Reality Show Opportunity: Not Keeping Up with the Kardashians

Backstory: We bought a house in New Orleans in Spring 2013, using a small inheritance from Mr FS's parents. The house is a rental, occupied by Frugal Son (in the tiny room with no closet) and two other fellows, one of whom does occasional work in the tv biz.

New Story: Roommate with occasional work in tv biz meets someone who does reality show featuring Amish carpenters. That someone's interest is piqued by three 20-something fellows with a big screened porch. They are thinking of building a bar on it.

Of course, I would prefer a bathroom remodel (the house needs it). Or how about....oh, zillions of things.

Frugal Son and his roomies seem a bit interested. They would hang out with the carpenters and that would be filmed too.

If an offer comes through, should Mr FS and I say OK if the fellows want to do it? Or are there a million unforeseen bad consequences I'm not thinking of?

Multi-Generational Housing? Retirement?

I guess I never told you that we were going to Florida. Well, we're back, and Miss Em is off to her next adventure.

I'm in the waning days of my vacation, and love nothing more than curling up with a good book. FROM THE LIBRARY. Everyone knows that is a key part of Frugality 101: use the library.

One book I'm reading and loving is this.

Yes, I am thinking about multi-generational housing.

Every few days, it seems, there is some article on the increase in multi-generational housing brought on by the financial meltdown, We hear of college grads or young adults moving in with parents; parents moving in with kids; the middle-aged moving in with even older parents; or the same older parents moving in with their middle-aged kids. This is always presented as some dire necessity,* to be escaped from ASAP.

The parents of the baby boomers are especially horrified at the prospect. My mother--aged 81--was talking about assisted living, and I suggested she move in with us if she needed extra care. She said, "That is the cruelest thing anyone has ever said to me." I didn't mean it that way! I thought I was nice.

Anyway, the dire articles always have zillions of comments, most, like my mother, horrified. Then there are those, mostly of Asian descent, who say: That's how we do it! Some point out that college grads who do that can save up for a house. The elderly can hang with their grandchildren and children. Multi-generational housing is presented as positive--something that can be pro-active, rather than simple re-active to economic or other emergency.

That last has been especially on my mind. Instead of a few intense (and not always in a good way) visits to relatives, wouldn't it be nice to have a more low-key relationship--every now and again, for a short time?

The book pictured above shows many ingenious transformations of houses (and not Mcmansions) to accommodate more than one family, with opportunities for togetherness and lots of privacy. I've already figured out how my 2000 square foot house with small back building could accommodate not one, but two families in addition to Mr FS and me.

Food for thought. What do you think of the issue of multi-generational housing?

*After writing dire necessity, I knew it was from somewhere. It is: Milton's Samson Agonistes. This tells of Samson's death, when he pulls the walls of the temple down, killing the Philistines and himself.

O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!
Living or dying thou hast fulfill'd
The work for which thou wast foretold
To Israel, and now ly'st victorious
Among thy slain self-kill'd
Not willingly, but tangl'd in the fold
Of dire necessity

What is Middle-Class Anyway? Bathroom Edition

If you have not already, head over to Passage des Perles and read the post and comments on this vexed issue. I have been thinking about all this since we got to Europe. Here we are in a town near Nantes, thanks to the generosity of one of Frugal Son's teachers. She and her husband are spending 5 weeks in Sri Lanka. They spent 5 weeks in China last year. Middle-class? Higher?

I have, as readers may know, been whining about my tiny, tiny bathrooms. Here we are, in a small house with four bedrooms. Upstairs, through one of the bedrooms, is a tiny bathroom. It contains a tiny shower and a tiny sink. No toilet.

Where is the toilet? Downstairs, in a tiny cubicle with no sink. That's the bathroom situation.

Mr FS and I have been amusing ourselves, imagining the responses of our middle-class parents to the bathroom situation. They--and most other middle-class Americans--would find the bathroom components ludicrous, unacceptable.

All I know is that I am re-thinking my renovation plans. A definite downsizing of what I thought of as frugal plans!

Paint Colors and the Quest for Frugal Beauty

What with root canals, taxes (oops), and packing, my head is spinning. Mr. FS is doing some interior painting also.

Here are the colors we're using. The 2 front rooms of our house were painted a beautiful terracotta when we moved in. We would have been too chicken to stray from white, but we learned that terracotta goes with everything. Frugal Son is having a minor crisis over any change; Mr FS is apprehensive, and I am too--a little--but I think we need to step out of the terracotta comfort zone.

The entry way and study will remain terracotta. The entry will turn to a deeper tone: Sherwin Williams REDDISH.

That's not the bold move. Susan-the-color-expert suggested blue for the living room. She picked out the tiniest bit of blue from my grandmother's little Oriental rug and this is what we have: Benjamin Moore JAMESTOWN BLUE.

Oh, I feel like J. Alfred Prufrock: Do I dare/Disturb the universe? But J Alfred (I just re-read that poem after 20 or so years) is a big baby. I'll be like Britomart instead. Over the doorways (how appropriate!) in the House of Busirane (a very bad place, Faerie Queene Book 3) are the words Be bold, be bold. Of course, Britomart also sees the words Be not too bold.

I don't think I need to worry about that. My quest for beauty is not in the same league as Britomart's quest in Book 3, which culminates in the rescue of Amoret from the magician Busirane.

What's been your boldest move in the quest for beauty?

Inspiration: Frugality and Aesthetics

As I pore through books and magazines thinking about my various house projects, I realize how seldom one sees a middle-class house done with a middle-class budget.

My dream bathroom would be an original from the 1930s or 40s rescued from a house about to undergo renovation. I have two friends with original bathrooms and I am so jealous. The funny thing is that they are indifferent and I think at least one would renovate extensively if money were no object.

One source of inspiration for me is Mary Cooper, a New Orleans chair caner who now is a color consultant. Check out her beautiful house. Anyone can paint a room turquoise.

Her dining room is even featured in a fancy coffee table book. There it sits, a humble space amid many rooms decorated by the eminent for the rich and famous.

My mother-in-law had a small, beautiful, and eccentric garden in Pasadena. It was so beautiful that it was featured in a book. Like Mary Cooper's dining room, Virginia's garden is humble in origin: it is the only one created and maintained by a homeowner. All others were designed--or at least maintained--by a squadron of gardeners. Some, of course, are public gardens.


Do you have any humble spots of beauty?

Frugal Bathroom Remodel: Aesthetics vs Frugality

Still in the thinking stage. We had our kitchen contractor out for a look-see. He liked my idea: to add on to the larger of our two inadequate bathrooms by bumping out another small space. This would lead to a two-part room, with a sink in the entry space and the bath and toilet in the new space. Plus we could put in a little storage space. The current space does not have room for a towel rack.

The bid wasn't too bad. We could do it. And maybe we will. But then I realized how we could bump out the other bathroom and put in a tub. The current shower--which probably cost under $100, I kid you not--is tiny and the cheapest plastique. Mr. FS won't even use it and he's on the thin side. Anyway, that shower could be removed and turned into a closet! Mr. FS estimates that the cost would be around 40% of the other plan.

As usual, I start out by trying to do the conventional thing, but then my frugality comes up against the norm. That is why I don't have a backsplash in my kitchen (I don't like them and they are expensive). In spite of dire predictions, the wall looks fine.

The contractor said that we would need a tub surround and that decent quality surrounds cost about $1000 for material plus labor. Tiling--the beautiful solution--is much more expensive. Oh no! I don't want that ugly surround! I also don't want expensive tilework.

I know! Let's put in a tub with no shower--or a little hand shower.

So the combination of my aesthetics and my frugality is going to lead--once more--to a choice that will mystify others. I love my kitchen, which satisfied both aesthetics and frugality, but my sister-in-law, extremely conventional, said, when I showed her pictures, "OK, so where are the AFTER PICTURES?"

Here's what I'm reading.

Any words of wisdom?

Does Remodeling Increase Your Home's Value?

Good question. I don't know the answer. During the housing bubble, common wisdom was that YES it did and, besides, it was basically free cuz you could borrow from your home's appreciation. We all know where those ideas ended up.

1. APPRECIATION. I have seen two homes in my neighborhood undergo extensive renovation. Medium-sized cottages like my own were spiffed up, with many magazine-worthy details. Both homes were put on the market shortly after renovation. There were not flippers, but people who changed their minds about where they wanted to live. Both sold. Did the owners get back their money? I don't know. In any case, I don't plan to put $200,000-$300,000 to the test to find out.

2. NOT DEPRECIATING. I had a colleague with an under-employed husband and scads of kids. When he got a job, they relocated. Their house was on the lower-end of the market. Nevertheless, their real estate agent told them to carpet the hideous patterned linoleum. She said that NOT putting in the money would mean a $10,000 lower asking price. Too bad my colleague didn't get to enjoy the new flooring for a while.

I think my bathrooms are in the second category: they are so tiny, have so little storage (none), and have such ugly bathing facilities that they would LOWER the price of my house. Most buyers would tear them out immediately. Most owners with the tolerance of normal people would have fixed things up about 10-15 years ago.

However, I have to be careful not to over-improve because I don't plan to move any time soon. The latest thing won't be the latest in ten years.

On the plus side, materials costs have gone down with the bursting of the real estate bubble.

Any thoughts on this tricky issue?

Help me with a Remodeling Issue

Soooooo. We called the contractor who did our modest kitchen remodel. He came over right on time and said my mad idea would work. And, while it would be expensive for a cheapo like me, it would be modest in the grand scheme of the bathroom remodel.

However, since the mad idea involves a bump-out of the existing bathroom, we need to call in an architect to do pictures for a permit.

How to pick an architect? Well, we once used an eminent local fellow, who overcharged us so much (he billed us for thirty hours of drawing a complete scale model of our house including all furniture!! all for a rectangular addition off the side of the house) that we would never use him again. Note: when we protested, he reduced the bill by half within 10 seconds. Not enough though.

Then there are other locals who are connected in one way or another. Problem is that even though these fellows look good (starched shirts and khakis--same as eminent fellow above) and have attractive websites, I've seen some of the awful things they have done: huge houses with no light, a beautiful old cottage like mine with a large hideous excrescence (aka double garage) hanging off the side, etc. I called one of these guys in for a consultation (after speaking to eminent architect above) and he suggested the same thing Mr. FS thought of and rejected as too ugly and ungainly!

We asked wonderful contractor for a recommendation and were happy to take the name. Then I looked at the guy's website.

Would you hire an architect who presented himself to the public this way?

Any suggestions?



An even more eminent architect than the vile one above has a beautiful office downtown. His name is Ken Tate and he has been in Architectural Digest.

New Options for Elder Living: Golden Girls

I really think there's a change in how people are thinking of living in retirement. That's why I so liked Funny About Money's ruminations on the group of independent 80 year olds she met.

Here's something I read today, about older singles taking in roommates. It's sometimes, but not always, because of financial need. It strikes me as a good way to deal with the perhaps too-big unsellable-in-this-market house.

Check it out.

Would you take in a roommate?

My Rice Cooker Hero: Roger Ebert

When I was first experimenting with the rice cooker--just a few months ago--I was lucky enough to find Roger Ebert's blog on the wonders of "the pot." I was thrilled to see that he had a book coming out. A good writer and a good cook--all in one cookbook.

Here's an article from the New York Times.

And here is his book: only three more weeks.

I started with the rice cooker to help my daughter negotiate the challenges of cooking in a stoveless dorm suite. Now I use the rice cooker at least three times a week. And I have a stove! I love the rice cooker because it is CHEAP, EASY TO USE, SAFE, FORGIVING.



I know I will love the book. What's your favorite cookbook?

Budget Kitchen Renovation: Bling

Frugality and Bling? A contradiction in terms? No, I don't think so. In fact, bling can be the frugal person's best friend. As in clothing, so in kitchens. Every mother tells her daughter: "Just make sure the shoes and bag are OK. The rest will be upgraded (or downgraded) by those two items."

Thanks Mom, for your good advice, though I don't always follow it.
Having a kitchen where everything is of high quality is very expensive. But you can pick and choose. So a killer stove (like Duchesse's AGA!) can be a centerpiece. A neat farm sink: ditto. And--though some may disagree--a sculptural hood also has a bling factor. Following is my bling.

Stove Hood. A former colleague, who was weird in many, many ways, asked, when she heard I was planning to re-do my kitchen, if I would be willing to give her my stove hood. I had never paid much attention to it, since it came with the house. I took a look and it hit me: one element of bling. It's a Thermador with infrared heat lamps! It also provides good ventilation: my kitchen never is filled with greasy dust, as in previous kitchens. Cost: free with house.

Sink. I wanted a farm sink (aka apron sink). These are expensive and difficult to install (hence expensive labor). I discovered the IKEA Domsjo sink, which at the time was $300.00. I called and discovered that shipping would be $200.00! Then, I learned that one of Frugal Son's pals had to go to Houston to get a visa. I offered to pay his gas if he bought my sink. SUCCESS! Ikea, by the way, deserves my love because the sink is constructed so that it can be laid atop any countertop, thereby eliminating the costly cut-out and installation. My contractor was impressed. Cost: $360.00, including gas for a Civic Hybrid.

Giant old cupboard. One good idea is to sub a neat piece of furniture for overpriced cabinets. We already had this. We bought it from a woman who owned the fanciest clothing and furniture stores. It remains the most expensive thing we have ever bought in the furniture category. It has been in our possession for about 20 years. Following the cost-per-wear theory of clothing purchases, I have to say that the cost-per-year is very low. Original Cost: Too embarrassed to mention!

We have 3 bling items, more than the basic requirement of one. Do you agree with my bling idea for kitchens? And, what is your kitchen bling?

Budget Kitchen Renovation: Waste Not

OOPS: Remember my kitchen renovation "series"? It has been shamefully neglected. Here's the third installment, which I drafted on my birthday, January 20.

In addition to being pathologically frugal, I am pathologically against WASTE--of time, money, or resources. That may be why I picked up about 20 pairs of pricy men's shoes that were left out for the trash near my home and transported the whole lot to Goodwill. That may be why I told the nice rep at Powells who offered to overnight a book they mistakenly left out of my order to forget it: I'd just take a refund.

It makes sense, then, that I am horrified to see the usual scene when a home changes hands: perfectly good--or at least pretty good--cabinets, carpets, and other items littering the garbage pickup area as the new homeowners seek to make their mark on their new home. That didn't happen with us. We bought a house we loved that was a little too expensive for us. We were able to do that because we had saved a large down payment. We were so horrorstruck at the expense of the house (and the 30 years of payments to which we had committed ourselves) that we left things as they were for a LONG time. The kitchen in our new house was a cheaply done reno, perhaps 5-10 years old. The one nice detail was the Mexican tile, installed, no coubt at great expense, over an old wooden floor (erghhh).

The kitchen continued to deteriorate. To stave off a renovation, Mr. FS painted the ugly cabinets, which improved things a bit. Finally, after 10 more years, we realized that the kitchen was really shabby, the cabinets were really crumbly. The kitchen had crossed the line.

So we went up and down the expense continuum. Finally--and I will spare you the years of agonizing indecision--I accepted my frugal nature. And accepted thereby a truism of frugality: use what you have. The more you can keep or re-use the more reasonable your renovation.

What we kept:
THE LAYOUT. This is a real saver. Moving an appliance is very expensive.

THE FLOOR. OK, I'd prefer the wood under the Mexican tile, but there's no way I would pull up the tile.

THE COUNTERTOP. The countertop is just some oak flooring that was laminated. It is quite scruffy. But we like it. We were planning to replace with old heart pine, but the contractor uttered the magic words: "Do you want to keep this?" A few bits were rotten, but I had the idea of filling in with old wood. It looks good!

If I'd had nice cabinets, you can bet I would have re-used some.

Any other waste not tips for kitchen renos?

Kitchen Remodel: How I Kept It Frugal

Back to my KITCHEN SAGA. If this can save anyone even a few minutes or a few dollars, I will feel a lot better, since I over-researched the whole process.

How to keep it frugal. For many of the non-frugal, this is easy. You have the boundary of your budget. Then you can say to the sympathetic designer (aka cabinet salesperson
ON COMMISSION in many cases): Oh, I WISH I could afford the WHATEVER, but must alas settle for the WHATEVER MINUS.

Thanks to my frugal ways, I, of course, have to set my own boundaries. I could have spent pretty much whatever I wanted. The first of my two boundary-creators is common to us all; the second is peculiar to my situation. You may have to find your own way to stick to the frugal path.

Boundary 1: If you cruise the discussions of kitchens that are all over the internet, what is most desired is a timeless kitchen. Some people justify their extravagance with excuses like This is my forever kitchen. I can't fool myself like that. I know that whatever I like now, will be nothing special in 5 years and seriously dated in 10.

Once something gets really old--like my friend's 1940s bathrooms, which I swoon over--it does indeed become timeless. But kitchens and bathrooms don't usually get to that point, because people tear out almost new kitchens all the time. Even in this post-housing meltdown age, the curbs are littered with torn-out kitchens when a house changes hands.

So my first boundary-creator is the knowledge that whatever I do will be trashed when my house changes hands.

Boundary 2: I have a bonafide French friend. The french, of course, are noted for their frugality, though French frugality and American frugality are quite different. My French friend, let us call her Brigitte, redid her kitchen a few year before I did mine. Her kitchen was in worse shape than any of the slumlike kitchens in my graduate student apartments, by the way. Brigitte is the epitome of French frugality and also a quick decision-maker (the opposite of me). She planned her kitchen, saved up the cost, and did her kitchen with extreme rapidity. On a budget.

Whenever I told her I was pining for some expensive thing or other--like a French stove or a Wolf stove or stainless counter tops--she would roll her eyes in a French way and say, But that is ridiculous. And she was right. So every time I contemplated an indulgence--like the $8000.00 French stove--I pictured her discovering the cost and rolling her eyes in shock. If even a French person thinks the cost of a French stove is ridiculous...well, you get the picture.

I highly recommend a French person as a boundary-creator.

How do you keep it frugal?

Kitchen Remodel on a Budget: Cabinets

This is a biggie. Most "rules of thumb" for kitchens declare that you will spend half your money on cabinets. Although I regard most rules of thumb with scorn, this proved to be the case for me. I had a lot of trouble with cabinets. I will present only my conclusions. If I went through all my learning and deliberations, this would go on for many pages. Trust me. Or not. Your choice.

1. Cabinets are overpriced for the quality. No matter what the price level. Really good ones are ridiculously expensive; medium ones are overpriced anyway, and really cheap ones are garbage. Out of everything in a kitchen, I believe that cabinets offer the least value for the money.

As with every rule, there is an exception. There is ONE good value cabinet: Ikea. Their cabinets are frameless and modular, in the European style. In Consumer Reports a few year ago, Ikea cabinets ranked third. The top two cost about 10 times as much and the lower ones were far more expensive.Part of the cost of Ikea cabinets comes in sweat equity since you have to install them. If I lived near an Ikea, I would have gotten their cabinets. No question. You will see them in the most upscale homes, including ones the architects design for themselves.

2. So, Ikea not an option, what next? Well, I went up and down the scale of quality. Not too high. I went from mid-price (Kraftmaid and others sold at Lowes and Home Depot and Wellborn sold at a lumber store) to low price (the already-put-together ones at Lowes.) I almost went for these. But the floor samples were falling apart, so I really couldn't see doing this. I eventually bought Wellborn.

3. Since cabinets are overpriced, the only way you can save is to use fewer of them. I have very few cabinets. The $4000.00 doesn't provide for many. I do have a pantry, however, which holds tons of stuff. AND I have an old cupboard on one long wall. My house came with the pantry, but even a little closet type construction will hold the stuff of many cabinets and set you back a fraction of the cost.

Conclusion: Use as few cabinets as you can. Pantries are good. Big case pieces are good, especially if you already have them.

4. All those neat pullouts and inserts can double the cost of your cabinets. These are so neat! But JUST SAY NO. Or at least ask how much extra each costs. You will faint. (It is hard to get a piece by piece breakdown on cabinets. Only Lowe's provided one.) You can buy some of these aftermarket and install them yourself. Lowes carries them.

Exception: Once again, Ikea. Those inserts cost almost nothing at Ikea. Not fair! It just kills me that the closest one is 6 hours away. Ikea cabinets also have Blum drawer glides as standard. These glides are an expensive upcharge on other brands.

Conclusion: As the young woman at the lumberyard said to the salesperson I was re-assigned to (long story): Gerry, she doesn't want you to pimp out her cabinets.

5. Beauty: All those pretty finishes carry a big upcharge. Paint (which I like), glazes, and so forth are pricey. Paint is expensive! If you want white cabinets (I did not), you can also pick thermofoil. Wood cabinets have a lot less wood than you want to know (even "all wood" have lots of particle board). Thermofoil has no wood and the foil can peel off when exposed to heat--uhhhhhh, there's a lot of heat in kitchens.

6. More beauty: There is a surprising difference in price among different styles. Sometimes the plainest are the most.

7. Stuff you don't know can be expensive. As I mention above, most price estimates for your design will not break down by individual cabinets. So it is hard to figure out where to save or what is worth it. I learned from the Lowe's estimate--which did have a breakdown--that the cabinet that encloses a refrigerator is very expensive. To me, this is useless, merely cosmetic. I call them (forgive me) condoms for refrigerators (not a good analogy, since condoms do serve a purpose). The cabinets over the fridge are also expensive. If you look at pics of European kitchens, you will see few of these. My contractor was impressed that I knew this. He said I had saved around $1000.00, plus installation.

8. More stuff you don't know. Even though Gerry vowed that he would not pimp out my cabinets, he urged me to trim with molding. We said OK (weak!) and got our estimate. We changed out minds and the estimate went down by--well, a lot! The molding that may cost around $5.00 a foot at the lumber store costs about $50.00 a foot from the cabinet company. When we paid the contractor, that bill was quite a bit lower than the estimate. We asked why (because we thought he had made a mistake). Josh said that the molding is very time-consuming to install. Hence expensive. This was a substantial savings, but accidental. Makes you wonder what else you don't know.

Overall conclusion: Ikea cabinets are good value. All other brands are overpriced for the quality. Your only recourse is to use as few cabinets as possible and to pimp them out as little as possible.

Budget Kitchen Renovation: Thoughts on Style

I went into a home right after Katrina where I saw the kitchen of my dreams. The homeowner was a friend of a friend. Mr. FS and I were taking a walk after the storm (since there was nothing else to do); also, the rumormill said that someone on that street had a working phone. En route to the phone, we saw Catherine, who had just returned to town. She said we could see if her phone worked. We went into the kitchen and discovered that the phone indeed worked. We called our families to tell them we were okay. Meanwhile, Catherine discovered that several trees had gone through the roof of her newly renovated house.

But the kitchen! Beautiful antique-looking (custom) cabinets that went up to her high ceilings. Glass front cupboards (custom) filled with beautiful dishes.A custom-made island that looked like something you'd see in a fantasy of Provence. An 8 burner Viking stove. I admired the kitchen. She said, Yes, I bought the house for the kitchen. The previous owner--a cigar chomping youngish guy who looked like the Master of the Universe--had done the renovation. No one ever saw Mrs. Master. Catherine said that the cabinetry had been in natural wood. She "couldn't live with that." So she had it painted white.

Catherine is from an old wealthy Louisiana family. So is her (now ex-) husband. That kind of kitchen could be mine--for about $100,000.00. Out of my league, I'm afraid.

The first time I went to a kitchen place, I witnessed this exchange. Customer: I want what's popular. Salesperson: Maple cabinets and granite. Customer: That's what I want. End of design process.

Salespeople assume they know what you want. I kept being told that I "needed" an island or peninsula. I pointed out that I would have to remove my table. To which the salesperson replied, You could eat on stools at the island! No, said I. Then you could eat Japanese=style on your living room rug! So much for the design process.

When I said I wasn't crazy about granite, I was looked at with pity.

So what do you do when you don't want the maple/granite kitchen of most middle-class dreams? What if you REALLY like Catherine's magazine-worthy kitchen but don't want to spend $100,000?

Well, you have to figure out how you can get something of the atmosphere you want (unassuming Creole cottage?) while staying within the boundaries of pathological frugality. In other words, you have to figure it out yourself. Even if it drives you crazy. And you over-research. And everyone laughs at you for not being able to make up your mind. What else is new?

Budget Kitchen Renovation: Budget Matters

The first thing you are asked at Lowes, Home Depot, or the gruesome Singer Kitchens, is What is Your Budget? This is a little like the car salesperson saying What monthly payment are you looking at? No one in the retail biz understands the frugal mindset.

Answer: I want a good value kitchen. How can I get the most for my dollars? But that answer is like speaking in Martian. The response is usually, Oh, you're poor.

That comment--not in so many words, but that is the gist--is designed to get you to a)feel ashamed, or b) prove to the salesperson that you are NOT poor (or cheap) by spending a lot. The assumption is that you will spend to your limit, or even a little past that. It's not in the interest of a salesperson to save you money. And, as the value-oriented frugal person knows, most people just don't understand what a value-orientation means.

The truth is that I have plenty of money in the bank. That's BECAUSE I am frugal. So I could have bought a Wolf ($5000.00) stove if I had wanted--or better, a Lacanche ($6000.00 and WAY up) from France. I could have had custom cabs or granite counter tops. In a way, it's easy when you have a budget. Then you know what you can spend. But I had a lot of leeway.

So, as is my habit, I set an arbitrary budget of $12,000, which was what my mother had spent on her kitchen.

It is so hard to go against peer pressure. Meanwhile, I was making my plans during the post-Katrina building boom here, which coincided with the housing boom everywhere else. No one was interested in a modest remodel. I waited for a few years.

Next topic: Style

Kitchen Remodel on a Budget: Beginnings

I've mentioned a few times that I redid my kitchen for only $8000.00. Here is my breakdown of costs:

Cabinets: $4000.00
Labor: $2000.00
Range: $700.00
Sink: $300.00
Dishwasher: $400.00
Other stuff (faucets, knobs): $600.00

I am blissfully happy with the kitchen. It is just what I wanted and just like my old house: somewhat unconventional. Bear in mind that most people wouldn't like my kitchen. When I showed my very conventional sister-in-law a picture of my kitchen, she asked where the "after" photo was.

As is my wont, I over-researched the possibilities to the extent that I told my contractor a thing or two or three. He was happy to learn some of my budget tips, since, like many contractors, he does his own house on the cheap. I got so confused that at one point I considered hiring a friend who is a designer to consult. Then I realized that designers are interested in "looks," not in a look on a budget. I also spoke to "designers" in Home Depot, Lowes, or, a truly horrible experience, a local chain called Singer Kitchens. These "designers" are, in truth, cabinet salespeople who work on commission: their interests and your interests are not the same.

If you know anything about kitchens and appliances, you can see that I went low-end on the appliances. You can also see that I did not list a counter top. That is because I re-used a funky wood countertop. i also did not list a back splash. That is because I hate them.

So I will post occasionally on aspect of the remodel of summer 2008. Maybe I'll even post pictures. Then all of you can ask, with my sister-in-law, Where's the after picture?

Spendthrift Scholar? What I Want to Do in 2010

My blogpal, Mr. Over the Cubicle Wall, suggested this retitling. That's because, in response to his confession of spending about $50.00 on new shoes for his first purchase of 2010, I mentioned that I had recently paid my property taxes, paid the dribs and drabs of college fees not covered by scholarships for my two children, bought a new computer owing to the demise of old one, paid for car insurance, and on and on.

Although I think the term is a bit harsh, I will continue with what I want to do or to get this year.

1. I want to go to Vienna with my mother. This is a trip that will be filled with emotional resonance; in fact, my hands get shaky as I type. I have never been to Vienna, where my mother was born, and from which she miraculously escaped in 1938 with my grandparents. As in many families, this is an area marked by silence and mystery. A Vienna trip was also the last my mother took with my father in spring of 2008. They left a bit early because my mother was (presciently) worried about his health. They planned to return. I'm hoping both my children can go too. Miss Em saw the form I helped my mother fill out over the holidays, which contained a rather bureaucratic apology for National Socialism, and asked for her existence to be notarized so they could send her $1000.00.

I figure this trip will be almost $10,000 if we all go.

2. And, on a lighter note, I want to do a bit of home reconfiguration. This may include a BATHROOM enlargement. Just a little bit. My house has the smallest bathrooms imaginable in a home of its size. Tiny closet size. Both of them.

No idea what that will cost. Maybe $20,000?

I know that various personal finance sites scoff at saving on the little things. They counsel saving on the big things. But I save on the little things so I can be a little--yes--spendthrift on the big things. I also usually overbudget on those big things, so I can be pleasantly surprised when they come out under the anticipated amount.