Remodeling on a Budget

We purchased our first home about 18 months ago. It was on the brink of foreclosure and in desperate need of some attention and love. We continued living in our rental house for five months, with me spending just about every day at the new house (as I work from home), painting and staining, and my husband (Mike) joining me on the weekend, to demo and do some of the work that, quite frankly, intimidated me.

What a journey it has been -- and it's not over yet! We totally gutted the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom, changing the floor plan slightly for the kitchen (making the attached dining room into an unattached office and closing up a sliding glass door so that we could put a built-in banquette in that corner). We read a lot, watched a lot of HGTV, and took some classes at the local home improvement stores. Overall, we're proud of how things turned out and we're especially proud of the fact that we saved tens of thousands of dollars by doing so much of the labor ourselves.

I've always been a bargain shopper, so I was in my element as I hunted for materials and fixtures. I was able to buy a beautiful free-standing vanity with a hand painted glass sink online for nearly 75% off, as the online store was going out of business. I got all of the accessories for all rooms on clearance for 75-90% off, and then added a bit of creativity to some to make them into real works of art. We spent about $25,000 overall on all of the work we did, which included repainting the entire interior of the house, purchasing and staining new baseboards for most of the rooms downstairs, buying new light fixtures for most of the downstairs rooms, putting in two new windows, framing in and installing French doors in the new office, buying a new toilet and vanity for the powder room, totally revamping the kitchen (with new cabinets, tile backsplash, tile floor, built-in banquette, stainless steel appliances, and granite countertops), and then doing some neglected maintenance work that the old owner left for us (and of course did not disclose), such as the new waterheater that was needed, the roof patching that was needed in two locations, and the new plumbing manifold that had to be installed.

We had saved for nearly two years so that we could pay cash for most of the remodel. We did end up charging about $2000 at Home Depot (mostly for tools and things like molding, drywall, and lumber), but put it on an interest free for a year plan and then made sure to pay off the entire balance before that year was up. The one thing that we DID go over budget on was the granite countertops. Quite frankly, by the time we got to that stage, we had used up most of the savings and we did not have the cash for the granite counters we had always dreamed about. We discussed the other options, like the granite-look alike laminates or a solid surface counter. However, we really felt that if we put in a laminate counter, we would just replace it in a few years with granite -- and then we would be paying twice on the same project. So, we bit the bullet and charged the granite -- something I would not recommend to those in an "iffy" financial situation. It's taken us some time to pay down that credit card bill -- and I've probably paid more in interest than I saved on my beautiful bathroom vanity. However, everytime I walk into the kitchen, I do LOVE those countertops -- so for us, this was a good decision (although how I hate being back in debt for any reason!!)

For that reason, I opted to get a full time job so that we could pay off the credit card the rest of the way and start saving for the NEXT project -- which is the master bathroom. We will probably start that project in the next few months, as we've been approved as part of a class action claim and our house will be totally re-plumbed (a normally $10,000+ job -- at no cost to us!) We figured that would be a good time to tackle the master bathroom, as the plumbing and walls would be torn up anyway. We had a remodeling firm come and give us an estimate -- $20,000-$25,000 if we only replaced the fixtures (no changing of the floor plan) or $40,000-$50,000 if we moved any walls or fixtures!! I could hardly believe the quote! So, as nice as it would be to let someone else do all the work -- we plan to roll up our sleeves again. We figure we can make the changes we want (which will add about 10 square feet to the room), put in the materials we want, and keep the cost between $7000-$9000.

So, the search begins for bargain priced vanities, tubs, toilets, and tile! I'll share what I find and, if you have any great suggestions, please let me know! I welcome all the help I can get!