Dear Publishers, Please feel free to publish the following article (in its entirety) in your publications as long as the bio at the end of the article is included and the link is made active at websites and if possible, in newsletters. Please do not make changes without permission. A courtesy copy of the publication this article is included in would be appreciated; my e-mail is [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Make the Best of What you Have By Monica Resinger _http://homemakersjournal.com_ (http://homemakersjournal.com) For quite a while now I had been thinking that I wanted a new home, one that was bigger, one that would solve all my storage problems. I wanted one extra room for office/collecting, and I wanted an extra bathroom. I did a little research and found out the house of my dreams runs $125,000 and up. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the monthly payment on a mortgage of this amount is going to be pretty high. After much debate, I finally came down to this important question: Is it worth it? I'm a homemaker with a husband that works very hard to support us and I am very lucky to be able to stay at home. I contribute part of this luck to our low monthly mortgage payments. If we were to indulge and buy the house of our dreams, I would have to get a full time job to afford it. No, not me, I'd rather make the best of what I have. It would be much more affordable for us to save and fix up (and I won't have to get a job either). We decided that what we need is to manage our space more efficiently and some cosmetic fix ups. My husband and I had a conversation about how we could get going on making our current house the house of our dreams, and what we decided is this: 1. Plan ahead. We will sit down together and discuss each problem beforehand and talk about ways to improve the problem. For example, this morning we talked about the fact that we have very little closet space (one closet in the whole house). We decided that we will first go through all that we need to store in the closet and pare down. Next we will remove the contents of the closet and take out the plaster walls and replace with sheetrock walls. Lastly, we will look into a custom made closet storage system. Planning will also include materials needed and an estimate of how much money will be required for the project. We are the do it yourself types, so we won't have to plan on paying for services, but you may want to include this in your plan. 2. Save. We will begin a savings plan to get to the required amount of money and estimate how long it will take to get it. 3. Action. Do all that is possible without required materials such as paring down and preparation work while saving for materials. When we get to our required amount of money, we will then buy the materials and go to work. We will put this plan into action on each and every one of our problems including decorating blahs, storage problems, landscaping and lack of space. We will also use it for luxuries such as a hot tub! One important thing to remember when you are fixing up your own house is that it is a continual process, and you have to learn how to make the best of what you have. Monica is the founder Homemaker's Journal E-publications, the growing home of many fun and informative home and garden e-books, tip sheets, articles and more! _http://homemakersjournal.com/_ (http://homemakersjournal.com/) Get a FREE Slowcooker Recipe E-book when you subscribe to Monica's FREE e-zine for homemakers! To subscribe and receive instructions for picking up your FREE e-book, just send a blank e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Feel free to publish this article as long as the above bylines & this note are included; notification at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) would be appreciated.
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