How we Renovated our Home Debt Free!
When Alex and I got married, we had this crazy idea: What if we could buy and renovate our first home — DEBT-FREE? Yeah, we knew it was crazy, and also, probably impossible. But what can I say? We like to do things the hard way. ( Just to prove that we can. 😂 ) So, here’s Part 2 of the (incredible) story of how we renovated our first home, debt-free!
I’m just gonna pick up where I left off, m’kay?
So… after getting the property cleaned up, we had a really big decision to make. We could renovate the existing house that was on the property... or we could tear it down and start from scratch. The only issue with the second option was that we didn't have money to buy or build a new house. Our savings had bought the property.
Alright; Renovate it is, then! 😜
The front view of the house was... frightening.
In fact, ALL the views of the house were frightening. 😳 It was originally a WWII supply house/barracks that was moved to the property after the war (how cool is that?!). We began dreaming... and then went to work. (Mostly, Alex went to work while I watched. 😬 And delivered sweet tea.)
Here are some pictures of the house right after we started demo. I wish I had pictures BEFORE they started removing the furniture!
What would become the kid's room… just wait till you see an "after" picture! 😍
I love this vintage wallpaper we found behind a layer of wallboard.
Family and friends dropped in, shook their heads in horror, and left. Some brave folks offered to help, and usually went home exhausted and grubby. Alex brought some frightening looking laundry home every night. 😂
For months, we ate dinner at 11 at night (Thank goodness Hardees is open 24/7 👌🏻). We would crash in bed at around midnight, and start over the next day. Alex was working full-time, and I was raising babies and building my business. We were tired, but we were HAPPY.
We had to renovate EVERYTHING. Think about the houses you've seen Chip & Joanna renovate... ours was WORSE. 😂 But finally, we started to see progress. The outside of the house got a face-lift. A bunch of people helped us put on a new roof and "new" siding. (we pulled the siding off an old house that was getting torn down!)
The underside got a butt-lift (gee, I’d like one of those 😆!) with new insulation and a cleaner crawlspace ... and the inside? Well, it got a WHOLE lotta love. How did we pay for all the renovations? The short answer: with CASH. The long answer?
➢ It. Took. Almost. FOUR. YEARS. 😳
Alex did odd jobs to make extra money after work in his “spare time”. We also welcomed TWO babies during the 4-year renovation project, so our budget got even tighter. We scrimped and saved, bought supplies as we went along... and let me tell ya’: It was TOUGH.
Here’s the thing: This four year, debt free renovation was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was also the most satisfying, AMAZING lesson I've ever gotten in sticking with something worthwhile. And it was worth every single (difficult) moment.
