Friday the 6th was my last official day being employed at MySQL (Sun we’re now extinct Microsystems)… sorry, couldn’t resist.  Although I had to return my nice trusty Macbook Pro, New Belgium Brewery Sticker, Chewbacca in ‘09 sticker, VPN password generator, Sun branded pen, mousepad… ok, so I kept the pen and mousepad

I wanted to talk about my week a little…  This past week I kept very busy with my new house.  I’ve painted the bathroom an awesome grey/blue color, painted my office & finished the touch up paint in the living room.  Being a home owner is a lot of hard work but I find it to be extremely enjoyable and satisfying.  If you really want a great workout and/or want to get in shape, I recommend buying a small fixer upper house and the following:

• Tear down a wall or two… Open concept floorplans are great and make small houses seem huge!
• Rip out that un-even tile floor and lay hardwood throughout…  Now I didn’t intall the hardwoods in the kitchen and the rest of the house already had wood, but I did spend 3 days pulling out tile floor and three layers of sub-floor in the kitchen.
• Paint EVERYTHING! The previous owner of our house was a bachelor for most of the time he lived here and had the WORST colors in the world in this place.  I would describe it as a orange-cream soda color. Make sure you get some Angled brushes to trim out properly and BUY GOOD PAINT!!  We used a local company here in Denver (Guiry’s Paint Supply) which sells Benjamin Moore paint.  I can’t get this point across enough… GET GOOD PAINT, your life will be much easier. I suggest Diamond Vogul or Sherwin-Williams if you don’t like Benjamin Moore
• Invest in Caulk!  Caulk is not only a good idea to stop air drafts & water leaking… it’s that finishing touch which makes all of your hard work look Amazing!  I had to re-caulk the main window in the front room & the office and the entire bathroom.  I still can’t believe the previous owner semi-remodeled the bathroom (Sink, Toilet, Faucet, towel bars) and didn’t use a single bead of caulk.  Now after a half tube of clear slicon caulk my bathroom looks amazing!
• Get new countertops.. or do some form of new-look renovation (bathroom sink, toilet, tile floors, etc…). As I’m writing this post we’re waiting for our new granite countertops to be installed and then spend the day watching the Superbowl (mainly for the commercials, beer & potato skins). Granite is not as expensive as you might think, especially if you ask around and find someone to do the fabrication and install who you can pay in cash or doesn’t work for a larger company.  Always make sure they come recommended and that you are comfortable with that person.  If you get a standard granite, a slab will run about $800-$1000, we needed about 34 square feet and were able to find a ’single-slab’ at a nice discount.  Single slabs are the very last piece of whichever type of granite left in the yard. Most people need more than one slab because they have a lot of counter space or an island, we have neither which is why smaller houses are very nice on the budget.

These are most of the major projects I’ve done over the last months and have lost about 10-15lbs doing most of the work myself.  It’s been extremely enjoyable and frustrating but I wouldn’t have done it any other way.  I’ll leave you with a few final thoughts on this subject… Make sure you know your limitations, I’ve never installed wood floors & my drywall patching skills are bad!  So I hired our those two projects, asked around got some great recommendations and in so received GREAT deals.  Contractors get more jobs based on referrals, if you had a great experience tell your friends & family, most contractors will give you a break.  Finally take the time to enjoy your hard work! Regardless if you did they physical labor yourself or paid a contractor to do it, grab a drink sit back and admire YOUR hard work and effort.  You Deserve It!

-Big A

UPDATE: Here are some photos of the work… http://bit.ly/5gjx1J