H and I have been in our new house for about 2 weeks at this point, and have completed most of the demo we’d like to do (upstairs, anyway). We’ve completely gutted out the bathroom and the kitchen. We moved into a house built in the 20s, so it was kind of sad to see some of the stuff go – we had to break apart a cast iron tub with a sledgehammer and carry that to the dump, because it would have been possible to pick up and carry out in one piece, and we had to partially destroy some of the cabinets in the kitchen that were built in by the original owner (though we were able to save half of them and those went into my outbuilding). Seeing those things come down was pretty hard, because they were so well made, but they would have been extremely difficult to use, now and in the future. We’ve been donating what we can (and even had some mirror decorations that we donated because they were ugly as sin that made a cameo in a movie H and I watched recently). I’m working on an article about what to do with all of that stuff to maximize sustainability, so stay tuned.
We’ve got a lot of redecorating to do as well – that stuff is far easier though, like paint. We have been considering some black gloss sideboards for one of the rooms, but are not sure about how dark they will be when all is said and done, as it looks like our kitchen will be kind of dark.
Ninja took some kids out flocking to raise money. I think this is a creative idea to raise some cash, and some more thinking in that market is sorely needed. I cant stand when someone comes up and asks me to buy something. For one, I feel like the products are geared towards women (I get offers for cookies (both men & women) candybars (same) and candles). None of those are things I would buy in bulk on a daily basis (or ever), so I dont want to keep them around. I’d rather give the kid 10 bucks to go away, and they can keep all the money instead of some company taking a cut of the profit. How do you guys feel?
The Simple dollar has an article about credit cards. I agree with this – all the cards I use give me some rewards, usually travel miles or points of some sort. I’ve built a large cache of them this way, and used a portion of them for my honeymoon, and a few other wedding odds and ends.
Man, I really wish you had some demo pics up! I’m impressed that you’ve gotten off to such a fast start. I have a close friend who bought a fixer more than a year ago, and is STILL in a constant state of repair. Her house has never been anything but a disaster zone! Sounds like you’re on the fast track to livability.