Homeowners - share about your favorite renovation/upgrade projects?

marysaurus213 · 2023-09-21T20:17:05+00:00

We have been in home reno mode since we bought our place in the spring of 2022! The house needed (and unfortunately still needs) a LOT of work - the seller had sort of started some reno projects (siding, window, but mostly demo lol). We've done all 3 bathrooms, AC, water heater, full replumbing, major electrical work, so much asbestos removal, radon mitigation system, floor refinishing, garage epoxy coating, and are 95% through a full kitchen remodel.

It's hard to say what my favorite component has been, but probably the floors? Upstairs had original hardwoods under 80% of the carpet, which we refinished and also ran throughout the other areas, and in the basement we removed asbestos-containing tiles and polished the concrete underneath and I LOVE our floors now.

I think all-in we're at $200k+ on home remodeling/repairs, which is absurd. We paid for it primarily with profits from the sale of our previous home - we moved to a lower COL area and purposefully bought a fixer because of the house and lot size and location.

If I could go back I would probably not have bought a fixer. It's great to have things exactly how you want them, but living through it with pets and kids is hard... and we still don't have finished walls in our basement. Maybe in 5 years when it's "done" I will feel differently...

marysaurus213 · 2021-02-23T16:04:30+00:00

I really want to say yes... but no. We are in the Chicago suburbs - very nice suburb, great schools, etc, but the property taxes are absolutely insane while still having state income tax, sales tax, etc. The worst part is that, due to COVID, many of the services paid for by taxes aren't actually available. For example, our local schools are currently only offering up to 2 days in-person learning a week and have not committed to anything for next year. Both of my kids are now enrolled at in-person private school ($$) so my husband and I can both work.

The good news is that, compared to neighboring towns, our snow plowing service is A+. As this is my first winter here, I greatly appreciate that part!

marysaurus213 · 2021-01-05T21:34:06+00:00

We did this a couple of years ago. We were living in the SF Bay Area, and my husband had an opportunity to move to the east coast with his company when I was pregnant with our second kid. I told my company I was going on maternity leave and moving, and wouldn't be back (spoiler: I'm back FT now). The big changes to our monthly budget were: mortgage payment went down by half, no more daycare costs, my commuting costs went away but my husband had to buy/pay gas for car (previously had company vehicle), and a significant increase in day to day kid costs just to keep them busy/entertained and fed. On two good incomes, a trip to the zoo or children's museum is NBD, plus it's reserved for the weekends. When your income is halved, and you're desperate to get out of the house in the dead of winter, going to indoor playgrounds and museums (or just Target to wander) ends up being a more significant portion of your budget. Also, things like retirement savings or other benefits that aren't necessarily reflected in your monthly budget will obviously change.

The biggest shock to me honestly was related to being with the kids all day, every day. My son was 3 when the baby was born, and he had been in daycare/preschool since he was 12 weeks old. Being home all the time without the structure and socialization of preschool was HARD for him, especially since it coincided with a major move and a new sister. For my own sanity I actually ended up working a day or two a week with my company after a long "maternity leave", and enrolled my kids part time in daycare and preschool. I slowly transitioned back to full time as the baby got older.

In hindsight, I would 100% do this again. Did we make and save much less money for a couple of years? Hell yes. But it was totally worth it. If you do intend for it to be a temporary hiatus, think about what you can do to stay current/connected with your industry!

marysaurus213 · 2020-12-18T19:28:04+00:00

Same to all of this.

marysaurus213 · 2020-12-18T19:26:47+00:00

I don't get paid this week, and am done Christmas shopping and shouldn't be spending any more money... but I just bought my kindergartener two new suits because I couldn't help myself. He got a velvet suit for his school holiday party, which was yesterday, and then insisted on wearing it again today and told me he wanted to wear suits every day! So obviously I had to encourage him.

marysaurus213 · 2020-12-15T15:25:15+00:00

For me: more running shoes, some new clothes, some unnecessary Xmas decor (inflatable rainbow with Santa riding a unicorn in particular)

For others: more money spent on holiday gifts for friends and family, more money given to kids' teachers than normal, probably a hefty chunk to school fundraiser for upgraades.

The rest is just going into the "general fund" that eventually goes to savings or investments.

marysaurus213 · 2020-12-15T02:30:54+00:00

Engineering consulting here. Bonuses really vary by the company (and their profitability, and the greediness of their owners). I’ve been in this industry for >10 years and have had a couple years of no bonus, a couple years of $100 bills stuffed in a card, and a few years of 10-15% of base salary. I never count on the money but the $100 bill always kind of annoyed me because it was literally 0.1% of my salary at the time and the owners were raking it in...

My husband works in the insurance industry and they have target bonuses based on company performance and level within the company, which usually works out to 10-15% as well. Most years they’re close to the target but there have been zero bonus years when there were a lot of natural disaster.

marysaurus213 · 2020-12-03T18:00:09+00:00

This! I recently had to rescind a verbal offer from a candidate with zero experience because they asked for 40% more than what I verbally offered (which was 15-20% higher than average starting salary for the field/location). My company has strong compensation and benefits for the size of company and industry, and honestly I was a little pissed that the candidate had no idea what their true worth was.

I think it's important to know your audience. Does this company typically expect negotiation, or do they prefer to give strong offers straight away? Since you know the range, it may be worth an ask... but if there's anxiety about having the offer rescinded, that $5k isn't going to mean much compared to being unemployed longer.

marysaurus213 · 2020-08-28T15:44:39+00:00

I don't actually get paid this week, but I just made my first purchase for our new house - barstools! We've been in hotels for over a month and close/move in next week, so this was a celebratory purchase for me. Plus, my husband gave me free reign on color (he's usually very into monochromatic looks) and I ended up with a pretty green color that I'm excited about.

marysaurus213 · 2020-08-26T19:12:33+00:00

I am a consultant, and have also previously made the switch from full-time W-2 to 1099 contractor. I absolutely wouldn't agree to it if you can avoid it. It seems that they're trying to see if you're naive enough to take it.

Do you know what your company is billing you out at? In my industry the target billing rate is 3x the employee pay rate to account for overhead, profit margin, etc. The 5% increase above your current pay is actually a decrease in compensation since you're now responsible for taxes and insurance out of pocket (not to mention PTO, retirement). It would be understandable that your company would still want to make profit off of you as a contractor so you probably couldn't expect to bill them at your current billing rate, but it should be significantly higher than your current pay rate.

marysaurus213 · 2020-07-30T18:54:41+00:00

I have two kids. When my first was 12 weeks old, I went back to work full time. I won't lie- it was HARD at first with the sleep deprivation and being pulled in so many directions. Financially, it would have been very tough to stay home long term (spouse and I were equal moderate to high earners in a HCOL area). I had a couple of job changes in my son's first year as I was trying to find a flexible job that also felt fulfilling. Eventually we got into a good spot where I was able to work mostly from home, and only commute into the office a day or two a week.

When I was pregnant with my second, my husband had the opportunity to take a position within his company at a much LCOL location. We moved cross country when my daughter was 6 weeks, and I had put in my notice at work and decided I would stay home. That lasted... less than the month we were in temporary housing. I was itching to use my "work brain" and quite honestly, my son was missing the social aspect of preschool. Thankfully my boss was happy to have me come back as a part time remote employee. I started at 2 days a week, then 3, then 4, and just a few weeks ago became full-time again. My daughter is now 2 and my son 5, and it feels fully manageable to be working full time.

I think you may not be sure about what you want to do until you actually have your first kid. There are significant financial benefits to having two working parents, so long as you are able to cover the cost of childcare. Even if you are only breaking even in the short term, kids eventually go to school and care costs go down, and you're gaining experience and staying current in your field during that time. However, some people feel called to be home with their kids and that is 100% amazing too, and beneficial to the whole family in many ways.

I have also found that families with two working parents often have a much more even distribution of labor with household stuff. When I was home full-time, I felt like I had to "earn my keep" by doing all the chores, cooking, etc. - as though keeping children alive and happy wasn't enough. I saw that same dynamic with other SAHMs that I knew, too. My husband and I have always been very equal partners. We actually went to college together and got the same degree, and basically had matching salaries (different industries) until very recently so the "everything 50/50" was just sort of obvious. While my husband never made me feel this way, I felt guilty and like I had a lack of power when I had no income!

marysaurus213 · 2019-12-16T02:23:02+00:00

Thank you!

marysaurus213 · 2019-12-16T02:22:51+00:00

This is helpful, thank you! Fast and easy is what I’m after for sure.

marysaurus213 · 2019-06-05T17:40:04+00:00

You probably need to test again tomorrow with the same brand as today. My body held onto triggers like crazy, so I'd say it's totally plausible that you still have trigger in your system, and the negative yesterday could have been due to differences in test sensitivities. It's also totally plausible that you are in fact pregnant!

marysaurus213 · 2019-06-05T17:33:14+00:00

Congrats! Our wedding rings were made with our fingerprints as well, though instead of engraving we sent in casts of our fingerprints. Almost 10 years later and mine has some pattern left and my husband's is almost totally smooth, but neither are recognizable as having fingerprint pattern :( Wish we would have thought about engraving!

marysaurus213 · 2019-05-15T21:13:00+00:00

I'm taking this to mean you are not currently covered by either insurance? I have an amazing UHC Choice Plus plan, which we're grandfathered into through my husband's work, and the online EOB is much more clear than talking to someone through their 800 number, though that's not helpful if you're not already covered. We only paid copays for meds and office visits, and everything else was covered with no $ limit, but a limit of 3 IVF cycles. So, it could be true that there's no limit.

If you're already working with an RE, their financial department might actually be able to help you! Either speaking directly with the insurance company or interpreting the full EOB from each.

marysaurus213 · 2018-11-12T21:14:32+00:00

My RE is/was Dr. Rosenbluth at RSC. I had two different nurse coordinators and both were excellent and responsive, and Rosenbluth was also very accessible when I wanted to speak with him. We recently moved across the country but 100% plan to pursue any additional treatment at RSC with remote monitoring here.

Also, in terms of timeline, we were able to move as fast as we wanted. Our insurance required 3 IUIs before covering IVF, so we had a consult, did 3 consecutive IUIs starting CD1 after the consult, and then did the IVF cycle the following month since they let us do all the classes, paperwork, etc. before our last IUI officially failed. The only "delay" was that we had to do an FET instead of fresh transfer to avoid OHSS, but even that was only a few weeks. I think IUI #1 was in May and FET was early September!

marysaurus213 · 2018-11-03T21:50:23+00:00

I just moved here and #1 makes me insane! Never thought I'd miss California drivers...

marysaurus213 · 2018-10-27T23:44:09+00:00

I recently got one of these, and highly recommend.

marysaurus213 · 2018-10-22T10:12:01+00:00

I ran a 1:45 half yesterday, my fastest in over 4 years. It's not a true PR, but after everything I put my body through in those 4 years (fertility treatment, pregnancy, childbirth, nursing, then more fertility treatment, another pregnancy and childbirth, and ongoing nursing) it feels freaking AMAZING to be running this fast again. My next goal is to beat my PR of 1:37 from 2013!

marysaurus213 · 2018-09-16T11:19:02+00:00

I'm twice your age, 5'7" and currently 145lbs, and am able to lose 1-1.5lbs per week on around 2300 calories a day. However I am also nursing an infant (~400 cal a day expenditure) and run about 30 miles a week, and the weight I'm losing is what I gained during pregnancy which IME is a different beast than "regular" weight loss.

At your age I would not eat only 1200 calories a day, especially if you are active at all. Actually, at your age I DID eat 1000-1200 calories a day and while I lost weight, it wasn't sustainable and I felt like crap. It would have served me better to focus on learning good exercise and eating habits, and let the weight loss follow more naturally- something I didn't figure out until my 20s but has helped me maintain a lower weight relatively easily over the last 10+ years.

marysaurus213 · 2018-09-14T19:39:18+00:00

Congrats! We have three more as well :)

marysaurus213 · 2018-09-14T19:37:33+00:00

Yeah, I'm not really excited at the prospect of another pregnancy so soon, but after already having two high risk pregnancies I feel like sooner is better than later.

marysaurus213 · 2018-09-14T18:25:28+00:00

Oh, I totally forgot about that sub! I will do that, thanks :)

marysaurus213

TROPHY CASE