Finding Treasures

I love the thrill of the hunt -- bargain hunting, that is! There is nothing quite like knowing exactly what you want for a room/area and then, sometimes months later, finding an item that exactly fits the bill, at an inexpensive cost.

One of my secret pleasures is looking up houses online that are for sale and have the same floor plan as our house. I like to see the pictures and look at what changes they have made. Sometimes I get great ideas on how to remodel or decorate my house. Occasionally, we'll go to open houses, just to see the decor. On one of these outings, I saw that the owners had updated the upstairs deck by replacing the ugly overhead bulbs with great looking ceiling fans. I fell in love with the look and started my hunt.

Unfortunately, indoor/outdoor fans in the style (closed light fixture) and color (oil rubbed bronze) that I wanted were running for over $150 each. I couldn't justify paying that sort of money for something that was mostly a cosmetic update in an area we did not use often. However, the other day I finally found exactly what I wanted and, with our military discount at Home Depot, each fan was only $50!

Mike put them up for me over the weekend and they look terrific. However, then I noticed that the paint and some of the texturizing on the ceiling of the deck was peeling -- and it stood out like a sore thumb now that we had pretty fixtures! So -- another project is in the works. I spent the afternoon scraping off the loose paint and texture, and putting up new tape on the seams of the drywall ceiling. I'm going to mud the seams again tonight, and then I'll be able to texturize before the weekend (and I can spend the weekend painting the ceiling). We already picked up some outdoor furniture for next to nothing (90% off at Target a few years ago), so when we are finished, that area should be a pretty, relaxing area to enjoy a drink in the afternoons and evenings while taking in the great view of the valley and mountains.

Pictures soon to come!

The Master Bathroom

I've been trying to get around to posting pictures of the finished master bathroom (I've actually been showering in there for more than a week now!), but as usual, life gets in the way. I've got to make this post short, as I have to get to work this morning -- but here are some before and after pictures for you!

BEFORE - tub area. Note the small, high window:





AFTER - tub area. We put in a great new window that lets us see the terrific view of the valley and mountains:





BEFORE - The vanity area. Outdated, too large, and in disrepair:





AFTER - We like it much better. The vanity was more than 50% off online and note our Craigslist $25 mirror/lights:



BEFORE: Shower, complete with the horrible grout job and outdated tile. We never showered here because of a leak we discovered after purchase.





AFTER - Shower area. We did all of our own tiling on this job with Italian porcelin tile that had been discontinued, so we got a great savings. Mike is ridiculously happy about the body sprays in the shower.





You can see the old medicine chest in the before vanity area pictures. We opted to relocate it and create something unique. From the exterior, it just looks like artwork:



But if you know what it is, you can open it up for storage! We had a lot of fun with this project and saved a ton by designing and constructing it ourselves (we did buy the artwork at 50% off at a local hobby store):



I haven't done the final financial tally on the master bathroom remodel -- however, it about $10,000 overall. The quotes we received from two remodeling companies in town were between $25,000 and $40,000 -- so we're very happy with the sweat equity we will receive from this job (not to mention that it is SO much more pleasant and functional to use!)

The New Guest Room

Since daughter Cherron has moved into her own place, her former bedroom has been empty. I wanted to turn it into a guest bedroom so we had a proper place to put family and friends when they visited -- but with the job situation being what it is, we didn't have a big budget. However, since when do you have to pay a fortune to get a really great look?

I knew I needed all of the furniture, artwork, and accessories. The only thing I already owned was a television and the window coverings that Cherron left behind. The paint was a pretty color, but there was some damage in a few places on the wall. Luckily, Cherron had purchased a quart of new paint to add to the paint we had leftover, as she had wanted to paint the bedroom in her new place the same color. She was kind enough to give me the remainder of that paint to use to touch up the walls in the new guest room.

I became a Craigslist stalker (in a good way -- looking for anything at a great price that might work for me). I was able to purchase the queen size bed and boxsprings, bedroom furniture, and some artwork in this manner. I visited garage sales and picked up a lamp and shopped thrift stores to find the shade and some accessories. I used 50% off coupons at hobby stores for some additional artwork and accessories, and I got all of the bedding on sale. I purchased some fabric (with a 50% off coupon, of course) and I used it to make the accent pillows. I bought a few forms at thrift stores and for the rest, I used old king size pillows we no longer used, cut down to size. The bedroom furniture was in rough shape, so I filled the dings with wood filler, sanded, and painted. I also had to find two finials to go on the footboard, as the originals were missing. I picked up some at the hobby store that were on sale for 66% off and painted them to match. On the nightstands, I tiled the tops to make them more durable and to give them a really great and unique look.

After I touched up the paint on the walls, I found that the new paint was just a tad darker than the old (or the old paint had faded a bit). You could see the blotches on the wall where I touched up -- so I bought some glaze, added it to some of the paint, lightened it up just a bit with some cream color paint I had, and then I did a faux finish on the walls with a sea sponge. The results were great!

Here's where the money went, the total cost, and pictures of the result.

Queen size bed and boxsprings: $80 (from Craigslist)
Four post bed and two nightstands: $40 (from Craigslist)
Finials for bed footboard: $15 (66% off at craft store)
Molding and tile for nightstands: Free (leftover from other jobs)
Paint for bedroom furniture: $30
Paint for bedroom walls: Free (from Cherron)
Glaze & supplies for painting bedroom walls: $30
Candle holders on nightstand: $8 (50% off at craft store and one from thrift store)
Lamp: $4 at garage sale
Lampshade: $4 at thrift store
Bedding (comforter & sheet set, mattress cover and mattress pad): $65 (on sale at various stores)
Bed skirt: $2 at thrift store
Pillow forms: $6 at thrift store and the rest free from old pillows
Accent pillow fabric/thread: $15 (using 40% off coupon at fabric store)
Large flower artwork: $20 (50% off at craft store)
Small flower pictures: $20 (from Craigslist)
Small mirror and hooks: $12 (thrift store and Target)
Floral arrangement: $15 (using coupons and sales at craft store)
Magazine basket: $7 (70% off at craft store)

The grand total: $373

I am still checking Craigslist often, as I would like a small chest or armoir to put inside the closet. That way, there will be storage, as well as a place to put a television (and guests can just open one closet door to watch television from the bed). I don't want to pay more than $25 for this -- so with paint (if needed), I may need to spend another $35 or so. However, I'm so pleased to get this beautiful, comfortable room for around $400! I think it would be easy to spend 10 times that much to get the same look!

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!