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| Photo taken by my iphone 5 mins before the bears vs. packers game. this place was EMPTY! |
I've been thinking about purchasing some stock in The Home Depot. We visit them every week, if not twice a week, so it makes perfect sense to me. I wonder if I will feel the same way once every room of our home is complete? Or will it be time to move then? Hmm....
xox m.
5 comments:
I don't know if you check your comments ever but I had a question for you. My husband and I are about to close on a forclosed home. We plan to gut it and completely remodel. My husband works for his fathers cabinet shop so we will get a lot of things like vanities, kitchen cabinets, crown, trim, and countertops at cost (since my husband can build them himself, except the countertops that is) and we can do all the work so we won't be hiring out but I just wondered if you had any advice since you and Steve are in the process of remodeling your home. We have almost $25,000 to put into it right now (we won't get the basement done) but we plan to do the remodel without going into debt, paycheck by paycheck. Any lessons you have learned that you want to pass on? Thanks. By the way I love looking at your blog and seeing how the house is progressing. You have inspired me to do the same thing once we officially start the process. The house we got is gross, 1978 rambler but in the right neighborhood. It is 4,079 sq. feet on half an acre and we got it for $37/sqft! For Heber (right outside of Park City) that is a screaming deal. Thanks for being an inspiration for home design and getting a good deal. haha.
Laurel, you are so sweet! I try and check my comments but I don't always know where to reply... should I reply on here or go to your blog? First off, CONGRATS on the home purchase! Amazing deal you got! :) Going the fixer-up route (I think) is best! This way you will be able to make it your own and SAVE a ton of money. Since labor is pretty much the most expensive part, you will be saving money right off the bat. For me, I take my time by checking pricing in store and online, on items like faucets, water filters, sinks, knobs, etc. So it takes me a while to pick it out, and then save for what we want. Really the key word is patient. We are doing the house paycheck to paycheck so it's taking us longer than if we were to hire someone. We only have the weekends, and when we feel up to it we will work on the house sometimes at night after work. But honestly, I like the process and don't mind the 'wait'. So if you don't mind waiting either, paycheck to paycheck will be ok for you too! Honestly, I think with $25,000 you will pass with flying colors and you won’t be waiting on money, just time and energy to complete the projects yourself. :) But I will say that I don't know how it is fixing up a house with kids around (I wish I did!! Ha-ha) so that could add another challenge, but I know you will be fine with it! And since you are doing all the work yourself, you will be surprised at how much you can save! Our basement is roughly 600 sqft. and typically (or so I’ve been told) every square ft. is worth $10 minimum just in labor. So our basement should have cost us roughly $6000.00 just in labor. Well it turns out we’ve only spent roughly $1500.00 so far; we still need carpet and a few more odds and ends, but I am safe to say we will not even be close to reaching that 6k mark once it’s all said and done. Or even if we do make it, it will be with all the extras like a sofa and tv, etc. FEW! Which reminds me all the little stuff is what really adds up. Screws for the drywall, the pvc pipe we had to run for our entertainment/networking cables in the basement, the door knobs for the storage room… I could go on and on about the lil things. We forgot to remember ‘the lil things’ so from here on out we need to account for those items. Also we’ve looked at the whole remodel as “lets make this a home we could live in forever if we needed” So with that said, we are adding all the little details that we want. Like for example, door knobs for my kitchen cabinets. Did I have to get the ones that cost an extra dollar? No, but I have to see them every day and live with them… so I will pay that extra dollar and try and save on somewhere else. I don’t know how long we will be in the house… 3 more years… 30 more years?? I just want it to be ‘us’ and reflect us, since we are putting so much of our own sweat into it, you know? We COULD flip this and make money, but we want to live in it and enjoy it for some great time. So you give and take, like anything in life I guess. One more thing.. haha… start and finish one room at a time. Learned my lesson the hard way on that one! Lol I am sure there is more I could add. Please keep the questions coming if you have any more, and I can’t wait to read all about your new adventures!! So excited for you and your family :) xoxo
wow that was LONG... sorry! lol
It sounds like you have thought about it a lot. It is really helpful, thanks Meredith. Hopefully the money we have will at least get the first floor how we want it. Our oldest will need a bed and her own mattresses... right now at grandmas we are using their stuff and most of our is in storage so there are a bunch of "little things" that we will need. Appliances, furniture, decorations, we only had 1 bathroom in our apartment and now I am going to need stuff for 4. Outside we want about 6 30 foot ugly pine trees removed, a fence, flooring in the patio area... the list goes on. I am glad we are able to do the work ourselves because that is a lot of money! Crazy. Well, like I said, I am excited to see how your remodel comes along. Thanks for the words of encouragement. Have you been dumpster diving for coupons yet? My cousin is the krazycouponlady (she was on tlc for her extreme couponing... I am always amazed, really, at how good of a bargain you can get couponing.) She has a great website, I may have told you about it before. But there are some cute dividers for your coupon binder.. if that is how you organize them. Thanks again Meredith.
Ha-ha no, no dumpster diving. I've cut back on the crazy couponing for now. Only use what I need. :)
A good idea for appliances is if you have a 'scratch and dent' store. Sears has an outlet and a few other stores has them as well... we feel like we stole our fridge because the handle had a dent. Which we can replace for $30 in the future. So it's completely worth it to check it out.
As far as the fence... if you are up to it you can even build that yourself. We did it (took us a while and my dad did all the labor of ripping each 2x4 down to size) but we saved thousands by doing so.
So there are tons of shortcuts you can do. Can't wait to see your home remodel as well!! Congrats again! :)
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