In April 2016 we bought our first (town) home. At the time we weren’t married, I was only working 20-hours a week and we had a very modest budget. But we were paying almost $1200 in rent for our loft. And prior to that we lived in a 500 sq ft studio for $1000 a month. We were use to living in small spaces, so we were excited to have more than one bathroom, a bedroom door that closed and most importantly to start saving money!
I think it is important to be transparent about our house buying process, and cost to help you plan and prepare for your projects.
We purchased our townhouse for $60,000. It was a 900 sq ft home with 2 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. It was listed significantly below our budget so we went in full asking price. It was the 4th house we put an offer in, and we didn’t want to miss another one. Our lease was up and we were fortunate enough to have friends let us stay with them for 3 weeks while everything was finalized. So there was no grace period moving in, we moved in the same day we closed and our families came up to help us get started on the house.
You will see from the photos below that there was a lot to be done in the house. But the location was perfect (at the time), and that was a huge factor for us. It was a quick uber ride uptown and we had access to the light rail right across the street .
The main question I get from people looking to purchase a home is what is the most important thing, and for us it was location and layout. Two things you can’t do a whole lot to change so you have to be okay with them. We knew when we purchased our home we only wanted to be in it for 2-3 years. It allowed us to save money for our wedding and make a profit when we sold it 3 years later. We knew we wanted a home with a little more space with room for our family to visit. When we purchased our first home we didn’t look at school districts, proximity to parks or anything like that. It wasn’t important at the time.
We were very fortunate to have help getting our house together. We really didn’t have a clue what we were doing. We (I) knew how we wanted everything to look, but did not know exactly how to accomplish it. Between Pinterest, visits from my parents, and many FaceTime calls and texts with my mom everything turned about great.
We painted the whole house a light gray color, and dark accent walls in some rooms. Honestly, we bought the cheapest paint I don’t even know the brand. But it was about $80 for a 5 gallon bucket, and then I grabbed a gallon of dark gray paint from the clearance rack at Lowes for a couple of dollars.
The house was carpeted, but old dirty carpet. We decided that we didn’t want carpet wherever we moved because we have dogs. So putting down new flooring was the best option. We went with a grayish laminate flooring because we knew the rest of the house would be gray. I don’t remember the exact cost but my husband remembers it was about $40 a box. We put it down in the entire house including the restrooms and kitchen. My dad was a huge help to getting us started and then later my husband was able to do it in the rest of the house.
One of the the easiest projects, that I was able to do all by myself, was the stairs. The stairs were carpeted and I had no hesitation ripping it all off. Luckily the stairs were wood underneath so I just removed all the carpet, nails and then stained the stairs and repainted all the trim.
Possibly one of the hardest projects, but my favorite room in the house was the kitchen. My husband worked HARD on getting the kitchen together. At one point we didn’t have a kitchen for a week and didn’t have water for 2 days. He had to turn it off to get everything connected, and we used the shower at the gym (strugggglllle).
The original plan was to repaint the cabinets white and just change the handles. But after further inspection we noticed mold under the sink. My parents gifted us new lower cabinets so that we didn’t have to worry about the mold issue. We ripped the old cabinets out and cleaned where they were and left it open to air out for a few days. The new cabinets, a new sink and new faucet were installed. We also got a new stove, dishwasher, fridge and range.
We went with open shelving on top since the space was so small I thought it would open it up.
Okay the countertops were tricky, I say that but I didn’t do anything but pick out what I wanted. I really wanted concrete countertops but we decided to go with concrete looking tile to cut cost. This was something else that my husband had no experience with but my dad brought his saw and showed him the ropes.
It took almost 8 months for this project to get started, but looked soo good when they were done. They were a dark gray, with a dark gray grout. The tiles and supplies were also purchased from Lowes. We weren’t exactly sure how we were going to do the counter top edge but my mom had the idea to use the grout and create a rough edge, we did and it worked out perfect and went with the concrete look.
We purchased the peel & stick backsplash from either Home Depot or Lowes cut it in half and used it for the backsplash.
The appliances were a little tricky because it was an old home. A standard fridge did not fit in our space so we went with a 30 in whirlpool fridge. The house also had an older drop in stove which wasn’t standard size either. So we purchased a new stove and have to purchase a mini dishwasher to fit in the space. Since there is just two of us this wasn’t an issue.
My next favorite room was the living room. It was small, but so cozy. We removed the wall paper, painted and put in new floor. Then I just spent way to much time decorating and re decorating.
And the shelf was from our previous apartment, I just spray painted it gray.
Upstairs we had 2 rooms and a full bath. One room was used as an office. Just like downstairs we painted, put down floor and decorated.
We did the same in our bedroom as the other room, some paint and floor.
Last, but not least was our backyard. It wasn’t difficult but the previous owner left a lot of stuff back there so we just had to clean up and get some furniture.
Okay that’s the super long version of purchasing and updating our first home. But
I hope that I have inspired you to create the home you want now, with what you have!
After 3 years we were able to sell our home for almost double.
We are in the process of doing it all over again, with a less help and way more knowledge. You can check out some of those updates here.
xo
