Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Herring House Updates: March - Dec 2011


Herring House - ah the place where we all live, and lately, where we all work.

In an effort to actually update the house and repair some items in the house, we have been busy working in this house that we love.

Since we have kids and dogs, we are not to the point where we are ready for a living area overhaul. So, to make the downstairs a little more exciting, we threw in some new rugs! It gave the room a little more plushness that we all needed. We will see show long we can keep the dog fuzz off the floors, but I am betting on `not long`. :)





Then we had The Great Oven Failure of 2011! This means, that the oven we had, a GE Profile, just failed on us. These are the types of occasions where you get to go back in time and see what previous owners did. Well, we got to see the 27" Drop-in oven we had was hard wired to a breaker. Then, we got to see the "handy work" that one person previously can do with a hammer to dry wall.

We attempted to fix the model we had - no dice. They quit making parts for out model. We attempted to buy a updated replacement... but they were about two times more expensive, with less features, than the equivalent free standing models. Ugh. In all, to be efficient as possible, we cut out the drop-in space, moved the counters down, removed the HULKING microwave hood for just a hood.

To replace these items, we got a free standing convection Oven, a good residential BROAN hood (connected to the exterior vent, mind you), and a free standing 1.1 cu inch microwave. In all, the same cost for all that work as just getting a terrible 27" updated model replacement for the oven we didn't like to begin with.



Also on the list was some "updating" of the house. Stacy and I are not really fans of gold. I am sure in the pantheon of house updates, they all go from Gold --> Antique --> Silver/Brushed Steel and back again in the span of 40-50 years. However, it was our houses' time for less gold, and more silver/Antique. To keep our house spruced up, but without breaking the kids piggy banks', we just updated some light fixtures, light switch panels, electrical box plates, and put CFLs all through out the house. Also, since we had a ceiling fan fail, we replaced it with a Westminster unit, and it is really a quality piece. I think we were both surprised at the great construction and quality. I highly recommend looking at their fans, which can be found at our new favorite store (that I should buy some stock in), Lowes.



The Herring Family has some more painting and HUGE projects on the horizon. Of them, we will be getting City Sewer and Water around May, so wish us luck! After that, only one more BIG project (Heat pump) and then some more niggly projects I have wanted to do for a while (replace rotting wood/masonite on the house).

Let's see if I can keep this updated, and let you see the progress!

- Dad

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

Thanks for all the updates on the girls & house! We are doing a lot of the same house updates that you are it sounds like...in with the brushed silver out with the gold I say!!