How to Save $14,000 to $29,000 on House Siding

After getting estimates on vinyl and hardyboard siding from several vendors, we decided that we did not want to shell out the $16,000-$31,000 that we were quoted.

Luckily we know somebody who used to hang siding professionally, and he generously spent an afternoon teaching us the basics of hanging our own Masonite siding. He stayed with us while we resided a whole end of the house, and now we're confident that we can do it ourselves. I don't think we could of done it so easily without him holding our hand, but once we got going it was amazingly easy. Hard work? Yes. Difficult? Not really.

Even with buying siding, paint, tools, a building permit, gifts for those who helped us, take out lunches on the "siding days" etc, we're still spending a fraction of the cost of what was quoted to us. By the time we've bought paint and supplies, we'll have spent about $1800. We can't stop admiring our new wall:
We still have to paint and we have some other areas of the house to patch up, but it already looks a million times better. Bonus: We're less afraid to try big DIY projects.

Dollar Nightstand Makeover!

Before:

I found this gem at a yard sale for a dollar. The unusual shape and size was perfect for my guestroom, but the shape it was in left a lot to be desired.



After:

Some wood putty and a few coats of paint later, it's like a new piece! I hope to find some cute drawer pulls, but one thing at a time!

I'm pleased with how it came out. I'll be keeping my eye out for other diamonds in the rough this yard sale season.

In Process

I've been so busy that I've not had much time for my furniture rehab, but I'm in the process. I was amazed how much better it looks with just a coat of primer. Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to finish it up.

Yard Sale Finds: Rehab Edition

I've been looking for a small bedside table for our guestroom. It needs to be small. The space between the bed and the wall is not terribly generous, but I hate that there is not a convenient place for a lamp and a book in our guestroom.

I found something I thought would work in a trashpile, but it was just a bit too big. (It's now an extra table for my pile 'o grading in my laundry room "office.")

I saw something at my favorite thrift store, but $30 seemed a bit steep for something that was in fairly shabby condition. I went back on the half price day, but it was gone.

It's a good thing I read this post the other day. (Props to Meredith, for pointing us all in that direction!)

Today as I ventured through the yard sales, I reminded myself to look for potential, not for perfection.

Any other time, I would have passed this up. The small size and shape made me take a second look.



It will fit in the space I have perfectly. The drawers are surprisingly roomy, and the piece is real wood and sturdy. Could I rehab this piece?

I decided to take the risk. They were only asking $1!

Currently the wood putty is drying, and I'm eyeing the paint cans that we have in the basement. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Spoke Too Soon...

While my husband and I were out of town, the roommate managed to fix the dryer after all! We're not sure how long it is going to *stay* fixed, but we'll take the $20 part he had to buy over the $100-$400 we would have spent replacing it.

Of course, we're going to start looking for a good deal anyway. We think this may have been a gentle nudge from God to remind us to have forethought and not wait until there is wet, sopping laundry needing to be dried to replace it- we already know the dryer is getting iffy. Best to have a contingency plan in place!

FHP Needs Your Advice: Dead Dryer

The dryer is dead. It has been dead for a couple of weeks, and is beyond my husband and the roommate's mad mechanical engineering skillz. We're in the process of replacing it. We were not in a huge hurry as we usually line dry our clothes, but we do use it enough that we are starting to miss it.

Originally, we had planned on scoring a used one via the wonders of Craigslist and the newspaper, but this has been more difficult than anticipated. Our four main problems with locating a used one are as follows:

• They are listed as washer and dryer sets, and they are not willing to separate them. Our washer is fine, and we don't care about a matching set.
• The dryer listed is really old. I don't need a super new one, but I also don't want one from 1982 either. I think 5 years old is my max.
• The dryer is newish, but has not been used in a year or more and has been in the garage/storage. My mother in law lost an oven this way- she put it in storage, and by the time she needed it, mice had chewed through the wires. I don't want something that has not been in use recently because of her experience.
• The dryer is super ghetto. I responded to an ad that said it was in great condition except a few minor issues. One of the "minor issues" is that the door would not stay closed, but they were able to tie it shut and/or use magnets with moderate success. If we were in dire straits and it were free, I might consider it, but we are not in dire straits and they wanted $100, so no.

Because of these issues, we're actually *gasp* considering a new one. We have no idea what we want though, beyond "energy efficient" and "dries the clothes." What would you recommend? What is a must have and what are needless bells and whistles? What is the maximum you'd pay for a new dryer? (Some are crazy expensive, but are they worth it?) Are there any ways to get a used dryer that I may not have thought of? Let me know in the comments or e-mail me at Frugal.Homemaker.Plus (at) gmail.com

Frugal does not have to be frumpy!

Meredith's posts about feeling frugally frumpy inspired me to take a look in the mirror.

GAH! I think we all get in those funks where we take care of everybody but ourselves. I'll admit that I do not usually wear that much make up, and jeans and t-shirts are my favorite attire, but that does not mean that I have to look sloppy!

Since I was off work today for MLK day, I made an appointment at the beauty college for an eyebrow wax. I could pluck them at home for free, but it is worth the seven dollars to have somebody else do it quickly.

When I got home from the salon, I put on some of my Clinique makeup samples that my sister gave me, then put on my best jeans and a freshly ironed shirt. It was hard not to feel just a little glamorous as I went about my usual grocery shopping! Frugal does not have to be frumpy, if we take a little time to spiff ourselves up.

Home Improvement: Staining the Deck

We spent most of today staining our deck. It's one of those things that really needed to be done, but we've been putting it off. I'm so glad we finally got around to it. It is amazing how these small improvements do so much! We spent about sixty dollars on stain and a couple of new paintbrushes, but the result was well worth the cost. I can see the deck from the kitchen window, and it's amazing how much more cheerful the space looks with just a little bit of color.

Before Shot Number 1.
Before Number 2- that's my husband getting started!

After- I can't believe the difference!
Another after picture

Kitchen Improvement

I am on a roll with the home stuff! There's a few things I want done before I (temporarily) join the rat race. Today I painted the kitchen. I only painted one wall and I really like the effect. The paint was free- the last owners left it in the basement. I have no idea what they used it for before, as there is nothing yellow in the house that I've noticed. I really like the splash of color- not too bright, but enough to say "Hello! Welcome to my kitchen!"

Photographic Evidence

Bathroom Makeover: Upstairs Bathroom Version

I finally got around to redoing our upstairs bathroom. It cost a little more than our downstairs bathroom redo, but I went a little more wild with new hardware upstairs. Overall, it cost $55, which is not too bad. I picked colors that went with our current shower curtain and decorations, so that saved us some money right there. Clearance sales, oops paint racks, and using what you have already can go a long way!

Here's some before shots. The people who owned our house before us loved their frogs. The entire bathroom was painted a lovely blue, and it would have been just fine, had it not been for the frog theme. The frog wallpaper was cute, but not me.More frogs! And the top of the wooden medicine cabinet. And a wood toilet seat.

Most of my time was spent scraping down the wallpaper. It took FOREVER. It just did not want to come down, so some of my budget had to be spent on that special wallpaper remover stuff. I don't think it worked much better than water and scraping to be perfectly honest.

We painted the walls a lovely purple shade that I got off the oops paint rack at Lowe's for five dollars.

Most of my budget was spent on new hardware. Here's one of our new towel racks. I just did not like the wooden ones that they had, and although I was just going to repaint them, I saw these Simply Shabby Chic ones on clearance at Target and could not resist.

I was not able to scrape off the wooden frogs, so I replaced the faceplate with the one I took down from the roommate's bathroom when I redid it.

I hated that wooden toilet seat, so I replaced it with this one. I also bought a new toilet paper holder to match the towel racks.

My sink area...not much new going on here. I do want to replace the boring mirror someday with something more fun, but so far the ones I've liked have been INSANELY expensive, so I'm waiting for a better deal.

Another view of the shower curtain, new paint, and new towel bar.
This picture used to be in our bedroom, but I thought it looked really good in the bathroom, so we moved it. I'm thinking of painting the frame to match the newly painted cabinet.
Here's the cabinet. I painted it a pale yellow with a small pot of paint that I got on the oops rack for .50 cents. Fifty. Cents. That's good even for oops rack prices! The little drawer thing is something that I picked up at Goodwill not long after we married. It's been many things, but now it is painted and holds my husband's electric razor and assorted odd and ends.

Guest Closet After Pics

It took the weekend, a lot of rearranging, and some Freecycling, but my closet is done and ready for company! I am no longer embarrassed by this closet. Now I just have to keep it up and get moving on the hall closet! Have a peek at the new improved guest closet:

There's so much more room!

Much better...you can see what is on the shelves!

Most of the animal stuff has been relocated to the garage. My husband's computer and office stuff is still here. Still trying to figure out what to do with the chessboard. I would have it framed or something, but he does actually use it sometime, so that's a no.

Look! Floor! And not covered in Timothy hay! (I have three guinea pigs and a rabbit- we go through a lot of hay at this house!)

Cleaned up shelves, restacked drawers. I also wiped down the drawers- the top one is stained, but considering they all got heavy use in college and have survived 7 moves, they are holding up quite well.

That cabinet holds my small E-bay items, stationary and other mailing supplies. The boxes in the corner are mostly my flat rate boxes for my E-bay sales. I decided that I would no longer keep boxes that I could not fold flat for storage.

The 40 Dollar Bathroom Makeover!

I've been wanting to paint the downstairs bathroom ever since we moved in. It was not a bad color, but it was very sterile and boring. I decided that I wanted some color in there! I did not want to spend more than fifty dollars. Here's what I was able to do for forty dollars.

Before

The walls were a beige color. It was nicely painted, but very blah. The roommate had a lavender bathmat and a black shower curtain, but I removed those before I took the picture.


After
I painted the walls a burgundy color. The previous owners of this house left that small carpet, so I moved it to the bathroom to be used as a rug. The small cabinet was in our upstairs bathroom, but we had been meaning to bring it downstairs for the roommate as he does not have very much bathroom storage. Since it did not really match, I put a piece of black fabric on top, and that helped pull the look together. The paint was 20 dollars at Lowes with my 10% off coupon. All the other money was spend on two new "brushed nickel" towel racks and face plates at Target.

If you look in the before picture, you'll see red towel racks. They're wooden, and I was going to paint them black with a pot of dollar paint I found on the discount paint rack. However, I happened to see these things at Target on clearance, so I went for it. I love how you can see the old paint under the new paint. It looks kind of weird in this picture, but the effect in the bathroom looks nice.

The Five Dollar Lawn Mower

It took awhile, but we finally found a lawnmower for next to nothing. This is our first house and the first place we needed to take care of a lawn, so we need almost everything lawn related. The former owners left one of those fertilizer spreader things (and several bags of fertilizer), but we had no lawn mower. We had this idea that it would not be difficult to find one used.

We were wrong.

I saw several at yard sales, but most of those would not start, were in really bad shape, or were overpriced. Some mowers were all three. A particularly memorable one was a cheapo looking plastic mower. It did not run. The plastic was cracked in several places, some pieces were missing, AND the handle was duct taped on. They were asking eighty dollars for it, and the price was firm.

I kept my eye on Freecycle, but all of the mowers that were offered did not run. We checked pawn shops, thrift stores, and the newspaper. My husband finally located one on Craigslist for 25 dollars.

He went to pick it up today, and when he tried it out, it would not start. It sort of almost started, but the pull cord thing kept getting stuck. The lady offered it to him for free. Kirk insisted that she take some money for it, and they agreed on five dollars. He hauled it home and got to work on it.

Using the wonders of the internet, he looked up common problems and worked through them one by one. He cleaned the filter, did something to the fuel, and generally tinkered around with it. About an hour later, it started, and it works great!

It's not pretty or fancy, but it does the job!