It was a fun filled afternoon. The football game kept us warm. We were rooting for San Diego though we knew that The Patriots would clinch the game. Then we had a long bout of reading various personal finance carnivals and festivals. Here are some of o…

@WJ – WOW! So had your friend not been there, you would have fallen in the well? That is scary! I’ll bet that did shake you up a bit!

@Randall – I’m with you, I’m not either. What I’ve found though through reading the Home Depot book and by leveraging my Dad is that there are generally some tips and tricks that make things much easier. I used to do a terrible job on molding and once you learn to cope it, it’s amazing how good you can make it look. Oh, the right tools help a great deal too!

rocketc – I’m with you, I have trouble keeping up with all the things my kids are breaking and wearing out let alone making enhancements our house. My Dad has done a tremendous amount of remodeling and little details to his home…now that he doesn’t have my sister and I there to tear it up

@Jeff – That’s great. Doors aren’t easy to hang. I’d love the chance to build a house sometime just to learn.

@Elizabeth – Great story and tips! Your shower sounds really nice…that is something on my list we have to get fixed. Thanks for the great comment!

@SavingDiva – That is impressive. Out of all the things I hate doing on a home it’s messing with the electricity. Been shocked enough times for it to scare me to death. Best investment you can make is voltage detector…best advice, don’t ever assume the power is off

However, if, like me, you can’t save money by actually doing the labor yourself, you can still save big! We had our kitchen completely remodeled about 4 years ago. I saved money by making wise decisions. Also, I researched and spec’ed my own appliances instead of going with the remoding firm’s recommendations and saved several hundreds of dollars. Kitchen remodels in my area were averaging $30k. I brought our project in at under $18k and that included two peripheral construction projects and some additional electrical work.

I learned a lot during that project that came in handy with our next remodeling projects. We’ve remodeled two bathrooms within the past year and a half. By designing, researching, spec’ing, and buying all of my own materials, I was able to cut the cost of each project in half — with higher quality results. I carefully researched contractors and found someone who was willing to bid the jobs as labor and construction materials only (cement board, backer board, nails, etc). The work of researching and buying all of my own materials (everything from tile and grout to plumbing and lighting fixtures) was tremendous and stressful. But, in the end, thoroughly rewarding. Every day when I take a shower in my custom marble shower with the frameless 3/8″ glass enclosure or brush my teeth at my cherry cabinet with granite countertop and copper sink, I feel like a multi-millionare in a palatial home instead of a suburban housewife in a 1979 tract house.

I was also able to install some additional parts (www.djarmor.com) to the door to beef up the security.