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

Gallery Wall Part One

Well, the gallery wall is up. Only took two full days (yes, full 7-8 hr days) and a lot of breaks to save our sanity. But, it's up! And beautiful I might add : )

This is only part one because while it took us so long to hang the darn things we still have to fill them! Another project for another day.

We started by laying out the frames on the floor and arranging them in various ways until we found one we both agreed on. Here were a few of our options:

We liked the second one better except there was one small issue, the light switch. I wanted to frame out the switch so it looked as if it was part of the gallery wall but H talked me out of it. He said that since the frames are so thick, we would constantly have to stick our hand through the frame to turn off the light, and since it's a switch we use all the time, this wasn't going to work. So we moved some stuff around and traced the frames onto paper before coming up with this.

H and I were both really happy with it except that I wanted to switch out that aweful light switch. When the builders put in all the light switches they over tightened them creating this concave effect on the plastic. Eventually I would like to replace all the switches in the house but at over $5 a piece, that's going to take some time. So I'm happy to change just this one for now.

Up until this point we were doing great. It took us most of the day to get this far but I always think the planning stages of a project take longer than the project itself so I was really hopeful the next day would go smoothly. 

It didn't.

We were using various sized IKEA Ribba frames and boy are they impossible to hang! The frame itself is over an inch think and the hook for the nail head to hang them on the wall is INSIDE the frame. Plus, the hook is impossibly small, requiring a super small nail head. Needless to say, you can't use regular size nails. Some of the larger sizes came with picture wire which was much easier to work with, but even that poses a challenge when you are trying to hang everything in a straight line. What a nightmare. 

Off to Lowes we went in search of 2" nails with a small head and a light switch. We found the light switch no problem, the nails, that was another story. We wound up getting three different boxes of nails and these self-leveling picture hooks just in case. (We have learned from past projects to buy everything you think you might need and just return what you don't later. Otherwise you wind up making three trips to the hardware store before finishing what you started - it's the worst!) 

Ok so without going into too much detail, the nails didn't work, at least not easily. So we went with the self-leveling picture hooks. I totally forgot to take a photo of those so I'll add that in Part Two. These worked great with our handy little hanging gadget we were using to get the frames exactly where we wanted them. Check this out:

Sorry that photo is a little blurry but we used a paint stirrer and a small screw to hold up the frame where we wanted it, pressed the stirrer into the wall and the screw left a hole in the exact location of where to put the nail - this is genius people. Do not, I repeat do not ever attempt a gallery wall without one! I wish I could take credit for this great idea but I found it on a bunch of different blogs when I was researching the easiest way to hang these frames. We used this for the picture wire frames too. It took all the guess work out of where to put the nail resulting an fewer "oops" holes in the wall that we would have had to patch later.

Anyway after measuring and leveling and measuring some more the wall is finally taking shape. 

Here are some tips for those of you who are considering taking on a gallery wall of your own:

- Use a laser level. If you don't have one, go out and buy one (or borrow one from a neighbor like we did - thanks guys!)

- Plan ahead. Don't complain, just do it. Trust me it will save you a headache and lots of patchwork later on.

- Double check all your measurements, a few of ours were off so we used a smaller level and a ruler to get them just right.

- Make yourself that handy little picture hanger thingy. Get a paint stirrer and a small screw, put the screw into the paint stirrer near the bottom so it just pokes out the back. That's it, it's free and easy to use. You will thank me later!

Check back for Part Two when we get some photos in these frames of ours!

JP

Empty Wall Syndrome

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about our house and all the bare walls and why we haven't put up any pictures. We have tons of photos from the wedding and with family and friends from various points in our lives. Even a few good ones of Pepper when she stands still for more than a second. So why haven't we put any up on the walls? 

Well, I think I have the answer. I have been waiting and waiting to figure out exactly what each space in our home will end up looking like in it's final stage. So instead of putting holes in the wall in fear that we might make a mistake and want to redo it down the line, we sit and stare at blank walls. That's no way to live I tell ya!

Sure we have a few walls with some artwork like in our front room and a nice mirror in our dining room, but those spaces are going to stay that way for a long time so it wasn't nearly as scary to put those holes in the wall. I mean really though, how hard is it to spackle a nail hole and repaint? So I have been trying to tell myself that it's time to just go out, buy some frames and get some stuff on these blank walls of ours. Commence project gallery wall.

On Friday I went with one of my girlfriends to IKEA to get some frames for the soon to be gallery wall on our upstairs landing and a few extra frames for the one large wall we have in our living room. I warned her that I was literally going to buy every frame in the store and she didn't believe me. That was until we had three carts full between the two of us filled with frames and other goodies. 

Oh how I love IKEA. Well, more like love-hate. I love how cheap some of the stuff is and how it's a one-stop-shop kind of place, but I hate how far away it is and how there is a serious lack of efficiency when it comes to their warehouse among other things. That's neither here nor there, because Friday was the first step in the right direction to get some serious decor going in this house of ours.

So I was really excited when I got home to show off all the great stuff I got to my husband, he wasn't as thrilled as I was (of course) but that's just because he knew that meant lots of frame hanging in his future : ) As we were unloading the car he was shocked to see just how many frames I purchased. I don't plan to use every last frame but I wanted to have a few extra of each size to play around with while I map out exactly how this gallery wall will take shape. I swore I would take back anything we didn't use, fair enough right? Well, it looks like I will be taking back more than I bargained for.

Every single white frame that I purchased was broken. Womp womp.

I swear I checked every one before I left the store and I didn't see any major damage. But underneath all those little paper corners, they were busted up. And I mean, busted up. Nothing a little white paint could fix. Cue my sad face. I was so disappointed! Here I had finally started to make some progress getting a few frames on the wall and sure enough, it wasn't going to happen. And like I said earlier, IKEA isn't all that close by so I couldn't just run back out and exchange them that night. I am now going to have to make another trip out there some time in the coming weeks. 

I guess the one good thing is that the white frames were meant for the living room, not the gallery wall. So before I run back to IKEA, I am going to have to get moving on this gallery wall, open every black frame and make sure they aren't damaged as well.

I have heard horror stories about hanging gallery walls so I know it's not going to be an easy task. The next few weeks are going to be trying to say the least, but I am really hoping it's not too bad. The IKEA trip wasn't a huge bust though, I did get one of those UNG DRILL frames to hang in our entry way. 

I have been meaning to post photos of the newly painted foyer/entry way, but the color on the walls is so hard to see in photos (especially iPhone photos) so once we get a few things in that area I will post pictures to show you how it's coming along. That UNG frame will be used to showcase a wooden "P" in the foyer for our family name {like this}. As far as I can see that one isn't broken, but I guess I will know soon enough.

Trials and tribulations of decorating on a budget : /

A Yard Sale Find and Some Disappointing News about our Mac...

So first, let's talk about how our MacBook is dying a slow and painful death. Ugh, this is so frustrating. One minute I think the computer is fixed, ready to go and the next... blue screen of death. While H and I were able to frantically save every last photo and important document to our external drive, there still is not enough space on this computer to run properly. I don't know what is going on, but every few minutes it gives me this message to shut down and reboot which is beyond annoying when you are trying to edit photos. This has been going on for the last few weeks which is why I haven't posted much lately. But I officially give up. I am just going to use my iPhone to take pictures for my posts until this computer situation figures itself out. 

With that in mind here are some iPhone photos of a little DIY project that made a huge difference for our front porch:

This time of year is great for yard sales! I'm telling you, go to yard sales. You can find some great pieces for really low prices. Yea, they may need a little work, but a low price tag makes it worth it. And you get to try out your haggling skills. Me, I'm not the best at negotiating price, but the one piece of advice I can give you is ALWAYS offer a lower price than what they are trying to sell it for. You would be surprised how many people just want to get rid of stuff and will take anything they can get!

A few local neighborhoods in our area have annual yard sales and this was the first year we were able to go. That's where we found two of these babies...

Super cheap at $50 for the pair, combined with another couple bucks in spray paint, and an entire day of cleaning them up and applying coat after coat, they now look like this...

Way better, right? I used three coats of a soft black outdoor spray paint followed by two coats of a clear sealant. Wicker is tough because though it looks like outdoor friendly furniture, they aren't waterproof at all. Wicker is prone to mold and mildew if it gets wet and doesn't dry completely. So I had to be careful to clean them up really well and apply the appropriate paint. We are also keeping them on our covered porch to shield them as much as possible from the rain. Hopefully that does the trick and we can enjoy these for years to come.

I also purchased two cushions from Pier One during their outdoor sale last week. Originally, I wanted white, but H vetoed that real fast. White gets so dirty and since they are going to be outside he convinced me to go with a darker cushion. Now all we need are a few bright pillows and a side table to tie everything together.



Here is the inspiration for what I want our porch to look like. I know, I know, I'm not there yet. But I am one step closer. I already have my eye on a side table that is currently in our "catch all" room not being used. I just need to waterproof it before bringing it outside. Once I have a free day, that will be the next project on my list : )

Well, hopefully the computer situation gets worked out, but until then, expect some mediocre photos of the updates we've been doing around the house. At least I'll be able to post more often.
{Think positive}

JP