Building Our Dream Home

Nine years ago, my little family up and moved across Canada.  We left our home (a 2-bedroom condo) in Surrey, BC and moved into a 3-bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse in Courtice, ON.  It was a huge step in our 'grown-up' life and one that I would do again and again and again!!  I love our house, I love our life and would be happy staying right where we are for the rest of our lives.

Move forward nine years and our little home that we purchased for $200k is now worth $420k and houses in our complex are selling for a HALF A MILLION DOLLARS (that just sounds way cooler than saying $500k, right?).  Not only would I not pay that much for the our house but if we were to sell, we wouldn't be able to afford ANYTHING remotely close to what we have now so there is no point, at all.  So, we have decided to make our house, our dream home!

What needs to be done to our house to make it a dream home?  EVERYTHING!  We have tried the whole 'get a friend to do this' thing and it sucked.  While we thought it looked great at first, the result two-years later is horrible... cracked tiles, broken grout, dull cabinets and scratched banisters (although let's just thank the cat for that one).  We put in about $5-$10k (including the carpets) and it was all for not.  This time around, we are doing things properly!!

BUILDING THE DREAM HOME:

The Wish List

• Kitchen
• ALL three bathrooms
• Family Room

When I list these spaces, I mean EVERYTHING involved with the space... from flooring to paint, appliances to showers.  EVERYTHING!!!  

To do this, we need money... so, our next step is to go to the bank and see if they would like to help us... eek, the chances of this is starting to get way real!!