Have you downgraded your home? How hard was it?

[momof2girls]

Why not take a different approach to this. Maybe you save toward 1 or 2 "goals" to be done within a year. Like pledge to rip out and replace the kitchen floor by 2011. Then maybe next summer put in new bathroom floors. Then the next year replace the bathroom vanities.

[tmahanes]

Why not take a different approach to this. Maybe you save toward 1 or 2 "goals" to be done within a year. Like pledge to rip out and replace the kitchen floor by 2011. Then maybe next summer put in new bathroom floors. Then the next year replace the bathroom vanities.

I would soooooooo go for the house with the water and better yard.... you can't add those things later. Then I would set goals like above poster suggests. Paint is not expensive! I also don't think you have to cut out the design shows... I do not have any kind of decorating budget and I watch the shows and evaluate the design to see how I can do it with stuff from Target or the internet etc. How can I do this cheaper. Plus there are tons of shows that show tricks of how to save.... for example just picking a tile for a backsplash that is just a few dollars cheaper per square foot can save hundreds over the whole project.

[KpbS]

I don't know that I'd do it, honestly. While the setting does sound wonderful you have to live inside the house. And if you really don't like much about it (and are really attached to your current home and love decorating) it sounds like it could be kind of miserable. Yes, spaces look better painted and filled with your furniture, but if it is going to drive you crazy (and make you dissatisfied) and then your DH crazy I don't know that it is worth it in the long run. I'd be tempted to keep looking out for a house in the same area that is better suited to you and your style or within your budget enough that you had $$$ leftover to remodel.

[nfowife]

have you sold your current house? I'm not really understanding your situation. Will you be keeping both houses until your house sells? Is the new house that much more $$ because of the waterfront location?

I think you will be happy in the new house because you can't change location. Over the coming years you can redo the interior to make it more "you"- not every change has to be a catastrophic one that costs tons of $$. Little changes can make a big difference, as I'm sure you know. But if it will be your forever home, I would do it.

We moved from our custom-built 3500 sf house to a 3br/2ba 1500 sf apartment 2 years ago (overseas military move, we live on a base now). It has been great actually. So much more simple and I realize we don't need so much "stuff". We are getting ready to move back to the house this summer and I'm kind of dreading it!

[fumofu]

DH and I are in a similar situation, but not to your extreme. We're currently living in a 4-year-old house with full upgrades that my in-laws own and will be moving in from out-of-state permanently soon. We're now in contract in buying a much smaller townhouse in one of the best school districts in the area (We weren't even considering this school district, but because of the smaller-sized home it's now in a price range that we have been looking at and can afford).

At first I was a bit disappointed at the place because there were some sacrifices that we would be making. But the more I focused on where our money is going to (great neighborhood and good school district) and less on what we'll have to "settle" on, the more excited I got about this house, to the point that I am now more excited about closing on this house than DH!

We do have a small fund kept for remodeling and new furniture, but we will not be doing any major overhauls. But even without this fund, I think we would be happy with a place of our own. I think you can still take on your decorating projects, but at a smaller scale and/or slower pace. I think you and your family will be happy in your "forever" house in a long run.

[BeachBum]

First off--we got it! Yippee! We are signing the contract this morning. And I'm really happy to say we settled on a price that is about $45K lower than we thought we'd end up paying.

have you sold your current house? I'm not really understanding your situation. Will you be keeping both houses until your house sells? Is the new house that much more $$ because of the waterfront location?

Yes. We will be keeping both homes at first. That was our negotiating point on the new house. We could close in 30 days vs making the contract contingent on the sale of our home.... Our strategy was they would lower the price substantially for a quick sale....and we were right.
But after we sell our house, (and another residential lot we own that we no longer need)we are going to pay back our long term savings. Long term savings is where we are getting the hefty down payment from. So if we didn't care about having savings we could fix everything. But we decided that we wanted to put that money back to work for us in mutual funds.

And yes, the 2 acres on deep water is about 2x as much as we can sell our house for. I can count on my fingers the number of homes that have come up for sale on this river in the past 10 years.

I like the suggestions of setting little goals... That seems like a very attainable way to get some things done. And watching design on a dime instead of Divine Design! HA HA Plus, I need to follow my own advice and live in a space before making any big changes. We will paint and freshen up before move in, then just take it in small pieces. The bones of the house are good. The floorplan is great, there is lots of storage, 4 bedrooms plus an office, a man room in the garage. It's just the finishes that are disappointing.

[emily_gracesmama]

"If making this change means you won't be able to afford ANY remodeling for many years, it sounds like you can't afford it. "

I absolutely agree with this statement!

[KHF]

We did this within the last year on a much smaller scale. Moved from a house that we had fixed to where we wanted it to a house that will need almost everything cosmetic changed about it to suit us. I really missed only 2 things. My hardwood floors and my oven. We're still stuck with carpet/pergo/ceramic tile right now, but I was able to work a deal with my dad for an oven. We got a riding mower in the purchase of the house, but if we both wanted to park in the garage, there was no room to store the mower. He wanted to pay me for it, but I didn't want to take money from him...so he bought us a new oven and I sold the existing one on Craigslist and made $100. Get creative and you might be able to replace things faster than you think.

Of course, I have a stainless oven and bisque colored refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher, but I'm MUCH happier with the oven. Eventually I'll get a new refrigerator, etc. but the oven was my priority.

We're trying to build our savings back up, and once we do, we'll start replacing the flooring throughout...but right now, I'm just painting one room at a time and trying to get it to where I can deal with it :-)

[AnnieW625]

Congrats on the new home.

I agree that you should take your fridge, washer & dryer, and oven with you unless they are built ins. I havbe never understood why people get so excited about new appliances and financing them for 30 yrs! Also love Sears no interest financing for 12 mos. .

We have only owned one home, but between DH and myself yes we downgraded to move to our current area. We used to live in a much more reasonably priced part of CA and had either rented a room in a really nice house, had 2 bed/1/1/2 bath condo, or a 2/1 condo we could've purchased, lived in for a few yrs and then rented out for income. If we moved back today we could get our forever house for less than what we paid for this place, but overall we've been very happy in our small little place and hope that we'll be able to save up some money and add on in a couple of years.

[Karenn]

We moved down to move up, IYKWIM.

Our first house was cute, updated, & totally suited to our taste. It was an early 1940's bungalow and we loved it. We moved to a bigger house with a bigger yard in a much nicer neighborhood and school district. But, the "new" house was classic 1979. It needed a lot of updating and we knew we wouldn't be able to do all of the updates we wanted right away. We moved 5 years ago, and slowly we've been able to update some things. It's still got a whole lot more 1979 than I would like, but when I think about living here, versus our cute little bungalow, I'm still happier that we're here. It's dated, but even dated it's a better house for our family than the one we had.

I do still watch HGTV. They have a lot of budget design ideas.