Debt-Free Decorating

I started this blog to write about interior design, to show what I've done in my house, and to dream about bigger projects. Most of what I have done is in the low-cost, or free, category. The reason for that is I have been paying off some pretty big debts. 

In April 2010 I added up everything I owed and I got scared. It wasn't the first time I had thought about my debts--the credit card, the student loans, the car payment. Since my first job out of college I had been wanting to pay it off, but just seemed to slip deeper into debt. In 2010 I also had an attorney bill and an out-of-control daycare tuition bill that I never had enough extra money to pay for at the end of the month. This time was different, too, because it was just me. Any mistakes I made were mine alone, but I was also totally in charge in a way I had never been before. 

My mom recommended Dave Ramsey and a good friend sent me a copy of his book The Total Money Makeover. I felt so hopeless I still didn't do anything for a bit longer. If you are not familiar with Dave Ramsey, I suggest you visit his website and start listening to his show, which airs everyday at 2 p.m. or you can listen to archived episodes via the website. 

That's what I started to do and I got "gazelle intense" at some point--perhaps it was after I got a collection call from the attorney a few days before Christmas. I changed the way I thought about spending and began to snowball one debt after another. I figured out ways to save and to not spend that would be sustainable over the long term. 

I stopped using credit cards, made a deal with my dad to pay off the stupid lawyer, and chipped away at everything. I paid off the daycare first. In September 2011, I wrote them a check for $2,300 out of the overage from my escrow account (yes, my mortgage company had been waaaayyyy overcharging me). My dad and I had agreed that I would pay the "dad loan" off in $75 installments over the course of a year. I paid him off at Christmas last year, a little early, but in the wrong amount. He wasn't going to say anything but I caught on and paid the rest. 

Those two successes were the momentum I needed! This spring, a few weeks early, I paid off my auto loan. I transferred part of my credit card balance to one with a promotional zero percent interest rate, then worked on the one that I had had since my sophomore year of college. All the while paying $96.80 per month since the year Griffin was born in student loans.

Today I made the very last payment on what totaled nearly $30,000 in April 2010. I am debt-free!!!! 

It's a great feeling and I'm glad I'm finally in a position where I can think about building wealth instead of paying off debt. To be a giver rather than a taker. And like anyone who has seen something really really bad and come out the other side, I never want to go down the path of debt again!

January 2010. Walt Disney World Family Trip.

I had an idea for awhile that I would take a road trip down to Nashville where the Dave Ramsey show is aired, stand in his lobby, and do a debt-free scream. Then, I would tell him and the whole world that I was taking my babies to Disney World. But, that's not terribly practical. It's really far from here to Nashville to Orlando, WDW tickets and lodging are not cheap, and the kids have school. We did go to Disney a few years ago with my entire family, which was extra special, and Bela still talks about that trip.

Now I have the contentment of knowing that we could go again, on our own terms, not when some outer force or whim strikes. 

I also have to give the largest share of the credit to my lovey, who was so encouraging and supportive through it all. He reminded me of what I wanted to do, kept me accountable, and rewarded me along the way, as well as being a great example of living debt-free.

DIY Anxiety

This weekend I have all the normal household tasks on my list: lots of laundry, grocery shopping, and packing up Halloween decorations. But I also want to at least start thinking about some DIY projects. I am much better at sorting & organizing or decorating & rearranging than I am at making things. There's something very satisfying about creating something yourself though.

  

Part of the problem is that I don't necessarily have the right tools. For example, I would love to make one of these cute pillow beds by sewing together pillow cases (and I have just the pillow cases--embellished by my seamstress grandmother and passed down to me) but I don't have a sewing machine and wouldn't know how to use one if I did... I also don't have a hot glue gun and I don't have any idea what you need for other DIY projects (modpodge? glitter?). I've never used spray paint (!) and I'm not all that great with a regular paintbrush either. In fact, the list of what I am not good at is a little bit long and a little bit depressing. Which is exactly why I need to do something.

Any suggestions for a beginner DIY project?? I'll try one and post the results here.

 

Baskets for Toy Storage

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Source

Or, in this case, design around them... Our living room is probably never going to be toy-free, and that's okay. I like being able to see the kids playing while I'm cooking in the kitchen. It's the best part of living in a house with an open floorplan. So if the dollhouse, the Legos, the dolls, and puzzles are all pulled out to the living room--all at the same time--wonderful!

Until I want to sit down in the living room to relax, that is... I am a visual person and to see a bunch of stuff drives me nuts. It makes me feel like there are 10,000 little jobs I still have to do so I can't relax. And it makes the house feel much smaller than it is. Never a good thing!

Eventually, I would like to make room in our basement for toys (before long, really, toys will not even be an issue with these two kids--they're growing up so fast!). Contradictory to what I just said about loving to see my kids playing?? Yes, I suppose. But it would be nice to have a dedicated space for play (other than our living room).

Source

I really love the way the room above looks with the IKEA bookshelves turned on their sides as benches, and baskets beneath to hold loose toys. I love baskets! They are so versatile; holding whatever needs to be kept out-of-sight. They add color and texture. But some thought should go into purchasing them to coordinate with an overall design. You need to think not only about color and material and how that will coordinate with what you already have

November Newness

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night;
what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry? William Blake

Happy first day of November! There's something extremely satisfying to me about turning the page on the calendar. It's a lot like the feeling I get when I clear a space or line something up. Order has been restored! 

Love the symmetry of the framed artwork in this room. I'm going to have to replicate that
somewhere in our house one of these days...

In fact, I just spent a few minutes restoring order around our house. Halloween wrought quite a mess with its out-of-routine-ness. Shoes discarded at every entrance. Hampers overflowing with laundry. Sink (and counter) full of dishes. Toys on the floor, toys on the sofa, toys on the credenza.

Luckily, I read a lovely quote yesterday about the miracle and magic of childhood luminously rising out of the night, and that when the ability to be astonished is gone, so is childhood. I read it just before we were to go out trick-or-treating, in that sugar-crazed, hyper-excited time between the arrival home from school and when the porch lights turn on. This holiday is a big deal to kids; keeping up with the housework, though, not so much. 

But, in the time it took to brew my coffee this morning, I finished loading the dishwasher and started it (nothing is quite as annoying as realizing you have forgotten to actually run it through, and there are no plates or forks for dinner...). Then I took both hampers to the laundry room so I wouldn't have to look at them. I picked up a bunch of toys and put them on Bela's bed to be put away later; returned some shoes to my closet; and opened the curtains to see the transformation of night into day otherwise known as sunrise.



My "31 Days to Lovely Little Spaces" series is now done, along with the challenge to post daily for the entire month. I'm going to continue to challenge myself to post daily --and I've upped the ante to actually hit the "publish" button first thing in the morning. Here goes...