Saturday, April 20, 2013

Zehring Vacation Fund 2013 Update

I know I have been slacking on this update. But with all the remodeling that we have been doing I haven't been keeping track of savings. Sorry. But here is a short update on our fund. I just cashed out my survey sites. So I will break those down for you and add them into our fund.


I am a part of 5 survey sites and 1 site that adds points up for using my debit card at certain stores/restaurants.

So here is the break down:
$10 GC to Target
$70 to PayPal
$10 Amazon GC

Total: $90 added to our fund.

Previous total: $446.23

New Total:  $536.23

Our vacation budget is $1000 by Sept. 2013


Sorry its not a big update because of our house being completely torn up right now. But its something!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Because I can't wait any longer


We have our new floors! I was going to wait until it was painted and refurnished and decorated to show you the final product but I am too excited to wait! We sold everything in our living except for our hand me down couches (that will go to a friend once we find our new couches) so I could have a living room I have dreamed of. Yes, we are saving and buying as we go but I can't buy anything until I find the couch I want and that is proving harder than I thought it would be. So until that big reveal here is our floor remodel.

Last week, the floor guys showed up. They said it would take 2 days but then they saw how many doors we have and how much detail was involved in putting new trim around each door and they quickly said they will be there for 3 days. Bummer because we would have started a day earlier. And also because I had to cancel my sub job to be there on Friday. And 3rd bummer because Joel only took 2 days off of work and I had to keep the boys inside all day Friday and keep them locked in my room or their room the whole day!

So anyways, its done and its LOVELY! Joel took the boys out Wednesday and Thursday from 8am til 5 pm. Lots of zoos, parks, McDonalds, naps in the car, and more parks. I stayed at the house and tried to stay out of the way.

First thing that had to be done was rip out the old, ugly, gross, smelly, carpet and tile. We found under the tile that the owners before us just put tile on top of the vinyl. We also realized that our dining room was originally carpeted because of where the vinyl ended in the kitchen.

 
Once that was done, then the baseboards and door trim was ripped off. Then the cutting of the door frames so the flooring could fit under it. That actually set our smoke alarm off because of all the dust. I am pretty sure I still don't have all the dust cleaned up. After that our exterminator showed up. We have had termites since the day we lived here. Nothing was getting rid of them. So our pest guy said he would like to get under the floor and put the spray into the cracks of our foundation. So we told him when we  would get the carpet ripped up he is free to do all of that. And he did! Once he was gone then it was time to level and fill in the cracks of the foundation.

Then comes my favorite part. The moisture barrier. I love this because once its down the flooring is next! By day one, they actually had about 30% of the floor done. By the 2nd day all the flooring was done and some baseboards. The 3rd day it was ALL DONE!

I love my new flooring. It echos right now because we have no rug or furniture to help and we are careful not to spill. I love that our dining table fits perfectly now and that the boys have a ton of room to play trains, cars, and trucks. I love the color we picked and I am extremely happy with the baseboards and matching door trim. And our fireplace looks great with it (and it will look even better painted).

So next on the remodel is painting and furnishing our living room and touching up our kitchen cupboards! Stay tuned!



 
Fireplace before
Fireplace and flooring after
Before
After

Looking out from the kitchen



Just enjoying the open space. The very first thing to come out after the floors were done


Looking into the kitchen from the sliding door



The kitchen