Menu

Our Home is Renovated

Autumn, 2020
Posted here February 17, 2022
Revised March 8, 2022

Our home is an historic home (built about 1880) but was in dire need of extensive repairs. A freak rainstorm on top of melting snow cover, on February 20, 2018, resulted in a roof leak and a flooded basement, making matters worse.

We received a zero-interest loan through the Neighborhood Services department of our city for renovations, because of our home’s historic status. Work began on December 11, 2019 and concluded on October 9, 2020. Some of the work done is detailed below:

On the inside:

• New windows and doors (whole house)
• Insulation in the attic
• New flooring: linoleum or vinyl flooring or carpeting (all except the laundry room)
• Entire bathroom redone (there was a lot of damage and leaking there)
• Some doorways were widened, some painting
• New furnace and central air installed
• New garbage disposal in the kitchen

On the outside:

• New insulation and siding on the house
• Rain gutters and downspouts (we never had them before)
• East side porch leveled and railing fixed
• Back deck was removed (it was dilapidated)
• Some landscaping around the perimeter of the house.

We won’t have to pay back the portion of the cost that went toward lead abatement, only the repairs and accessibility improvements.

During this time, we downsized and got rid of a lot of stuff; some items were put out at the curb so people could take them for free.