This new homeowner's trying to stay afloat

Buying a new home is exciting. So's decorating it. Even moving, while stressful and messy, also comes with a fun sense of anticipation.

But, once the dust settles, there's also an awful lot of work to do. Always. With winter coming, the eaves troughs need cleaning, the lawn needs its final mowing and the roof could use a bit of patching. We also need to buy shovels before the white stuff hits.

And that's on top of the other stuff on our to-do list, like finishing the painting, hanging artwork, installing more shelving units in closets and getting the guest room ready for holiday guests.

Plus, there's all that 'regular' stuff, like cleaning and cooking that really ought to happen.

So, at any given moment, I feel like there's at least a dozen things I should be doing, taking precedence over the things I'd like to do. Mopping the floors or washing dishes will always trump the creative fireplace makeover that I'm dreaming of, or even catching up on some TV. 

And, then there's the unexpected stuff, like our water heater turning our basement into a wading pool earlier this week.

So, this week, this new homeowner is feeling a little bit overwhelmed. OK, really overwhelmed.

But even with my anxiety over everything that needs doing, I still couldn't help but get a little inspired by today's Home Improvements special section, which includes how to figure out the return on your renos, how to green your projects and getting your furnace ready for heating season.

How am I ever going to whittle down my to do list if I keep adding projects? Guess I'll just have to buckle down, keep plugging away, and learn to accept that owning a home means that nothing is ever truly finished.

Our first wet basement

After spending Thanksgiving weekend with my in laws, we returned home Monday ready to tackle the week. While I stocked our fridge with leftovers, Mr. Speedy ran down to the basement to feed Allistair, our bunny, who had been home alone all weekend. All seemed well.

Then Mr. Speedy yelled "We have a problem" followed by silence. I shouted "What?" while wondering whether we'd been robbed or if the bunny had not fared so well flying solo for the weekend. When I still didn't get a response, I dashed downstairs to try to quell my wild imagination.

That's when I saw Mr. Speedy standing in water up over his ankles in the unfinished portion of our basement. What used to be our laundry and storage area had turned into a wading pool.

So, I grabbed some flip flops and started rescuing boxes while we tried to figure out where the water was coming from. A quick investigation showed some telltale bubbling from the water heater, so we quickly phoned the rental company and turned the handle to stop the flow of water from the cold water pipe to the heater.

Repairmen, and a new hot water heater, were on their way (and arrived within hours, thankfully) but, it was a holiday and we still had several inches of water in our basement. And, we had neither a car nor a wet vac.

We called in a favour from a friend with a car, who then did the tour of closed-for-the-holiday hardware stores with Mr. Speedy while I waited for the repairmen. We figured we were out of luck, but thankfully, our friend remembered that his church had a wet vac, and was able to borrow it for us.

The wet vac, along with uncovering a floor drain that had been closed off by a previous owner, helped take our basement from a pool to a puddle.

So, things are looking up. Our shiny new water heater has been installed. The carpet and underpadding that had been down there (which, honestly, we hadn't liked much anyway) has been trucked out to the garage awaiting disposal, the dehumidifier and fans have been working overtime, and the space has had a thorough scrub.

But, sadly, the story isn't over. Last night, while debating whether it was finally dry enough to return all the storage items, which have been cluttering up the finished portion of the basement, Mr. Speedy noticed a small but steady trickle of water streaming down the side of our shiny new tank. Turns out the soldered new connection isn't quite sealed. Argh.

So, they're coming tomorrow to finish patching it up. All in all, we were pretty lucky. No real damage was done to our home, and nothing important got waterlogged. But, it was definitely stressful and perhaps the least fun we've had since moving in. I'm hoping that after tomorrow, and another scrub, my basement will return to its former glory of storage area and laundry room, albeit sans carpeting.

It's fall! Or is it?

While Tuesday may have been the first official day of fall, just over a third of Ontarians (36 per cent) agree that Sept. 22 signals the start of the season, according to a recent survey.

Conducted by Angus Reid on behalf of Direct Energy, the survey found that just under one third (30 per cent) of those interviewed instead felt that the first day of school is also the first day of fall. (A sentiment echoed by 1 in four across Canada).

The survey also found that 81 per cent of Ontarians agreed that the leaves changing colour signalled the start of the fall season. Other rituals that are a sure sign it's autumn? Turning on the furnace, 21 per cent, turning off the air conditioner, 19 per cent, and wearing warmer clothes, 43 per cent. 

So is it fall? Officially yes - but I haven't seen any red leaves or turned on my furnace, so the fall boots and corduroy jacket have yet to make an appearance. 

But, the "official" Sept. 22 date is a good reminder to start your fall home maintenance (see our tips). Yes, I know it's unpleasant, but wouldn't you rather do it now than be stuck freezing waiting for someone to come fix your furnace, while surveying frosted plants and trying to climb your icy ladder to clean out those frozen eavestroughs? Yeah, I thought so.

Direct Energy recommends testing your furnace now to avoid that whole freezing part of my nightmare scenario. Plus, if something is actually wrong, you'll have better luck getting service now than when the first cold snap hits. 

Here are the company's tips to get your house ready for winter:

- Turn on your furnace once every 60 days when you aren't using it. Schedule a maintenance appointment before it gets cold. And clean or replace your furnace filter every two to three months to save money on your heating bill.

- Cover your air conditioner to help ensure it's ship shape come next summer.

- Consider upgrading your old furnace to a new energy efficient unit, which will help cut your bills. There's a new minimum energy performance standard for home gas furnaces rolling out on Dec. 31, requiring 90 per cent efficiency for new purchases. (The regulations don't require homeowners to switch out existing furnaces.)

- Get a home energy audit, which can identify spots to make your home more energy efficient.

- Clean your ducts, which will help your ventilation system operate better and will reduce the amount of dust in the air, improving indoor air quality.

And, if all this winter talk is getting you down, just think about hot chocolate, hot apple cider and cozy sweaters! Doesn't that feel better?

Crashing back to reality

Ah, the joys of being a homeowner. After a blissful week on the East Coast, I returned to Toronto feeling fairly calm, albeit a little bit motion sick from a turbulent flight home.

While I was very, very sad to leave my friends and family (and a wee bit reluctant to return to work), part of me was also happy to be returning to my house, complete with two freshly painted rooms. I was excited about getting back into the painting and decorating projects (hello secondhand shops!), after taking an evening to relax and get back into that Toronto state of mind.

Instead, what greeted me was a slightly overgrown lawn (sadly, my wish that the heat would finally kill the grass was not granted), coated in a week's worth of tossed litter, a stuffed mailbox, two dying (likely to soon be one dead, one maimed) houseplants and a nosy older couple (total strangers, by the way) who stopped by to say that they didn't like the look of our yard because our grass was too long. Not to mention a bunny to be collected, a few surfaces to be dusted, laundry to be washed and luggage to be unpacked. Plus a couple hundred emails, over a thousand blog posts to be caught up on, and a handful of voicemail messages.

But, despite wondering whether I couldn't just go back on an extended vacation (the answer was sadly no), we hunkered down and chipped away at our to-do list. So I'm back, and once we catch up, we'll be back to home improvement projects, rather than just maintaining/cleaning it. 

Responsibility is a drag.

My colour match fail

Sometimes, when working around the house, I try to be clever and limit the amount of work I need to do.

Oftentimes, this results in more work for Mr. Speedy and I.

Case in point: my attempt at colour matching the paint in two of our rooms. We liked the shades used in these rooms when we moved in, and they weren't totally destroyed in the re-wiring.

Being ever the thinker, I decided that if we could just match the colours, we'd only need to repaint two walls (one in the dining room and one in the living room), saving ourselves some work.

We used the colour matching tool at the local hardware store, then tried to match it to paint chips we brought with us. It looked perfect in the store. On the wall, not so much, as you can see here in the dining room.

The colour is close, but we'll definitely have to repaint it all. Same with the living room, too.

I've learned my lesson: any attempts at shortcuts are only going to create more work. And, I've got loads upon loads of painting to do! But, as a bonus, at least Mr. Speedy likes the new colours better than what we had inherited!

These weekend warriors are worn out!

When I left here on Friday, I was both anxiously anticipating and thoroughly dreading a weekend filled with working on my house. I was excited because it was a chance for Mr. Speedy and I to continue to personalize and settle into our new home, as well as get some much-needed maintenance out of the way. I dreaded it because, well, I spend my days in front of a computer (as does Mr. Speedy). Manual labour is more than a little bit out of my realm. Plus, it's often dirty and difficult — so given the choice, I'd opt for brunch and mimosas any day.

But, of course, we want the best for our home. So, we braced ourselves and settled into a weekend of work, complete with four (yep, that's twice a day) trips to the local hardware store. And, it was certainly a busy one!

For starters, despite the bad weather, the garage roof was stripped, with the new shingles going on this coming weekend. I can lay no claim to this accomplishment, barring some moral support and the delivery of food and beer. Much thanks to Mr. Speedy and my father-in-law, both for the hours of hard work and for not falling of the roof.

I was, however, useful in other tasks, I promise! For example, I learned what spline was (beyond being a funny word, it's also the cord material that holds the screen into the frame) and even purchased my very own spline, along with a screen repair kit, which was installed during one of the weekend's many rain storms. Take that insects!

Plus, I replaced the knobs on my wine cabinet. Yes, it's a wee task, but it made a huge difference, taking it from granny-style to contemporary in five minutes flat. Plus, I used wood filler to cover up the extra holes — surely that gives me some DIY cred? Next up are the hall closets, which I'm totally ready to tackle!

I (yes, me, with just a little bit of supervision!) tackled patching the main floor walls, eliminating all those pesky nail and screw holes and moving dings. Then, after a bit of a paint matching mishap (or disaster, if you asked me yesterday. It doesn't match. At all. So I've got to repaint everything anyway. Arrgh), my mother-in-law offered up a lesson on cutting in, and we got the repainting started. Hopefully, we'll get the rooms done soon, so I can share some finished shots! (When I find my camera cord, hopefully tonight, I'll upload the photos of the wine cabinet makeover!)

And, last but not least, the basement was surprisingly transformed from a scary cave to a proper living space, through the very cheap fix of a working overhead light. I'm thrilled that it no longer looks like a place for trolls and spiders to lurk!

So, after two tough days, it was time for takeout and loads of sleep! We're still recovering, but all of those tired muscles should be back in fighting shape in time for round two this weekend!

Channeling my weekend warrior

When Mr. Speedy and I were renters, the rare quiet weekend was dedicated to doing a wee spot of housework paired with a large quantity of brunching, TV-watching and strolling through the shops. It was peaceful and relaxing, if not always particularly productive.

But now that we're new homeowners, things are happening at a slightly less relaxed pace. There's still so much unpacking to do (how on earth did we ever accumulate that much stuff?), along with loads of regular housework and maintenance-type things. It seems the list is ever-growing and never-ending, while my enthusiasm for tackling the items (especially the unpacking) has been steadily waning.

And that's not good. So this weekend, with some (OK, a lot) of help from my in-laws, we're going to get a motivation boost and start tackling that super long list of home tasks that I blogged about last week.

As for prioritizing, thanks for some advice from my Twitter friend @erinmillsliving we decided to rearrange our to-dos to move anything that could get worse (like the garage roof) and inexpensive fixes that could improve our enjoyment of our home, like replacing the faulty light fixture in the basement, to the top of our list.

And, if the weather ever holds, I also hope to start ripping out some of the unattractive, overgrown and undesirable plants from our yard (it may or may not be revenge for that first gardening attempt.)

Seeing as Mr. Speedy and I don't fit into the description of diehard DIYers (or, for that matter, even the "handy" label), it's going to be a stressful and challenging experience, as we pick up our hammers and screwdrivers and try to whip the place into shape.

But I'm going to try to channel the lessons Toolgirl taught me, and hopefully, I'll have stunning success stories to share with you next week, instead of tales of injuries and woe. Wish us luck!

I'm getting handy! (Sort of)

I like to believe that I have a few talents. I can skate pretty well. I make decent cookies. I can simultaneously type up a blog, share thoughts on Twitter, read and reply to emails and keep an eye on my website.

But, arm me with a paintbrush or hammer and I might be in a spot of trouble. I wouldn't call myself helpless, I'm just lacking in confidence — and tentative doesn't really cut it when you're tackling repairs around the house.

Luckily, I had the chance to hang out with ToolGirl Mag Ruffman (check out her website for loads of great home repair tips and how-tos) earlier this week for a confidence boosting session. 

With her help, I learned how to handle my plaster-mucked up outlets. In the kitchen, the light switch and outlet were hanging a few inches out of the wall, and the screw holes were all slimed over, making fitting them back in a little tricky. So, we'd been giving that area a wide berth.

But, after turning off the power, of course, Mag helped me use a screwdriver and a hammer to chip away the mess and uncover the box. With cautious, almost dainty tapping, I made slow progress.

My first attempt resulted in a rather crooked alignment of the switch and outlet, then a bit of embarrassment when I had to admit that I didn't own a level, but with the help of a handy iPhone app we got it squared away. And, I learned to leave the screw lines vertical, helping them fade into the background.

A small job? Definitely. But I'd been wary to tackle it, partly out of fear of all things electrical (hey - I just bought the house, I don't want to be the one who burns it down!) and now I feel confident enough to tackle the rest of the hanging out outlets (and maybe some other projects around the house), and even teach Mr. Speedy my mad new skills!

(Shutterstock photo illustration)

A renovation confession

As Mr. Speedy and I move forward on redecorating and settling into our new home, I feel like I need to make a confession:

I am a lousy painter.

The only thing I've ever painted is the exterior of a barn in my parent's backyard. And, a few weeks after that paint job, an enormous tree fell on it. It landed dead centre and flattened the thing — but, I must say, the walls still looked nice.

Fast-forward a few years and I'm now trying to prime all of the many patched holes in my house.

My combination of inexperience and a slight perfectionist tendency may be making it tougher. Mr. Speedy reassures me that small visible brush strokes and the slightest of bumps can be easily sanded away, but I still feel guilty, as though I'm making the house less pretty.

I also feel slightly like I'm failing. After all, all the decor mags say anyone can paint, and I can't be that much more inept than the majority of the population, right?

So, here's hoping that practice makes perfect. I've got a lot of spots to cover, then walls and ceilings to repaint (with the help of Mr. Speedy, of course, who is thankfully more able than I — and he's got the benefit of a long reach for all those tough spots) and I can't keep spending half an hour on a small one-by-one foot spot (or let my perceived failures on that spot keep me up at night).

This weekend, we'll be tackling the remaining primer spots and then we'll try to banish all that persistent drywall dust. Keep your fingers crossed that this prepares me for the real deal — painting with colour — in a few weeks!

(Shutterstock image)

Pushing my way to a well-kept lawn

Thanks to all the rain we've had lately, the combination of (mostly) weeds and grass that I call my lawn has been growing like crazy. And, because Mr. Speedy and I have never had a yard of any sort before, we had to buy a mower.

After some discussion, we decided to join the trend and go for a reel mower. (Read more about reel mowers currently on the market). We wouldn't need to worry about plugging in - a challenge on our odd shaped lot - or worse yet, struggling with schlepping home fuel (we don't have a car) for a gas mower. It would be eco-friendly and quiet. And it would give us some extra exercise.

So, we went shopping. While I've previously written about the fab Brill model, its $265 price tag was a little over our just-bought-a-house budget. So, we went with a cheaper, but still easy to push, model from Scott's.

We've mowed the lawn several times now with it, and it seems like every time we have, some kind neighbour has offered us the use of their powered mower! I don't know if we look like we're struggling, but people do seem to take pity on us!

But, all in all, it's not so bad. Our yard is fairly small and can be done in a few passes. You do need to move at a decent clip, and reel mowers seem to have a knack for passing over long weeds, which bend over and evade the blades. It seems like no matter how many times you push the mower back and forth over it, that one straggler in the middle of the lawn just won't die. It's more efficient to just pull it out.

Our yard also has a few very uneven patches, and the mower will sometimes bottom out on the hilly bits. I'm very glad that we went with a model that has wheels in the back, in addition to those by the reel, to help keep it a little more stable and make it easier to push.

And, finally, we've learned if you are going with a push mower, you've got to keep it short. These things just can't handle super long grass, so we've been careful to take ours out for a walk about once a week.

I like our push mower, and I'm still happy with our decision to go the eco-friendly route - though I don't know if I would try it on a larger, less flat lawn. And, as an added bonus, all the sympathy has helped us to meet our new neighbours!