The “About” page has been updated!!
Check it out! I’m excited about it!
Frugal Remodel!!
Well folks, we got our keys!! We are so blessed to be homeowners! I didn’t think it would happen for a long, long time! (Thank you Jesus!)
We ended up getting “the house of our dreams,” or what will be when we are done with it, for just $100,000! Which is a great price in our area. Its a great, solid home, it just needs some major TLC!
Right now we have a bit of a tight budget, so we are remodeling frugal style!! We got the keys last night and started work right away. Check out the living room:
View into the hallway
Fireplace!
“Lovely” windows! They actually are lovely, you just can’t tell!
Our living room opens to the dining room, which looks like this:
Notice the lovely wall paper and paneling?
This home has a kazillion things we loved, like the fireplace and built in cabinet you see to the right above, but… it needs a lot of work!
Here’s our list of frugal things we are doing:
1. Take down the paneling. Seriously, instant value! For us, it was only nailed down and came down in minutes! Sometimes, the paneling is glued. In that case, you have some sanding and/or texture stuff to do as well.
2. Take down wall paper. HARD WORK! We’ve put in a few hours of this already and have much left to do, but its so worth it. We used a scorer, fabric softener and water in a spray bottle, a steamer, and scrapers. There are 3-4 layers per wall, and we also realized that we’ll need to do some patching with puddy as well. But that stuff is cheap. We also bought a cheap fabric softner and borrowed all the tools. So far, we’ve only spent a few bucks!
3. Take out the carpet to reveal the gorgeous hardwoods below! This house was built in 1955– hardwoods people!! We may need to do some basic refinishing, which will cost us a bit. But from what we’ve seen so far, we may just do some light sanding, clean them, and then oil them really well. My parents have all the supplies to oil it, we just bought some steel wool to lightly sand some areas where the previous owners spilled paint. Cost, a few bucks!
4. Take down those hideous curtains! I’m sure they were nice in their hayday, but not so much now. There are actually some very nice sheers behind those blue/silver drapes. We are keeping those and putting up some soft green curtains we got on clearance at JC Penney. (7 panels for $90!)
5. Take down the dated light fixtures! We aren’t planning on replacing the hanging lamp in the living room, we will just take it down; but we will replace the fan in the dining room. They are quality pieces, just not updated. So, we’ll list them on craigslist for $50 for both, and see what happens! We looked at getting a new light fixture for the dining room somewhere in the $50 range at Home Depot. We haven’t decided on that and will probably leave the fan until we have found a deal and have the cash.
6. Paint! Paint is inexpensive and will provide us with major impact. My parents already have a ton of the supplies, so our expense here will be limited as well. We are hoping to spend around $150 for all the paint, puddy, supplies, primer, trim paint, and all that for the living room, dining room, bedrooms, and bathroom!
You can implement the same strategies in your home remodel.Tackle what is cheap and free first. Use your resources like friends and family to save with elbow grease! Sell stuff you take out on Craigslist. Ask your friends and relatives to borrow supplies and when you can, do the work yourself!
All that and we will have added a ton of value to our home for very little out of pocket!
Here are some pics of our work in progress! Stay tuned for after pics and pics of the other rooms as we get to them! (Just wait until you see the kitchen, its soooooo ugly!)
Hubbie tearing down paneling!
My dad tearing down paneling, he is the handyman extrodinaire! (We even danced to James Taylor song “Handyman” at my wedding!) PS check out the lovely front door with stained glass insert– so much potential!
Here’s a pic of my mom and best friend Whit taking down that stubborn wall paper!
Look at the living room without paneling, it already feels bigger and more updated!
One more pic of my adorable 3 month baby girl! She is already scooting, copying us when we say “love you” (sounds like law–ooo) and saying “oh” over and over! She is amazing!!
So pretty!
Check out my sweet deals!!
I have truly missed out on blogging this last week. I sat down to blog and the minute my fingers touched the keys, the baby woke up. I’m not kidding!! Oh the joys of motherhood and working to find time for it all!
I wanted to show you all the deals I scored on some stuff for our house! Our closing date is this coming Wednesday! We are planning on refinishing the hardwood floors in the house, so we were looking at area rugs for the living room. I came across this gorgeous rug on clearance at Lowes and fell IN LOVE! It was a bit more than I would pay, $84 marked down from $128. But I loved it, and it was perfect for our home and our decor. We slept on it and came back the next day and bought it. I am so way pumped to put this in our house!
The picture is yucky because its stored in my parent’s spare room, but the fabric draping over the rug is one of the curtains.
$84 may not be the best price ever, but its huge and we love it! We view these purchases as investments in our home and plan to use them for a L-O-N-G time.
There were several other rugs on clearance available.
We also got 7 curtain panels on clearance at JC Penney for about $90, not too shabby!! We saved $189 bucks on them!
Here’s a quick picture of Molly just for fun!
She studies the camera!
Funny story…
Today I went to blow dry my hair and was met with a creepy surprise! I store my blow dryer on the floor below the outlet that it plugs into due to the lack of storage space in our bathroom. Well, I realized today this wasn’t the best idea! I turned it on and a spider came flying out!!
Thankfully, I had it pointing not at my hair yet, and it bounced off my arm!YUCK!
Anyway, here’s a money saving Halloween tip; don’t buy Halloween candy until right before the day! Between the four adults in our house, we have almost polished off an entire bag of Halloween candy we purchased to be ahead of the game. Oops. Maybe we should purchase kinds we don’t love next time! 
Maximizing the baby toys…
Well, we are still waiting on the under writer to find out about our house! Meaning– almost all of Molly’s toys are still in storage. When we first moved, she was just 10 days old. I made sure to have a couple rattles and some links out to entertain her, but the rest were packed up. We weren’t expecting to not have a house three months later and still be living out of suit cases pretty much. So, I am learning to make the best of what we have.
A co-worker gave us this play mat thing, but they didn’t pass on the toys that attached to it. Enter the links and the few rattles I kept out! We make it work!
She loves it!!
Making the best of what toys we have works for me!!
For other Works For Me Wednesday tips and ideas, visit We Are THAT Family!
Oh How I Miss Blogging!!
I really do miss it.
I find myself struggling to find things to blog about. I always blogged about my passions before– crafting, saving money, keeping the home, taking care of my family, and so on. It feels like I have little to offer in these areas because we are currently living with my parents, so I don’t have a home to keep or decorate. Half my craft stuff is in storage, so I’m not able to finish my projects. Because we are staying with mom and dad, we aren’t spending money on anything– they won’t let us! Therefore I have no reason to clip coupons and unplug computers; my mom wouldn’t like that. I am taking care of my family more and more now as I am fully recovered from the c-section– yeah! (And by the way– being a mom rocks!!)
So, there you have it. The topic-less saga of my current situation just became a topic. My daughter is growing and beautiful, we are trusting in the Lord for our home– which hopefully we will hear for sure about whether or not we got it this coming week. Life is truly becoming more and more mild as all the drama of her birth and colic-ish-ness have passed.
However, I set aside my passions for now. I miss you blogging world!!
I am secretly a germaphobe!
I recently discovered this on an outing with the fam to Olive Garden as I sanitized anything of Molly’s that touched the table, chair, or anything other than herself or her carseat. I am terrified of germs. I didn’t realize how many places it is possible to contact germs until Molly was born… maybe that is connected to the new-mommy-worry-wort thing?
We don’t have health insurance anymore, so I find that I am overly aware of germs in order to keep our family healthier. Hand washing is my friend, as well as my tub of disinfecting wipes. I had a professor once in college that said “an ounce of prevention is worth pound of remedy!” My mom has a home business where kids are in out constantly for music lessons. AKA germ factories are constantly around my baby.
So today, when Molly woke up coughing a bit, we decided to keep her home instead of taking her to church. I have been keeping the day very mellow, keeping the air humid, and giving her lots of rest and snuggling. Ultimately, its about keeping my family healthy. But if you think about it, being cautious and preventative in the way you handle health issues saves you money. You don’t pay for trips to the doctor, you don’t pay for extra medicine, you lose less hours at work if you are on an hourly wage.
The best ways I try to prevent illness– drink water and wash hands! What I need to work on in this area? Taking my vitamin and napping more when Molly is asleep.
I’m getting there! Taking care of your health blesses your family– double bonus– you save money too!
