Our Remodeling Projects: Before and After

If you're like me, you love seeing transformations. It doesn't matter if it's weight loss, home improvement, or even hairstyle changes--we love to see the "before" and the "after."

This summer, my handy husband and I bought a new house and tackled a slew of remodeling projects. I'm happy to announce--they are all finished! We have plenty more projects to tackle, but it feels great to have the big ones done.

I promised I'd share the before and after pictures, and here they are.

Let's start with the entrance. The original picture doesn't accurately show the drip marks and general disarray of the original green door. The frame's paint was peeling willy-nilly, and it just looked sad. :(

We stripped the old paint from the frame, re-painted it, and gave the door itself two coats of gray paint. I love it!

Next up...our family room!

The family room had green carpet with mysterious brown stains and signs of severe wear. We loved the fact it had a fireplace, but it wasn't quite our style. We replaced the carpet with a neutral taupe carpet and retiled/repainted the fireplace. The walls also transformed to light gray.

Moving on to the big project...the kitchen.

The original kitchen felt very cramped, which was odd since the space is adequate. It featured four levels of wallpaper (bottom section, top section, middle border, and top border), dated lighting fixtures, faded laminate counters, and linoleum floors. It was in livable condition, in fact, someone with different taste than mine might have loved it as is. We decided to tackle this job right away to improve function and to give the whole space a "craftsman" feel.

Here's another view: My husband ripped out the soffit above the old cabinets to make more room for our new cabinets. It was such a big, tedious job. He also demo-ed a desk area to create a large pantry. He installed the tile backsplash (I helped grout!) and plumbed the sink and dishwasher. I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am to him. He worked extremely hard for two months to bring this all together.

Not shown--we ripped out all the flooring throughout the house. My husband replaced every light fixture and door handle too. :) We had new can lighting installed in a few rooms. We still have a few rooms to de-wallpaper, and our deck is pretty worn and rickety, but it feels fantastic to have come this far!

And, for the final before and after pic--our mailbox. :)

Thanks for letting me share our adventures in remodeling-land. We are thrilled to be done with the big stuff!

Have you remodeled anything? Was it a difficult process for you? Did you love the end result?

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

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When the Moving Budget Blows Up

My husband and I move often. Most of the time we moved for his job, but sometimes we moved for other reasons, like when we chose to build our houses. This time we're moving for a combination of reasons. Last year, my husband changed positions in his company, doubling his commute time. We figured if we were going to get closer to his work, we should do it now. (And, for the record, yes, we'd like to stay put this time!)


Once we signed the contract to sell our home, we switched to high gear to either a. find an existing home to purchase, b. find a home/apartment to rent so we could build a house. We had two non-negotiables--school district and price. It took a month (a very stressful month!!), but we finally found the house perfect for our family, in the school district we wanted, and at a price that would keep our living expenses in check.

The house isn't move-in ready. We're tackling several expensive, time-consuming remodeling projects this summer, and we're excited about it. My husband is extremely handy, and we've done projects on every home we've owned. The big issue? Keeping our costs within our budget.

We prefer to spend money on things like quality carpet for the new house rather than on hiring someone to move us, so we're packing everything and moving with the help of a few friends. We've done this several times in the past, and it's worked great. Plus, this method helps us weed out the stuff we're no longer using and donate or toss it.

But there are costs with a move that can and will blow up, and there's not a whole lot we can do about them.

Things we typically shell out money for in a move:

- Earnest money to "hold" the contract on the new house until closing (this money is returned to you when you close on the house).
- Appraisal fees
- Inspection fees
- Homeowner's insurance for the new house
- Moving supplies (boxes, packing tape, Sharpies, moving truck, possible storage units, etc..)
- Fees to transfer the utilities in our name
- Fees to hook up cable/satellite, phone, high speed Internet, etc...
- If moving out of state, new license plates, registrations, etc...
- Additional food costs. We eat more take-out meals the week before and after the move.

Murphy's Law costs (these are things we've paid for this month that we didn't see coming. Life keeps chugging!):
- Car repairs
- Annual HOA fees when we'll only be in our current house 2 more weeks
- A large dental bill
- Air conditioning repair
- Sports physicals

We've also been getting quotes for the work we're hiring out on the new house. Until every bid is in, we won't know for sure the scope of what we'll be able to accomplish. We've put a few projects on hold for a later date. We've dropped a few others altogether. And we've had to add a couple for maintenance issues.

My husband and I like things a certain way. We both have perfectionistic tendencies, and we are good at making decisions together. Sure, we bicker over stupid things like the timeline or whatever, but we also agree on the big things, like staying within budget and what we can and can't live without.

Every time we've moved, it's been expensive no matter how much we tried to keep costs down. By keeping our expectations realistic, and by knowing there will be 2-3 months of bloated bills, we've been able to keep our sanity intact. And, you know, we always make it through!

I wish I could say that moving doesn't have to be killer on your wallet, but I'd be lying. It always equals plenty of extra expenses for us!

What do you think? Is moving expensive? How do you keep moving costs down?

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

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