Wow, Josh, this is fantastic and similar to what I've been going through for the past three years. Congrats on the house. Now comes the expensive part!
Me and my wife's jobs kept us moving all over the Midwest (Chicago, Kansas, Dallas, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, et al.), so we rented for more than 20 years, often having to fix up the dumps we could afford. I didn't mind, but three years ago at age 44, I could no longer afford to keep moving our junk from state to state, despite living lean and mean. I annually throw stuff away, good stuff, too (unless I can donate it). However, I was fed up and couldn't do it anymore. Told the wife I wanted a house. So in late 2005, we got in before the collapse and YES, paid top dollar for our 1964 home.
Now it's a great place, but just as Josh has found, building codes, plumbing codes, and electrical codes were a far cry from the standards and technology of today. So for three years I've worked nonstop and have incrementally updated many parts of the house. I think I just finished updated the electrical system, but it took years of money since we don't do credit cards or savings. Our kitchen sucked from start to finish. (The bathroom did, too, but it was the first big project.) Much of my time, I spend cussing, "What the f*ck were these people thinking!"
The kitchen -- as only one example among many -- was one of the places where the homeowner/wannabe handyman experiemented extensively. The cabinets are hand made, but are not true, his wife painted the walls, but also painted edges of the cabinets throughout. He laid the floor but the lines are crooked and the floor itself is uneven, and best of all, this is a guy who never saw a screw he didn't strip. So if you want to replace any screw or board throughout the house, you have to demo the damn thing. Most of his improvements were merely cosmetic, which to me is worthless. DEATH TO IDIOTS LIKE THIS!!
Oh, and all those home improvement/house flipping shows you saw on TV for much of the decade? Gone, but they were also filled with lies as they don't tell you that you need thousands of dollars of tools (and some skills & experience) to do the job right. I think it was mouser who suggested a great show would be to go around to all those people who bought those homes, sunk tons of money into them, and lost their shirts; a good ol'
Where are they now? piece.
Josh, good luck. Your kitchen is beautiful and will stay so if you keep the wife out of it! If I could give you any advice, learn plumbing since you'll always need it. Buy a big generator the first chance you get (for storms, outages). And know when to call in the pros. Work your way inside out as you do improvements. And remember that water and plants are a house's two biggest enemies. Cut down any tree near the house and never plant one within 30 feet of it unless it's a small decorative tree like a dogwood or Japanese maple. Finally, make sure water is diverted around your foundation and not into it at any point. In the long run, that can make a huge difference, because as you'll find, the whole point of homeowner's insurance is not to pay any claim if at all possible.
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