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Monthly Archives: March 2019

Getting the Most for Your Renovation Dollar

Bitmoji Lee in Quicksand

Prioritization is important. It’s the only way to keep your costs from getting out of hand. Unfortunately, your priorities are your own. But there are a few guidelines to help figure them out.

Prioritization

The whole Hermit Haus team encourages questions. (It actually helps us think of relevant things to write about. Seriously, thinking is hard!) So, please don’t be shy. You can send us questions by email, as a comment on the blog post, or even through our Facebook page.

This post answers the second question asked by one of Sue Ann’s friends.:

How do you prioritize projects when fixing up a house?

Continue reading →

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My Favorite Organization Tool

My buddy the label maker.

It’s Sunday, so let’s take a break from the hard-hitting reporting we usually share (what? really?) for something fun. We have plenty of great stuff about our projects, and even about former projects for next week, but first, I want to talk about label makers.

That’s right. I think the label maker is one of the world’s best inventions. I have one for home and one for work. I realized I had not broken out the work label maker yet, which means I was always opening every single cabinet at the Hermits’ Rest Enterprises office to find stuff in the kitchen. So, I took a break from blogging and technical writing, and reorganized the kitchen (yes, I know it’s getting demolished soon, but not THAT soon).

The bottom ones are crooked becuse I had to move them from cabinets Lee plans to demolish ASAP.

Mandi came by to “help,” but she’s been really, really sick, so I made her just sit there and make labels. Maybe that was a mistake, since she labeled things exactly what I told her to. And she labeled the stove as well as the space where the refrigerator WOULD be, except we can’t get it downstairs.

We also washed all the dishes and glassware we found, so now we can eat and be good to the environment (on the other hand, the church left what looks like a lifetime supply of styrofoam plates that I guess we can use eventually). We did discover the extremely loud dishwasher’s heating element is not in great shape, so we’ll be air drying from now on. The dishwasher’s manual, which I found while reorganizing, stated that it was bought in 1991, so it’s led a fine life for an appliance.

If we only had a punch bowl we could feed a LOT of people punch.

I’ve already used the labels and happily found a plastic bag to re-use and then recycle. I am satisfied. Next, I’ll label all the light switches like I did in my house, even though I KNOW the first thing we are doing on this place is re-wiring.

All hail the label maker. All hail the ancient potholders (that’s the second drawer in the top left photo).

Ahh, I can find stuff.

It just makes me happy, OK?

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Conserving Capital, Water, and Energy

Bob Lane at Rotary

Bob Lane explaining why conservation makes economic sense. I love it when divergent values work together.

What is the best way to conserve energy and other resources? It turns out, solar is not the way to go—in Texas anyway.

Bob Lane of E3, a company founded on conservation, addressed Wednesday’s meeting of the Cameron Rotary club. Bob and E3 have been helping conserve energy and water in commercial buildings since the 1970s. Bob is a big proponent of the PACE program I have previously written about.

After introducing himself, Bob pointed to the fluorescent tubes along one side of the room. “Those are the most efficient lights you can have,” he joked. “Because they’re off.”

Over the course of his talk, he listed the best things you can do to save money through conservation (listed here in no particular order): Continue reading →

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Getting the Most for Your Renovation Dollar

Bitmoji Lee writing formulae on a chalkboard

I wish there really were a secret formula to determine how much to spend on a renovation. We have systems that help, but each house is different. As you probably get tired of hearing me say, “It depends on what you want….”

The Secret Formula

We all want to get the most out of our renovation dollar.

A friend of Sue Ann’s recently sent us a couple of questions. Since these questions came from a real person, I’m going to answer in the second person. You know. Like I’m really talking to you or something. And I’m going to assume the backstory.

Is there any kind of equation for how much money one should put into fixing up a house before selling it? Like 10% of the price you hope to get for the house?

Continue reading →

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Three Excellent Updates

Nice bathroom repairs.

Washington, with Pictures

Lee got a bit of a better peek into the Washington project in Cameron. They have started rehabbing the bathroom, which was sorely needed. It’s good to see any water damage eliminated, and the pipes in great condition.

Lots more demolition, plus forward progress.

Work is proceeding along nicely in the kitchen area, too. Out with the old and in with the new!

Russet Valley

As for the Russet Valley project, it’s also moving along. It’s walls are all smooth and ready for interior painting, which always brings new life into a house.

Parkwood

All fixed and smoothed out.

And saving the best for last, we’ve accepted an offer on the Parkwood house! A couple of previous ones didn’t work out, but we’re thinking this one’s a GO! Ready for some profits! Yes!

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