In the short term future:
- Two tires for my car. I purchased two earlier, and am saving up for the other two.
- Vinyl fence for the back side of my yard, I purchased the front portions and side portion a while ago - the back is open to the forest and my dog likes to try to run through it
- Bathrooms completely redone
- New computer
- Hot tub??¿? (@WillYouStopDave 🙃)
The tires are still okay, but getting close to needing to be replaced which should come after Christmas sometime in January, the back side of the fence hopefully will occur sometime in 2023. After those are completed, I need to completely gut both of my bathrooms down to the framing of the rooms, I think I can do it for around $3k per bathroom so that is probably going to take a couple of years. I expect the bathrooms we will start with one and over the course of several months rebuild it as we find deals, have the time, and money, and then we will move on to the next one. After the bathrooms, I will probably lay down a new floor in my bedroom. Somewhere in there is a new computer, which is selfish on my part, but I have been putting it off for years now. It would be used as a family computer though, and I would set it up to stream gaming to the laptop I am currently using. We need the entertainment to remain sane, and this would be for streaming games, art programs, and movies for everyone. It would be accessible by all of our devices, including TVs so the need to update multiple devices would no longer be an issue. Trying to keep up with the electronics of four people can get expensive, but this is a viable alternative so that we don't need to as often. The computer itself would be tucked out of the way, and only accessed via streaming as we haven't the room for a proper computer. Perhaps an inflatable hot tub, probably not, but one can always dream.. especially if it is capable of
time travel
I may need to get a new roof, the one we have is still good but due to insurance companies in our state, it may be considered too old to be covered which would put all plans for needed purchases on hold for a long while.
Midterm:
* New furniture for the living room.
Our couches were used when we got them, they are beaten, the fabric is worn and on our loveseat, the cushions have holes. The pillows no longer hold their shape. These are not a priority though, so probably something we will just need to deal with for another four to five years.
Longer term, if at all:
- Completely gutting out the kitchen and rebuilding it.
- Shed
- (possibly)Septic Tank and leach field
- (hopefully)Roof
Oh yes, our kitchen.. Many drawers are constantly having to be fixed as they are built from cheap particle board, the counter is scratched up and faded, the cabinets under the sink got wet and the base needs to be replaced. I can do repairs on it though, thankfully no mold but it is unsightly. I think more than likely though I will just at some point get new countertops as kitchens are a bit out of my skill range and we would have to hire a contractor which would be incredibly expensive.
The shed is a maybe, it would be used as a hobby room for everyone but would be years in the future so it may not even be necessary. The septic tank at the moment is fine, the people who lived here before us decided a palm tree near a leach field was a good idea - we have since removed said palm tree but I am not sure if there was any damage done. Since we have lived here, we have had to have our tank emptied two or three times, and told it likely needed to be replaced - but I eventually caught on to a small leak in the toilet that was pushing out a lot of water into that tank if the seal was not properly working in it. Like thousands of gallons ..😲 The roof will definitely need to be replaced at some point, it is just an inevitable of age, and I imagine within the next ten years as it is already older despite it looking to be in decent shape with no leaks.
We are working on being debt free, at least as debt free as possible so all of this is being done without credit. It takes a lot more time but I have been in debt for years now and I am done with barely being able to keep up with interest payments let alone pay off those debts. Needless to say, there are projects that are partially addressed as we can afford them. We are doing this as we are paying off all of our existing loans through debt consolidation, which should be finished in two years - that coincides with our car payment. Once both of those payments are done, we will have a lot more wiggle room with finances to make repairs and start saving so that hopefully, credit will never be needed again with the exception of huge expenses like a car.
We could just take a second mortgage against our house, and have it all done in a matter of months, but I really do not want to put myself in that sort of place and owe money on it for even longer.
