Homeowner in 3… 2… 1…
Well, it’s almost all done. I was in the lawyers office today signing the final papers, and writing the largest check I’ve ever written (well, actually getting the largest certified check I’ve ever had). Also signed myself into the largest amount of money I’ve ever owed, lots of fun. But in three or so days I’ll be a “Homeowner” and a day after that I get to move in (why? no idea, but for some reason there’s a twelve hour lag time between ownership and moving in date).
Firefly and FireflyMom have been madly planning, and sounds like in addition to getting the smell of pot out of the house, putting down floors, ripping out walls in the kitchen, redoing the master bedroom and second bedroom, they are also talking about redoing the kitchen right from the get go. Lots of work, but I have the time I guess. I suppose for some things there’s no time like the present, and if they can get it planned and executed hell, I’d be stupid to say no. We actually found colors we both agree on as well, and some nice granite slate for the countertops that was dirt cheap. Sucks that there’s still three days before the actual work can get started, but I still have to finish Doom 3…. 🙂
Just a warning about the kitchen… kitchens are the most expensive part of home renovation, which is why we haven’t even touched ours yet.
For example, to replace the cabinets and countertop in our tiny kitchen, we’re looking at $6000 — and that’s not including installation, flooring, or new paint for the walls. It’s really easy to spend over $10,000 redoing a kitchen.
You know, that’s what I heard as well, but with a) free labor from Andrea’s parents and us two, and b) Andrea’s parents already having all sorts of materials already, it’s going to be way less than that.
This is also coming from people who scoff at Trading Spaces and the huge $1000 cost they have 🙂 I’m just going with the flow here, it’ll be intersting to see where it all ends up 🙂
Be careful with what’s at the auction. My uncle got hardware flooring for his office from the auction, but now he’s ripping it out because it shrunk and curled up on him. There’s often a reason stuff is at the auction 🙂
I asked my dad (lots of my family is into construction/development/etc), and he says normal laminate wood flooring is $1.50 – $6.00 / sqft.
Kitchens are also where most families spend a lot of time 🙂
That’s awesome! Congrats! You’ll definitely have to keep us up to date on how the renovations go. Another tip….check out some of the auctions, namely All City Auctioneers…they usually have some furniture and you get it for dirt cheap. As well they usually have flooring, and unlike other auctions I’ve been to, this flooring is not seconds, it’s perfectly fine, and usually you’ll get it for about 1/3rd of the price. The one time we could have gotten real unfinished maple flooring ( like the stuff they put into gyms ) for just $1/sq ft, but usually you’ll find the decent laminate goes for between $0.80 and $1.00/sq ft. Another place to try for furniture is the Home Zone in Abbotsford. The stuff he sells is usually from Sears and he’s gotten it from auctions, and again they’re very cheap.
Well, good luck with the house! And make sure to post lots of pictures!
Forgot to post the url for the auctioneer: http://www.allcityauctioneers.com. I’ll warn you though, their site is horrible, but it gives you the dates and usually some details on each auction.
Thanks dee! Wow, that is an awful site, but the auction on the 18th has hardwood flooring and such, which is bang on what we could use 🙂
1) we just spent $10,000 on our kitchen… just cabinets and countertops… ouch
2) AllCityAuctions is THE worst site ever
3) You probably don’t want “e x o t i c hardwoods” really do you? However, bamboo would be a cool floor.