I guess we will continue on and focus on the resident bathroom in our new house.

This bathroom of ours wasn't so pretty at one point. Do you remember?? The horrible color, the tub, the hanging sink that was falling off the wall, and the smoke stained ceiling? Ugh it was horrible. 

I think I could have lived with it if I had to, but I was sort of excited when we realized that we would need to gut the entire thing. Not really friendly for our pocket books, but much more friendly to Liz's not-so-nice germ phobia. There is just something about this bathroom that was telling me to use bleach on every surface! (Now, that is saying a lot because I DO NOT use bleach on anything, ever. I don't even own a bottle of it or a cleaning product that contains it. Vinegar and baking soda all the way baby.)

Anyways, after our sink left us with a wall looking like this:

we had no choice but to do this: 

 We gutted her down to the studs, took out the radiator, and replaced the plumbing, electric, and made sure the stuff behind the drywall was updated to the 21st century. Then it was on to the finishing work of it all. Drywall, green board, and a new window. Painting, wainscoting, radiant floor heat, and tile followed. And finally it was time for all of the hardware and lighting fixtures. A little clawfoot tub action and a new sink to match and things were starting to really shape up.

Fast forward through all of that and our new bathroom was looking almost finished.

We still have a few things that we need to do. We have decided to finish the wainscoting (you can see the missing pieces behind the dresser in the picture above), do some decorative tweaking, and eventually she will be declared 100% finito! 

I love this room and honestly feel like it represents our sense of style the most. Now, I just need to figure out how to get the rest of the rooms on board. I'm in love with the old school charm of this space and really appreciate the color scheme and the not-so-obvious touches that have been added (i.e. the painted tub, dresser, and a few other things that are still to come). She is our dapper crapper. 

Now, that we have dug deeper on the ins and outs of the bathroom process, let's talk money. This is a big list y'all. 

Plumbing Materials: $100

Electric updates including radiant floor heating: $400

Finishing materials (drywall, green board, mud, tape etc.): $150

Clawfoot tub: Free (thanks Isaac and Mary!)

Sink: $54.38

Wainscotting: $402.78

Tile: $283.02

Dresser: Free (was left by the previous homeowners)

Toilet: Free (It is not even a year old! Jonathan saved it from a job that he did; they wanted him to just get rid of it!) 

Toilet Seat: $20.98 (we bought a new one to replace the used one on the free toilet :) ) 

Hardware (towel bars, faucet for sink and tub, and tub converter): $261.98

Window: $175

Paint: $0 (I said $0 because we used leftover paint from other rooms. Really the amount needed in this room was minimal.) 

Lighting (bathroom fan/light combo, vent kit, and lights above the sink): $176.91

Total: $2025.02

Not to shabby for a bathroom renovation! According to "the experts," whoever those people are??, we can expect to see all of that money back when it comes to resale value. Plus, with the national average being $10,000 spent on a bathroom remodel, I think we are doing quite well! 

Like I said, we do plan on doing some more work on her, but I really think that she came together nicely. Plus, she has really defined the feeling that we are looking for in the rest of the house. 

Ha! Imagine that!

A bathroom being the "defining" space in a house. 

Ew. 

I guess we really need to get to work. 

Tell us, what do you think? Have you ever done a bathroom remodel? How much did you spend? 

The Entertaining Rooms

Continuing on with our tour a la $$, I decided to group together the living room and the dining room. They were the rooms that had the least amount of work done to them, before we moved in, meaning there is still a ton we are waiting to do.

Can I get a DUH?!

Sometimes I amaze myself.

My whit is so original.

You thought so too?

Good. At least we agree.

Moving on.

So, in our dining room and living room we decided to paint, rip out the carpet, and call it a day. There was wallpaper all over the walls, but because of the state of the walls (i.e. the wallpaper was holding up the walls) we decided to just paint right over it.

Can I get an 'AMEN!' for not having to rip down wallpaper?

'A' to the double 'men.'

'Heck' to the 'yes.'

Overall these rooms were pretty easy-peasy. First, we shall take a look at the before pictures.

Ok, puke.

Get it out...all out.

I promise you will feel better.

Now that it's out of your system, let's talk about the process a bit. Once Jonathan and I took possession, the carpets were our first priority. We knew that they held a bunch of dirt (they looked like they hadn't been cleaned in ages) and some smells that we weren't too fond of. You know, cigarette smoke and a musty smell, weren't really what we wanted to be greeted by on a daily basis. So out the carpet in the living room went. We waited on the dining room one because it was the only one that was completely tacked down.

Then, the living room and the dining room were basically left alone until the month before we moved into the house.

Finally, at the beginning of April, we decided to start working on them a bit. We primed right over the wall paper, picked out wall colors and then painted, and ripped up the dining room carpet.

Things were looking a whole-heck-of-a-lot lighter and brighter! I still can't get over what a coat of paint can do.

Finally, we were ready to move in. We arranged everything we had into the rooms, I purchased a new rug for the living room, we bought blinds for the windows, a ceiling fan, and we were all set to go! Definitely a transformation.

Now on to the cost of it all. We needed two cans of Aqua Lock Primer, one can of wall color for the dining room and two for the living room, one can of semi gloss white for the trim, and two cans of ceiling white.

Paint: $270.00
Rug: $350.00
Blinds for windows: $ 202.93
Ceiling Fan: 109.95
Total: $ 932.88

Now, that may seem like a lot. But, remember, it is for two rooms. Plus, if you are just moving into a house, you won't necessarily need a rug, ceiling fan, and blinds. Just $270 worth of paint will take you a long way.

Like I said, we definitely got the most bang-for-our-buck in the kitchen, but the living room and dining room are a close second. I'm very happy with how they both turned out. It makes me even more excited for stage 2!!!

What do you think of our living room and dining room? Any questions about why we did what we did? Come on lovely readers of mine, feedback please! :)

Regularly Scheduled Programming

Well, now that the long weekend is over, I guess we better get back to it. Shall we?

This week I'm going to write a post about each room, giving you a break down of our expenses and the process we went through. I have already done a big blanket before and after progress post here, but why don't we dig a bit deeper? Let's talk dollars and cents people. Let's talk a bit more about how we did it and why we did it. Mmmmk?

Mmmmk.

We are going to start with the kitchen. This is the first room you see as you enter the house (from the back). Plus, I feel we got the most bang-for-our-buck from this room. When you enter the house, you actually enter onto a small landing with two stairwells. You can go up to the kitchen,

or down to the basement.

When we moved into the house, the kitchen was a yellow and orange mess.

The paneling was very overwhelming and the orange floors combined with the peel-n-stick counter tops, were just horribly gross. I wanted everything out asap. But, we decided that it would be better to do some small things and eventually gut the beast in a few years. Ew. That sounds a bit gross.

How's that visual image for you?

Fast forward four months and our kitchen was starting to come together. We haven't touched the entry yet, but the kitchen has had an appropriate facelift.

EVERYTHING got a coat of primer and then paint. We used Aqua Lock primer--its free of VOCs and does a pretty good job--and Kilz in some of the really bad spots. Then, we took Benjamin Moore's low VOC semi gloss white to the kitchen cabinets and BM's low VOC Marina Gray to the walls.

She was starting to look a bit better and not so run down and bedraggled.

Yet, we still needed to deal with those horrible floors. We addressed them by putting down the least expensive peel-n-stick tiles we could find. I wanted something that would work better with the wall color, but didn't want to spend an arm and a leg. Sixty beans later, our floors weren't looking too shabby.

They blended in more and were no longer the focal point of the room. We also installed a new vent hood and Jonathan put in new shelving in my soon-to-be pantry. You can see both in the above picture.

Finally, the cabinet doors went back on and we moved in. The "finished" product was this:

Obviously we still have some work to do. We want to put in new counter tops, replace the sink, install two new light fixtures, and do a bit of decorative tweaking. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit all of our stuff and not have every cupboard be chock full. We are getting there.

Now, I'm sure you are wondering how much this cost us. Well, here is the ol' cost breakdown for you.

Primer and paint for ceiling, cabinets, and walls (I used a half gallon for the ceiling paint and the wall color, and a whole gallon of semi gloss white and Aqua Lock primer): $100.00
Floor tiles: $60.00
Wood for pantry shelving: Free--Jonathan used scrap wood he had from another job
Curtains under sink: Free--I had left over fabric that I used
Blind for window: $ 28.99
New hood for stove: $20.00
Total: $208.99 


For about $210 total, I think that our kitchen looks worlds better! Now I feel like I can live with it, for a couple of years, while we save up for our big gut and add-on job. While Jonathan and I were talking about what needed to be done, I asked if we could put a little money into the kitchen. I honestly wasn't worried about the size, I just wanted to be able to enjoy myself while I was cooking and baking. We definitely met that goal and then some. Plus, after another $150 for the counter tops and sink, this room is going to be looking pretty spiffy. I have to say, I cannot wait!

What do you think? Have you ever done some quick tweaking to a room just to get it to look better for a few years so you can save up for a complete overhaul?

Doing the Moon Walk.

Today, we're doing a little back tracking. So...moon walk...going backward...get it? Good.

Let's talk about the whole how-we-actually-purchased-this-house thing and I'm also going to give you a bit of a run down on our financial situation. For us, it was a long process that involved a year of looking, changing of expectations, and finally figuring out exactly what we were interested in. Our hearts were broken many times along the way, but we finally were able to let a house back-in-our-heart (see what I did there? ha.)

{our very first picture together as a couple}

Actually, the whole thing started in the summer of 2008. Jonathan and I had been dating for a year and for some crazy reason, we thought it would be a good idea to buy a house. Our idea was that Jonathan would live in it and fix it up while I finished college six hours away. Well our vision was short lived--you saw that coming didn't you? Yeaaa.  They tried to tell us we're too young, too young to really be in love. 

{source}

We saw approximately ten houses by the time we realized, purchasing a house was very financially irresponsible. We also noticed that our idea of what we wanted in a house was way unrealistic. A fixer upper in our price range was very thriller-esc to say the least. So, I headed back to school in the fall with much lower expectations and a mind set that a house was not in the near future.

*  *  *  *

Fast forward to December 2010. We had been married for 5 months and were itching to purchase a house. Armed with our previous experience we were ready to brave the housing market again. We started by doing a lot of research. I spent many hours looking at houses online and researching the housing market where we live. I really wanted to make sure I understood what was a good value house-wise. We also tried to figure out what we could afford without becoming completely house poor. Enter pre-approval here.

From December until June of 2011 we did our own thing. We would look at a house online and then proceed to drive by it, to catch a glimpse in person.  If we were still interested, we would call up the listing realtor. We visited ten houses and looked at 30+ online before we decided that this approach wasn't working for us. So, we made the decision to ask a friend of ours to be our realtor. He stepped in and we looked at another ten houses or so.

At one point we found "the" house. It was in great condition and had a fantastic back yard. It needed minimal work before we moved in, but we knew we could work on it over time and it would be a fantastic investment. Problem was, they wanted $80,000 for it. So we outlined all the the work that needed to be done and decided to offer them $50,000. They came back with a counter offer at $70,000. So, it was a Billie Jean is not my lover moment on the houses part-- it just wasn't meant to be. We kept claiming he was the one, but he kept saying we were just a girl. So we did the Billie Jean Shuffle on outta there.

We kept looking and looking. Another ten houses visited, another ten disappointments. Finally, in December, around Christmas, a listing popped up that I had never seen before.

Apparently, our realtor was looking at the same listing around the same time too, because he contacted us right away about the house. We agreed to meet a couple days later to see the house. When we visited we instantly fell in love. This was it. It felt as though we had seen her face a thousand times. It was familiar. So, we put in an offer.

Mind you, we saw the house three days after it had been put on the market. Our offer of $49,000 went in two days later. They countered us at $51,600 and we yelled 'SOLD!' It was the best feeling ever. So, the house was on the market less then a week by the time she became ours. I have to say, I knew this was the one by the reaction Jonathan had. Sure I had been excited by houses before, but he had never shown this much excitement. Usually it took convincing on my part for him to even consider a place. We just knew.

So here is where we ended up. Thanks to my awesome father who has allowed us to live in one of his apartments, we were able to save up a down payment of $10,000. So we ended up taking out a mortgage for $41,600. At this point I have to say that this is another reason why we knew this house was 'the one' -- it wasn't going to make us house poor. We would have enough money to fix 'er up and to pay the mortgage. Plus there would be enough left over to comfortably live off of.

So, we mortgaged $41,600 at a 15-year-fixed rate of 4.125%. By doing a 15 year mortgage, as compared to a 30 year mortgage, we are saving approximately $15,000 on interest in the long run. We also opted to do bi-weekly payments as well. This has made our loan go down to a 13 year loan and also saved us another $2,000 + in interest.

Our bi-weekly payments add up to the same amount as doing monthly payments, the only difference is that two months out of the year, there is an extra payment we owe. In essence, we are paying 13 months of payments in 12 months. So, to the tune of about $550 extra a year, we are saving two years on our mortgage and thus a lot of money in interest payments. We think it works out pretty well.

So, in honor of this Michael Jackson inspired post I now present you with this wedding rendition of 'Thriller'

So please share! What are your money-saving tips for owning a house? We would love some more input!