Do It Yourself- A Blog to Teach You How to Do All the Things

Hi there, I’m Elizabeth.  Welcome to my brand new shiny blog never before been viewed by human eyes…until now. For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to own a home.  After moving out of my parents place and spending years of my young adult life living with countless roommates, most of whom have been male, it was time for a space of my own untainted by tacky decor and the consistent “forgotten” dishes and dirty socks strewn across my living space. 

While this all sounded great in theory I wasn’t sure I was ready to face the big bad world on my own without the financial, and let’s face it, security blanket feeling that comes from having another person, no matter how imperfect they were, to come home to.  I had been living with two, guys for three years. I had a great thing going on. I assumed we would live together forever…..well, or at least until one of us got married (which wasn’t exactly knocking on any of our doors at that point…not by a long shot!)  And yet suddenly the universe slapped me in the face with the “opportunity” to face my fears and brave it on my own when my current roommate announced out of the blue that he was moving back home to his parents and leaving me and my brand new puppy to fend for ourselves. And this is how I found myself roomateless with only a month and a half to find a place to live. 

S***!  This had been what I dreamed of (right???) but when it was no longer up to me but in the hands of the universe. I was terrified.  I spent HOURS consulting friends and family.  What the heck should I do now?  Renting wasn’t exactly the wisest financial investment, and let’s be honest, the last thing I wanted to do was brave it in a shithole just because it was all I could afford. Here in sunny Portland, Oregon rent prices are practically as high as a typical mortgage and a mortgage would take up the entirety of my meager salary. Finding a different roommate(s) was simply out of the question.  My friends are married, attached, had kids, or just unsuitable living partners for reasons I won’t mention as to not offend anyone…sooooo buy??? And that’s how I stumbled (not so gracefully) into starting the home owning process. 

I was fortunate enough to have a built in relator via one of my friends’ boyfriends who immediately set on the case of finding me a place I could afford/ tolerate. It really was quite the process and I won’t bore you with all the details.  I hardly will pretend to be the first person in history to go through it (no shit Elizabeth…) But I will leave you with this.  In the end with a crap ton of luck I was finally able to buy a house for my dog…and myself. I found a cute little fixer upper (and that is really being kind) in a neighborhood that I at least wasn’t concerned that I’d wake up in the morning and find my car jacked up on cement blocks and all of my tires missing and I decided to settle down. 

The house I ended up buying was far from my dream house or even what I thought would be my starter house. I didn’t even want to go look at it when I saw the listing. The kitchen was small (70 square feet total), there was a weird structure/shed situation in the backyard, and the biggest “omg why!?” moment was there was no grass. Instead, there was $600 (I found the invoice) worth of river rock EVERYWHERE. Where was my dog going to lounge? After all, I was buying this house for him so he would have a yard to release his energy into and pet squirrels to play with. 

 My house, like many in the Portland area, was a flip and like many houses that were flipped let’s just say that one or two corners were cut.  One of the homes I viewed prior to finding mine had a door that had the top several inches jaggedly cut off so it would “fit” in the doorway (picture square peg, round hole scenario), laminate flooring covering a hole in the floor (not at all hazardous), and crooked walls (ummmm sounds stable???). Sure I’m a sucker for a pretty paint job but the other “minor” issues were simply not easy or cheap fixes, especially for an already over priced house. 

At the end of the day I chose my house because it had good bones, a new roof, a fairly new furnace, and water heater, hardwood floors that were in great condition (Bonus!) , and a fenced in yard (albeit covered in hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds of riverrock). Had it not been for those things, this house would not have been a wise economic choice. Sure the walls were the color of refried beans, but a couple gallons of paint and voila, like brand new! 

Fast Forward a year and here we are now in 2020 in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. Needless to say, in all of this quarantine madness with “a little” extra freetime just begging to be filled, it hit me that I should take some of that time to fill you in on how I turned around what could have been money pit into a place I am proud to call home.

So, you’ve read this far and are still wondering what I have to offer?  Well let me clarify. I have more experience with home reno/diy, gardening, thrift flips, woodworking projects that I every would have imagined for myself in my wildest dreams. ( I own multiple power tools now for christsake! And have mostly traded Target for Home Depot)  You’ll also find the occasional dad joke, rants on things lessons learned and a healthy smattering of pictures of my dog Shaw. Oh and don’t you want to know where the $600 of river rock ended up???

See you soon!