Lots to Do!

My 30+ year old rancher-style house fits right in with the age of its occupants and the easy going neighbourhood. It's nothing fancy, but it's my home and has some great opportunities for improvement.

Some of the main challenges are a massively sloping yard, decaying wooden steps outside, a rotten carport post or two, old paint, old paint and more old paint. There's also a large unfinished basement.. two floors down from the street level. I have stairs coming out my ears and a maze of landings and steps in the back - but at least I've got lots of floorspace to work with.

As I poked around the Internet I didn't find much help for various home improvement concepts. Sure they are there, but most tended to assume too much prior knowledge.

For example, one of my first projects was to separate a playroom from my home office. I found a bit of information about how to hang a door (complete with confusing lingo) and I found details for building a door frame - but next to nothing about building a small wall, door frame and how to install a pre-hung door.

Between the bits and pieces I learned online and at the library, I managed to get the job done and it felt a lot simpler than other sites made it seem. So this blog will chronicle these little tasks in case it offers some hope for other intimidated homeowners who need to get comfortable smashing a wall, slapping up a door or blasting nail through a piece of lumber.

More on the above example in my next post as I describe how I learned to frame in a new door in a previously vacant spot.