Lots roof first want a metal one...then the bathroom and kitchen remodeled....Stacy

Kitchen!!!!! It's so closed off from the rest of the house, and when we entertain, I feel "left out" ... and it's not condusive to having more than one person in there.

Mainly, the improvement I've been envisioning is buying our retirement home. Interestingly, we've found one that's so perfect, I can't find anything in it that needs improvement (we're taking a second look tomorrow, then deciding what kind of offer to put in). And yes, honestly? It's thanks to the inheritance my mom left me that we're in a position to buy our 'dream' home while keeping our current house for the next year or so, until DH is ready to retire.

As to this one? All I plan to do to it is slap a little paint on here and there, and let the next owners have the pleasure of making improvements that suit them--LOL.

Tenting for termites!! We have to have this done,and i even hate the thoughts of it.There is sooooooooooooooooo much work in the prep for it,and then coming back in a few days later and having to undo all that prep work.I want the Termite Fairies to come in and do all this.

If you live in S.Calif you probably have termites.

A Funny of sorts:

After the wildfires last Oct,some guy put a big sign up in his yard that said"Finally,no more Termites"!!!!.
Kathi

I'd just like to have mine paid for "again"...It was paid off when we moved in here...And I'd like to have it finished...all the wood work and trim and closet doors.

Plus I'd like to have a craft/storage room built on the back.

But unless we hit the lottery...it'll never happen.

patti

My bathroom, the kitchen, replace the carpet with wood, maybe the kids bathroom, and I want to install organizers in my closet.

Definitely kitchen, old bathroom, then get new carpet and furniture.

DH and I want to add on a small room (sort of a sunroom) where our deck is now. It will be a while tough ... now that DD is in college.

Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on how you look at it), we had bad hail damage both to our roof and our vinyl siding a few years ago .. so both got replaced by the insurance company. So we won't have to worry about those for awhile.

Well 3 and a half years ago we upgraded the bathroom and the kitchen...But we need to replace the siding, do a new roof, upgrade the septic and if that got done, add a second bathroom, another bedroom and family room.

Add a second bathroom! Definitely.

A new home!!
We had planned to build and then Jammer had a heart attack and then my medical problems. So everything has been put on hold. Our home is paid for, but old and needs work. It would be cheaper to build new than repair old.

new roof...new flooring throughout the house...finish the bathroom in the basement...lots more but this is off the top of my thinkin cap!

Master bath floor support needs work--slow leak in shower enclosure rotted the support. Also need to rip out and replace the patio and sidewalk along one side of the house. Redo the yard, sprinklers, amend soil, sod, replant. Sighhhhh.

I need to buy a home first. Does that count? Lol-

Trish

Add a dining room off the kitchen. We have a smallish eat-in kitchen and can barely hold 6 people comfortably. We entertain more when the warmer weather permits entertaining out on the deck. Not a big dining room or it would look odd on our modest home, just enough for a table that holds 8-10 and a buffet, around 10x10/12 feet.

Remove carpets and replace with hardwood floors.
Granite counter tops for kitchen.

I would love for Candice Olsen to remodel my basement and the basement bathroom. I love everything she does!

We're getting hardwood floors next month and maybe some outdoor lighting for the patio area, but that's about it for this house. We know this isn't a forever house and we don't want to put too many improvements into it. We are doing the hardwoods now because we are so hard on carpet.

If we planned to live here longer, I would want a half bathroom upstairs, a nicer front door, French doors for the playoom/formal dining room, new light fixtures and something besides the tile on the counters although I don't care for granite.

wow, I would have lots!! First, would be my kitchen!! Think 70's dark ugly cabinets, white tile counter tops, (cracked in spots) and vinyl floor!! Gross. I would also do wood floors, new front bathroom, oh, and the outside, don't even get me started!! LOL!!

I'd like to get my basement finished off. At least 1/2 of it, where I could make a couple of more bedrooms.
Leslie

Every year we have done a little home improvement. Last year we redid the Kitchen and bathroom. I would have liked to enlarge both but that wasn't possible. The year before we re shingled the house, and when we moved in we sided all the house and trim. Also the next year we took off our porch and added an entry room and made it into a spare bed room are with a futon. This year with the new baby we are moving all the rooms around and are putting in an office and craft room in the basement. The babies will be in the office, the toy room will move to the girls room and the girls will move downstairs. Dan's office is going downstairs.

But if I could do anything it would be to take off the garage and move the garage up to meet the front of the house and add a family rec room there with a loft for a master bed room and at least one more bathroom. With 6 people and one bathroom things will be tight in the years to come.

Stacie
girlsingardens

I would rather just move, but...

Rewire the house, current stuff ir knob-n-tube
Add insulation
Replace the goofy dishwasher
Redo the bathroom- it refuses to flush with anything but "sandpaper tolietpaper" and even then it will only take one piece at a time!

Complete kitchen remodel - probably doing it in the spring of 2009.

Garage organization/new garage floor.

~Carol~

Kitchen, new furnace and Central Air. I cross my fingers every year when we start either up for the season! My kitchen ought to be gutted!
I need to win a lottery!

Windows that open! My house is a long L-shaped ranch. The part of the house with the living room, dining room and kitchen has enormous picture windows that don't open! And they face south! It's awful! No matter how cool it is outside in the evening, it is hot as he** in that part of the house. Daytimes are impossible no matter how tightly we draw the drapes. We have central air, but oh, how nice it would be to be able to open the windows!

Sherry

Thre years ago, we completely gutted our 1950's bathroom and put in everything new, plus some minor updates in our kitchen, some new cabinets and a new floor to replace the "Place and press" square tiles I put in myself in 1982. I would like two additional windows in my family room. And I would like to build a porch and pergola outside my front door. We should be getting $1200, it won't go very far!

I'd tear out this stupid fire place that we never use and that sticks out into the room taking up space. I would just have a plain wall there.

Linda

Bulldoze the house and start over! We bought the place because my DH loved the land it was on which we have even made more beautiful. The house has bugged me for 22 years because the rooms are so small. It doesn't have the best floor plan, the house is a long narrow rectangle. That makes it hard to arrange furniture in because of it. And it is located in the wrong place on the acreage. The previous owner/builder was a cheap b@$%^*d and put the house right at the SE corner so he wouldn't have to pay that much to run wires or pipes from the street. I would have put it in the middle of the 2.5 acres so that it had more privacy. We have worked for 22 years to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. We are still trying and probably will for the rest of our lives here.
Clare

What I want is a new enlarged kitchen and new flooring.

What I need and will be paying for this year is a new roof.

First I would like to get central AC but it would cost $7,400.
Then I would like to get my back yard fenced so Jake couldn't get out.
Next I would like all new windows.
Also, would like to replace carpet in both bedrooms and the living room but don't know if I would replace with laminate or carpet. Laminate is easy care, carpet is warmer.

I like my house pretty much the way it is but I wouldn't mind having some major landscaping done out front and back. I would also get my hardwood floors refinished and some new furniture.

Anne

New kitchen cabinets, hardwood floors all over the house, new master bedroom and bath - that all would help! LOL

Finish the bathroom which was started in November. Do the bedrooms which have been waiting 18 years. Redo the kitchen...new cabinets and appliances. Replace the washer and dryer. Need I say that this was a S###shack when we bought it, but we love the piece of land and the neighbors.

Our next three projects are to renovate the main floor bathroom, replace the patio, and replace the siding.

New kitchen and bathroom cabinets and hardware.

New carpet.

Refinish wood floor.

I like my house for the most part.. I would love all new landscaping also.. it's dated and really needs a new look.. not to mention I don't have much on the sides/back. My master bedroom really needs a total makeover, the wallpaper is 17 years old and we have popcorn ceilings in there....It needs a total redo.. walls/carpet/ceiling/bedding/curtains.

We also need new central air, it's probably over 25 years old and if it goes not sure what we will do, not in a position to pay for a new one.

So.. put me down for landscaping, B/R makeover and central air, think I'll buy a lottery ticket today :)

Lot of things! I would take the sunroom off and add about 6 or 7 feet to the entire back of the house, making my bedroom, both bathrooms and the kitchen bigger. I would make a little cozy sitting room/den/sunroom area off the kitchen. Completely redo the kitchen and add a little bigger dining area.

I bought tile flooring for the bathrooms that never got put in so that would have to be done, actually the baths need to be redone, they aren't horrible but I can't stand fiberglass tubs. If I had the money I would put in real porcelin. I'd put in Pergo all through the house and get rid of the carpet. I only have it in the kitchen right now.

I don't really care about granite counters to I'd just put in some nice looking Corian or laminate in both baths and kitchen.

Then I'd put in a brick patio area out back with raised bed gardens for my vegetables. I'd then have a landscaper come in and fix my existing beds, making a Japanese style garden out front, complete with koi pond (that I would hire someone else to take care of-LOL!) with the little bridge over, etc...( : I'd also have a couple dwarf fruit trees put out on the side yard: apple and cherry. Take out the pear tree out front and put in a big Sugar Maple.

The only change I would make to my house would be to raise the patio floor up to house level and then enclose it. Open up the wall of the family room so that it would encompass the patio. The rest of our house we had redone a few years ago and I really like it. When we redid the interior I also had the outside done front and back. Right now we are having a 6' block wall put all around our backyard. Then I will have whatever is left with rock done with pavers to match the rest of the yard. Going to have another large planter put in behind the garage and have a drip system put in to water all the plants. This will be finished in the next couple of weeks.

Build a storage room in the attic: there are pieces of plywood lying over the insulation, now, around the pull-down stair.

As there are unplaned 2" x 4" (or slightly larger) joists there now, we'd need to add another 4" at least ... 8" would be better, to accomodate 12" of insulation, as we ned R-40 in this area. But that'd have the effect of moving the rafters down 8", so we'd need to have only pygmies go up there ... or shrink the width of the room to about 2' if we'd like the ceiling anywhere near 6', or are we willing to have walls about 2' high?

So if the joists are only about 8", we really should insulate up the walls and between the about 4" rafters, as well.

Too bad they hadn't built a hip roof on the house.

ole joyful

I'd add:

a large third bedroom with huge his and hers closets
a second bathroom with separate tub and shower
a studio above the garage
and
a professionally landscaped backyard with one of those brick 'outdoor kitchens'

well after a few yrs off from home improvement we're getting back into it while i got DH not working and just going to college lol. in order of importance all to be done in 2008, DH isn't doing any of this list but needs to be here to supervise:

huge 50+ tall dying tree out
new roof
new gutters
new exterior windows
new coat of exterior paint
new landscape
paver driveway 2009
new kitchen & 2 baths 2009

this doesn't include all the interior work this month DH is doing which is tearing out carpeting in 2 guest/office rooms & putting in bamboo flooring. repainting my office/guest room. getting trim up in every room inside house. while i got free labor i'm gonna work him LOL. our house needs to be ready to sell as soon as he finishes school incase we need to move fast. luckily i bought very low, haven't touched any equity, can afford to pay out of pocket and even after all this improvement i'll still have the downpayment for the next house ~ liz

Gee, I thought my "needs" were just wants, but I read everyone's lists here, I really think I need some of these things - roof (in about a year or two for now), siding of some sort or paint (deparately). Don't want to list too much because I don't have the moola so I'm not going to claim those ill-fortunes. But, if I could have my wants - enclose the patio so I could excercise (yeah, right), french doors in the LR leading to a new deck, and most importantly, A GARAGE!!!! The previous owners turned the garage into a family room - which I appreciate. But I still want the garage. It's COLD in the December, January and February!!