Home Remodeling for CHEAP

I'm cheap.

Yes, that's right. And I have no problem admitting it. I'm cheap.

I have this grand delusion in my head that we'll some day move back to Fort Kent. Pipe dreams don't cost anything, so I'll keep dreaming them (I told you, I'm cheap!).

If we're ever going to sell our house (or if I'm going to be happy with how it looks if I'm living here for the rest of my life), we need to do some upgrades.

Our house was built in 1975 as part of a small subdivision. Thank goodness subdivisions then included a bit more land and a bit more privacy from the neighbors. The 2nd owners put all new windows, siding and decks in 1997 (I know this because the invoices for these things were given to us when we purchased). The people we purchased the house from only did cosmetic work as they only owned the place for 2 years.

Then we came along.

This is our house when we bought it.

Cute enough, right? It was affordable and it had potential (and my goodness I've lost a lot of weight since that picture!).

We didn't do much before moving in. We painted the ceilings, our bedroom and cleaned from top to bottom. That fall, we had to replace the roof. We shopped around and purchased all of the supplies, rented a dumpster and had a Roofing Party. Our father's, 2 of my uncles and one of T's best friends all came down to give us a hand (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone - it's been a few years!). My dad and T ripped off the old roofing on Friday. By noon on Saturday, they were over half done. My mom and aunt helped me keep a supply of food available and I made a feast for that night as a thank you. They all knew what they were doing and it was MUCH cheaper than hiring a contractor.

After going through our first winter here, we knew what had to be done next. The doors were original to the house and they were drafty. We spent months doing our research and shopping around again before making our purchase. Money well spent. We no longer have a draft and they look really nice! We hired a self-employed carpenter to install - and T helped him to help cut down on time/man power.

Before (check out the old front door):

We didn't do anything to the exterior of our home last summer. We had our hands full just learning how to be parents so we didn't take on any extra curricular activities.

This year was probably the biggest year yet. It was the least expensive and had the biggest impact.

I convinced T we needed to change the shutter and deck colors. Apparently, after 10 years together, he still doesn't know me very well. He immediately poo-pooed the project because it would be too expensive. Silly husband thought I wanted to actually replace the shutters. That would have been a hefty price tag because every window in our house has shutters.

Replace? No way.

Paint.

My father has a paint sprayer. So we borrowed it and T went to work (he wouldn't trust me with a paint project of this magnitude, of course).

After 1 can of primer, 1 1/2 gallons of paint for the shutters and 2 gallons of paint for the decks, our house looks completely, 100% like a different house. (And the man now agrees with me that it was a fantastic idea - he needs to learn to not doubt me! ha) I also took some of my "play" money and replaced the exterior lights.

I present to you, our new house:



A cozy look for less than $200.

Now if I could tame the flower beds....