The part where I talk about the renovation
The past few weeks have been pretty hellish in the Moneyseed household — or households I should say. We bought a 2nd house not too long ago, and after two months and what our realtor called “the most complicated home-buying process she’d ever witnessed” we were handed the keys to our shiny new house this past Monday. Since then, my wife and I have spent every waking non-working hour fixing up the new house to make it officially move-in ready.
Putting the whole family to work — even the 2 year old!
We’ve been flexing our DIY muscles more than ever this week, because the previous owners hadn’t updated the interior of the home in at least the past 20 years or so — and that’s being generous. The electrical sockets had all painted over (honestly, who does this?), the carpet in the basement looks like it belongs in the hotel from The Shining and the ceiling lights might as well be fucking disco balls.
While I can actually do most of the projects myself — the minor electrical, the painting, the ripping-out of carpet and the destruction of a pointless wall — there are things that I don’t even know where to begin in the DIY process. One example of this would be the process of replacing windows. The previous owners must not have liked fresh air, since every window (21 panels-worth) in the damn house had been painted shut. They were installed back in the 80s, are horribly inefficient, and will be a huge pain in the ass to remove/replace. With a budget of $10,000, we’re going to try to stretch our money as far as it can go. Without contractor assistance, $10k can go pretty far, but without the know-how projects like this can take way longer than you’d like them to and they could possibly disrupt daily life. We’ll refrain from using contractors whenever possible, but there are some things that I can’t — and shouldn’t — do.
I will give a full testimonial of the costs, as well as the man hours involved in this renovation upon completion. We’re hoping to have everything move-in ready by the 15th, which will also be the day we’re going to put our first house of the market as a rental. This will be it’s second appearance on the market – the first time we had renters lining up, trying to out-bid each other to live there. I’m definitely okay with that, and I’m hoping it’s like that this time around. Fisticuffs for my property = Sweet.
The part where I apologize
Besides the sweet renovation project that we’ve gotten ourselves into, there is another topic I feel like I have to address. I have to apologize for the state of the blog these past 3 weeks and I’d like to clue you into the what and the why my site has looked like a dumping ground for guest posts and advertisements.
I’ve had a crazy idea for a while to start an online magazine, and to see if it would work, we used this site in preparation to see how the new team would together. Could we write with a deadline? Could we write articles showcasing great companies that we believe in? Most importantly, could we come together to provide content as a team?
The answer to all of these questions was an astounding YES! So, the new site is up, it’s called “economag” and my JM life and economag life will exist exclusively to each other. I’d like you to visit the other site, of course, but if you’d rather just read me here, that’s fine with me too.
I realize now that I should have let the viewership know what was going to happen, before it started, but hey hindsight is 20/20 so give me a break! I already apologized.. Jeez. But, seriously, our new site is great and this one is going back to the old JM style where I try to tell you how to live a better, more frugal life. Thanks for sticking around through all of the craziness!
Cover Image Source: Flickr Copyright: USACE Europe Disctrict
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