!

 

[dirttoys]

Hired a professional to take care of the fertilizing/chemicals for the lawn. Looked better in 12 months without seed over what I was trying to do myself for several years.

I wish to God I could do this After farming for the first 20 years of my life, and buying more equipment than most wives would tolerate, spending nearly an unimaginable amount of money on chemicals, I just can't admit I can't grow grass.

Best,

ed