Remodeling This Life

I get blog post ideas in the funniest of places. I went to Barnes and Noble today to take the kiddos to the train table and buy that gift card y’all have been clamoring over the past few days making me feel like a celebrity the way the comments are flying in. I got myself a latte I know tsk tsk spending on such frivolous things but I figured if one of y’all would be sitting there in the near future sipping away and reading books or magazines on my dime I should treat myself to a little something too. So I did.

I sat sipping my latte while Bug and Monkey played with trains and read books. Bug really loves sitting there by the train table reading books with me. She almost never plays with the trains anymore. She went over to a book rack and grabbed a Berenstain Bears book. I love those books because they teach all sorts of great lessons. This one was called Count Their Blessings. It’s all about the bear cubs going to their friends houses and how mama bear dreads when they come home because they always come home whining about how their friends have more dolls and games and stuff than they do. And mama bear teaches them about counting their blessings - being thankful for what they have instead of longing for what they don’t have. Part of the story involves there being a thunderstorm and mama is teaching them how they’re so lucky to have a warm and cozy home to hang out in when the weather is bad. Then the power goes out and they talk about how lucky they are to have papa bear who knows how to start a fire to keep them warm. And how lucky they are to have mama bear who knows how to make them hot chocolate. It’s a sweet story and really great to start teaching kids young to be thankful for what they have.

Although things change as we grow older, as adults we can oftentimes lose track of what’s important. Forget to be thankful that we even have a roof over our heads a place to call home. That we are healthy and able bodied to provide for our families. That we are blessed to have loving families and friends. The list goes on and on. So, today, through the gift of a 3 year old who loves to be read to at the book store, I’ve been reminded to count my blessings. Instead of counting the things I want that I don’t have.

Buying a fixer upper home can be a fulfilling, profitable experience. Or it can be a nightmare full of unexpected expenses and unforeseen disasters. Or it can be both. There are secrets to doing it and doing it well. I offer this bit of advice to the average Joe looking to buy a fixer upper. Get an inspection. Heck, even get a *few* inspections. Know what you are buying - know what needs to be done and how much it will cost so that you know what you are getting into. Hubby and I didn’t do that with our home - at least as far as inspections go. But we did expect to redo everything. While it worked for us and we knew what we were buying at the time, not everyone is willing to go to the extremes we did. We bought our home “as-is” - septic at end of life, a/c at end of life, well at end of life and a host of other things. We replaced everything. And I mean everything. We didn’t just go down to the studs. We replaced the studs. New exterior walls. New electrical. New plumbing. Everything. If you know what you’re getting into - go for it. Otherwise, stick with the a home requiring the basics when you are looking at buying a fixer-upper.

There are many advantages to buying a fixer-upper like

• potential profit
• lower sale price
• no one else wants it - less competition

Like I said before, hubby and I didn’t buy the average ideal fixer-upper. The ideal fixer is one that doesn’t need a long list of huge repairs. One that everybody wants once it’s fixed up but not many can see past the imperfections until then. It’s hard and it was hard for us to see past the green and orange swirl shag carpeting, the faux wood paneling throughout, the not just dated but more like disgusting kitchen and bathroom. What we saw though was a house that when completed would be a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom home in a growing and changing neighborhood. We saw a family home with a big yard. We saw the big things you need to see when buying a fixer, like

• Location - a growing or already desirable neighborhood is great.
• Layout - having the bones of a home someone will want to buy - number of bedrooms, bathrooms and size of kitchen are huge things that potential buyers will be looking for when you go to sell.

And here is where I emphasize the most important point of buying a fixer upper. Everyone’s skill level is different when it comes to repairs. Do not underestimate the repairs that need to be done and don’t overestimate your abilities to do those repairs. It will cost you big time before it’s over. My hubby has been able to do every last detail of the work we’ve chosen to do on this house. And it’s saved us tens of thousands of dollars as a result. If he’d gotten over his head on even one project it would’ve been a disaster.

“Easy” home fixes are

• drywall repair/painting/removing wallpaper
• refinishing floors - we’ve done this in all 3 of our homes and it’s a huge bang for your buck in resale value.
• installing new kitchen cabinets or painting/refacing current cabinets
• replacing light fixtures, doors, trim, baseboards
• outdoor renovations like exterior paint, adding landscaping and a deck

Not so easy fixes are

• replacing electrical and plumbing or sewer - very labor intensive and since they aren’t visible to potential buyers they don’t hold as much value - although nice to not have to worry about, most buyers want to see visually appealing renovations like a kitchen or bath upgrade
• installing all new windows
• replacing HVAC

Going into a fixer upper requires knowing your limits. Can you live with eating takeout for however long it takes to redo that kitchen? Can you stand to share one bathroom between 4 people while the other is under remodel? Do you mind having your bed in the living room while the bedrooms are being gutted? Really, this is easier said than done. I think most people, if anything like me, don’t know their limits for such things until in the midst of them. And really, by then it’s too late
Like I said, what we’ve done in our remodel has been valuable and will hopefully turn out to be quite profitable when we decide to sell someday. Most of that is based on the fact that hubby has been able to do the work himself. I don’t recommend it and anyone I know looking to do work I would advise accordingly. I’m not an expert on housing. I’m not even close to being an expert on fixer-uppers. I can just say what has worked for us and how.

Designing and renovating a home and bringing it to life in your own unique way is very rewarding. It’s fulfilling to see the fruits of your hard work and labor. It’s also stressful, time consuming and energy draining. What we had to decide as a family was what are our priorities, what are our goals, and how do we best meet those things. And for us, this fixer-upper and what we’ve put into it was our answer. Not an answer everyone else would come up with but one that has worked well for us.

This post is part of a writing project headed up by Rocket Finance exploring different aspects of the sub-prime crisis, lending practices, and foreclosures, and is my own musings on taking on a risky fixer-upper. Visit Rocket Finance on Friday for Home Finance: all you need to know about home ownership, a carnival of entries in this project.

Other posts in this project so far can be found at

My Thoughts on this Whole Mortgage Crisis and Why I don’t Feel That Bad at My Two Dollars

The We Can Afford the Payments Mentality at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already

Should I Invest in the Stock Market or Real Estate? at Millionaire Money Habits

What is Debt To Income Ratio and Why Does it Matter? at Moolanonmy

Why We Have an Adjustable Rate Mortgage at My Dollar Plan

Ana questions the process of paying off credit cards with a HELOC at Debt-Free Revolution

Plonkee Money shares her thoughts with American Sub-prime Crisis Should We Care

Mrs Micah shares her thoughts on Why Renting is Right For Us Right Now

SingleGuyMoney shares this excellent post about The Real Cost of Home Ownership. Something everyone should read before buying!

And check out this FABULOUS post from Being Frugal where she shares 75 Frugal Hacks for Your Home

As I was putting Drew to bed tonight, we were snuggling and talking about what we want to do tomorrow. We do that every night, make plans for the next day. I find it helps her go to bed more easily and it’s a good way to unwind and chat and giggle a bit just the two of us. So we chose tomorrow’s letter. Each day gets a letter around here and we follow a theme for that letter. Tomorrow’s letter is P. We’ve decided to stay in our pajamas and go to the park for a picnic. She wants to have popcorn and play with play doh also. I am sure that some more brainstorming overnight will bring forth some other fun frugal ideas that start with P. Any suggestions?

Hubby went to the grocery store yesterday. Lately he’s been going for a few things and coming home with way more than a few things. He’s not exactly a fan of budgets. He likes the flexibility of being able to spend on things when they come up on sale and not have a budget telling him he can or can’t. Okay, whatever. We disagree on budgeting but we do okay anyway and we’re not spending money we don’t have. So he comes home yesterday with 20 lbs. of this coffee that was on sale for $1/lb. $1/lb for coffee! That’s unheard of! My freezer is overflowing with it now. I waited until I had my coffee this morning to post about his frugal escapade in case the coffee really was only worth $1. But it’s VERY good. And it’s from Louisiana. Some of my favorite things are from there

I haven’t really had much to blog about the past couple of days. The big Burns’ night celebration on Friday was wonderful and fun. Here’s a pic of my family with a nice little backdrop of the river behind us and bagpiper playing on the dock at sunset.

Saturday and Sunday were spent doing some little projects around the house. We decided to finally do the other kitchen countertop with black granite to match the other side of the kitchen. We got a black granite slab on ebay really greatly priced last year and never bit the bullet buying matching at Home Depot at full retail. We decided to do black granite tile instead of a slab. Much cheaper and it looks really nice. There are some finishing touches to do still before I can share pictures but here’s one of the cute little monkey helping his daddy with it.

And the best news in a long time is that my brother called me today to tell me he got married this morning!! He and his girlfriend have been together for almost 5 years and live in a cute little studio in Brooklyn together. In August, when my grandfather was dying, he called to tell him that they were engaged to be married and would be going to the courthouse for a simple marriage there. My grandpa, true to his terrible at keeping secrets ways, spilled the beans before he died. So we’ve all been expecting it but hadn’t heard anything and I wasn’t pressuring on it. I am so thrilled for them. He’s wonderful, she’s wonderful and they’re just so darned cute together they make me want to throw them up in the air and catch them.

Now I just have to come up with a super cool gift to send them to mark the lovely occasion.

That’s all for now!