Friday, March 5

our first home reno

When SSBF and I first bought our house there were a couple of things we wanted to change-- the kitchen, the upstairs bathroom, and the flooring. We also wanted to replace our blue front door, that is not even close to the HOA code. All of that has been on the back burner though until we got our tax refund for this year.


After a lot of thinking and research by SSBF we have decided to start with replacing our front door. It is clearly the least glamorous of all the things we could do but it is affordable and according to SSBF helps our resale value.

Once all is said and done the doors and labor to install are going cost around $1100. However, the doors themselves will earn us a 30% tax credit on our 2010 return. Double bonus, upgrading the door and replacing the molding around it will increase energy savings.

We had someone from Home Depot come out and measure, and today we are going in to order it.

The picture above is how it looks now. For our new door we haven decided on a all brown entry door and to frame it with an almond color storm door. The worst part is going to be the wait, once it's ordered it is going to take 3-4 weeks for the door to be made and installed.

We are also planning on doing some landscaping and adding some plants when the weather starts to get warmer. So if you know anything about plants or landscape design shoot me an e-mail. I will need all the help I can get.

2 comments:

  1. I bought an energy efficient door at Home Depot for $230'ish and love it. You might be able to find one "in stock" in others stores that'll be cheaper than waiting for them to make it.

    BTW - Installers at Home Depot are contracted out and cost around $300. Look in your phone book or www.servicemagic.com and find some carpenters in your area. I got my door installed for $100 and saved $200-600+ from other quotes I received and the guy did a fabulous job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would have love to bought something that was "in stock" however, out HOA has some serious stipulations about front doors. Plus, see those two peices of brown trim that go up the whole front of the house? those wonderful gems make our storm door two inches short of standard size... so we would have to order anyway!

    Thanks for the advice though. Maybe you should right the savings part of this blog!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by Money Smart Fashion!

disclosure policy