Reno(vation) 911!
The extremely detailed who, what, where, when and why behind our home reno
When I got pregnant for real, our first instinct was to move. Zac has been in this house since 2015 and, as someone who enjoys moving and the whole real estate game, he’s been itching to change up the scenery for a while.
We toyed with the idea of moving away from our young, hip, and extremely convenient area and heading north to be closer to my parents in the suburbs, so we started looking with the hope that we would quickly find something that was an upgrade from what we have for the right price in the right area.
If you’ve moved or been trying to move in the last few years or so, I don’t have to tell you what a hellscape the market is. Everything is overpriced, interest rates are an abomination, and the general vibe is bleak. That said, our search didn’t last long before we had a come to Jesus about it all.
We realized that, sure, our home is 100 years old, but it’s a great house. The problem is that the layout is awkward and the space we have wasn’t being utilized in the most efficient way. So after talking it out and spit balling ideas, we decided that we were going to stay put and invest in what we already own by way of a total kitchen renovation plus a few other updates. And thus began the great Renovation Renaissance of Summer 2024.
Now, I want to make one thing clear: we had to take out a loan against our home to make this happen. We do not have a mortgage on this house — it’s fully paid and we own it outright, which obviously made the idea of moving and taking on a big ass mortgage even less appealing. However, we could handle taking on a $150k loan to make this reno happen, so that’s what we did.
We also are working with an incredible female contractor that my parents just employed to update their kitchen whose name they got from their interior designer and a dear friend of ours, Hill House Interiors.
What I’m trying to say is, all the stars aligned to make this decision feel right — much more right than moving outright.
So today, I’m going to share exactly what we’re doing, what it will look like (via some drawings I sketched, which will make you LOL because I am not an artist), how long it will take, and what we’re doing in the meantime.
Welcome to Reno(vation) 911!