The Weight of Money

Painting a room is often the quick, cheap decorating fix listed in books and magazines, but is that really the case? We just moved into a new house and my new craft room was dripping with old-lady style, hideous wallpaper and old molted brown carpeting. Having just bought the house, there wasn’t much cash for drastic improvements so I decided to give the old “just add paint” approach a try (photos at the end).

Painting seems like a simple choice until you consider the materials needed. Luckily, we had several on hand, but I’ll approximate their purchase value to give an approximate cost.

The project…
The room was 12×18 feet with three windows, one front door, and two entry ways. The carpet was removed (revealing rough, somewhat damaged plywood) and the walls stripped of wallpaper all the way down to bare plaster. Instead of installing another flooring option, such as new carpet or sheet vinyl, I decided to just paint the plywood floors to save some cash.

Materials:
– med. paint brush, $10*
– paint roller, $15*
– 2 roller sleeves, $12 (one for plaster, one for floors)
– roller extension, $10*
– handheld paint pail, $10* (very nice to have)
– paint pail liners, $5* (very convenient)
– roller tray $8* (turned out to be a waste, the roller grid was much better)
– roller tray liners, $5*
– paint stirrer (attaches to drill), $4
– 5-in-1 painters tool (for cleaning rollers), $5
– paint brush comb (for cleaning brushes), $4
– paint roller grid, $3
– 5 gallon bucket, $6
– 5 gallons primer, $75 (used about 3 gallons)
– 2 gallons wall paint, $40 (used little more than 1 gallon)
– 2 gallons floor paint, $40 (used less than 1 gallon)
– 1 gallon trim paint, $22 (used 1/8 of a gallon)
– painters tape, $20 (this stuff is expensive)
*items I already owned

Cost of primer used: $45
Cost of paint used: $43

Total cost of supplies: $117
Total cost of paint/primer: $177 (but I only used $88 worth)

Total Price of Supplies and Paint: $294
Actual Cost factoring in paint used: $205
Amount Spent (excludes on hand items): $223

Overall Results…
I’m pleased with the price and outcome, spending about $200 on the room seems like the right price for what I got. We actually spent more because we used a product, Peel Away, to remove the lead-based paint from two of the windows before painting them. It was about $20-30 a window for the peel away and a very messy and labor intensive process (when it came time for cleanup). Lead abatement is my least favorite activity right now, but thats material for a post on the joys of older homes.

Time wise, I’d say that it took me 3 hours to remove the carpet, clean away the foam residue, and prep the floor for priming; 2 hours to remove all the wall paper and prep wall for painting; 2 hours to paint the walls; 1 hour to paint the floor; 1 hour to paint the trim; and 4 hours of cleanup; for a total of 13 hours of work. This doesn’t include necessary drying times between coats, the 3 hours per window for using the peel away, or the 2 hours per window for scraping the window sashes (which still need repainted and reinstalled).

More on the flooring…
I decided to paint the rough plywood floors to save some money. All of the decent vinyl flooring options I found were running at least $1.50/sq. foot with more acceptable options running around $2.00-$2.50. Also, since the plywood was damaged, I would need to replace it and add leveling compound if I wanted the new vinyl floor to last for a while.

The room is 216 sq. feet, the starting costs for vinyl ran from a total of $324 ($1.50 option) to $540 ($2.50 option) before factoring in replacing the plywood (which appears to be running around $10 a sheet, I think). Painting the floor for just under $45 in paint was clearly a better cost option for me.

To make the floors looks a little better than just painted plywood, I used a router and carved lines in it to give it the appearance of being a hardwood floor. It’s a cute faux floor look that masks the fact that it is just plywood. So far I’ve reived positive feedback from those who’ve seen it and I’m very happy with the results.

Before Picture:

After Picture:

It has been an extended absence and my sense of financial security has taken a hit for it. The weeks of jumping from one hot-spot to another for some connectivity are over, we now have internet at home. The weeks of too much to do are over, we’ve finished moving out of the old place and I plan a nice leisurely unpacking and settling in period. This mean, in theory, that I now have time to get back on top of our finances and my posting.

I haven’t fully turned a blind eye to our money situation, amazingly my lack of a job and all the moving expenses have fit within our monthly budget (though this past weekend may have dinged it, I haven’t entered it yet). I have a lot of stuff mentally stored up that I want to get posted, hopefully you’ll be seeing:

• DIY Decorating: Is painting really a cost-effective decorating strategy?
• Cell Phone Conclusions: Pick a plan already!
• Slow Business Growth: Current update on sewing business and where I need to go from here.
• Home Upkeep: The financial impact of a 100+ year old house

Thats the current list of in-progress posts. This better be an accurate, to-be-posted list and not just a wish list of ideas. Guess we’ll see as the week progresses.

Clever Cingular Ad

Originally uploaded by jasonhe

It’s been a year since I started thinking about combing cell phone plans and it’s finally time to take action. I’ve dug up the following details from both the Sprint and Cingular/Att (whats with the wishy-washy name changes?) website – where the partner and I each have a plan. We need to pick one this week.

Normally, I’d favor Making the Call, but I’m feeling all tapped out on calling people. Especially because I’ve called our internet company 3 times trying to move service and still haven’t gotten anywhere.

Here are the details that we’re considering right now:

ATT:

550m 59.99
700m 69.99
1400m 89.99

Rollover minutes, unlimited m2m
$36 activation fee
$26 for additional lines activation fee

Early nights/weekends for $16.99 (7pm-7am)

Data:

SmartPhone 5MB $9.99 – Unlimited $19.99 – Unlimited Max (w/1500 messages)$29.99
– Not for Treo

Data Connect 5MB $19.99 – 10MB $24.99 20MB – $34.99
— For Treo

PDA Personal 20MB $29.99, Max Unlimited 39.99
— For Treo

Messaging:
200 $4.99
400 $9.99
200 and Unlimited M2M $9.99

MEdia:
Basic 400 messages/ 1MB MEdia net 9.99
w/unlimited m2m 14.99
Words 1500 messages/5MB MEdia et 4.99
w/unlimited m2m 19.99

Phones:
Palm Treo 650 (Refurb) $99 (no rebates needed)
Palm Treo 680 (Refurb) $99 (no rebates needed)
Palm Treo 680 $99 (with $200 rebate)
Palm Treo 750 $199 (with $200 rebate)

Sprint:

550m $59.99
700m $69.99
1400m $89.99

Nights start at 7pm

Messages Unlimited Family $20.00 (with 69.99 plan or higher) – not per line, per month

Phones:
Treo 700 $299.99 ($100 rebate)
– can get free activation

Data
40 MB Mobile Broadband 39.99
Unlimited $59.99

Data plans are still priced a bit high for my taste and I’m not sure if we need them. I actually dropped my messaging plan last year because the partner’s phone couldn’t receive them. We currently pay $110 a month, combined for our cell phone plans, I don’t feel like going over that. In fact, I really wanted to go under it, a lot under. Maybe we just switch plans right now and then think about data plans a little later.

Arbor and compost bin (Side shot)

Originally uploaded by Alan Juden

While I avoid adding up last month’s spending and seeing just how much hurt we’re going to be in because I still haven’t found another job, I unintentionally plot out things to spend money on (the “things we need” list). Right now it is the compost bin, we really, really need one.

Of course, needing one is the simple part, the expensive part is that I want it to look nice. In fact, I want to place it next to the garden (makes sense, right?) and that means in full view of the road. I don’t want to be one of “those” neighbors where everything looks awful, but I’ve also crossed my threshold of what is tolerable spending.

I went looking for photos of compost bins and this one really stuck out to me. I want a wood, three-bin style compost bin, which will be nothing like this one. But, I may have to settle for something else for a while because finances are a bit tight. In fact, I should just go pick up one of the free ones the county is handing out until we can make something better.

In the meantime, I’ll be dreaming of what we’ll eventually build for all our garden, yard, and kitchen waste.

I love the libraries, they offer so much and it’s all for free. I’m an avid reader, mostly non-fiction, and I go though a dozen books a week or more. I’ve recently started borrowing DVDs and have somewhat increased my film watching as well — netflix is still my primary source for movies.

Also, on hot summer day (like today) their free air conditioned environment is wonderfully refreshing. If I didn’t have a library nearby to get a break from the heat, I’d probably seek relief in a store or restaurant and end up unnecessarily spending money.

Now that I’ve got a laptop again (it showed up yesterday), I can use the free wireless and not be limited by the time limits on the library systems. The past few weeks, those computer terminals have been a great resource even with the time limits.

Libraries provide free entertainment and access to the many resources I rely on every day. I keep lists of all local libraries with me at all times because you never know when you might need them. If I want to look something up or just fill some time before a meeting, I’ll often stop in one for a few moments. They also have tons of information about local organizations and happenings in the community — great if you’re traveling and want to find some local activity.

[regular posting is still on hold - we're moving this weekend and I need to spend all extra hours actively looking for some replacement income.]

My new computer has finally been shipped so I should hopefully have better online access as soon as it arrives — after the initial honeymoon of checking out all the new features and also catching up on some electronic filing. Sorry for the extended gap in posting, I look forward to getting online again and resuming web reading as well, I’m sure lots of interesting stuff has been going on.