Project #1: Mountain Girl's Office (Which Also Happens To Be the Laundry Room)

This week we're going to start working on the laundry room/office that is off the kitchen. I've picked out paint colors and purchased polyurethane to seal the wooden built-in shelves, and now I'm doing some research into kitchen lighting. Right now there's just a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. We're a bit short on funds, so I'm aiming to do the entire remodel for less than $100. When we're finished, I'll post before and after pictures and the total cost of the project.

Involuntary Debt Reduction—No More Car Loan

The Friday before we closed on the club house, I was in a car accident (see post Feeling Pretty Lucky) that totaled our 2000 Volvo S40. Luckily, Volvos depreciate slowly and so we owed about $4,000 less on the car than the book value. The good news is that our $257 a month car payment is gone, and so we're going to try and buy a car for the $4,000 we'll get from the insurance company. There's a 1990 Mercedes station wagon for sale down the street that looks very clean and is going for $3800. There's also a Ford Focus for $4300, but the Mercedes looks solid and I'm all about solid cars, especially after the accident.

Biore Free Sample

This company wowed me with their pore strips so I'm excited to try their facial cleansing products & moisturizers, too.

Click on the link to get your free sample of Biore

The Energy Efficient Home

Now that we're in our new digs, Pancake and I have been looking at ways to save energy. We walk everywhere, so our gas consumption is way down. We've been replacing regular light bulbs with Energy Star bulbs, and now, since we spend a lot of time on our porch, I am looking into solar lights for our yard. OnlineDiscountMart.com has a large selection of solar lighting products at very reasonable prices. We had a couple of solar lights when we lived in Kansas and they worked really well for us.

Check it out: Solar Lights

The Club House

As promised, here's a photo of our new house. Neither of us has experienced one iota of buyer's remorse. We are so happy we're giddy. Now it's back to business—time to start our get-out-of-debt program.