Ladies.......we are learning so very early that home improvement projects are $$$$$$$!!! I mean seriously, curtains and then curtain rods can put you in the hole. Paint, accessorizing, flooring, etc....oye!!!

Dh and I have been saving for our current home improvement project but are learning to do things in stages...but it's taking forever. I want my house back...and prettier! LOL

How do you budget for home improvement projects? Do you rack up your credit and slowly pay it off, or do you pay cash for everything? OR do you take years to get it all done?

We just do it in stages. Decide what is your priority. Last year we upgraded the electric. This year it is a fence and redoing the bathroom (paint curtains, sink new toilet maybe new flooring). We are looking at hard wood flooring in a few years.

So, yeah, it will take many years and then we will have to start over again

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~Happiness is a large family~

We plan a year in advance with a tentative plan for the following year and try to alternate smaller and larger projects. Then save during the year.

Last year was the kitchen. Gutted to beams and studs. Now it is BE-U-tiful!!!

We planned on hitting up the two upstairs bathrooms this year, again totally gutting, because the new baby needs a bathtub but have swapped with next years supposed plan due to the economic issue. Just don't want to empty out the account. So instead we did the master bedroom and a new front door and misc other. Just about done and it will feel so good to be cleaned up!!!

Not sure where DS is going to take a bath when he outgrows the kitchen sink though...

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Oh the joys of being a homeowner - never ending projects that cost more than you think!

We pick projects each year depending on availability of funds. Last summer we gutted the basement and turned it into my piano studio. We've learned to DIY just about everything. We use a home equity line to fund home improvements and pay it off ASAP.

Dh does all of our home projects and all we have to pay for is the materials, which in itself is bad enough.

We do things in steps too. Like one year we painted the kitchen cabinest and put in french doors and new laminate flooring in the dining room, kitchen and living room.

The next year we redid the tile in the guest bathroom.

One year the roof, last year new windows and this year laminate in the hall and master bedroom.

We also shop around and see who has the best prices and deals.

We charged the stuff that we absolutely needed to get the project underway and then paid cash for the other stuff that we buy as we go.
Your projects sure do take longer that way but at least it is most of the way paid for when you are finished.

We are even saving for the next project as we pay off this one. I can't imagine charging it all and ours was a cheap project. Turning the sunporch into a small bedroom/ office. No major purchases there.

We have saved money by having my husband and his dad do most of the work.

Well we to live in a fixer
We started by doing a few of the little things like Paint (lime green walls had to go) and Curtians. (clearence curtians are still Curtians)
We saved up and waited a year to start our BIG projects the Kitchen and Electrical. We saved by doing most things and having around 6K saved up for it. I was very happy to be able to write a check for my new cabinets and electrical. Though the counters and Appliances went of our lowes and home depot cards. We had 12 months no interest and we made sure to pay them off as quickly as we were able.

It Pays to Shop. The Cabinets we were looking at at Lowes were Quoted to us at 6K
A Factory Direct cabinet outlet the same cabinets were only 3K We also learned that details make a difference. Like the little Arches on cabinet doors that were a $1000 extra

We also lucked out in that our Electrician was my dad and his labor cost consited of me cooking him what ever he wanted.

Our new flooring was by far the least exspensive. We pulled them up and cleaned up the exsisting Hardwoods. DDs room redo we saved by taking the trim peices off sanding them down and painting them white.

Another thing we did was Call our energy company and asked about there programs. They Covered over half the cost of adding insulation to our attic and crawl space. They also have rebates for energy efficiant improvements. Oh and we got a little money back claiming it as a tax credit

Current Project Our new Patio. Honestly its costing more then we thought still its who you know. DH has been great about barrowing tools. When we poored a new retaining wall he had the billing ran through his company which gave us contractor rates. Still its a lot of work we have our pavers set to be delivered tomorrow and I am not looking forward to the 2 of us having to set 2500 brick but hey it saves. We are using our tax refund to fund the new patio.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

We have done it in stages. We've been in our home for 7 years. We bought our home very inexpensively since it needed so much work. We decided to refinance and take some of the equity for the major work, garage, new siding and new kitchen. That money disappeared before we knew it! Now we are doing it as we have the money. This month we are doing the living rm, dining rm and hallway of our main floor.

I will add, for our current renovation, I didn't redecorate. New furniture will wait until all the other projects are done. I'm putting the same curtains, rod, furniture, rug back in the room. I did buy some new art work to put in frames I already have. I also bought some inexpensive frames at Walmart to group family photos. Oh, and I bought a table cloth. When we took out our dining room table, I told my husband he'd be lucky if I brought it back in. He told me to get a nice table cloth for it instead