Update on our Phase II…We were planning on doing a brick patio and walk to our detached garage, along with additional landscaping this spring. Here’s the thing - we have an amazing covered front porch and screened in sunporch in the back. I’m bug phobic and can’t really see ourselves using the patio for eating over the sunporch. We do have an existing concrete patio that is in fairly good condition, just isn’t the prettiest. After much debate we have decided to scrap the new patio for at least this year and see how it goes without it.
Exterior Plan B is to spruce up the existing patio with a large outdoor rug, utilize our existing outdoor love seat and fire pit table, some bamboo screens to hide the utility panels, and large planters. There is a secondary, adjacent, existing patio large enough for our bistro table. We will put down large paving stones as our pathway to the garage and focus on adding landscaping - trees and evergreens. We’re moving our two large comfy outdoor chairs and ottoman to the front porch, and I’m refinishing an older table to make an additional seating area in a “destination” garden space.
The way I envision utilizing the exterior is pre-dinner drinks on the front porch, exterior patio for relaxing while grilling, and dinners on the screened in sunporch. Plan B saves us close to $15K and with all the quirky things with this older house, I’d rather have that money in reserve in case something else goes wrong. If Plan B works out OK, we will probably use that money to convert the screened in porch to a four season room sometime down the road. If not, then we’ll move forward with the brick patio.
I’m just hoping the vision comes out as well as what I have sketched!
@momofsenior1 - Are you on town sewers or have a septic system? In our town, everyone has septic, and you have to be careful when adding rooms or converting something to four-season use, because it can trigger a requirement to expand the septic system. When we added an enclosed porch, it could only be three-season because of that.
Were you planning on jacking out the current cement patio? If it’s in good shape, maybe you can veneer over it with something better looking, and save some money that way.
The “problem” with the current patio is it isn’t in the best location. Originally the house had a back door that led up 1/2 a flight to the old kitchen and down 1/2 a flight to the basement right off the existing patio. When we redid the kitchen, we relocated those stairs, and eliminated that back door. Now we access the backyard through the sunporch. When we met with the landscape designers, both said the ideal spot for a patio was elsewhere in the yard (which we agree), so the plan was to take out the cement patio. I’d rather not do a more major facelift if it’s going to come out in a year or two.
We didn’t consider the patio issue when eliminating that back door because we thought we’d be ripping it out for sure. Funny how things change when you live in the house for a while!
@notrichenough - thanks for the info about wayfair. I had looked at that site before and identified a few vanities thagt I liked, but generally was nervous about ordering something like this online - sight unseen. It’s good to know that you had a good experience with them. Also, good point on the size of the vanity - we might be better off with a 54 inch one if we have exactly 60 inches there.
@mathmom - Bertch is one of the brands carried by our local bath showroom. They have some nice vanities and I do like the one with the open shelf at the bottom.
Just have to decide and order one. Hate it when I ask H for his opinion and I get the “whatever you want is ok with me” answer!
@arisamp - We are pleased with the vanities we got. They seem to be good quality, and the delivery experience was great - they called from the truck about 30 minutes before they got there, and carried them inside. Not sure if they provide unpacking, I wasn’t ready to install them so I left them in the boxes. The packaging was excellent, and very protective.
Their prices were pretty good, compared to what we were seeing in the showrooms.
Thanks for the feedback on the vessel sink. Always good to hear this kind of information.
Funny how some locations/cities/communities have septic load based on number of bedrooms - but it makes sense with figuring amount of bedrooms and water use. I guess they find number of bathrooms isn’t as good a measure. Watching Love it or List It had several people with this dilemma with adding a guest bedroom - one was going on sewer from septic, so they could have the couch be a pull out for guest room. Our home was built with a very ample and good working septic system - and since we are in the south we don’t have an issue about bacteria in the system dying out with cold weather (and we hardly have anything go down the garbage disposal) - we have never had to ‘pump out’ our septic system - the field area evidently works great. Our 4 BR/3BA home has never had more than 4 people living here, and guests are very short term.
We have a custom shop that has pretty reasonable prices for replacing our master vanity. But for many with their need - IKEA, Wayfair, etc has lots of good options.
I agree with momofsenior1 regarding vessel sinks. Especially those sinks which are wider at the top versus the bottom. You lose counter space on the sides of the sink.
@momofsenior1, I see nothing wrong with your Phase2 plan.
I’m on Phase6, which will be the the last phase of of my whole house reno (we started in 13 years ago.) I am adding a blue stone patio off my deck this spring.
We always joke that by the time we finally finish we will have to start all over again.
Having a second bathroom doesn’t make you go to the bathroom more often, and use more water. Having an extra bedroom means more people can live there, which will use more water.
In my state, septic systems are generally sized by the number of bedrooms, but the number of rooms also factors in, so that you can’t claim you have only 2 BRs in a 12 room house (for example), and be able to put in a smaller, cheaper system that is inadequate.
You risk failure of your leach field by not pumping out the tank every 3-5 years.
If the solids in the tank build up to the point that they can go down the pipe to the d-box and/or leach field, the field pipes and gravel can get clogged, which can cause the fluids to rise to surface.
How long have you been in this house? If it’s been more than five years since getting the tank pumped out, you are on borrowed time, IMO.
We built our home 26 years ago…and our contractor was an older guy who had the right connection with getting this septic system right. I think we have a big system that works very well. And we are a small family (only 2 in the house now). Our washer/laundry has a separate drain system so doesn’t go into septic. Our back yard is a very good sized area for the leach field.
I have a friend that was on a smaller property and she put lots of stuff down the garbage disposal. She had field failure. I suspect the septic system was put in with minimal requirements and her garbage disposal habits was a big stress.
I do know of people in our area needing their septic tank pumped - which could be like you say, heavy use and needing it pumped. One big area of nearby city had a whole area that they had sewer lines put in due to the septic areas leaching into water ways. Our city actually proposed sewer lines, but our neighborhood likes their good working septic systems.
We are in the south. I doubt that our septic tank ever has any ‘stress’ nor our field lines due to size of the house and low number of occupants…
We lived for 10 years on our prior septic, used the garbage disposal and never pumped it. The laundry did not go into it, either.
But now we are on a biofilter septic system, expensive and particular so we are super careful.
If it fails, you won’t be able to fix it by pumping it out, at that point you will need a new leach field.
Just my opinion, but septic systems aren’t meant to be completely zero-maintenance. I’ve had neighbors that have had to replace their systems, it costs around $20K. We’ve been very careful with what we put down the drain and pumped it out regularly, my system is now over 50 years old and just passed the state Title V inspection. YMMV, I guess.
“We are in the south. I doubt that our septic tank ever has any ‘stress’ nor our field lines due to size of the house and low number of occupants.”
so I have to ask, for the future, how far are you from the ocean?
because, the closer to the ocean, the sooner your septic system will fail, due to rising sea levels.
It really depends on the type of the septic. There are some robust designs and some that are very finicky, like sand filter. Ours was a 2 giant holding tanks and pump up drainfield. In our 18 years at the house, we only pumped it once. We had a maintainer come out every now and then to check it and send a OK report to the country. The pump out was when we were selling the house. Did not want to leave a crappy situation for the new buyers. If there is not much cellulose going down the septic, there will be little sediment.
Boy, lots of good discussion. Helpful to us if we ever consider another property with septic system.
My friend who had a marginal system and put lots of stuff down her garbage disposal, did have more than just pumping out the holding tank. It was thousands of dollars.
Most others I know of, they just needed the sludge pumped out.
I very much doubt that we will even have to have the holding tank pumped out when we sell the house as long as all is functioning great. Based on what I know about buying and selling homes here.
I do think that once our subdivision gets old enough where people may need to invest in septic system re-work/replacement, enough will want to tie into city sewer system, which the city is willing to have us go in with a stated cost per house. Once a majority of the neighborhood wants it, it goes in, but I do think one will have a choice to still tie in or not. The city has recently put out feelers about our neighborhood wanting sewer lines.
The neighboring city had a bunch of homes that were 50/60 years old and the whole area had problems causing ground water issues, so all the homes got sewer lines and each home had to tie in. Public health issue.
We are currently on a sewer, but I still don’t use garbage disposal. Never had a clogged sink in our 20 years without a garbage disposal. Our county requires annual inspections of septic systems with a garbage disposal. If you don’t have one, it needs to be once in three years. No way I would go through the hassle of calling a maintainer every year and then wait for them to show up… so we opted out for no disposal.
New Year, new improvement project ideas! We realized that our living room lacks a major feature - a fireplace. Luckily, there is a flat, long wall that now has a row of countertop high cabinets with a limestone top (ugh, the prior owner must have hit a limestone fire sale as it was everywhere in this house!). We think it can be turned into a direct vent fireplace wall with a couple of cabinets on both sides. $$$$ yikes. But the good news is that Mr. is no longer hot about the stupid Tesla roof. Major $$$ savings there.
So… new this year:
Electric Mirror x 2 MB install
Reface the cabinets in MB (shhhh… Mr. does not know about this!!)
Remove the crap prior owners left in the yard and terrace the slope. Spruce up the landscaping.
Redo guest bath!
New fireplace in the living room.
Maybe… get a new boiler. Depends on what the boiler maintenance dude says next week. This will be the worst… it will require a permit and city poking around our house. Ugh.
