OT: Almost fainted!

My husband & I went to home depot tonight to buy all new interior & exterior doors for a famr house we recently moved into. The house dates back to 1850 and needless to say there are MANY doors lol When we got up to the register..with the doors and the paint & wallpaper steamer etc..it came to 4200 bucks..EEK! Thank god I came home to a glass of Merlot..I needed it after that trip! lol Anyone else renovating?..what a job!

I can empathize! If you pull up the "www" link at the bottom of my post here (or the link in my profile) it will take you to the little cottage we bought in Kentucky a couple years ago. We had to gut the whole thing ... the porch fell off when we tried to shore it up, we put in rock baskets along the creek side and two days later they fell in the creek ... and the list goes on! But, it has been a fun project and we enjoy our little weekend get-away house. It's small but we absolutely love sitting on the porch, listening to the creek and the critters. Good luck with your project. I love those old circa 1800 - 1900 homes! DeeDee

WOW!!!!!!! That is an amazing transformation!!!!!!! OMG! I cannot believe the condition of that bathroom toilet! How did they use it when the tank was split in half? and OMG the kitchen transformation is just unbelievable!!!!! I can't believe you didn't keep that track lighting . Just kidding! Y'all have done an amazing job and love the yellow/cream color! The little granny house I lived at in Texas was yellow/cream. Now I live in another granny house outside of Lexington. Do you know the history of your house? I noticed they had a swingset. I couldn't imagine kids living in it! How many bedrooms does it have? I only saw one. You should be very proud!! Hugs, Dana

I sent you an email. The house is only 500 square feet (it was originally an office for the man who lives up the hillside across from it). The front area was his office and the back area we use as a bedroom was where he kept his construction tools. The lady who last lived there had a young son. She was involved in drugs and the house was torn up and deserted. She was murdered at a hotel in the city as a result of the drug dealings. The house was vacant for over a year when we bought it. It's actually in a fabulous neighborhood... my next door neighbor up there is a doctor and the couple next to him have a 'straight out of Southern Living' gorgeous four bedroom home. It's not a dream home but it is certainly a fun little get-away place. I even hosted a ladies' Sunday School party in it and had 17 women in there! (We borrowed chairs from the church and I had the luncheon catered.) We just love "our little Kentcuky home." DeeDee

I am renovating a total fixer-upper. I've put about $40K into repairs and it still needs another $40K. Here's a BIG money saver: Go to ebay and buy a 10% off at Lowes coupon, you can usually buy then for about $5. It saves you up to $2,000 off a $10,000 puchase... so I got alot of money off! Good luck, Michelle 294/149

That coupon sounds like a good value when you look at the bigger numbers. A good savings for big purchases, but I'm curious, how did you save $2000.00 on $10,000.00? Is there a trick to get more than 10% which would be $1000.00? We just bought a weekend cabin that needs some work and I would like to save as much as possible. We're needing to special order a natural gas grill and that coupon would be really useful.

Oh yeah. Moved from a custom house last Fall to an OK house but needs serious updating. We just developed our plan and budget whi*****ludes replacing all flooring, all bathroom fixtures, faucets, etc. Painting everything, including all wood work. I'm still in shock! There goes my savings for my arm lift! and that will only cover some of the flooring. Ann