Background

Thursday 28 July 2011

Possession Day

Today is the day we get the keys to the house! I cannot even begin to tell you how it feels. I'm not sure what I am more excited about - the fact that we finally have our OWN home, or the fact we can decorate it as we like!

Two nights ago we had our final walk through and it was weird walking through the house thinking "in 2 days, this will be ours!" It's still very surreal and probably will be until we start unloading all of our stuff - but we cannot be more excited about it.

These past few weeks just waiting for tomorrow has got us thinking how proud we are to have a home at such a young age - I am 25 and my fiancé is 23.

Getting to this point in our lives was by no means was this easy, and before we took this plunge there was much to discuss {financially} between the two of us.

We both decided that it would be the smartest decision to pay off any and all of our debt before purchasing our first home (which we did and are now both debt free). I know, I know. a mortgage is still debt, but it's a different kind of debt - it's good debt! But we both agreed that any and all excess debt was unnecessary. And unless we win the lottery or figure out how to grow money from trees, a mortgage will always be the way to purchase a home for us. So we look at the mortgage as a good thing!

Let me define debt in our eyes - we have no student loans, no credit card debt and no outstanding balances on purchase from stores or any other creditors. We now only owe money to our mortgage. If we want something, we save up for it. It's that simple.

I'm looking forward to taking the next step in the DIY decorating world while keeping our budget in mind. We will be buying things we can afford and not stick a bunch of new furniture or electronics on a piece of plastic and end up paying a ton of interest fees. That is not for us. Garage sales and thrift stores have our names written all over them!

If you are interested in DIY decorating, keep watching my blog as I post projects and crafts on here that you can do to save yourself some money as well!

Happy House Day!

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Finding Our Home

When we were looking for a home, we originally wanted it in a mature neighbourhood, an older home (40-60+ years old) with a nice backyard that didn't look onto backyard neighbours. After viewing a tonne of homes, we realized that purchasing an older home in our price range would require too much TLC - something neither of us have the time or money for. As it turns out, our perfect first home was only 13 years old, in a newer subdivision AND we still got the amazing backyard! We are still surprised we ended up loving exactly what we didn't set out for! :)


Our House Specs! 

13-year old 2-storey home located in a newer subdivision within the city
 It has......
  • 3 bedrooms
  • 2.5 bathrooms
  • Finished basement
  • Open concept kitchen/living/dining
  • Central air conditioning
  • 1-car garage
  • Large backyard that backs onto green space (bonus!!)
  • And all located in a growing subdivision in the city


What We Love:
  • Large backyard backing onto green space
  • Open concept kitchen/living/dining
  • Finished basement
  • Master bedroom
  • Garden "rough-ins"
  • Large back deck
  • Walking distance to schools and shopping centres
  • The garage
  • 4-car laneway!
  • Central air
  • The fact that it has "room to grow"!


What We'd Like to Change Over Time:
 
INTERIOR


Living/Dining/Kitchen/Powder room
  √ Wall colour of entire main floor (done!)
  •  Update kitchen counter tops
  •  Adding self-closing devices to kitchen cabinets
  •  Replace main floor flooring to be laminate or hardwood throughout
  •  Adding a mail station in the kitchen
  •  Update main floor powder room (to our own style!) c/w self closing devices


Basement
  •  Creating a home photography studio!
  •  Update wall colour/decor/furniture
  •  Replacing carpet
  •  Updating the bathroom with new fixtures
  •  Finish laundry room (drywall, storage, etc.)
  •  Change lighting


2nd Floor Bedrooms
  •  Painting of guest bedrooms on 2nd level


2nd Floor Bathroom
  •  Putting in longer vanity in 2nd storey bathroom
  •  Adding a 2nd sink to 2nd storey bathroom


Master Bedroom
  •  Vaulting the master bedroom ceiling


Garage
  •  Adding storage solutions
  •  Drywalling garage
  •  Re-finishing the concrete




EXTERIOR
  •  Landscaping the backyard
  •  Re-finishing the back deck (power wash and re-stain)
  •  Building a sun structure over back deck
  •  Buying/building a shed
  √ Patching part of the roof (peeling shingles) (done!)
  •  Installing a rain barrel
  •  Building a vegetable garden in the backyard


I will post photos of the house soon!!


On a side note..................T-Minus 23 days until we get our home!!