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The House

Our house was built in 1963 as one of the first three houses on the block. The original house was all brick, but an addition was added to the back which has siding on it. There is a full concrete walk-in basement. The upstairs is built into the roof peak, which is steeply sloped on the front side and relatively flat on the back of the house. Therefore, the ceilings slope in upstairs and we have an attic crawlspace between the walls and the eves of the roof. We are in a quiet older neighborhood near Blacksburg High School. We have just over one acre of land, all grass with a lot of trees and there are full blown woods behind us. They've just recently built a very expensive looking home up on the hill behind us. We hope that person bought all the land so others cannot build directly behind us.

Projects

There are a lot of things we would like to do with the house, as we get time and money.

Floors

When we moved into the house there was carpet everywhere. Pink in one downstairs bedroom and brown shag in the other! However, when we pulled up the carpet there was relatively intact hardwood floors underneath. During Thanksgiving 2003 mom and dad Sedlak came down to visit and help sand the floors. It took another two weeks to apply the finish, sanding between coats. Below are two pictures before the sanding and a shot of the final floor. We did this in two bedrooms and the dining room. There are two more sections of hallway we didn't get to. One is from the kitchen to the bedrooms downstairs and the other is from the kitchen to the front door. Apparently the stairs going to the second floor also have hardwood, but we haven't checked.

Painting

After finishing the floors, we are painting the two downstairs bedrooms and the dining room. We already have the paint and equipment, it's just a matter of washing the walls and doing the work. So far the dining room painting is done. It's not that much of a change, just a little more of a tan color rather than plain white.

Tile

The tile in our bathrooms is in fair shape but it wouldn't hurt to get a nicer color and tile floor to ceiling in the showers. Also, the upstairs bathroom has a floor made of 1" tiles, while the downstairs bathroom has carpet. Both of these would also be dealt with when we remodel. Both showers have glass doors that Lisa would also like to remove, which would require the tile to be repaired anyway.

Kitchen

We've got a nice sized kitchen with a lot of counter space. The stove is a brand new flat top, but the rest of the appliances are pretty old. The fridge is ancient and we lack a garbage disposal. Disposals are cheap but we also need a new circuit and switch installed for it, which complicates things. The counter top is, well, a hideous tan and brownish-green flecked laminate. Once you put a lot of stuff on it things aren't as bad, but still...

Roof

The roof will be getting near the end of it's useful life in five or so years. Unfortunately, the last two times it was done, they decided to leave the old shingles on, so there are currently three layers, all of which will need to be removed.

Windows

The windows in the house are definitely old. At least we don't have to worry about radon due to the drafts. :) The roof and the windows are probably the two major items that will have to be done, the others are optional.

The Sedlaks