We painted the basement hallway and the basement bathroom's ceiling. We touched up all the paint in the house (from the bumps and scrapes that have happened over the past 3 years. We staged the house (ie. removed half of our furniture so the house looked more spacious). I made curtains for the bedroom and a bedskirt for our bed. I rearranged just about every room in our house... and deep cleaned everything.
Now we've appraised at $10k higher than we needed and the house is spotless. The windows are washed inside and out. The oven is shiny clean. The bathtub grout has been scrubbed clean with a toothbrush. The baseboards are even dusted. All things that haven't been cleaned in about 6 months. The nice thing is now I don't have to worry about these things again for a while.
So we move forward on the refinance process and look forward to a lower monthly payment. It will allow us to put a little money each month away into savings. Maybe even put a little more into the mortgage itself. So less is more!
Other than that, Logan's been keeping us busy. He's been getting into everything lately! He realized he can reach on top of things now, so nothing is safe placed on top of anything his hight (the end tables, our bedside tables, etc). He also started throwing things in and taking things out of our trash. And he's getting pretty fast at walking/running. So we have to keep an eye on him all the time.
We've started (and almost finished) our Christmas shopping for the year! W've got all of Logan's stuff purchased. Dave's got my big gift last weekend (a new sewing machine!!! I saved up for half over the past year, and Christmas is covering the other half). And if Dave could just decide on what he wants for his big gift, I could get that out of the way. I always try to get the shopping done by the end of October, and I'm pretty close this year.
That will give me all the time in the world to finish this year's Christmas crafts. This year I know an advent calendar is on the list, and we'll see what else I come up with.
Yay! We tried to refinance this year but didn't qualify because our income was to high (??!). We'll try again next year. We're also in the process of painting/deep cleaning. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteHope you survive Logan's destructive stage....luckily it only lasts a couple of years. Ha!! Lidded trash cans are the only way to go!
What kind of sewing machine did you get? How exciting!
We're so excited for the refi!!! I didn't know you could make too much money to refi though. That seems fishy to me, maybe try another mortgage broker.
DeleteWe'll teach him the trash cans are off limits, just like we have the toilets, DVD's and under the sink (although I did baby proof under there to be double safe). It just takes time and patience while he learns... and a lot of checking the trash.
I'm sure it's nice to have all those things around the house done, but you didn't really need to do it for the appraisal. It'd be helpful if you were trying to sell, but it doesn't really affect the value.
ReplyDeleteI read a great article on why it's important to stage your house for the appraisal. It might not give you a 100k boost, but if you present your best, it's enough to help bump you a little. That's all we needed.
DeleteMy friend pulled some similar comps for the neighborhood and we ended up appraising 30k higher than those houses. I'm just going go be grateful. We prayed like crazy and worked our butts off and it worked out!