apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

so inspiring for a budget-conscious person like me!

This annoyed me - right, he's not using credit cards, but did take out a $55k home improvement loan... so he's just borrowing money from a different place. No magic there. The real key to his solvency is the fact that (a) he lives in Akron, and (b) he had the superhuman patience to spend 12 years doing this.

I wonder if finding the $14k in a box, hidden in the house, helped them to remain solvent during at least some of this process? It's an amazing labour of love, any way you slice it, tho. Very inspirational!

This is exactly my philosophy. I live well below my means, and really do have everything I need. It is very satisfying. I attribute part of this to not owning a TV; being bombarded with commercials telling me I must buy everything on the planet. I do have internet, I watch movies, but I have cut commercials out as much as possible, and it has made a huge difference on my pocketbook, and satisfaction with life. It has also given me a lot of extra quality time to spend with family activities. Baseball, frisbee, cards etc don't cost much and foster good interaction with my 4 kids and neighbors.

I attribute part of this to not owning a TV; being bombarded with commercials telling me I must buy everything on the planet.

I've never seen a tv commercial that inspired me to buy something. I see about nin gazillion ads that inspire me to buy something on AT, and in reading materials (Sunday Times, Thursday Home Section, magazines....)

That house is really gorgeous now. What an immense amount of work that went into it - it's impressive.

My thoughts exactly, greeps...TV ads for pan pizza are not the inspiration for Americans to accumulate debt; I'd point to Martha Stewart Mag & Vogue as much more likely culprits.

TV is the reason we're fat!

My parents built two houses in a row with only the money they had at the time ... All cash, no credit, and no mortgage. (Their only initial investment was the acreage.) The first one was the hardest (we lived in it while it was being built ... We'd slowly move to other parts of the house as that part was completed and there were five of us little ones at the time) and it took 17 years to complete.

The second one was faster ... they built on inherited land, there was only me left at home and my dad by then was making more money anyway. They sold the first house once it was complete. They still have the second one - although they've lived in Europe now the last 15 years - since they had no mortgage on it and pay very little utilites and taxes for it.

I would have the patience to do the same, I just don't have the total know-how (I should mention my dad was a contractor and did all the work himself) nor the time. I do have to say, though, that lesson taught me never to buy anything for my home on credit cards - even large purchases like furniture. I appreciate getting them much more, anyway, since I have to save up to buy large things ... There's a sense of pride and accomplishment. That is also one of the reasons I (unpopularly) don't believe in wedding registries, but that's another rant entirely. ;-)

yeah - geez finding 14k might help a bit you'd think...

I felt like it was actually pretty sad that he acknowledged he missed out on time he could have spent with his kids as they were growing up because he was spending every weekend for YEARS working on the house.

I'm from the Akron/Cleveland area. There are some gorgeous homes in the Rust Belt. The article made me homesick, especially for the cheap living costs.

debtex, I agree TV can make you fat. Since I nixed TV, I also lost 80 pounds without even trying. I'm 5'9 and 128lbs now. And although my house doesn't look like David and Gina Giffels', I am working on it. Now if only I could find where the hidden moneybox is...

No one gets out alive, as they say. And seriously... everyone makes choices about which things they can do without.

My folks gave us what they could, but they never owned a house until after we were long gone out of it. But they were pretty generous with their time spent with us.

What has made it easier for me to own my own apartment on a fairly modest salary was that I let my drivers license lapse back in 1987 when I moved to New York City, partly because it was a Louisiana license, and I didn't think I should dishonestly renew it back there, since I didn't live there, and partly because I didn't realize that I could just get it magically transformed into a New York State one, and partly because I knew that I had no intention of owning a car in New York, because parking and tickets and insurance. What I've saved by not having the expensese of a car is probably what pushed me over the top to be able to afford to buy my own apartment. That, and my folks temporarily loaning me some down payment money at just the right tiny little window of opportunity.

Also, I have no children, and no "spouse", per se, so there's a LOT of expenses that I don't have because of that.

RE: I felt like it was actually pretty sad that he acknowledged he missed out on time he could have spent with his kids as they were growing up because he was spending every weekend for YEARS working on the house.

I can't speak for these people, but helping (and watching) my grandfather on MANY various renovation projects when I was a small child helped me A) be closer to him; B) learn how to fix and build things myself; and C) probably inspired my interest in architecture and design.

This article was refreshing, as my household is one that also lives within (or below) our means, saving for retirement and rainy days and NEVER buying anything that can't be paid for that month. I understand the home equity loan, as the interest is way lower than most credit cards and can be deducted from taxes (same as mortgage interest). This is exactly what HE loans were originally intended for.

I suppose while we're talking about finances, I'll add that I've never had a credit card either. I watched so many friends drive themselves into crazy debt (on top of the enormous student loan debt we all have), I didn't want to have the means to do that to myself. However, I also have dependable family support, so in emergencies, I was able to get small loans from my parents.

One thing that has helped me live frugally is that I don't drink. At all. So many of my friends don't think twice about dropping $50 every time we go out. I can't imagine incorporating that into my budget!

I know I'll never be able to do this because I wouldn't stay with a man who "rather than go to bed with his wife when she asked him to in the times after the miscarriages, he’d work on a project." Obviously his wife has a different take on it, but is any house worth that kind of abandonment?

I love this story. My most cherished memories are of working on our old house with my dad. I think it explains my strange attraction to Norm Abrams.

Nice house but a previous mortgage, $55K home improvement loan and he found $14K hidden in the house? That's not exactly using only what you have.

Yeah, I agree .. now that I read the story in full at lunchtime, I'm not so super impressed anymore either.

Everyone seems kind of hung up on the $55k home improvement loan, but since the house only cost 65k (because it was uninhabitable) the loan was necessary and they count it as part of the mortgage. Its the same as if they had taken out an 110k renovation mortgage at the beginning. They still lived within their means since they set out to buy a 100k house.

The thing that's so weird about everyone's responses is how angry it seems like it made everyone. Is it that you all need to feel that your debt was unavoidable - and that there's no other way to go? Just wondering. I don't get it. I still think it's interesting to hear about people doing things differently - or who have totally different values than me. I've had my own version of "finding 14 grand in the house" unexpected gifts and whatnot - that saved my ass at the time. But I'd hate to think that negated all my other financial accomplishments.

"The thing that's so weird about everyone's responses is how angry it seems like it made everyone. Is it that you all need to feel that your debt was unavoidable - and that there's no other way to go? Just wondering."

If this was a word-of-mouth story I think people would have had a different view of it - but when its an article in the NY times promoting a book that hes written, its like hes flaunting himself and that gets people upset - the see-what-we-did-with-no-help attitude gets peoples backs up when they read about finding 14K in a house! - loads of people take lots of years to slowly renovate houses but they don't feel the need to write a book about it - and many people would say that he was simply foolhardy to take on such a big project without the means to fund it and would consider that time spent with your family is more important that picking paint off hinges!

This story could easily be written up in another way such as:
"Man ignores children and distraught wife to work on house he can't afford".

I definitely see your point, Violetsrose, but I do think that hearing about others who don't have debt makes a lot of people very uncomfortable and defensive. I get a lot of this from family, friends, and co-workers because I save money and have almost no debt. People act like I'm some sort of freak when they find out (it's become almost like my "deep, dark secret" because I get such weird, accusatory reactions). It's like I'm breaking some sort of unspoken American rule; come to think of it, I guess I am. But I've had debt problems in the past and I've learned my lesson; I've also had a lot more money in the past than I have now, and it made it clear to me that buying things won't fulfill me.

By the way, one thing to consider about credit cards is that having one and using it responsibly is one of the best things you can do for your credit score. It's very, very difficult to buy a home if you've never had a credit card (I'm a former mortgage loan processor); if you hope to buy someday, I would suggest getting a low-limit card now, make an occasional purchase with it (never owe more on it than about 1/3 of your credit limit), then make your payments on time ALWAYS.

STH - your reaction to peoples comments then, seems to come from your own experience of not having debt and how people have reacted to you - I wonder how this comes up in conversation - its not polite to discuss money in everyday sitations so I wonder how they find out that you have no debt - do they feel that you are rubbing it in their faces that you are more "solvent" than they are in which case no wonder they have a negative reaction - I suggest you stop telling people!

ver interesting to saw your picture. i liked your message.
keep in touch...........

SuhasRao

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