2021: House Projects Updates

 Repair the kitchen sink .

Add insulation for under the house

 Repair the brick stairs and foundation

 Painting and repainting doors, rooms, etc

2020: Office Project Final

 

Finally have the personal office in some kind of functional order. I was able to put my breakfast nook back in order too.  I am happy this project is basically done and now I can work on organizing financial documents. 

Our dining room is still covered in computers and monitors and I think it will stay that way until we know if/who is going back to an actual office. Also, I tend to work on small tasks throughout the workday which is mostly downstairs. 

If it ends up just being me at home permanently, then I will work on moving the work office in here which will be quite a task. 

2020 Project Part 2:Progress

Just a couple more shots of the grey room. I put up the curtains and set up a twin bed for the little Ambrose who needs his own special area because he is a king.

2020 Project Part 1: Conversion

I know, you can't believe I am actually posting. I am going to try this month to actually post something.  I really haven't had too much going on of interest but I started a project and thought you might like to see the pictures as I work on everything.


I am working on moving the guest bedroom to the smaller spare bedroom and then converting what was the guest bedroom (what we call the special room) into an office and dressing room for me.




The guest bedroom was painted a butter yellow but it looks more peach in the picture below. The curtains were gold and cream.

Before Colour

 Here is a snapshot of the old colour which can be seen in the right hand corner of the wall and the new colour which is a soft, light grey.

Switching to a grey tone



Base boards

Garage Door Project

 

 

We finally installed the new garage door!

New Cope!

 

 

A very talented lady in our parish is working on making a new cope for our priest and she is letting me help pick out the design! Pictured above are a couple of samples.

 

New Couch and Table

Finally here!

New Couch and Coffee Table

 

 

Hubby's man cave has been without a couch for quite a while now. I knew we had to bite the bullet and find something manly, comfortable, and not ugly.

 

The couch shown above has two built in motorized recliners on each end with an awesome headrest and lumbar support to boot!

The coffee table top can actually be lifted up to a table height. Let's not kid around here- we eat in the man cave quite a bit and I just wanted to face reality.

 

These two items are now on order and scheduled for delivery in early July.

Just Another Project.....

 

The next installment of windows for our house occurred today!

 

Just a little project

 

While I save for my full kitchen remodel- Hubby and I decided to replace the hood over our stove. It is amazing how something as simple as this can really breathe life into a room!

2017 Project: Windows!

Looking through one window and then another!



 

Check that out!


One of our projects this year is to replace the windows in the house. We could only budget for half the windows and are now saving up for the next half. I can't tell you how happy we are with the windows and the work ethic of the company which is owned by one man.
He and two other men handled all of the work and did so efficiently and without any issue. I was so pleased!

 

A Couple of Pictures....

I recently purchased these two prints which include an octopus and a mermaid. I finally framed them and hung them in my mermaid bathroom.

The Deck is Done!

Update on the Deck Project

It has been a roller coaster ride with this deck and very expensive! We had a lot of wood damage due to water and termites. I think we are about $3,000.00 over the original budget but this all had to be done.
In addition to replacing the deck- the back door has to be completely replaced because all of it is rotted. I think we will have to wait and save money before we tackle anything more-sheesh!
Anyway- here are a couple of pictures!

I changed the location of the steps and I think this will work better!



Demolition of the Deck

Don't step down!

Goodbye Old Deck!

I'm not sure why the builders did this.....

The stairs were becoming a hazard to use..

 

After three long years of looking for someone to replace the deck- we finally made it!

 

Here are pictures of the deck in it's worn out and poorly constructed state.

 

Make-up Is My Whore....

I know it is shocking to all who read this but from April 1st through December 31st I will not be purchasing any make-up products for myself.

I am choosing to do this as a sacrifice for a special intention but also to help with temperance.

What I may do is post showing the items I have completely used over the next nine months.... let me know what you think.

Sometimes You Get a Good Guy......

Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. our HVAC guy stopped at our house to fix our air conditioner issue. Within 8 minutes- he had diagnosed and fixed the problem. The capacitor had burned out and needed to be replaced. We were no longer under warranty but he still replaced it and didn't charge us a dime. He mentioned a larger HVAC company in the area and relayed that a capacitor costs $30.00 but that this larger company charged customers $130.00 of the part! I had recently spoken with someone who used the same company and was charged $8,000.00 to replace a unit! That is double it should have cost!
This kind of honesty and good work deserves a mention and Hubby and I give out his name all the time. He is the kind of guy you would like for all avenues of repairs.

That's my story.

The Mortgage Project

A co-worker and I were recently discussing getting out of debt . She is on Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball plan and it seems to be working for her family. The plan involves 7 steps to get you out of debt, save emergency funds, invest into retirement and college, and then give money to church and those in need.

I agree with some of his plan, but there are a number of holes- the biggest being he seems to use his interpretation of the Bible quite often to justify some of his positions. He also is very anti-gold which really doesn't make sense to me and I think he puts people in some risky positions.

What the conversation sparked was a plan for me to really get out of debt. I think I have mentioned this before (or maybe in my head) that I often feel like I am spinning my wheels.

Family and career goals haven't exactly panned out the way I thought and I feel like we are at a crossroad. I needed to make a decision of what to do next. Part of the hindrance was knowing that we need my income to pay all of our bills.

But, what if there weren't any bills except the most minimal? What if we could get our mortgage paid off and then really implement the plan of choosing our "forever home"?

Starting April 1st, Hubby and I will increase our mortgage payment with the goal of paying it off in eight years. At the end of this year I will assess what additional funds we have and see if we can add a lump sum to the balance. Our ultimate goal would be to have the home paid off in five years but I want to see how well we frugalize our lives. Yep, I just made up that word.

Here is our budget category breakdown:

  

Dog

Auto Insurance

Auto Maintenance

Auto Taxes

Electricity

Donations

Fun

Food

Gas

Gift

House

Home Insurance

Book Club

Medical

Mortgage

Necessity

Internet

Property taxes

Water

Telephone Bill

Taxes



The List of 32

So... my mama and I watched quite a few episodes of the BBC Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners. It is a show about people who obsess over cleaning and germs and then deal with their exact opposite.

After that, I grabbed a notepad that happened to have 32 lines and wrote out everything I wanted done within a week. 

I then stick this list on my fridge and let the good times roll! I get excited each time I draw a line through a task. 

Have I made it through all 32 tasks? No, but I am getting closer each week! I am up to completing 21 of the 32 tasks and can't wait to complete all of them! The great thing is that some of the tasks are more obscure things that you don't always think to complete (such as cleaning the base boards under kitchen cabinets).