Ever just sit around and think about...

[penybryn]

all the things you could do to your house if you had money? I wish I could fence in my yard, have an inground swimming pool, put on a new deck, remodel my kitchen, fix up my ugly bathrooms and landscape my yard.

None of those things is happening anytime soon. Waaaaaaaaaaa!:(

[dancn226]

My DH and I do the same thing all the time! Espeically when we are watchign Trading Spaces! We just sit there and bs about how this needs this and this needs this, and wouldn't this be cool if you could do this. We also want a fence in the yard, and we want to hardwood teh living room, and put new siding on teh house! WEll I can talk all that but the $ just isn't there right now!!! :rolleyes:

[janu98]

YES!! I do it all the time! I wish we could change our carpet, get new tiles, cabinets, remodel our bathrooms and paint!! jeez might as well get a new house!!:rolleyes:

[smiles33]

This is why I don't watch HGTV anymore! :) I would love to landscape the front and back yard, add in fancy lighting, bring in a variety of attractive and exotic plants (as opposed to the 12 cheap Home Depot floral bushes the seller put in all over the place), add a waterfall/pond in the back, replace all the carpet with hardwood, order all new window coverings (instead of the pink/lavendar honeycombs the seller put in to match the old lavendar carpet we replaced), re-do the kitchen (counters, stove, cabinets, I want to change it all!), paint the house, add in crown moulding....

STOP ME NOW! The more I think about it, the more I want to do. Still, slowly we'll get there. I have 1 room in the whole house that I pretty much like as is: my DD's nursery (though I wish we had hardwood in there with a rug since we all had bad allergies). I'm hopeful I can go through and do one small project (or piece of a project) each year and eventually end up with everything the way I like it.

[shaqangel]

YES!!! ALL THE TIME!!!!

i love watching HGTV and the home improvement shows and have all these ideas in my head about what we can do both on the inside and outside. then i get annoyed and frustrated cos of there's no extra money to get it all done.

we hope to at least paint the house this summer. two years in a row we've planted flowers and had our porch looking nice...only to have birds destroy it all (building their nests, laying eggs and picking the flowers...gggrrrrr) so i dont know if i want to go through that again even though i love having fresh flowers out. my list is endless...

[jimmysgirl424]

DH and I just bought our first home and the list of what we want to do is pretty endless at this point. We can sit and talk for hours about all the things we want to buy, remodel, paint, etc. !

[meggiedarlin]

Well, considering that we've just finished (finally, HOORAY!) having 1 bathroom and the kitchen remodeled and we've only been in this house a couple of months, we still do have a wish list:

We plan to do in the near future:
-replace the driveway
-repair the sofits/gutters on garage
-repair the gutters on the house
-cut down a bunch of pine trees
-put down a patio in the back (re-claim some of the landscaped area)
-add a mantle to the fireplace

Wishlist stuff:
-face-lift the 3-4 season porch (I'd add an electric fireplace)
-Move the garage closer to the house (yeah, like that's going to happen).
-Gut the downstairs bathroom (our original plan was to re-do this bathroom but we're so sick of remodeling, and it's downstairs that it's going to remain as it is.)

But instead of even considering all of the wishlist stuff, we have an opportunity to buy a house for way cheap "up north" and re-hab it either to sell or if no one wants to buy it, for ourselves as a retreat home.

[Kimberland30]

OMG, yes I think about this ALL THE TIME. Our house was built in 1960 and my parents were the second owners (they bought it in 1986). We bought it from them 2 years ago and we're trying to put our own decor/tastes into it. While we've done mostly cosmetic things, if I had the $$ we'd do the following (and probably eventually will as this is our forever home)...

Extend master bedroom out about 10' to make room larger which will also give us enough space to redo our bathroom to make it larger and put in more closet space.

Rip out 1-car driveway (garage was converted into a bedroom) and put in a two car driveway on the side of the house to the back yard. Build a 2-car garage in our backyard to be used mostly for DH's tools and project car. This would allow us to demo the workshop that we now have (10' x 14') that is off our patio.

Vinyl fence our entire backyard (this will cost major $$ as we have a huge lot). Right now we have a 4' chain link fence and a small wood fence between our house and the neighbors for privacy.

Put in an above ground pool with a nice deck off the den. The reason I'd rather have an above ground pool is that if we ever decide to get rid of it, it's much easier and cheaper than having an inground pool filled in. Plus it is thousands cheaper to put in an above ground pool.

Redo the entire layout of the kitchen and laundry room (now separate rooms but they are right next to eachother). This might mean taking some of the space from the 4th bedroom (former garage), but I'm okay with that. We have 3 bedrooms on the other side of the house so the 4th is just an office/gym right now.

Demo the den down to the studs and start over, moving the sliding glass door and door out to the yard, put in a wood burning fireplace, wet bar, and built in cabinets/shelves.

Have all new HVAC duct put in. We have the flexible stuff now and it SUCKS.

Redo all the electrical in the house. We probably only need to upgrade the panel box, but I'd love to have more outdoor electrical outlets.

Redo our front porch to add some 'curb appeal'. I'd love to have it angle up instead of just be flat on top. It's so 'blah'.

[TracyDP]

Oh yes, we have thought a lot about this. These are the things we plan on having done over the next 3 years:

1) new paint/carpet/floors throughout. The existing carpet and kitchen/dining floors are complete crap.

2) Redo bathrooms. Minor work in mine, just new floors, paint and a new vanity. Tub/shower is in good shape. Complete gutting and redo of DH's bathroom, it needs serious help.

3) Paint cabinets in kitchen (nice cabinets, just beat up), new countertops/ sink/stove/floors/lighting

4) Cover the back deck to make a nice patio we can use in the rain.

5) Permanent gazebo over the hot tub instead of the cheezy canopy we have now

6) Enclose the carport to make a real garage.

7) New bedroom furniture and mattresses for master bedroom. DH got to redo his office w/ new stuff so I get to do the bedroom.

8) Fence in side yard so we can get a dog

Things I would do if $$ were not an issue

Replace sliding door off kitchen with french doors

Do both bathrooms in tile a la HGTV

Do kitchen a la HGTV, take out wall to dining room and put in breakfast bar

Put in central heating/air conditioning and heat pump

Total makeover of landscaping and removal of several trees to open up the skyline and let in some sunlight.

[jesseybell]

Definitely!

We've been doing some smaller projects around the house lately, but if I had the money (but not enough money to move out of our townhouse) I would gut our bathroom, upgrade our kitchen and re-do the basement to make a playroom.

Actually I would like to re-paint the whole downstairs and upstairs into the hallway and different shade of white/beige, but I just don't have the energy right now.

A few weeks ago I was sick in bed all weekend and all I could do was stare at all the imperfections in our bedroom (and our bedroom I really like!) - it was annoying.

DH definitely tells me all the time that I watch too much HGTV - I can't help it, I love it!

[rubyredslippers]

My house was built in 1872, and when Ed McMahon brings my check, I have lots of things on my list.

I would like to rewire, replumb, pull down all the 1967 paneling, strip the baseboards and doors of a hundred years of paint, take down the ceiling tiles and the dropped ceiling, replace a few windows and an exterior door, build a big porch out front, pave the drive, build a garage and a garden shed/chicken house. Oh--and I want a hot tub on the east porch.

(I love my house and it is quite liveable and cute--even though it sounds very Green Acres from that fix it list.)

[lil_geek]

All the time!

We live in an 1840's farmhouse... and while we have done A LOT in the last 2 years, they are all things that HAD to be done (umm, hello electrical and insulation!)

No $$ for any of the nice/fun stuff (deck, nice bathroom with newer then 1960's fixtures)

The no $$ does help get some things done (clean up outside and get rid of garbage and stuff - it's a farm - farmers like to keep EVERYTHING even if it is broken)

[WisWis]

Absolutely! We have an old house too (1856) and have already repaired/replaced all of the major systems. What hold is back is really time, not money. We're both pretty handy so we're working out way through our list. The work does take time though which can be frustrating.

In the next year we need to:
Finish fencing in our backyard
Landscape the backyard
Build our deck
Finish our basement (remove plaster, repair bricks, rebuild stairs, add bathroom)
Finish repairing windows
Strip and repaint all of our wood trim
Add gutters

So yeah, hoping to get it all done in the next 12 mos may be a bit unrealistic. We'll see. The sad thing is that we'll get bored and sell it once we've finished our list.

[imagirliegirl]

Definitely!

We bought a new house last August but they put el cheapo carpet in it and my cats have already pulled it up in a place or two. I would really like to replace it with some nice, sturdy carpet.

I also want to put up a fence RIGHT NOW. My stupid neighbors let their kids and dogs use it for their personal enjoyment, which drives me nuts! We are planning to put one in at the end of the year, but I'd really like to do it now now now!!

[phoenics]

Actually, I'm afraid to really sit and think about this, as I blew through so much money last week in Europe. But I DO have a ton of fabu purses to show for it, so nyah.

Okay, okay - I'd get my speck of a back yard terraced, get new lawn furniture, get my whole condo painted and finally finish all of my little decor projects.