Financial Peace victories!

Well friends, as you know Jake and I are avid Dave Ramsey - Financial Peace followers and this year we hit stage 4 (invest 15% of income for retirement) of the program! This is the point when all our debt(except the house payment) is paid off and we have our 6 month expenses saved for emergencies. Very exciting things are happening in the Juker house because our budget obedience. Ever since we purchased our home we had our "project wish list" that we badly wanted done and I am so greatful that many of those projects are coming to pass.

First of all our home is about 13yrs old which means there are brass fixtures all over! We REALLY dislike the look and want a more up to date look.

Current Projects
1. Cabinet Hardware - To save money have spray painted the brass knobs and handles in the kitchen to a silver nickel finish to match the appliance handles and painted the bathroom ones in brushed bronze. I was surprised at how great they looked for just a $5 can of paint. If I would have purchased them new they would have cost $110 to replace, so I saved $105!!!

2. Light Fixtures - We have hated the chandeliar in our home since the first day we moved it. It is the cheapest one the builder could have installed and the one in the kitchen is worst, something out of a pizza hut restaurant! I am exagerrating of coarse, but never the less I am so glad to get rid of it. So we are replacing the flush mounts, a pendant light and chandeliar.... there are 3 of the old flush mount lights that I spray painted the bases with brushed bronze. They look great and they will go in the laundry and closets. Recycle and reuse when possible right! There is a good chance I will try to spray paint the ceiling fan bases in brushed bronze and replace the blades. So many people are selling their old brass stuff on ebay and craigslist they are not worth more than $10-$20 dollars!

3. Counter Tops - Oh yeah this is the dream of every cook to have a nice counter top. We chose pretreated Granite in an earth tone type color. It is really neat that now you can treat the Granite and not have any of the bacteria problems that used to be attributed with Granite. The under mount sink that came with installation is awesome. It is an offset sink with just one hole for the moen facet. All of the plumbing vents for the disposal and dishwasher is underneath, so it is less for me to wipe around and keep clean. Gotta love that.

4. Back splash - Next is the beautiful back splash, which I am really excited about. There are so many options to pick from, but I decided to go with a simple pattern with the tumbled travertine tile and a fleur de lis accent tile every foot. We are going to attempt to do this ourselves to save a little cash. I am hoping to take a Home Depot class to get the gist of it. We have watched numerous utube videos, so its time to get hands on. See a photo below of the rendering I created in InDesign.

After this will be painting the interior of the house and window treatments, but not sure when that will happen. All of these projects could not have been possible with out the budget saving plan we kept to and God blessing our finances. Thanks to all my friends who have been listening to my creative ideas and giving great suggestions to save money. This is something I have been dreaming of doing for the last 5 years and it is finally starting to come together. A big thank you to my sweet heart for all the hard work he puts in each day to make this possible.