Macneil
Well-known member
Hey guys!
Long time reader here.
First, let me introduce myself. My wife and I are in our early thirties and we (finally) have purchased our dream home!
We’d bought an older bungalow built in the late 50s that, at the time we were quite content with living there for 10+ years. It had no garage and a very old kitchen. The rest of the house had been updated here and there throughout the years.
First on the list before even moving in completely was the reno the kitchen, add a door to the fenced in back yard and build a deck. Got all of that done and a few short months after, we had our first kid.
After the little guy was born, we started becoming more annoyed (and more conscious of our money) about the neighbourhood. It was a nice area but the road was quite busy. It had two schools at either end so other than normal school traffic, who’d have thought it was going to be as busy as it was after hours.
We continued on with renos here and there and had contemplated building a 24x24 garage countless times. Was spending the ~$40,000 going to be worth it? Yes and no is what we had decided.
We decided to quit putting time and larger amounts of money into the house and began shopping around for somewhere else to call home.
A few years had gone by and nothing had really piqued our interest until one day I stumbled across a home. It had the layout we wanted, a nice kitchen, a large all gravel driveway and back yard with room to build a 30x30 and it had an attached garage!
We quickly got our ducks in a row and put an offer in the house. We had a small bidding war but came out the winner. Next, we had to sell our home! Quickly crossed all of our T’s and dotted our I’s and listed. We had a bidding war on ours and ended up getting $13,000 over asking. Perfect!
Prior to us buying/selling and moving, I left the automotive mechanic trade and went back to working heavy equipment as a field/underground mechanic. I had all of my mechanics tools sitting in the shed at the old house begging for a place to be used again.
We’ve since moved in and gotten the place somewhat under control. I’ve had some time to move stuff around the garage and organize some stuff around a few times.
The previous owner had a small work bench that wasn’t very well constructed and had an old counter top for the top of it. It was damaged and not very appealing for me to use. Went to the hardware store and bought a 3/8” 4x8’ plywood and cut it in half to use as a new top. Added some extra bracing and got it as squared up as I possibly could without completely having to rebuild it.
The next thing on the list is to get some better lighting in there!
Having worked in shops with access to a hoist was a god send because I was getting tired, and mostly annoyed with having to do work in a gravel driveway. We are in northern Ontario, Canada. That means I was not quite able to do any big and exciting jobs at home because..well; we only have a few months of decent weather and I’d rather be out fishing and in the back yard with our family. Finally having a place to call mine is nice. My wife and I can finally take a deep breathe knowing that our hard work and penny pinching has finally benefitted us, even though some times we thought we were insane or wasting our time.
Here are a few pictures of the place. It’s nothing to write home about compared to some other places on this board, but we’re happy!
Other than maintenance (I drive an old 09 Kia Rio5) and on my wife’s ‘19 SUV, I plan on ripping the front end off of my 98 ranger that I bought of my dad a year ago and doing a solid axle swap to it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Long time reader here.
First, let me introduce myself. My wife and I are in our early thirties and we (finally) have purchased our dream home!
We’d bought an older bungalow built in the late 50s that, at the time we were quite content with living there for 10+ years. It had no garage and a very old kitchen. The rest of the house had been updated here and there throughout the years.
First on the list before even moving in completely was the reno the kitchen, add a door to the fenced in back yard and build a deck. Got all of that done and a few short months after, we had our first kid.
After the little guy was born, we started becoming more annoyed (and more conscious of our money) about the neighbourhood. It was a nice area but the road was quite busy. It had two schools at either end so other than normal school traffic, who’d have thought it was going to be as busy as it was after hours.
We continued on with renos here and there and had contemplated building a 24x24 garage countless times. Was spending the ~$40,000 going to be worth it? Yes and no is what we had decided.
We decided to quit putting time and larger amounts of money into the house and began shopping around for somewhere else to call home.
A few years had gone by and nothing had really piqued our interest until one day I stumbled across a home. It had the layout we wanted, a nice kitchen, a large all gravel driveway and back yard with room to build a 30x30 and it had an attached garage!
We quickly got our ducks in a row and put an offer in the house. We had a small bidding war but came out the winner. Next, we had to sell our home! Quickly crossed all of our T’s and dotted our I’s and listed. We had a bidding war on ours and ended up getting $13,000 over asking. Perfect!
Prior to us buying/selling and moving, I left the automotive mechanic trade and went back to working heavy equipment as a field/underground mechanic. I had all of my mechanics tools sitting in the shed at the old house begging for a place to be used again.
We’ve since moved in and gotten the place somewhat under control. I’ve had some time to move stuff around the garage and organize some stuff around a few times.
The previous owner had a small work bench that wasn’t very well constructed and had an old counter top for the top of it. It was damaged and not very appealing for me to use. Went to the hardware store and bought a 3/8” 4x8’ plywood and cut it in half to use as a new top. Added some extra bracing and got it as squared up as I possibly could without completely having to rebuild it.
The next thing on the list is to get some better lighting in there!
Having worked in shops with access to a hoist was a god send because I was getting tired, and mostly annoyed with having to do work in a gravel driveway. We are in northern Ontario, Canada. That means I was not quite able to do any big and exciting jobs at home because..well; we only have a few months of decent weather and I’d rather be out fishing and in the back yard with our family. Finally having a place to call mine is nice. My wife and I can finally take a deep breathe knowing that our hard work and penny pinching has finally benefitted us, even though some times we thought we were insane or wasting our time.
Here are a few pictures of the place. It’s nothing to write home about compared to some other places on this board, but we’re happy!
Other than maintenance (I drive an old 09 Kia Rio5) and on my wife’s ‘19 SUV, I plan on ripping the front end off of my 98 ranger that I bought of my dad a year ago and doing a solid axle swap to it.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
