Total Disfunction!

When we bought our home it had a large, long, unfinished room on the back of it. There was one doorway into it off the kitchen. It had no heat, a concrete floor, a huge stone fireplace right in the middle, wood paneled walls, super cheap windows, and to top it off, the entire roof leaked where it was tied into the main roof, as well as the entire north wall leaking at the floor level. When we bought the house there was only one small leak under an exterior door and we could not have imaged how bad it would become, or how fast it would deteriorate. We had wanted to gut and finish the room right away, but it ended up taking a lot more time, work and money than we had anticipated, and the problems seemed to grow rapidly.

Well, last year the inside was finally done. We ended up with three rooms; a walk-in laundry room/pantry, a family room/studio for me room, and a much needed forth bedroom. We just barely got the heat installed before winter last year, and I didn't have the money or ambition to finish my "wall". My own little space in the world to create, pay bills, mend clothing, or whatever I want. Well, except for a filing cabinet that will be replaced with one that is currently being refinished, it is done!! The picture above is the thrown together mess of the last year. Tomorrow I will post the new and improved version.

Here's my frugal advise about this. Since we didn't have the cash to do this all at once - we didn't. Because the entire roof needed replaced we did end up having to finance it. We waited until that was paid off before we did anything else, and we paid as we went for the rest of the project. We traded the drywall work on two of the rooms, with a friend who has his own contracting business, for cut, hauled and delivered firewood. My MIL had some trees go down on her property last year, and our friend heats his house with a wood burning stove. Don't be afraid to ask! We are now saving for new windows for the rest of the house and new siding. I am an immediate gratification kind of girl, and it very hard to live with half finished projects. What's harder for me though, is living with debt!