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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

How to Remove Baseboard

I have always hated the standard builder-grade baseboards in our home.  They are so small and puny.  I have considered replacing them with something taller or just cheating with something like this.  I still haven't decided what I want to do, but we had to remove some baseboard for our home office built-ins, and it was so easy that now I'm not so scared of the idea of completely removing some of our puny baseboards.

Here's the very simply process I used to remove our existing baseboards:

1. (Optional)  If you only need to remove a section of your baseboard, use a Dremel Multi-Max - type tool to cut your baseboard.  I didn't get a picture of this step, but you basically start in the vertical center of the baseboard and carefully cut up and down until you clear the top and bottom of the baseboard.  Be very careful near the bottom that you don't damage your floor. 

2. Use a box cutter to slice the caulking along the top of the baseboard.  This will help minimize the amount of wall board that comes off with the baseboard.


3. Shove a metal putty knife between the top of the baseboard and the wall.  Then use a pry bar to pull the baseboard off.  Keep the putty knife behind the baseboard to keep it out from the wall and just slide it along as you go with the pry bar.


4. (Optional) Because of the height of our hardwood floors, I had to use the putty knife/pry bar method vertically as well to lift the baseboard up over the hardwood.


Voila!   Now you have a bare wall to add fancy new baseboard.


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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Rug Dilemma {Study Update}

I don't know what my problem is, but I have the hardest time picking out area rugs!  Maybe it's because it takes up so much space that I'm worried if I choose the wrong one it will mess up the whole room.

I ordered these curtains and this rug from Crate and Barrel because they looked awesome next to each other in the catalog.  But when I got them home the green-ish/yellow-ish color in the rug doesn't quite match the curtains.  I also feel like the patterns don't look great together.  I love the curtains, but I'm thinking the rug will have to be returned.


What do you think?  No dice, right?

The problem is I have no idea what kind of rug to replace it with.  I'm thinking maybe a patterned one with only one color?  Or should I just do a solid color with no pattern?  Or a gray-ish one with a pattern?  Ahhh... I'm so confused!  (FYI there will be a desk in the center of the room on top of the rug.  The built ins will come out to the blue tape line on the floor to the right, and there will be a chair in the left corner near where the curtain is).

I made this inspiration board to kind of get my thoughts together.  You can't tell here, but I actually have about six rugs on top of each other in this file.  I'm a lost cause. :/


So what do you think?  Should I go patterned or solid?  Color or gray?  Do you think it should be a little big bigger than the one I have now?  

Thanks for your advice!

Friday, February 14, 2014

How Much House Can You Afford?

I am a planner.  I love lists, schedules, itineraries, and most of all... spreadsheets.  So when Greg and I decided we wanted to buy a house, of course the first thing I did was set up all kinds of spreadsheets.  I made one to track all of the houses we visited, listing things like address, school district, price, amenities, distance from work, etc.  I made a list of our "must-haves" and "would-like-to-haves"  and "definitely-don't-want-to-haves" for the house.  And most importantly, I set up a spreadsheet to figure out what we could afford.  I have shared it with many friends and co-workers who are house shopping, so I figured I would share it with you guys too.  I realize this is a little late for many of you who have recently bought houses, but I know people often find our blogs when looking for information on RH, so maybe it will be helpful to those who are still in the searching phase.

When we first started house hunting, we met with a realtor who took all of our income and debt information and told us how much we could afford.  It was wayyyyy more than we were comfortable with.  I'm not sure how they come up with those figures, but I highly suggest doing some calculations of your own before committing to anything.  That's where my spreadsheet comes in!

Click on this link to download and save the spreadsheet for your own use.  A preview is shown below.  There are two tabs, one is a hypothetical sample and the other is a blank worksheet.  You should only fill in the blue cells, and the rest will calculate automatically.  In the example shown below, a family that makes a total net salary of $82,000 per year and has enough savings to put 20% down, with the approximate monthly expenses shown, can afford a $300,000 house and still save about $1,000 per month.  It's important to note that this is based on NET salary... so it's what you take home AFTER taxes, 401K contributions, flexible spending deductions, etc.  If you get paid every other week, just multiply your bi-weekly paycheck by 26 to get your annual net salary.  It's also very important to make sure your expenses are accurate and that you adjust any house-related estimates for your new potential home.  For instance, Greg and I were living in a 1,500 sf townhouse before.  We knew we wanted a 4 bedroom single family home, so our gas and electric bills would be much higher than they were in the townhouse.  Our monthly gasoline budget increased too, since my commute would be much longer.  Property taxes are a huge component as well.  Most real estate websites like Realtor.com provide a house's tax history, which will give you a good idea of what to expect.


Obviously you can customize this for your own different expenses/income, but hopefully it will be a good starting point.  When I bought my first condo in 2008, I actually kept track of my budget for 6 months before I started looking so I REALLY knew how much I was spending.  I tracked everything down to a $1 cup of coffee.  You'd be surprised the silly things you spend money on without even thinking.  In this era of online banking it's so easy to keep a budget.  I used our credit card and bank statements to figure out our spending to budget for this house.

In other news, I have finished painting the study and, thanks to yet another snow day yesterday, I primed the base cabinets for our built-ins too!  I picked up the curtains and rug I ordered from Crate and Barrel, but I'm not sure if I'm loving the rug.  I'll upload some pictures this weekend to get your opinions.  I think I need to create an Olioboard for this room too... my ideas are kind of all over the place right now.


**Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor or realtor or anyone qualified to give mortgage advice.  This is a personal spreadsheet I am sharing, but I make no guarantees as to its accuracy.  You should consult with a professional before making any decisions.**

Thursday, February 6, 2014

About Me

Hey guys!  Please check out my new About Me page for a glimpse into my life.  Leave a comment and let me know if I missed anything important!

Thanks!