My husband wants to sell our Georgia farmhouse, I am still debating

Three years and lots of projects later… a giant fallen tree may have been the last straw.

It was a Sunday morning when my husband declared “I want a new house for Christmas.” And like that we called our realtor and visited two new home builds and a resale.

To be honest, we are both exhausted from the unexpected costs of our home…. including removing yet another giant tree after it fell during Tropical Storm Zeta.

While we didn’t buy a fixer, it definitely needed some updates and upgrades…. so that is how the story starts.

Our projects started with paint

Fresh paint, in general, is a relatively inexpensive way of changing the entire look of a room. But since we needed the whole house painted, we hired the experts, “The Painting Group.”

A week later, they transformed our house from Tobacco Road …. to a fresh SW repose grey. But there was one problem. The trim looked yellow… really yellow. (The painters warned us the trim was cream). Not wanting to spend more… we decided to live with it… for almost 3 years… until everything shut down because of Covid 19 and I decided to tackle it myself. Months later, and many mistakes with oil and water-based paint, our trim is now a beautiful SW Pure White.

Next up a bathroom remodel

Our next big project fell into our laps. A water leak in our living room ceiling…. uncovered the grout in the kids bathroom upstairs was disintegrating. So we hired a contractor friend to give our bathroom a complete facelift. The only thing we didn’t remove was the tub, as the estimate from the plumbers was too expensive, so we refinished it. It has held up really well.

We only had one place left… the kitchen

After speaking with our realtor, he came out to look at our home to discuss a possible list price and any fixes that needed to be done before listing. Everything was great until he stepped into the kitchen (but we knew that).

A couple appliances needed to go… the lighting goes from bad to worse… and then there is the original wood cabinets. Those we went back and forth between painting and replacing (just the doors and drawer fronts). The cost estimate to paint $2,300 vs replacement $3,500 (measured and installed ourselves)- $5,600 (which wouldn’t included painting the bases. We ended up going with paint. They do show some of the oak grain, but a big improvement.

Changing out hardware aka “jewelry” of the house

Right now, we working on getting that list done, and I am also focusing on some fun choices… like hardware. We switched out handles, but are having a little trouble with the hinges. We found a similar demountable hinge, but we still would need to adjust the holes inside the cabinet.

Knobs and drawer pulls range dramatically in price. You can find them from as little as .99 each and up to hundreds of dollars for one-of-a-kind handmade pulls. They are readily available online, and at most home decor shops, as well as hardware stores where you’ll often find a surprisingly wide variety of options. With all of that being said, changing out the hardware can be a really cost effective way to update the look of your kitchen…or it can be an extremely expensive option. I would have to say, though, that the average population goes with .99 cent to a few dollar pulls, so really – if you take the time to look and find a deal, it’s a great option to quickly update your kitchen space.

Updating countertops

We would love to at least update the kitchen island when it comes to countertops. We have been looking for a while now and I recently found quartz countertops in Alpharetta GA from Click Countertops and they are gorgeous! Click Countertops offers a great price, speed, and quality work. They have been in the industry for 20 years and have fine tuned the experience of getting new countertops. Here are a few ways that they are superior:

-”Never step foot in a home improvement store; our team comes to you.

-Keep your deadline on track by utilizing our Click streamlined system.

-Increase cost savings generated by our operational efficiencies.

-Save countless hours on research. By offering only pre-fixed material options that include the season’s top sellers, our model removes becoming inundated by too many selections.”

If you are looking for countertops like we are, check them out. They give the best customer service in Atlanta and are committed to making the process seamless for you.

Love it or list it?

So right before thanksgiving, we had our answer “List it.” We put in an offer on an new build, but after the builder didn’t like one condition… we decided to take a step back. So for now, we are going to finish the updates, enjoy our house for Christmas and see what might be next for us.