Project list

There's a lot of stuff that I want to do with the house. Here's a short project list of stuff I'd like to get done sooner rather than later:

1) The backyard needs a lot of work. These a few feet of uneven brick laid, and then clay/dirt with a few weeds and not much other growth.

2) The gutter on the back of the kitchen needs some work and/or cleaning. Not all water is being diverted to the downspout.

3) At least one window needs to be replaced. This one has a crack in the top half.

4) There's a weird space in between two cabinets in the kitchen. There's wood paneling over what is really otherwise empty space. I'd like to do something nice and/or useful with this space. I also can't fit my trash can under the sink because of the way the plumbing is set up. I'd like to find a solution for this, which probably just means buying a smaller trash can.

5) The hot water heater is kind of old, and huge (80 gal). I think a new energy star one around 40 gal would be great and pay itself off within a few years. The fridge is also old, 1992, and using this calculator from the department of energy, I found out that a new fridge would easily pay for itself within five years with the energy it saves. The difference is roughly $133 to $43 per year.

6) The front of the house has a great facade, but could use power washing. The handrail in front isn't totally secure. I need to replace the light bulb out front. The decorative capping at the top of the house desperately needs to be repainted. This stuff is low on the priority list and I will probably get around to it when I also get the furnace replaced and the chimney capped.

7) I'd like to get rid of most of the white walls in the house. The painting projects are ongoing.

8) The front room doesn't have any overhead lights. One idea is to place some nice track lights above the front door. There's an outlet near the ceiling, but sadly, it's not controlled by the light switch. There is an extra light switch by the front door, and it controls one of the outlets in the room. I'd really like to put a ceiling fan with lights in this room, but I'm not sure how much work this would take. There's also a motion sensor and siren installed for the security system. I don't really like them, but I will probably leave them up for the time being.

9) In addition to being ugly, the kitchen floor has a few gashes that are covered by an ugly Ikea rug. It did a good job of hiding them every time I walked through the house though; I never thought to look under it. I'd like to replace the flooring at some point.

10) There are two weird spaces in my bathroom. I'd like to convert one into a linen closet, but I'm somewhat at a loss on how to best use the available space.