The Grand Figure

I've been wanting to put some numbers together and see how much we spent on all the stuff we've done to our home. Thanks to the fact that we use our credit card for everything (we do pay it off in full each month, guaranteed) and that our credit card has an awesome report creator, it was quite easy.

Here's the good, hard stats*:

•  77 separate in-store purchases (and a handful more of just window-shopping trips)
• 6 other purchases, mostly paying for services done at the home (like installing the furnace & A/C, tree pruner, garage door installer, vent cleaners, etc.)
• $970.67 worth of rebates and store returns back to us (hooray!)
• $2825.00 worth of escrow hold back on our loan to partially pay for a major plumbing leak and for the new furnace (not so "hooray" because it was really just part of our loan...we still paid for it)
• $12,502.97 out of our pocket --or more accurately--out of savings and our paychecks (after credits, rebates, returns, etc.)

*I'm sure something was missed somewhere, but this is as close as it's gonna get.

No wonder we're out of money. :)

But, that money did buy quite a bit. Here's a summary list: 

(and lets all moan and groan together now...at blogger for not making photos easy to insert/move around)

• brand spankin' new energy efficient (or as energy efficient as they come) furnace
• brand new central A/C unit
• clothes dryer
• refrigerator
• oven/stove top
• laminate flooring upstairs

• new, fresh paint in every room
• new pantry (which included lumber, dry wall and shelves)
• new light fixtures, light switch plates and outlet plates
• new texture on the walls (and the million buckets of mud it took to do so)
• new toilet
• new kitchen faucet
• garage door opener

• new doors for the hall closets and to every room
• new baseboards/mouldings and door trim
• all parts to our spiffy new railing (plus some)
• the u-haul truck for all our furniture

• pruning of our huge not-so-ugly-anymore tree

• air vents professionally cleaned
• lawn mower (we opted for the green push-mower...more on that later)
• random essentials (shovels for yard work, bush trimmers/clippers, rake, hose, sprinklers, weed killer, etc., etc, etc.)

Phew! It makes me tired all over again just reliving the last few months. It's been a ton of work, and lots of money, but it's been worth it so far. We love our home.



Next on the never-ending to-do list:
- paint downstairs family room
- carpet the stairs and entire downstairs
- fix the deck so Winston can safely play on it
- work on curb appeal/landscaping & creating a backyard of grass instead of rocks and weeds
- new windows