Pick your fabric first

I thought I had settled on a beautiful blue mosaic tile for the backsplash I'm adding to my new kitchen.  I've been looking at it for weeks and thought for sure it was "the one."  Until today.  I went back to a wonderful fabric shop that I've recently discovered, looking for fabric for kitchen curtains.  I found one that I really liked, but I wasn't sure if the blues in the fabric would work well with the blues in the tile.

Fortunately I resisted the temptation to buy the fabric right then and instead took a swatch and drove across town to the only Home Depot in town that had samples of the special-order tiles.  As much as I thought I loved the tiles I chosen, they really didn't go well with the fabric.  Just as I was about to conclude that I needed to continue my search for fabric, I happened to notice a sample of another special-order tile.  I'd seen it before, but it didn't fit the vision I had in my head about what the kitchen would look like.  But then I hadn't had a particular fabric in mind.  Just for kicks, I pulled the sample out and laid the fabric against it.  It was incredible!  All of a sudden, the original tiles faded into the background and the new tiles that I'd never considered before dazzled like diamonds.  Together, the fabric and the new tiles popped!  Now, as my luck would have it, the new tiles are twice as expensive as the original ones, but the difference in the visual effect is well worth it.  I'm going back tomorrow to buy the fabric and order the tiles.

Bottom line, it's much easier to carry around a swatch of the fabric with you when you're looking for furniture, fixtures and other stuff.  Intuitively, I knew that it was going to be harder for me to find a fabric to match the tiles, than to pick a tile that would match the fabric.  There just aren't that many options on the tiling, so I knew wouldn't be paralyzed by indecision on that.

The same rationale applies to choosing paint.  Picking a paint color before choosing the color of your furnishings is like choosing an eye shadow to match your outfit before you know what you're going to wear.

Check your Settlement Statement closely (Part 1)

Just when I thought I'd skated through the easiest, most carefree home purchase experience in history, I discovered that there's no such thing. Yesterday my banker told me that the amount I owed at closing would be $500 more than we'd anticipated.  Not good, but I decided that it could have been worse.  Well, today it got worse.  I found out from the settlement company that the new number was another $500 more, this time due to an accounting error.  It may not seem like much, but a $1,000 increase in less than 24 hours really made a dent in my home improvement budget!

When the settlement rep told me that several people had reviewed the numbers several times, and it was finally the seller's attorney that noticed the error, I felt like kicking myself for not heeding my mother's advice that I retain my own real estate attorney to represent me at closing. Don't you just hate it when Mom's right ? Unless, of course, you're the Mom.

It's too late, and now I'm really too broke, to hire a real estate attorney (closing is less than 48 hours away), but all was not lost.  Had it not been for these errors, I probably wouldn't have spent the last three hours pouring over every line of the Settlement Statement (several times) to make sure that everything else was in order.

Thank God I did, because I found several potential "issues" that I have concerns about.  I've just sent a two-page (single spaced) letter to the settlement rep with a series of specific questions about 6 line items.  There may be perfectly reasonable explanations for some of them, but I'm absolutely convinced that I'm right about some of them.  If so, I may have just saved myself more than the $1,000 that just got added to the amount I owe at closing.

Regardless of how this turns out, this experience has reminded me lnot to assume that the "professionals" are always right.  And even if they are, it's still better to understand exactly what you're getting yourself into before you sign on the dotted line.

I'll post the results once I have them.

4 Days and counting

The final walk-through was this evening.  I'm so excited that I can hardly stand it.  I found a few small things that still need to be taken care of, but the sellers have been so accommodating throughout the entire process that I'm sure these will be resolved before closing on Friday.

I've been so focused on the vision of my renovated kitchen, that I'd forgotten how much prep work I'm going to have to do before I can even start on the renovation.  Unlike the rest of the house, the kitchen wasn't cleaned and freshly re-painted.  The truth is, it's pretty grungy.  I'm not looking forward to the heavy-duty cleaning, but I realize that it's important preparation for the fun work to come.  And when it's all done, I'm sure I'll admit that it was well worth the effort.

5 days and counting

On Friday I'm set to close on my new home.  It's not the first home I've owned, nor is it the most expensive.  But it is by far the most important, for reasons that I'll share in future posts.  I've been living in an apartment, a very nice one, for three years since my divorce.  During that time I've watched my daughter blossom, leave the nest and join the U.S. Armed Services.  I've slowly lost most of the very lucrative home-based business due to the economic downturn. I've worked a variety of jobs to supplement my income. I've taken a full-time job. I've joined a new church family.  I've published a book on the connection between spirituality and knitting.

I'm an ordinary woman, yet God is doing extraordinary things in my life.  The past three years have been a journey, all leading to this point.  During that time I've managed to learn to live comfortably and joyously on a lot less. I've gotten completely out of debt. I've come to understand that the desire to create is an intensely spiritual one and that it can be expressed in many ways. I've come to truly enjoy my own company and welcome the time I spend alone.  All of those lessons, and so many more, will be put to the test as I enter into this wonderful new season of life.  Words cannot express my gratitude and humility for all that God has done for me, in spite of myself.

As the name of this blog implies, my mission is to transform the old Cape Cod I'm buying into something truly beautiful.  With lots of money, any body with a decent sense of style or the sense to hire a decorator and a staff of home improvement gurus could do the same thing.  But I don't have a lot of money.  In fact, I have very little.  But that's what makes this adventure so exciting.  This is my opportunity to prove that lots of money is not a prerequisite to turning a house into a truly beautiful, comfortable, peaceful and soul-full home.

I invite you to share this journey with me.  I'll try to post regularly, with lots of before and after pictures of my progress.  As I learn new skills, identify new resources, and uncover new surprises, I'll share them with you.  Feel free to share your stories here as well.