Casey and I just bough our first house a week ago, and holy cow, I can't believe how many things we didn't even know about that cost money. We thougt we had the down payment licked until we found out how much the closing costs were and the money to put into escrow.

And then we didn't like the kitchen so I've been remodeling it. We had Sears come out and give us an estimate, I'm doing the same thing they offered to do for 25% of what they quoted it at. Seems like every trip to Lowes hits the wallet like a sledgehammer though.

Its been a week and I'm just about done in the kitchen, then to do some landscaping, and then, maybe, paint the garage floor and start working on the 68.

Well, supposedly this home ownership thing is a big deal with your taxes. I just don't understand how it saves me money to spend a dollar and only get 15 cents back. I'd rather keep the dollar to begin with.

I share your pain on the Lowe's trips and now that I own a home I understand some of the good points of renting but I don't see myself going back any time soon.

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Originally posted by sigtauenus:

And then we didn't like the kitchen so I've been remodeling it. We had Sears come out and give us an estimate, I'm doing the same thing they offered to do for 25% of what they quoted it at. Seems like every trip to Lowes hits the wallet like a sledgehammer though.

Its been a week and I'm just about done in the kitchen

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Originally posted by Dreamcometrue:
To all you apprentice cabinet makers. If you need any advice, I can help you. I built, sold and installed kitchen cabinets for five years. Don't hesitate!

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Cabinets are enjoyable to work with. I have been doing them for almost 28 years professionally and got my first table saw at age 16 and circular saw and router at age 13. Plus was dumb enough to sneak use my dad's table saw at age 11 and ended up with 5 stitches on finger tip.

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Originally posted by exlocal:
Congratulations on becoming a homeowner. It's all relative on the present cost of being an owner. I bought my first of 3 houses in 1974. My then wife and I were renting an apartment for $150/month when we ran across a really small fixer in the hills. We put $5K down which was 20% of the price. The month payment was $175/month and I was wondering how the heck we were going to keep up. Fast forward to the present. My 2003 truck payments are higher than my present mortgage payment per month.

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I put cabinets in many houses in Hacienda Heights back in the late 70's to mid 80's and there are some very large homes in nice areas back then. That was before I left O.C. and migrated east. Owning is a little harder at first but always worth it in the long run and should always be strived for instead of renting.

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Originally posted by Dreamcometrue:
To all you apprentice cabinet makers. If you need any advice, I can help you. I built, sold and installed kitchen cabinets for five years. Don't hesitate!

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Shhhhhhh! Don't say this to loudly, my boss might hear. He has been paying me journeyman wages for the last 19 years. I was the forman for a couple of years, as was STC, but we both love working the wood part and decided to leave the politics to others. There is something to be said about watching an idea you have grow into a funtional part of a home. Thank you for the offer of advice, I think it is awesome when someone has an ability and they offer to help and share their knowledge. Sometimes it is so hard to ask, and advice is much appreciated. I love to work with wood and having the ability makes it easier to afford some of the nice things for our home. Guess I'll just always be a big Tom-Boy. Working on the cars is fun too, well except when the bolt froze and when it broke loose the ratchet slipped off and broke my nose a little.

Owning a home is the best way to go for investments. They just mentioned on a radio program that it is the only investment that will yield such a high return in the shortest amount of time. Plus it gives allot of pleasure being able to form it into what you want. Landlords tend to frown when you make changes to their property. Or your project car leaks fluids on the garage floor. Could always be like STC and have a plywood floor.

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Originally posted by sigtauenus:
You know, for all the talk about home starts being up and record home ownership and the government wanting you to own a home, etc, etc, its @#$%^&* EXPENSIVE!!

Well, supposedly this home ownership thing is a big deal with your taxes. I just don't understand how it saves me money to spend a dollar and only get 15 cents back. I'd rather keep the dollar to begin with.

Oh well, late night ramblings after working in the kitchen for about 14 hours today.

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Do not forget to save every home improvement receipt. If I recall correct when you sell your house you can use them to lower your capital gains tax, which should also then save you some money. As for the .15 on the dollar, I never got that either but do know in a few years you will have equity and then maybe you will get the other .85 back or at least see it.
Our company works us 6 days a week about 10 plus hours a day so we only have a few hours a day to make progress.
Have some pictures if you wish to feel better about the time spent remodeling. And we only have 5 more rooms to go.
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4114205

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Originally posted by sigtauenus:
I just don't understand how it saves me money to spend a dollar and only get 15 cents back. I'd rather keep the dollar to begin with.

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Ask yourself two questions:

1. How much have you spent in rent since you moved out on your own.

2. What do you have to show for it?

congrats to you guys for buying a home!

i bought a little-teeny-tiny house in NOV 1994 ... it came with 7.25 acres ..... we worked tremendously hard adding a "great room" on to it, gutting and redoing the original portion and bringing it to a very nice level of custom-made-one-of-a-kind cool little house ..... it was what i did every weekend for two and a half years..... i got my CO in july 1997 ...... it was hard hard work but i learned a lot and am thrilled to have done it.....

the only thing i wish i would have done is bitten the bullet and added more square footage....it would have been so much easier to do in the beginning than to add it on now.....

live and learn eh!!??

nonetheless, the most recent appraisal was a little shy of triple the price i gave for the land and that tiny shack that was on it!!

home-ownership will be a great adventure for you! enjoy!!

Note fridge was moved to other side, DW was moved to other side of sink, and the corner with no wall cabinets (just base and counter) was empty before...supposedly for an "eat-in" kitchen table/chairs, but we always eat in front of the TV or in the dining room, so was wasted space to us.

Dave & Terri

Carole

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