Cheaper Than Wine

916 Makevoer

 

I saw a tea towel that made me laugh, it said “2020, You’re Drunk…Go Home!” I thought, yes, this is totally what I would chalk 2020 up to! My 2020 started with filing for divorce in January and moving 15 years of belongings out of a home that I loved. Well, mostly. I loved it 15 years ago and then as our family grew, there were many things that no longer worked for me in the house. But I digress…that is not why I got divorced, but it’s how this little blog got started. So, after 7 long months of living a lot of different places, selling a gorgeous lake home that I had hundreds of hours of sweat-equity in, working through the excruciating pain of divorce, helping my children adjust to a new normal, and managing a boutique corporate law firm through a worldwide pandemic, I am moved into my new fixer upper house on August 1, 2020.

I wanted a house with good “bones” and a lot of potential, and let me tell you, that’s what I got! I racked up a list of projects faster than my budget could keep up with, so creatively working with what I had, I invested less than $40,000 into my total remodel of a 3,200 sq ft house. I’m a carpenter’s daughter, handy as all be, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Extra HUGE bonus, my dad helped guide me each step of the way as I had questions and helped with my really “big stuff” like installing cabinets and installing support beams. My mom helped paint every ceiling, lots of walls, clean, and keep my children and I fed while I worked 20 hour days for 10 months.

I’m also a research nut and can’t tell you how many hours I spent watching “how to” YouTube videos. I have said for years that men with a whole lot less education than I have do construction work everyday; I can surely figure it out…and I did! I’m not discounting professional expertise and experience in any way. In fact, I’m a strong advocate of the trades and believe far more women should be going into the field, but that’s a different story for a different day. “My Why” for this website is for you!

  • I love sharing knowledge.

  • I love wine, and I thought remodeling my house every night would be cheaper than drinking wine all night, but turns out I did a lot of remodeling and still drank a bit wine!

  • I wanted to record the story of my remodel and the start of my next chapter of life and I’ve read a hundred times that writing is healthy for the soul.

  • Physical labor was cheaper than therapy!

  • Most of all, I want to empower women to take ownership of your life and show you that you really can do ANYTHING a man can do…so let’s dive in and get a little dirty! This stuff isn’t nearly as hard as you might think.