The Massive Redo

Today starts the big redo on our townhouse and I am going to try my best to detail how it goes. At the beginning of the summer we had no idea we were going to do everything we are doing starting today. Then one day, driving back from one of my schools I heard a radio story about dropping interest rates on mortgages. I had pretty much ignored these for awhile since our rate was already a pretty, darn low 4.75%. But this story said there were now some 3...rates to be had so I got to thinking. We needed new carpet, we needed to paint our place and we needed a new washer and dryer sometime in the next few years. Why not do it this summer?

And we had some incentive, Mike and Carol, our good buddies from Florida were coming up on Labor Day to see us and Bob and Judy and we could really make the house look great. So Kathleen and I decided to give it a go.

First, we were thrilled to be able to get a 3.5% mortgage refi, which enabled us to keep our payments within $100 of where they were and to take $22,000 out of the house. WOW! Then we were shocked at how much it cost for paint and carpet. Everyone we know guesses that to have the inside of our house painted (everything except the guest room, laundry room, guest bath, my office and inside of our closet) guesses around $3,000 or so. That's what we thought when we started this process. Add about $6000 to that and you will be in the right ballpark. And carpet is just about as expensive.

We are thrilled (so far--they haven't started work yet) with the painters we have chosen. They were recommended to us by friends who had them paint their place. Very professional. And they have great references.

So for the last three weeks we have been taking down all the artwork on our walls (for those who know our house, you know how much that is), moving furniture, selling things we don't need or haven't used. Kathleen even decided to completely redo her loft, discarding all the book shelves (and most of the books on them) and starting all over again. It is going to be superb when she is done.

Yesterday Josh came by after work and helped me move all the furniture from the living room and the dining room into our breakfast nook. It is now stacked up behind me as I sit at the kitchen counter typing this. There will be a curtain (will show you later in the week) between this area and the stairwell.

The painters are going to do the first half of the place this week. That means the stairwells, the living room and dining room, the half bath on the main floor, the loft and the upstairs hallway. Then next weekend Josh will come over and we will move everything back into the other half and they will paint the kitchen, the nook and our bedroom. From what I am told the actual job involves 4 days of masking and about three hours of actual painting. Everything is being done with spray. That includes the abundance of wood trim we have.

We got all the furniture moved and the big TV is upstairs in the guest room where we will hide out for the next two weeks. For this first week we will still have the kitchen so meals are going to be OK. Next week we will be eating elsewhere as we won't have access to the kitchen. I guess that means Starbucks across the street will be getting a bunch of business from me.

Well, off to work now. More later on the big redo!