Our low budget kitchen

I'm finally adding photos of our kitchen which we've been enjoying for several months now.  We'll do the trim, floors, and ceilings last so it will stay "almost done" for a while still.

We didn't change any of our appliances.  They're all still mismatched but working just fine so I can't bear to spend the money on that right now, if ever.

Jeff keeps asking me if I'm ready to get a new stove to the point that I'm starting to wonder if he doesn't like it as much as I do.  The burners don't have a truly medium heat setting and it bakes a bit unevenly but that's fine by me since I'm far from the best cook and when things don't turn out that great I can just blame it on the stove.

We bought our cabinets and  granite counters, which only come in six foot lengths, from a discount building supply store and it saved us a bundle.  Jeff also set every tile himself rather than buying the tiles in sheets.  It took a little longer but would have cost so much more otherwise.

Jeff experimented with the under-mount lighting using discs on the right side of the cabinets and went through a huge amount of trouble to hide the cords.  Then we decided to use a bar light under the open shelves and he's not happy with it so we just left the cord till we get around to switching it out to the disc style lights.  It's been so long since I've been able to see very well while working at the kitchen counters that I forgot just how nice it is to have good lighting, dangling cord and all.

So, we started with appliances which are all second hand (super-duper cheap or free) and then built the kitchen from the ground up for under $3,000.   Not as cheap as the kitchen set up we had before but I'm so thankful to have it!

And these flowers have nothing to do with our kitchen but I've recently discovered how much I love having living plants in the house even if I know they'll most likely be dead in a few months.  These cyclamen have such unique and colorful blossoms, only cost around $3.00 and they'll far outlast any fresh bouquet...although I still love fresh bouquets from time to time too. 

Making do

Living in an unfinished house with a multitude of things that need to be done a.s.a.p. on a limited budget has a way of helping your priorities stay in order.  When your showering and you feel a breeze so you look up and at the ceiling, spying between the rafters and the insulation and spot daylight, it's hard to justify buying a new rug whose main purpose is to just sit there and look pretty.  Or how can you justify buying $60 worth of paint just to paint the subfloor which will be covered someday when after storms you have to add a few more staples to your two year old house wrap, hoping it will hold up just a little bit longer?  And when you see that it's time to roll on a new layer of contact paper that serves as your counter top because you've got a few to many knife holes and pasta sauce stains on the current layer, it is again hard to justify buying new living room chairs.  Especially when your old, oversized, ugly brown chair is still holding up just fine...but I did it anyway.  I caved.

I'm chuckling to myself as I type about the breezes, house wrap and contact paper.  While true, I happen to find it humorous.  My kids are going to enjoy telling their own children stories of their "impoverished hardships" growing up and laugh to themselves as the little ones gasp in disbelief.  Heh, heh.  It also helps me keep things in perspective by remembering that we chose to live this way.  I know there are far too many people in the world who are truly impoverished and suffering while I am truly blessed beyond measure.

I didn't buy a lot of new stuff or anything terribly fancy but it was just enough to perk the place up a little for me.  And like I always have to preface...it's still unfinished, as if you couldn't tell.

Let's start with a before picture, because if you've ever caught the tail end of a before and after program on HGTV and have been disappointed with the after and thought to yourself, what's so great about that?  And then you think, maybe this is a flash back to the before shot, until you see the homeowners come into the room and start crying and/or laughing and you realize it is, in fact, the after and then you think to yourself, I would be crying and/or laughing too if that was my house.  Yes?  You know what I'm talking about?  Okay, then you know why it's necessary for me to show you this terrible, awful picture. 

Brace yourselves for sheer horror because here comes the before (which is actually from shortly after we moved in because it was the ONLY picture out of literally thousands of pictures that I have of what it all once looked like.) 

Yes, I'm stalling.

Sorry you noticed. 

Okay, here we go.  Just take a quick peek then turn away, mkay?

Before

Welp, that was traumatizing.   

Okay.

As you can see, all of our living, dining and kitchen space is in one room that's 20' x 22'.  Just a mere 440 square feet.  That's about the size of a lot of peoples living room alone. 

Part of the problem for me (besides all the obvious stuff you can see in the picture) was actually the openness of the living room furniture.  The living area is about 14' x 20' which isn't too terribly small.  In fact, it was too big, too spread out and not well defined.  Because of the open rafters in the ceiling sound doesn't travel very well which makes it hard to have a conversation with someone across the room without yelling, and if we have company and there are multiple conversations going on at once, it turns into a yelling match.  On the plus side, it is very quiet in here most of the time which is essential to my staying alive.  I must have quiet and lots of it or my brain and nerves absolutely start to fry.

Moving on.  Let's start with the kitchen and what it looks like right now.  I just can't bring myself to say after because I haven't really done much in there and it's by no means finished and after sounds like it's done, final, finished, but it's not.  Sorry.  I'm stalling again.  I'll try to stop that from happening in the future. 

So here's the kitchen currently,

Eventually I'll have real cabinets and counters and a real floor and maybe even matching appliances but this is what I have for now and I'm content...for now.  I suppose if it never progressed any farther it wouldn't be the end of the world but I hope that doesn't happen.  (The blue between the rafters is foam insulation which will be covered in wood someday.)

My appliances are a hodgepodge of finishes.  Black, white, stainless and turquoise, so to bring them together at least a little bit, I bought matching vinyl stickers off etsy for my fridge and dishwasher.

They're a little on the frilly side which I'm not super crazy about, but it does kind of help bring the kitchen together a little bit.

I still have my turquoise blue stove which goes well with the styrofoam insulation.  (The small cat-like creature is my little Chili-choo-choo chihuahua, dining at his favorite fast food joint.)

In the dining portion of the room, Jeff added another window not too long ago to give us a little view of the back woods.  (Don't look at my highwaters!  I'll extend those or replace them someday!)

The table is a little 3' x 5' table that everybody and his brother had fifteen years ago.  It seats all seven of us just fine for now, but as the kids get bigger it might become too cozy.  Then, of coarse, I'll just have my personal man servant build me a newer, nicer, bigger table.  (I love you so much, Shnookums pooh bear!)

And last, but not least, the living room.

I arranged all the furniture on one side of the room for a cozier layout and we can actually have real live conversations with eachother now.  It's nice that way.  On the far right is our current computer cabinet in the hole where the fireplace was.  Jeff and I pulled it out and plan to build in a computer cabinet/entertainment center instead.  I've decided I'd rather have the fireplace outside on the back deck.

After I painted the subfloor (which I love better than the unpainted subfloor but hate how it now shows dirt like crazy, by the way) I bought an 8' x 10' jute rug off Amazon for a mere $1,444.00 including $1,200.00 in fraudulent credit card charges.  (I should have used paypal, but at least it's been resolved.)  I love the rug.  It's already been through a violent hazing when all of the kids had a nasty stomach bug a couple of weeks ago.  It cleans up nicely.  You've gotta be tough to survive around here.

 

I also bought a couple of matching chairs which the children are forbidden to even look at let alone touch.  (I'm so mean.)  They came with lumbar pillows that match the green fabric, but I made these blue and white ones for them instead.  I can't have things matching too much.  That wouldn't go with my home's chaotic theme.

Behind the green chair I have some fancy, shmancy wainscoting made up of a couple of old doors laying on their sides.  Nice, huh?  I'm still working out in my head what kind of a wall I want separating the kitchen from the living room.  I'm currently thinking a half wall behind the stove across to the far right counter that meets a full length wall right next to that counter for a little extra visual separation.  That's where the dirty dishes get stacked and I wouldn't mind if I didn't have to see them every waking moment. 

I think that about wraps it up for now.  If you made to the end of this post, I thank you...and I'm sorry you had to see all that.  I'm glad I got this out in the open though, so now maybe I can start lookin' you people in the eye! ☺

Budget Dystocia

If Jeff were writing this, he'd probably find a way to compare our current situation to a car motor.  I'm not Jeff, and I don't know anything about motors, but for you guys...well, you may just want to skip the words and  look at the pictures.

Like some kind of mad scientists that decided to see what would happen when you cross two unrelated species, we're coming up with some trouble.  Let's say our little budget of $20,ish is a cute little lamb and our building project is an elephant.  Now just imagine what might happen when you cross a lamb and an elephant.  Do I need to add that the lamb (budget) is the female in this scenario?  Right now, she's in the process of giving birth to a GIANT lambephant and it appears that we might have a slight case of shoulder dystocia.  Them's birthin' words for "the baby's stuck!"  (Sorry guys.)

  

Anyway, what looked like our last $2,500 actually is turning out to be closer to $1,000.  Blame the mad scientist!  I've never seen a lambephant before and so I don't know how much they cost.  It's not looking good for the little momma lamb.  She'll have to be on life support for a long, long time if she even survives birthing the big, awkward lambephant.  It's close to being fully born, but right now, I can only see it's weird looking head.  "Push momma lamb!  Push!"  (Come on guys!  Don't leave!)

(Forgive me if these are actually bicycle parts or strange kitchen utensils.  For all I know they could be jsiovensix's)

It's time to get out the forceps!  Or the vacuum!  Or the bonecracker!  Wait.  Wrong procedure.  Put that last one back.  Let's back up and just start with changing birthing positions.  That often does the trick.  "Roll over little lamb!" 

Once the lambephant is born, who knows, it may not even have running water!  We may have to drag the garden hose through the window.

Changing the subject a little for the sake of the men, (you're welcome) my dad and Jeff Brashears came over after work Monday night to help out.  Thanks!

Jeff Brashears and us go way back.  He's more like family really.

"Get out of our tub!  We're not that close!"

Then, yesterday JJ came over to work on the plumbing.  (We'll owe him a house too when this is done!)  AND, Eddie Yodelay, no, Eddie Oldhay, no, Eddie Oldlady...forget it.  Eddie took the day off work and spent it helping Jeff!  Jeff has my camera so I don't have any pictures of him.  Oh, but I do have Jeff's work camera which possibly has a picture of Eddie.  Hmmm...I don't think I'll go there.  Last time I looked at pictures on his work camera, well, I just won't go there.

Anyway, they all worked really hard and jumped some MAJOR hurdles.  Thank you!  Thank you!

Now, my mom just showed up to take care of the kids for me so I can do some serious packing.  Ready or not, lambephant, here we come!

Budget Wrap Up

These are our last five days for working on the house before we move in.  Our plans on what we want to have done before then have been constantly changing.  Now, however, it's all being finalized and strictly directed by our last $2,500.  I'm sure you're all curious how much everything has cost us to date.  So am I.  Let's get out a pen and paper and see what we can figure out.  Here's a list of the funds we used to build the house:  $15,000 inheritance from grandma Jones and $6,500 in good old credit cards, totaling $21,500.  Then there's the $31,500 loan for the land.  That gives us a grand total of $53,000.

For the house itself, we originally planned on spending only $15,000 but that meant doing without things like interior walls, a second floor bathroom (or at least part of one) and going with sheetrock on the walls instead of pine planks.  It also didn't include purchasing all of our windows and doors upfront or unexpected expenses like upgrading the electrical wiring, well pump, and well house.  We also included in the house budget:  utilities (electricity only), monthly land payments, and the gas money to drive to and from the project all for the past six months.  This totaled approximately $3,200.  Jeff may have a few corrections to make to this little improv list but, more or less, I think that about covers it.

Take a look here to see what our initial plan was. 
http://cottagedreamers.blogspot.com/2009/08/phase-one.html

I think we've managed to come out ahead, depending on how you look at it.  Yes, we went over our $15,000 budget and now we have credit card debt, BUT, the house is much closer to completion and our overall debt is being so greatly reduced that it's worth it. ($31,500 for land plus $6,500 credit card = $38,000 debt versus the balance of our current mortgage of $104,000 means a reduction of $66,000 of debt!!!)  The credit card debt should be easy enough to pay back quickly and the money for the rest of the work we need to do to finish the house will come from our own pockets as we can afford it.  We're so close to the end of the line time wise as well as financially that at this point I may not have kitchen cabinets.  If I do, we'll only get lower cabinets to begin with and the temporary counter tops will be made of plywood until spring or summer when we can do our concrete counter tops.  This is no big deal to me, I'm just ready to move in.  Plus, I've lived in a house without a kitchen before (for four months, no less!)  At this point, we'll only have a toilet upstairs without walls or anything.  Don't worry, the downstairs bathroom will have everything plus walls, except the door.  (Visitors beware, but feel free to use our bucket in the woods!)  The main deal with that is, with so many girls in the house, we must have more than one toilet!  Having the toilet out there in the open will only push us to get the upstairs finished all the sooner, hopefully!  For the time being, my floors throughout the house will be painted advantech flooring, unsanded.  There just isn't enough time to sand them.  Which reminds me, yesterday, our friend Chad Miller (not to be confused with Chad, the doctor's husband) and his father-in-law, Sid, helped Jeff all day on the house.  Chad Miller also talked Jeff into painting the walls and ceilings before we move in instead of after.  (Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!)  AND, we've never even met Chad Miller's father-in-law before.  He just came to help out of the kindness of his heart!  (Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!)  Sid also works for a local cabinet company and took measurements of our kitchen to see what he can find for us for cabinets when we're ready.  I've been amazed at how kind and helpful people have been throughout this whole process!

Anyway, back to our haves and have-nots.  The second floor will not be anywhere near finished when we move in.  There won't be any bedrooms or walls yet.  But, like I said earlier, there will be a toilet up there.  The end.  Oh, and a hot water heater.  The end. We have interior doors but, for the sake of time, they probably won't be installed until sometime after we move in.  We won't have all of our light fixtures right away, but I have lots of lamps.  The fireplace flue will cost another $1,000 so that will have to wait but we only had to pay $320.00 for a never before used, pre-owned fireplace that had a retail price of $2,000.  We don't have exterior siding on the house but we have most of the materials already (our privacy fence pickets!)  There will still be a lot of work to do once we've moved in, but the biggest hurdles will all be behind us.  I consider myself blessed and my "haves" list the winner.

P.S.  Bathroom update.  I said, not too long ago, that we were going to hang sheetrock in the bathroom, but we decided to do the pine wood in there too. 

We'll primer and paint the wood, as well as, caulk between them to try to keep moisture out.  Then for the bathtub surround, we're planning to use corrugated metal like someone did in this bathroom:

Courtesy of Country Living

Great deals!

Are you all familiar with Craigslist.org? It's great! It's like garage saling from the comfort of your own living room. You can look at what your neighbors are wanting to get rid of and if you like it, run over to their house and buy it. No waiting around for it to come in the mail and no shipping costs and usually, you can go take a look at it before you decide to buy it. We are getting some great stuff for the house like this never used, huge fireplace for the low, low price of only $320.00!!! Hard to beat that, huh?

We're fixing to go take a look at these "like new" appliances for the kitchen priced at $265.00 for all three!!! True, I would rather have brand new all stainless appliances but that will have to wait. For now this is better than good enough.

We're also keeping our eyes peeled (that saying seems so disgusting in writing) for things like a hot water heater, kitchen cabinets, exterior doors etc... The inventory is always changing so we have to continuously check for what we're waiting to find. If you haven't ever visited craigslist you should definitely check it out. Just be warned, you may be tempted to buy things you don't really need just because the price is so low and it's just a few blocks from where you live.

I already mentioned the clearance windows we got from Lowe's, well today Jeff went by Meek's to dig through their scratch and dent junk and found the rest of the windows we needed for the entire house. He paid $600.00 for four 5'x6' windows, that's what we had budgeted for only two 5'x6' windows! Our plan was to only install two of the big windows in the first building phase to mind our budget but now we'll have all of them. Yipee!!! AND, as if that wasn't enough, he also got four interior doors for $20.00 each. Sooo, now I'll have a bedroom with real walls, a big window and a door! If I'm lucky, maybe I'll also get a bedroom closet right away!

Here's a look at the tub my mother-in-law gave us. She also gave us some other goodies like medicine cabinets and a big vanity top. You know what "gave" means right? Yep, FREE! She also gave me some wonderful things to furnish and decorate my new home with. I'll have to show those things to you all sometime to. She's very sweet and giving!

Jeff's out at the land right now finishing a well house to keep things from freezing up and busting. It's going to get cold tonight. Next weeks forecast is looking pretty good though. Oh yeah, more great news I almost forgot to mention. My dad is taking off work all next week too so he can help Jeff work on the house. My parents are like energizer bunnies and are always right there working along side us.

Our cup runneth over with blessings! I know a lot of this is very trivial in the big picture of life but it always amazes me to see God working in even the everyday little things. He is very good to us!

Munching away at the budget

Instead of working on the house this past weekend, Jeff had to spend time (and money) on the Suburban. What little we can occasionally save (and then some) is always getting eaten up by something. Isn't that how life goes though? So, what do we do when our house money gets nibbled on here and there by cars and such? Tighten the belt if possible and pray it all works out in the end. That would never work for some people but it really does boil down to walking by faith which is right where we should be no matter how much money is or isn't in the bank!

As Jeff started to fix the problem he was aware of he then found another problem, then another! He turned into a real dirty fella by the time he got it all worked out. Look at the back of his head! I sure am thankful he could fix it all.

Changing the subject...tonight was very rewarding! We had a completely home grown meal. Rabbit and spaghetti squash with watermelon for dessert. How fun is that??? I'm not the biggest watermelon fan normally but the heirloom "moon and stars" watermelons we grew are sooo good!

I half heartedly attempted gardening one other time about five or six years ago and it was a big flop. I literally only got two pea pods out of the whole deal. This year I read up a little on gardening and we put some extra effort into the actual dirt to prepare it and that's just about it. I watered some when it didn't rain and occasionally weeded with my hula hoe, my favorite tool and an absolute must have for the home gardener. I'm pregnant and could weed the whole garden in about five to ten minutes mostly one handed with that tool. The garden isn't especially small either...it's about 22'x26'. So if you've ever considered gardening, go for it! It's not too hard and it's very rewarding. (It's a money saver too!!!)

Let's get down to the nitty gritty

Okay, it's time for a few details about our plans here at Cottage Dreamers. First of all, Jeff and I, for years, have wanted to live on a few acres of land that are at least fairly wooded. While we were in the business of building other peoples homes and dreams, we were far to busy to tackle our own. But now we have this window of opportunity to go for it.




Thank you Grandma Lois. We miss you and love you!








We've always been on the look out for ways to lower our bills and debts and have managed, one way or another, to widdle them down to as small as possible for now. You know the saying, "It takes money to make money?" Well, while that's not necessarily an absolute truth, it does help. After paying for a few things like medical bills, car repairs etc, etc...we were left with $15,000 of inheritance money from Jeff's precious grandma. Then came the challenge of figuring out the best way to use the money without "blowing it!" After considering things like early retirement, we decided it would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone and use it to greatly cut our living expenses and grab a hold of our dreams to build a house in the country.

We began our search for land on the Internet but everything was too far out of reach for us. There were also hurdles to consider like how to finance the land. Banks aren't usually too interested in loaning money on vacant land to individuals. So we turned to our local Penny Power paper and found an add for 5 acres of owner financed, wooded land with well and septic. It turns out the couple running the add have several lots like this scattered all around Southwest Mo. We picked out our favorite and paid our $500 down payment and $71 closing fee on the $31,500, 5.10 acre lot and got to work mowing down the tall, chigger infested grass on the building site. The land is beautiful! It's mostly wooded and very private with an area already cleared for a house by the family that lived there first.

Our lessons to be shared with you are one, owner financed land; if you can't afford to pay for it out right, it's a great way to go. We're pretty familiar with contracts on property purchases and theirs was very simple and straightforward. A small down payment which goes to the purchase price, no prepayment penalties and it's a 25 year loan at 10% interest making our monthly payments $282. The interest rate is actually comparable to banks for vacant land, and we can always refinance what's left on the loan into a traditional loan once the house is finished. Lesson two, well and septic. They are already on the land and functioning and while that plays a part in the cost of the land it's a whole lot cheaper than having to pay for them separately. It would cost thousands of dollars extra to put them in place on our own. Lesson three, find a county with limited building codes, restrictions, and inspections. It's not that want to slap together a jerri-rigged shack, we just want to be able to do the work ourselves to save money in labor. We are fortunate to either have the know how or know someone who does. For example, our friend JJ, who has already been helping us, is a real life plumber.

These are all important things to consider and anyone in SW MO interested in doing the same should check the Penny Power. The add is always there as long as they have land available and they've been doing this for 25 years.

We'll be building the house in phases with the first phase being get it livable by January. Our definition of livable is basically, four walls and a roof with a walled off, fully functional bathroom, bare necessity kitchen appliances, and a loft. I promise to share at least a rough draft of the blueprints of the different phases with you soon.

Before I leave I want share some pics to let you into our lives a little more.



Yep, she's holding one of our urban chickens. They're Ameraucana's or Easter Egg chickens. This fall they should be old enough to start laying pretty blue green eggs. Yea! I can't wait!


Did you know that a lot of cities allow you to raise these silly birds in your own back yard??? You should look into it, they're actually fun to have around. And yes, we currently live in the city...if you can call it that. Population, 1,010; intersection lights, 1 red blinky one; gas stations, 2 and they're right next to each other (isn't that convenient?) We do, however, live in a regular cookie cuter neighborhood and even though we are the only one's with chickens, I don't consider us to be hillbillies. Hey, Martha Stewart has chickens!


And here are the rest of the chickens in their coop. Just kidding. Those are actually our kids. Don't worry, the chickens hadn't yet visited the new coop when this picture was taken. What you can't see on the other side of this lean to are our rabbits. Mmm, Mmmm, good. Nope, still not hillbillies.

Step One

Today's the day! Jeff and his friend JJ are already off to break ground on our little dream cottage. Jeff is renting an auger (the kind you can drive) and will be digging the holes for piers and trenching for the plumbing and electric. Yes, the house will be on piers. That's money saving tip number one. He'll dig the holes pour in a little concrete at the bottom to set his 6"x6"x6' wood posts on then fill in with more concrete. Oh, I guess money saving tip number one should be, do it yourself with the help of friends and family.

By the way, Jeff and I used to be in the home building business until that "bubble" EXPLODED!!! and knocked our feet right out from under us. I would design the houses and he would build them. That's part of our unique position...we have experience and tools. Our project is so simple though, that just about anyone could do it really. At some point I'll share the blueprints with you so you can see for yourself.

I am disappointed I won't actually be there to see the ground breaking for myself but I did send the camera with Jeff. However, I may be out there later this afternoon if it isn't raining. Naturally, there is rain in the forecast for today. It's been a rather wet summer which I fully appreciate so that I don't have to water my garden very often. I would insert a picture of said garden here except that Jeff has the camera which still holds that said picture. Hmmm...blogging takes a little planning and organizing doesn't it?

Speaking of gardens, one of our neighbors brought us some summer squash from his parents garden last night, so I think I'll go and make myself a yummy summer squash omelet for breakfast.

This is it!

Well, here it is. Jeff's been pushing for us to start a blog so I did. Please be patient with me as I figure out how this blog stuff works, because I don't know what in the world I'm doing!

Don't you hate it when you've got a question for the almighty Internet and it's answer is either too vague or even nonexistent. I know that doesn't happen very often but when your lifestyle, income, beliefs etc...force you to think outside the box, sometimes the answers are very hard to find. Well, I don't have all those answers for you but our family is in a unique position to try something different and we plan to share all the gory details with you along the way in hopes that you'll enjoy it and maybe find an answer or two that you've been scouring the Internet for.

So, are you curious what our project is? Good (assuming you said "yes." If not, read no further. ;) We are beginning the process of building a little 1200 square foot house in the country with the goal of building it as cheaply as possible. Now that may not sound terribly unusual but, did I mention we will be using mostly conventional methods and we have a very small budget? How small is that budget you ask? Drum roll please... $15,000. Sound crazy? I know. And remember I said conventional. That means we will not be living in a shipping container, or a packed earth home or a large canvas tent, not that I have anything against those types of homes, they just don't happen to be our goal. We would like a home that's a bit more tradition, something cottagy.

We'll be out on the land Tuesday tearin' up the ground as we get started on our little project and I'll be sure and take lots of pictures for you so stay tuned!