We’ve been in our home for more than a year and a half now, and have finally decided to tackle the basement. We kept going back and forth on whether we wanted to put money into the basement now, or wait until we have the mortgage paid off. Eventually we decided that it would be nice to have the finished space downstairs, even if it means our extra mortgage payments will be reduced for a while. We’re still making extra mortgage payments, and at our current pace should have the house paid off in 2016. Once we finish the basement, we should be able to bump up those payments again and hopefully pay off the mortgage in 2015 instead.
Three years ago, when we remodeled the kitchen in our old house, we opened a Home Depot credit card. We used it to buy supplies for that project, and paid everything off within the no-interest time frame. Since then, we haven’t used the card, and although we had kept the account open, we had long ago cut up the card. But we noticed last week when we went to start looking at basement supplies that Home Depot was running another 12 month no interest program on their credit card. Although we could have taken money out of savings to pay for everything up front, we decided we’d rather take 12 months to pay it off instead, and let our money continue to earn interest during that time instead. We feel comfortable with no-interest financing deals as long as we do technically have the money on hand to pay off the entire balance from the get-go.
In addition to all the supplies we were able to fit in our vehicle and trailer, we also ordered flooring for the entire basement, which we’ll be able to go back and pick up on the weekend. We’re going with click-together laminate flooring again, as we really liked what we installed in our old house, and we’ve been very happy with the Pergo floor in our current dining/kitchen area. We found a cherry laminate that we both really liked, and we’re really excited to transform our basement floors from concrete to something pretty. Of course we’ve got a bit of work to do before we get to the floors…
Not only are we starting to work on the basement, we’re also installing a 10 x 12 outbuilding in the corner of our backyard, to give my husband another place to work, outside the house (away from the noise of our soon-to-be pair of children!). We toyed with the idea of starting from scratch with it, but between running our business, me being seven months pregnant, taking care of a toddler, and beginning work on the basement, we decided to order a pre-fab shed and then just do the finish work ourselves. We looked at a few places in town that would build us a shed, and found that our best deal was with Home Depot – a bonus, since we were able to put the cost on the HD credit card and can now spread that expense out over the whole year too. The shed should be in place next Tuesday, and then we can paint it, put in insulation, drywall, interior paint, and the same flooring that we’re using for the basement.
So lots of projects going on around here right now! When we renovated the kitchen in our old house, I was also seven months pregnant. Maybe I’m just an extreme nester? Stay tuned for updates… we’re planning a trip to the Habitat for Humanity Restore soon to look for doors, and we’ll see what other supplies we stumble upon while we’re there.
Money Beagle says
Let us know how it goes. We completed a mini-basement renovation last year giving us a playroom and exercise room / office that is also good now that we have our second kid coming which meant that we had to lose the office upstairs!
Molly On Money says
When I was pregnant I too was surprised how many projects I was doing. It must be hormonal!
Good luck!
Kaytee says
Heh. My husband loathes pergo flooring and witheringly refers to it as vinyl hardwood. He prefers using unfinished wood and finishing it. His main reasoning (besides the pretty designs he can make with the unfinished wood) is that finishing the floors afterwards seals the minute cracks between the boards.
Exciting stuff about the mortgage! It gives me hope for our future. We’re still in paying off debt mode ($38K in 31 months, with $69K left to go – all student loans). We’ve decided to bypass on buying a house anytime soon because we are able to save at a pretty good rate and want to max out our retirement accounts. In 10 years we might be able to pay cash for a house, or at least have a huge downpayment. It was a hard decision, but we realized that the financial strain of homeownership while we are still paying off debt would be a bad decision. We’d rather have plump retirement accounts. We are also anticipating having to help out my parents financially in the future, or at least one of them. They haven’t made the best decisions financially, have little retirement savings, and I’m an only child – so no siblings to help shoulder the burden.
Kyle @ Rather-Be-Shopping says
Exciting project. I am looking at building a shed at our house as well. Does the Home Depot actually build the shed or is it already put together and they just deliver it?
FrugalBabe says
Kyle – HD contracts with Tuff Shed (at least in our area that’s who they use…) to build sheds. We placed the order in our local HD, and then someone from Tuff Shed contacted us to schedule the delivery. They prefab the walls at their warehouse, and then bring everything out on a truck. We were told it would take about half a day for them to complete the shed in our yard. It will have a floor (complete with joists that are guaranteed for 50 years), walls with primed siding on the outside and exposed stud walls inside, three windows, and a shingled roof with one skylight. From there, we’ll do the finish work ourselves: insulation, drywall, interior and exterior paint, flooring, and a porch. We’re also getting everything set up to have a solar panel on the roof that will provide all of the power needed in the office.
Kaytee – I prefer hardwood too, but we can’t justify the price difference. The laminate we’ve had in our old house and in our current house (it was here when we moved in) has worked quite well, and we’ve never had a complaint about it. If we were doing a very small area, I might be inclined to go with a higher end option, but we ordered 1500 square feet of flooring – enough to do the entire basement plus the shed – and we just couldn’t justify the price tag that would have gone along with real wood for the whole project.
Meg says
My husband and I bought a fixer-upper, and we did ALOT of work on the house with the 12 months same as cash from Home Depot. Heck, we even bought our appliances for the house with the Home Depot card. However, we ALWAYS paid them off before the “promotional period” was over.
We actually have abotu $1200 on the card right now from the french doors hubby put in from the outside into the Living Room in June.
Could you post a picture of the prefab shed? We are thinking about doign the same thing for an area for me.
Great post!
~M
Amanda says
Kaytee congrats on such a mature decision regarding your debt/retirement
Kaytee says
FB – at 1500 SF, I can imagine a significant price difference between the two and I’m not sure I wouldn’t choose the same as you, even with a sputtering spouse in tow.
Amanda – wow, thanks! We didn’t come to that decision lightly, and we’re at the age where most of our compatriots are buying nice houses and begating. We’re trying to make the choices that are right and sound for us, and try not to follow along with “The Jones.” We do both dream of a small place with some acreage…