Yikes this remodeling is addictive!

R

robyn6002

Cathlete
Hello everyone!

I haven't been posting a lot recently. I've had a tough few years with my son's medical situation. Life has been thrown upside down plus my mother decent into mental illness (we have talked 2 mins since last July) but she is now in a place close to my brother.

I was thinking of selling my house once my son graduates from HS (we live in a very expensive area) so I started to fix my kitchen (it looks like out of the 70s show to sell it in a few years.

Anyhow I ended out doing a major kitchen remodeling (it's gutted right now and the cabinets arrive next week), I changed the windows in the computer room/office, ripped out old cabinets in the den and got new window (and fixed wood rot), got new furniture for the living room. Before I was embarrased to have anyone over.

I'm thinking now of staying. The house is small for our town and a great size for me and when the kids will come home. I'm on a dead end

I'm starting to feel so guilty about doing this (home equity loan) but I needed to upgrade the kitchen to get my money's worth and I do need something for me right???

Anyone done remodeling and been able to stop!
 
Hi, Robyn.

I totally understand the feeling of being embarrassed to have anyone over, and I'm dying to renovate the kitchen and have my apartment decorated. I'm just at a loss to figure out where the money will come from other than a home equity loan, and it makes me unhappy to think about being committed to paying off a home equity loan while I'm still paying my mortgage.

I keep thinking that if me or my husband becomes unemployed for any length of time, it will be too difficult to pay the mortgage, the maintenance and a home equity loan on top of all of our other living expenses. We put a lot of money into retirement savings each month, and I'm just not willing to cut back on that at all. So I keep living in my apartment, just waiting for the refrigerator or the dish washer to finally take it's last gasp and force me into making a decision.

My husband thinks its perfectly fine to just buy a new refrigerator if this one dies. But my feeling is that since ALL of our appliances, cabinets and countertops are very old, the whole kitchen should be done at the same time with all the appliances being purchased at the same time the kitchen is being renovated. I just don't want to do it piecemeal.

Sigh. Sorry for too much information. Do you agree that it makes no sense to buy appliances piecemeal when the whole kitchen desperately needs to be renovated?

Anyway, I understand, and I suspect I'll be joining you shortly. Sorry for the novel.
-Nancy
 
We are slowly remodeling every room in our house. Currently our living room is under a major remodel. The rooms that are done are quite lovely and comfortable. It is really a pain though. Sometimes I dream of selling and just buying a new home. DH is really a hands on guy though, a realy Mr, Fixit, so buying something brand new would drive him insane, I think.

I personally think fixing up the house IS saving for retirement. I also think, and I am probably spoiled, that your home is your castle, and if it uncomfortable and ugly, that influences how one feels about life! Nancy! Get thee to an appliance store today!!! (lol). With that said, our kitchen is a disaster. Our oven has no handle, it burns everything and all the knobs are broken. I keep begging DH to "let" me buy a new one, but he wants to wait until we redo the whole kitchen. In some ways that does make sense to me, since we are going to do something completely different than what we have, but still, it is very frustrating when I want to make cookies.

Oh, and I should add to this ramble. Over Memorial day weekend, we put in a new fence, and last week a new roof. It just really never stops.
 
"I personally think fixing up the house IS saving for retirement. I also think, and I am probably spoiled, that your home is your castle, and if it uncomfortable and ugly, that influences how one feels about life! Nancy! Get thee to an appliance store today!!! (lol)."

Very good points, Ivory. I'll give them serious consideration. Thanks.
-Nancy
 
You can plan the kitchen without buying everything all at once, and still purchase your appliances, cupboards etc, one item at a time, as the budget allows.

I think the biggest thing is that you have a plan - not that you do it all at once.
 
I call what happens with remodeling, "the snowball effect"! Seriously, once you start, there really is no stopping. There are several reasons for this... one is that once you fix something up nice, the "old" areas look bad next to it. Two, once you change one thing, it invariably affects something else that needs changing as well... and there you have it... endless remodeling.

We did a complete overhaul about 2 years ago, and it got quite costly. The end result is a beautiful home, but we did much more than we ever planned in the first place.

Good luck!
 
DH and I remodeled a previous house, sold it, made some money, bought a bigger house to remodel. Our plan for this house was to remodel, sell and do it again. Well, it took 4 years to do (we did all the work ourselves except lay the carpet)and we love it and aren't moving! We live in the woods and completely remodeled to a lodge theme. We have now been here 11 years and won't be selling anytime soon. It was great fun doing it though and fortunately DH and I have similiar tastes so we agreed on most changes! :)
Jo
 
Nope, can't stop once you start - It's definitely addictive. And just forget about buying a new home. We did that and ended up doing projects for the entire six years we lived there too. The reality is some people are fixer uppers and some are not. No one in either of our families works on their house like we do. We do it mostly our selves. But when we're done with a project, we have pride in a job well done. Everyone tells us how beautiful our house is and they just complain about what they don't like in their house.

For us, the important thing is being happy with the space you have. If walking in to a particular room depresses you or you're embarrassed to have people over, then for goodness sake do something about it. Life is too short to live in a house that doesn't make you smile when you come home.
 
>For us, the important thing is being happy with the space you
>have. If walking in to a particular room depresses you or
>you're embarrassed to have people over, then for goodness sake
>do something about it. Life is too short to live in a house
>that doesn't make you smile when you come home.

I couldn't agree more! One thing I learned with remodeling.... nothing is impossible! If you look at something in your house and think, "Oh that could never be changed!", you are wrong. Believe me, it's all possible. It's just a matter of how much money/time/energy you want to spend!
 
"Life is too short to live in a house that doesn't make you smile when you come home. "

Took the words right out of my mouth....

I am 24 and I just purchased my first home - a condo. I love the fact that I'll have my own space and can't wait to move, but I do want to change the bathroom and kitchen... Don't get me wrong, neither room is in bad shape, but I don't LOVE the look... Now I am already overwhelmed by the fact that I will be responsible for a mortgage (and mom won't be doing my laundry!!) so who knows where I will get the money to remodel but it's something I want to do and I'm sure I'll find a way... VERY EXCITED!!! :D
 
You will find a way and you'll discover how very creative you can be with very little money. Sometimes just a coat of paint brightens up a room in an unbelievable way. Our next project is to strip the wallpaper in our kitchen - a very depressing navy blue with white polka dots - and paint the walls a sunny yellow. I can't wait!
 
Sadly no, one thing led to another, then you had all the "you might as wells" and 2 years later I am still without a kitchen, dining room, front room and completed floors. sigh. No, it never ends,:-(

Hope all continues to go on schedule for you.
 
>>>>For us, the important thing is being happy with the space you have. If walking in to a particular room depresses you or you're embarrassed to have people over, then for goodness sake do something about it. Life is too short to live in a house that doesn't make you smile when you come home.<<<<

I absolutely agree. I hated my kitchen (totally non-functional) and bathrooms (no ventilation, mold grew so easily) which were original to our 1950s home. The floor was white linoleum and I literally scrubbed them on my knees several times a week.

My old stove which had the constant pilot light was also dangerous - DH came home and smelled gas several times because the pilot light had gone out. Then, one of the bathroom faucets started leaking for which parts were near impossible to find, then the toilet . . .

I absolutely agree that one should save for retirement, but one also shouldn't live in a home that one hates. Your home is your castle, after all.

Now I absolutely love my house.

Seek balance in all things.
 
Thanks everyone!

Great advice as always.

I definetely was to the point of being embarrased to have anyone over (even my kids were). So yes I should save for retirement (I still am) but have to enjoy life for today.

Nancy funny I was thinking how you got me to go out and get Mac makeup maybe we can get you to remodel!!!!

I'm thinking after this is done, I'll have a nice living room, computer room/office, family room/den, and kitchen. I redid the main bath a few years ago and 1/2 bath laundry room awhile back.

The bedrooms aren't great... but think that could be simple paint, my bathroom isn't great... but not horrible.. dining room not great.. but not horrible...

Nice to hear folks who love their house :)

Jo I love the sound of your house. I'm in the suburbs but on a heavily wooded lot on a dead end road. Your house sounds lovely
 
We lived in our previous home for many years, originally built in 1911, in a historical section of the city, it was our dream house. We are "do-it-your-self-ers. One renovation (without question) led to another and another and then manintenance of the first things done and then another new thing and another new thing and then maintenance of the first several things done and then another new thing and another AND THEN 3 more DS in addition to our first DS came into our lives. We hung on for a few years with all the work, but then came to our senses.

We moved to a brand spanking new mountain cabin 4 years ago - wood inside and out, nothing to paint - everything new, acreage to play on...in other words, renovation and maintenance of an older home never stops so we just moved to a new cabin in the wilderness.:)

BTW I loved all the renovation work, but just found my focus changed with our additional children. I only have so much energy and time.:)
 
Melody,

The pictures of your log cabin home in the mountains are beautiful! It looks just lovely!

Where are you in the Georgia mountains? We are on Lake Lanier in the woods too, not quite in the mountains but close!
 
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