With mortgage rates at all time lows, I’ve seriously been considering refinancing our mortgage. We actually have two mortgages: a first mortgage and second. When we purchased our house, we decided to take money out of savings to pay off some student loans so that we would be qualified to spend more on a house because we didn’t have as much debt. So instead of having a larger down payment, we opted to do an 80/15/5 to avoid paying PMI (private mortgage insurance). I feel good that we at least put that 5% down. I’d love to get rid of that second mortgage and combine it with the first, but our loan to value is not low enough now to avoid PMI. Oh well.

I’ve run the calculations, and to break even from the points and whatever from refinancing, it would take us about two years. I think that with us being unsure about where we want to live permanently it wouldn’t make any sense to refinance now. Who knows if we’ll be in the house in two years? I’m pretty confident that we will be just to break even with the value of our home (we’re hoping) but I guess we can’t predict the future. If we lived in the same state as one of our families, I’m sure we’d stay in our house forever.

If you own your own home, are you considering refinancing?

Posted under Home Ownership

Do you remember the flooring dilemma I had a few months ago? I’m almost embarrassed to say that I am just now getting around to solving the problem. I installed laminate flooring into my hallway and bedroom. And I have to say, at this moment I am confident this was the best decision for us.

Not only do I have the peace of mind of having a complete, normal, beautiful floor in my bedroom, but I have the financial peace of mind knowing I didn’t spend $3737.50.  I love the look of hardwoods, but with the dogs I couldn’t justify spending that much money and watching them get scratched.  Going with laminate flooring eliminates that worry.  It’s going to take a lot (knock on wood) for them to scratch the laminate.  Also, I was able to install it myself, which saved us a ton of money.

With the current housing market the way it is, we’ve decided to love the home we’re tied to, and make improvements that fit our lifestyle.  We can afford the laminate flooring.  We actually bought it at Costco and will get 2% back on our purchase because we have an executive membership. Also, I was able to pay with cash out of our hardwood floor fund, and I’ll tell you, when I pulled out my envelope and paid cash for the flooring, it was amazing. It felt so empowering to know that I had been saving for so long to be able to do this, and I wasn’t having to charge it or use my debit card. What a natural high!

Although I was worried about the resale value of the home after installing laminate, I realized that was a silly concern, as there are more serious problems going on that are making my home value go down right now.  We love our house, and although it’s not where we’d prefer to stay for the rest of our lives, it’s where we need to be right now, and we need to make it into a home we can love.  We’ll just have to keep making frugal renovation decisions and realize that anything’s possible if we put our minds to it.  After all this is said and done, I can look back and realize that sometimes the most frugal decisions are the wisest ones when we are pushed to our limits.  I’m thankful the flooring is done in my bedroom, and now I can relax.  Or paint the living room…

Posted under DIY, Home Ownership, How To

On Sunday I decided I had enough of my basement smelling gross and being damp. I saw one spot down there that had been growing mold, and I don’t know about you, but mold scares me. The reason I hadn’t bought a dehumidifier already was because we had one (albeit small) already and I thought it was doing a good job. Wrong. I sucked it up, went to my local Home Depot, and grabbed one off the shelf and lugged it to my cart. $190 later, and I was the proud owner of a large dehumidifier. I took it home, drug it downstairs, and set it up. That evening I went to check on it and the bucket was already full! I was amazed. I have emptied that bucket twice a day since I’ve had it!

After all the him-hawing I did with purchasing it, I decided I was going to look on the bright side of things and see how overall I will be saving money in the long run. First of all, I would have less moisture in the basement, which means less mold, which means less health problems. Less health problems equals less money spent on going to the doctor and taking time off. Then I decided that not only could I look at it that way, but I also could use that water that the dehumidifier extracted for other things. I can water my houseplants, water my garden, and even add it to the small pond out front. Not only am I being more “green”, but I’m saving money on water!

I still feel a little bad about spending that much money on one item, but I figure it is a necessity. We can’t live with the basement like that. It’s dangerous! I’m glad I was able to look on the bright side of things and realize that there is always some positives that can come out of a negative.

Posted under DIY, Home Ownership