A Tale of 2 WAHMs

Ramblings of 2 WAHMs - Anita DeFrank and Kara Kelso. Partners in business discuss how we manage successful websites and young children at home.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Remodeling and Planning

For the last year or two I've been trying to decide if I wanted to move or add on to the house. I grew up in the country, so living in town isn't exactly normal for me. Even still, I rather enjoy some of the benefits. Not to mention the location of our house - nice neighbors, just 2 blocks from the post office, about 3 blocks from the little store, and less than a mile away from the school (well, lol, everything in this small town is less than a mile away). Over all, I like living here. I like the house for the most part too, although it's in serious need of some updates and remodeling.

Currently there's only 2 bedrooms upstairs and a possible 3rd on the lower level. The house is set up rather strangely (to be expected from very old houses around here), and the "front room" is our main part of the house, which is also the largest. It's the adult living room, company room, dining room, and my "office". Honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. The possible 3rd bedroom is the family room/kid's toy room/kid's living room. I really don't want to turn that into a bedroom, but with 2 kids and only 2 bedrooms, I don't have much of a choice but to find another bedroom somewhere. They're still young now, but as they get older they are going to need separate bedrooms.

My solution is to use the unused space above the kitchen and bathroom to put an addition on the house. The roof there needs to be completely torn off and replaced anyway, so why not just add on? Not to mention it would be very easy to add a bathroom right above the one on the lower level. I haven't made any solid plans yet, but I can see some ideas already. When we get closer to actually putting all this into action, I'll call in some contractors for estimates. Either way, it's looking like the entire project is going to cost at least $10,000.

Where am I going to get all that money? Well, since on my list of "wants/needs" is also a new car, I'm actually going to have to come up with about $20,000 in a year or so. I'm not the type that likes to be in debt or jump through all the hoops of taking out loans, so I'm going to save this money myself. To do so in a reasonable amount of time, I need an extra $3,500 per month to devote to savings only. I've broken this down into some smaller goals, but that's the ultimate result.

To earn this much extra every month, I'm jumping back into affiliate programs (which I started to talk about last week). It's actually only step one of my long income plan. I've got most of the details worked out to earn me a few thousand extra in affiliate income in just a few short months. Once that's put into play, I'll be working on other projects one at a time to increase my income slowly. The plan is to be able to start saving a full $3,500/month within just 6 months. It will take about another 6 months to reach the $20,000 mark. That's the plan anyway, but I realize it might take a little longer than that. Realizing it might take a little longer will help me keep my focus on actually reaching that long term goal.

Anyway, I'll be posting my progress here and there. :)

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