A change in plans....

[mommy4ever]

As I have blogged, we were prepping the house for sale.

I have been watching the listings, and our area market is quite depressed, and the area we want to move is climbing rapidly Had we been ready in August we could have gotten a house we wanted for quite reasonable, but know the gap between sale and purchase has increased about 70K! Before it was more like $25K. So, we have put the plans on hold.

Now we are going to renovate for us. Make this a place we are content to stay in until we have the money in the bank, and find the right house. With any luck, the market in a year or two here will catch up again. Does this change the neighborhood? No, our cul-de-sac is fine, but we don't like the girls walking to the bus alone. So I drive them there and dh picks them up after. End of the world, no, inconvenient yes.

So we hope to find a new place within 2-3 years. Even if it means transferring the kids to new schools.

This relieves alot of stress. We are working on the house as I said. Dh said we'll put a jetted tub in the main bathroom. We don't have room in our ensuite, but this is a nice compromise, plus the girls will enjoy it too. We have tiled our ensuite, fresh paint. We are doing a complete reno on the main bathroom. We found a gorgeous euro vanity for $50! IT is $200+ at home depot for the smaller one, so we got a great deal. There will be the new tub, vanity, toilet, tile, fresh paint, new light and I plan to do a couple wall appliques in the bathroom. It will be black and white with the teal and lime towels for color accents.

We are doing some bigger renos in the house too. we are taking down 2 walls, they are not weightbearing walls, just dividing. This will open up our main floor majorly. In the one wall that is remaining, I want to cut out part of it, for a "window" so open front to back. This will provide a small counter space for the phone, etc. and possibly a breakfast nook. Need to work on that. The floor in the back half of the level will be all new ceramic tile. Dominant color is grey, multi tones, with some green and terra cotta in it. It looks fantastic against the refinished cabinets (I have more to do on those too). We are getting new counter tops as soon as I finish the cabinets and the tile is down.

We have 4 opening windows to replace, and we will price out the livingroom windows, but that will be a bit. Also considering central air, but dh thinks it will be too pricey.

Other than windows 90% of this will be done in the next 6 weeks.

We also have some builds to do. We are going to build some custom cabinets for our room. The master bedroom is a good size, but due to closets windows, doors, there is only 1 space we can put our bed, and then the dressers don't really work anywhere.

We are going to build a dressers/entertainment unit. Dh likes having a tv in our room, watch a movie and relax. I'll concede. So the cabinet will be our dressers/ and entertainment unit in one. It'll be about 4-4.5 high, below a combination of shelves and drawers for clothes and possibly a pull out bin tha tis hinged at the bottom for laundry. Eliminate all other things in the room other than side table and bed. On top will be a hutch for the tv and components with some shelves for books, pictures and special items. We say a small version of what we want at walmart, so dh and I are taking a few measuremtns from that and doing a custom. I am also going to have him do some design elements on the doors and drawers, so it looks like the doors have panels. we've seen it done enough times, no reason not to dress it up.

DD10 is also getting a modified bed. She has a double bed in her room. It is too big. It has 2 drawers on either side. So, we are modifying it. The 4 drawers will be on 1 side and it'll be cut down to a twin. At the foot beneath will be some low shelves for her books. I also want to add sides aroune 3 sides as she has lots of throw pillows that could make it into a funky fun fur couch. But we'll see. That would mean lot sof lumber, where we will only need one sheet to do the basic modifications. It'll be a high bed, like a captain bed and open her room right up. She also has a garage sale desk that I am going to sand down and paint for her, she wants it purple..lol. For the $15 we paid for the desk and the purple paint we already have from her sister's room... why not.

lots of things to finally make this house home. We have been here nearly 10 years and only ever painted it. Well we did make 2 bedrooms and a mudroom, but never really made it ours. Just functional, now we need to make it ours and enjoy it.

It is costing us some $$ for sure. But we have been saving, and assigning funds to renovations. So we have barely touched our savings, and haven't used any credit. Amazing what you can do with a plan. All said and done, we'll have spent several thousand on the house. A house that has nearly tripled in value on the market, that we have a very small mortgage on. Son investing into it isn't a bad thing, and it will definitely add to the sell value when it comes that time.

I am a little sad we won't be moving in the spring/summer, but I am lots relieved that we are taking time to renovate, not to sell but for us, and that we will when the timing and place is right we will move. I was really worried that we wouldn't find a place at the right place or value. Or not have the space we need/want. We have some wants we could do without, but I think it would affect how we feel about the house long term. We only want to do one more move with the kids. Then eventually downsize when the kids are gone. That is a ways away, the youngest is 6, we it needs to be the right house, not a make do. So now the pressure is gone, we'll do what we want to enjoy and make this home.

That is the Saga of me.

[QM]

I'm sorry that you won't be moving in the spring/summer like you originally had hoped. That's great that you guys are renovating/updating your current home. I'm sure it will look beautiful when you're done!!! How exciting!

[mommy4ever]

working on it Did door jambs today. Well 3 out of 5, and 4 closets to do yet too. doors will hopefully be finished in the next couple days for those 3 jambs, I really like having doors in the bathroom and our bedroom...

Lots of little things I can do during nap time...

[frugalfranny]

I am glad that the stress has lifted....at least a bit.

You will be happier waiting in a house you like.

Now let's hope the market comes back up......for you and me!!

[britbunny]

Hi,

We are doing the same thing. Our house is on the market but I don't think anything is going to happen any time soon and DH has pretty much decided we won't sell. So we are doing some work on our place.

Like you I am a little sad to think we won't be moving but I have taken many of the ideas I love from the house we liked and am bringing them into our home. Luckily for me (if not our bank balance) this includes a new kitchen so it's far from being all bad news.

[NikoSan999]

Maybe by the time you get it all done you'll find that you don't really want to move after all. Maybe you'll find that this one is very close to your dream house with a small mortgage.
It sounds very nice..good luck and lots of fun with it.

[tracyq]

And you'll be making your current house more marketable when the time comes to sell and move too! It sounds like you're doing all really good things toward that, AND making your home beautiful for you now! :-)
Tracy Q.