The other day I finally finished the games room in the basement, which was the last room left. Grandpa and I worked on it every weekend for 4-8 hours since June or July? I forget but it seems like forever, and I never want to finish a room again! It seems like we did so little when you look at it but there was so much work to get it to that point.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out, especially after it was fully furnished. There's a pool table that flips over into an air hockey table (6' long), an eliptical trainer (cross between treadmill and bike), a few stools, tv, dart board, pictures, etc...
I added up the 500 home depot bills and found that I spent around $1700. The furnishings was an additional $1700 or so... the total was around $3400.
Since I moved into this house I've done the following:
- Pave the driveway
- Built a beautiful 6 foot wooden fence around the back yard and side of the house
- Built a deck
- Level and sod the back yard
- New shed
- Installed central air conditioning
- New vanity in basement bathroom
- Added rear-access to the furnace
- Finished the games room
- Painted 3 rooms, and re-painted the basement apartment
There's still a bit more to do before it's ready to sell.
- Paint the front door and trim
- Replace the front door window with a nicer one, and replace the door handle
- Repaint the entrance way, living room and main hallway
- Replace all base boards upstairs with nicer ones, and paint all window trims
- Replace the dishwasher with a more modern one
- Pay a landscaper to give my house curb appeal, and to enhance the back yard a bit
I've put around $12,000 into the house so far. To finish it off I will need an other $3000 or so. I hope to get as much money I can out of this place in a year or two, then move to Toronto. I'll probably work from home for IJW.. but nobody knows this yet :) Well, until now.
Working from his home office in Toronto,
Ryan de Laplante can be found developing software in
Java by day, and obsessing with technology by night.
Ryan has been designing and writing software for
IJW since 1998 and is very passionate about his work.
