Appraised

Well, the appraiser just left my house and early guesstimates put the value of the house in the $130,000 range. This was pretty much the number I was hoping for. Anything over that would be gravy. I told the appraiser, I wanted him to get it as high as possible so I can finish all the work on the house and be a virtually debt free man. It's looking now like that will be the case.

After all is said and done, I will have around $90,000 invested in the house. So we are looking at somewhere around $40K in equity. I'm happy with that. I still have a few projects around the house too. I have had some estimates to rebuild my porch. So far, I've been told that concrete is my cheapest option right now. The only concrete estimate I've had is $6500 and the same size porch made of wood supposedly will run about that much just in materials. I'm getting some other quotes though because I find that hard to believe.

Other than the porch, I still need carpet. I'm going to get new carpet in the downstairs bedroom (which will be my office), in the den, the living room, and the bedrooms upstairs. However, I am going to get some quotes for hardwood floors upstairs and compare that to carpet.

Lastly, but definitely not least is the upstairs bathroom. It needs completely overhauled. I want ceramic tile and a walk in shower with no tub. I also want a pedestal sink. I have everything laid out in my head how I want it, but it isn't going to be cheap. I might save that project for next year.

This summer will be spent working on the exterior of the house. As I mentioned before, the main project will be rebuilding the porch. However, I also need to do some landscaping (which I intend to start doing this weekend), and price some outbuildings (buying vs. building). I'll be buying a new lawn mower this weekend most likely and ripping shit loose on it :) I am going to check on one this evening though that supposedly a great deal (used).