Home Improvement Budgeting

So, I was reading this post over at Teal & Lime that talked about budgeting and spending money on home improvements. It summed up exactly how I feel every time I spend a little bit of money on our home. For example, I have had my eye on this bench from Target, yes, Target. Not Ethan Allen or Raymour - Target. At full price it's not expensive but it's still more than I feel comfortable spending. In the grand scheme of things, the price isn't so bad (especially since I never buy anything at full price, waiting for a sale is always the way to go!) With all that being said, I have been looking at this bench for months. It has gone on sale, gone off sale, been back ordered, back in stock, and there was even a point where I thought it was going to be discontinued. I never pulled the trigger. Why? Because spending any kind of money for a piece of furniture that we don't need is really hard to justify.

H and I are BIG budget people. We have pretty much every dollar of what we earn designated for a specific category like the mortgage, cable, food, car payment, etc. We know where our money goes every month which is why I know we are ahead of the game. It took us a while to get there but we finally have a budget and we are sticking to it. We also have a "home improvement" budget that we try to keep to. That includes random trips to Lowes and we never walk out of there spending less than $100. I don't know how they do it, but they seriously suck the money right out of my wallet! I'm getting off track here. What I am trying to express is that Teal & Lime really made me realize that it's OK to spend a little money on our home.

If you want to read the full post check it out here. I highly recommend reading it, and the other posts on this blog too! But one thing I want to highlight from this post was that we spend so much money yearly on random things like haircuts, gym memberships, car payments, you name it. We invest in ourselves so why don't we invest in our house? Now, I'm not talking frivolous spending, I'm talking significant purchases that will make a difference in our home and our everyday life.

This is how I justify spending a little bit of money on the place I call home. Try to ask yourself these few questions next time you are shopping for your home:

• Is it going to make an otherwise unusable space usable?
• Is it something I have had my eye on for a while now and is finally on sale to a point that I can justify spending that amount of money on that particular item?
• Is it the one piece that will tie everything together? (we all know how difficult that is to find)
• Does it fit into my budget?

That last one is the kicker! Like I said, H and I have a set budget for what we feel we are comfortable spending in a given month on our home, but that doesn't mean we don't ever make a bigger purchase. We just try to plan ahead for it. So maybe I won't buy anything for a few months and then I will have enough to purchase that piece of furniture that I have had my eye on but was too pricey to begin with. I still ask myself those other questions to see if it is truly worth my hard earned money but it helps to know that we can afford it and aren't breaking the bank just to get our house in order. 

It is still tough for me to pull the trigger on certain things (like that Target bench), but budgeting really does help. Now, I could do a whole series on budgeting because it really is a beast on it's own but that is another story for another day. Decorating your home on a budget can be a daunting task. It's so overwhelming with the "but it's so expensive" or "I want to do it right, so I am going to just wait" or "why start at all if we can't afford to finish it". People, it doesn't have to be that way! If you budget home improvements into your monthly expenses and use that money for your home, then before you know it, your house will start to take form. And you will be happier for it, trust me! 

Happy Friday!

JP

It's My Blogiversary!

It's been one year! One whole year of blogging! I can't believe how fast the time flies. This year was a great year for us. We got so much done in the house and managed to keep our sanity (and some money in our pockets). Looking back, I now remember why I started this blog - to have an outlet for everyday life. I also wanted to write about our home progress in hopes it would be a way to hold myself accountable for continuing to do stuff around the house. It is so easy to put things off and then before you know it, BAM, a year has gone by and nothing has gotten done. The opposite is also true though, that if you move too fast you could make bad decisions or wind up spending more than you needed to. For us, I think we have found a happy medium (that leans towards the quicker-paced side) and it works for us. Everyone is different.

Moving into a new construction home has also allowed us to start with a blank canvas, but this, like everything else, has its ups and downs. We have done some smaller projects and some bigger ones this year, always inching closer to the final product. Seriously though, who am I kidding? It will never be "finished". Having a home is like having a never ending to-do list. Slowly, but surely, it will get there. One project at a time. H and I are just enjoying the ride. Annnd cookin' up some good eats in the mean time : )

So here is a list of my top five posts from this first year of blogging. Enjoy!

1. Life Under Construction - This is where is all started. Building our house from the bottom up was a great experience. It was so exciting to see the progress each week as we inched closer to home ownership. 
2. First Year in Review - I have a sweet spot for this post, mainly because of my love for lists. Though I have only been blogging for a year, H and I have been in the house for almost two now so we were doing projects before The JP Project even got started. It was so great to see everything we accomplished in the first year of owning our home and was a great way to see just how far we have come.
3. Our Crowning Achievement - In this post H and I (mainly H) tackled a huge project in our home, the living room. H had to have surround sound and I had to have character. The solution - crown molding : ) This was our first attempt and we really learned a lot through the process so next time it will hopefully run a little smoother.
4. The Final CrossFit Friday - I chose this post because I am so very proud of H and I for accomplishing this goal. We had been wanting to try CrossFit for a while and in this post I talked about how we made it through the into-classes and graduated onto the real deal. I seriously need to write an update one of these days because we are still at it and working harder than ever!
5. Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies - I couldn't have a Top Five without my all time favorite cookies! These are seriously the best. Stop reading my blog and just go make them. Like now ; )

Well, there you have it. Five of my favorite posts from this first year of blogging. It was really hard to narrow it down but I think these are a few good stand-out posts. If you enjoyed reading them I hope you continue to follow me here at The JP Project. This next year is already shaping up to be one of the best yet!

Thanks everyone for reading and supporting my blog!
JP

Drinkin' the CrossFit Koolaid?!

Side Note: Our new hard drive has officially arrived (eeeeh) however, I have yet to find the time to transfer everything over. And of course, I can't just throw stuff on there, I need to go through the last 5+ years of junk before I finally clear up some space to start posting pictures again. But until then, here is an interesting update about our lives lately.

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Yup, I've officially joined the dark side. Well, not officially I guess, more of a "I'm trying it on for size, but black is totally my color". And yes, I am bringing the hubby with me! Actually it was him that talked me into it, so when I am cranky next week you will all know who to blame : )

So here's the deal, H and I have tried a few workouts before. I got through two thirds of P90X to get in shape for the wedding (best shape of my life btw - just saying) and I really loved it. What I didn't love was Tony Horton's goofy phrases and annoying Andrea who every time she was in a video I felt like telling her to go eat a burrito! Plus the yoga video was just awful, one and half hours of the same-move-over-and-over. But, at the end of the day, I saw results. I also recently tried the T25 series with Shaun T. Must say, he is a way better coach than Tony in my opinion, but after the first 5 weeks of the Alpha program I was feeling a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, the workouts kicked my butt, but I am not sure how the end result would be mainly because there was no lifting. The workouts are high intensity, 25 minutes, major cardio, and what's better than spending 25 minutes a day to work out and actually seeing/feeling results?

Apparently CrossFit.

For the last year, H and I have had multiple friends joining the CrossFit Cult trend and they all have wonderful things to say. They have been trying to get us to join for months now and our whole excuse was it's too much money and too much time. Until we saw this Groupon deal that would allow us to try out our local CrossFit, which as luck would have it is where our friends from work go, for only $40! We toyed with the idea and then we thought of Pepper. Yea she's a dog, but we love spending a lot of time with her. We have put so much time and energy into training her that we didn't want her to become neglected. However, she is not a puppy anymore, she just turned one last weekend and we are starting to give her more freedom. So maybe if we are gone an hour and a half at night we can leave her out of the crate and see how she does. I know, famous last words, but the gym is only 15 minutes from the house so we would be gone two hours max. I guess we could at least try it out right? Plus we have friends that do CrossFit and have dogs, if they can do it, then why couldn't we?

Groupon purchased!

We had our first meeting yesterday with one of the coaches. He showed us around and gave us a look into what CrossFit is all about. He seemed really knowledgable and excited about the gym, which in turn made me excited (not sure how H felt about the whole thing) and told us we are going to officially start on Wednesday. Yup that's tomorrow - que my totally freaking out face!

So we will see how it so goes. We apparently have to "test out" of individual classes which consist of learning all the lifts/moves before we are cleared for group classes and that should take about a month. I am totally fine with that because the longer I have before I make a fool out of myself in front of my friends, the better! Needless to say from time to time I will be posting about my CrossFit experience. 

Who knows, maybe I will love it, maybe it will be awful, but at least I am giving it a try!

JP

This Busy Life of Ours

Ok, so many of you know that things have been slow around here. Mainly because of a shortage in memory on my computer. That hasn't changed. In fact, I tried to get around this problem by taking photos with my iphone to post about some updates we have been doing around the house and then the unthinkable happened... H dropped my phone destroying my screen.

Technology - 2     JP - 0

I have also been MIA lately because H and I went to Denver to visit our good friends who moved out there last year. It was awesome to spend some time with them but we were secretly using them for a place to stay while we took advantage of the great mountains. Shh.. don't tell them : )

H and I both snowboard and our good friends both ski so it was a great opportunity to hit the slopes together since we haven't been able to do that for a few years now. When we all lived in NYC, we took bus trips up to Vermont at least twice a year which were always a good time. We would get on the bus at 4am, head up to Okemo (which was my favorite), ride all day, then hop back on the bus by 4pm to come home. Man I miss those days. Now, we have to plan a whole weekend to get up to a decent mountain, which isn't a bad thing, just not as easy as a day trip. In a few weeks we are actually going to a friends house in the Poconos to board/ski with a bunch of people, should be a good time. But nothing like riding in the Rockies!

H and I went one other time to Colorado and hit up Copper Mountain - it was amazing. Like nothing we had ever seen before. Needless to say we were psyched to get out there again and check out a few other mountains. This time we went to Keystone and Breckinridge. Both stellar mountains if you ask me. Though, I spent more time catching edges and rolling down the slopes than actually riding, I still had a blast! What made it better was being able to go with two of our best friends. If you ever have a chance to get out to that side of the world - do it, I promise it is worth the trip!

So after an amazing trip to Denver, H and I came home to ANOTHER Nor'easter! Yup, that's right, more snow. I can't tell you the last time the East Coast got this much snow in one season. But one good thing about all this snow is getting another paid day off from work : ) So even though technology is fighting against me, mother nature is going crazy, and our lives have been busy busy busy - we are still enjoying the ride.

Hopefully I will get my phone fixed (and/or a new hard drive) to post a few photos of the house updates soon. But until then, I am just gonna sit back and enjoy my day off. Anyone else doing anything on this snowy day?

JP

Defining Your Decorating Style

Yea, that's a tough one. I still struggle with this because when it comes down to it, I just don't know. I know what I like and what I don't like, but I don't know what I'll love for years to come. So I registered for this free webinar over at Teal & Lime and after watching it I honestly think she had some great ideas on how to really define a person's style. The one thing I took home was to write down the things that I like and don't like so here goes:

Like:

• contemporary
• transitional (a mix between contemporary and traditional)
• tufted furniture
• clean lines
• industrial elements like nailhead trim or wrought iron
• a little bling
• neutral colors (grey) with a bold accent
• modern rustic pieces
• graphic prints

Dislike:

• anything country
• a too casual feeling
• too many bold colors
• floral prints
• anything too traditional

To be honest, it was harder to come up with things I dislike than like. I think that is because I really do like a number of different styles, making it difficult to bring them all together into one. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the things I dislike aren't that I don't like them in other people's homes, because I have seen plenty of photos and homes where they have some of these elements and it is gorgeous and really works! It is just not for me and my home is all. This is probably why I want to paint the entire house different shades of grey, slowing making my husband grey-zy (yea, I said it).

The next step was to pick out the key words, name it, and use the rest of the words to then describe it further. Easier said than done. Here's what I came up with:

Transitional with Industrial and Rustic elements - Including neutral clean lines, graphic prints, and a touch of color

Does that even make sense?? Ugh, I don't know. Well, that's my style and I'm sticking to it, for now : )

We will see how it all turns out I guess. I do think that by writing everything down has helped me to focus in on the things I do like, and hopefully next time I am walking aimlessly around HomeGoods I can spend a little less time debating if an item will work in our home. Speaking of HomeGoods, did I ever tell you about the first time I stepped foot in one of those stores? haha, well, I walked in, and walked right back out! I was SO overwhelmed. Literally walked in, walked around the first table (didn't even make it to an aisle) and peaced out. Now, I have to have a purpose for going in that store, and still, I walk up and down every aisle until I have looked at everything. Maybe now I can be a bit more decisive.

Merry Christmas from Sunny Florida!

Just wanted to stop in a wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy Holiday Season!

This year H and I are spending the holiday with his parents down in Florida and we couldn't be more excited! It is a far cry from the white Christmas atmosphere we left up North, but we are really enjoying the sunny skies and sandy beaches. Pepper is loving every minute of it too, from sticking her head out the sunroof to running around the dog beach with some new friends. She is really wearing herself (and us) out. Once we get back I will post some more photos, but I just wanted to stop in for a quick Hello!

Merry Christmas!

Bucket List

So a very good friend of mine who has been blogging at Pearls & Pilots for a while (and who inspired me to start blogging myself) has this list of things she wants to accomplish in life. She has already accomplished so much, but she is always striving to do more, not only for herself and her family, but for all those around her. So when I saw this "bucket list" she had on her page I thought, what an amazing idea! By writing a list of the things to accomplish in life, you can check them off as you go and see what you have completed over the years.

I guest everyone needs a bucket list and I have finally created mine.. check it out on my pages above!

Happy Blogging!
JP

Here Goes Nothing...

Welcome to my blog!

I've been contemplating starting a blog for some time now just to have a creative outlet for everyday life. My mind is constantly moving, coming up with new projects and ideas. So I figured, why not share them with the world? Or at least those friends and family who might have some interest. Whether it be designing a new space, trying out a new recipe, or building my wardrobe (momma always needs a new pair of shoes), all the ups and downs will be here as my husband and I build a life for ourselves in our new home.

Enjoy!
JP