Kinda made an off the wall decision to turn the extra room from our house into an office space for the new business. When we moved into the house, this back room was already stripped of it’s flooring (down to sub floor) and painted just a plain off-white. The main plan is to eventually turn the room into a master bathroom (since it shares a wall with the master bedroom) but I decided that realistically that room was a long way off from being a bathroom so I figured I would do a ‘budget’ remodel and make the room an office space for the new business. So I got down to work and made it happen.
First I put a nice neutral light gray paint on the walls. I didn’t want to go too dark since the room was already small, but I also wanted to give it a little contrast from the rest of the house. The gray seems to work perfectly. I also had to build up the floor a bit. When we put the laminate flooring in the hallway, the floor was already slightly high, so adding the flooring just made it that much worse. So to even things off a bit and not have so much of a transition, I decided to build up the floor of the back room.
Next came the carpet. Picked up some clearance carpet from Lowes for I believe $.65/sq ft. Wasn’t quite sure about the color contrast, but I think it works pretty well.
Then I went through and replaced all of the outlet receptacles, the light switch, and added an outlet and cable connection to mount the tv on the wall and have everything hidden. I purposely mounted the TV high so it wouldn’t be bumped or otherwise get in the way of conducting business in the office.
The office couldn’t be without some tunes so I also added a couple of the speakers that came with my living room sound system that were never used. I still have to try to find or make the bases for the speakers, but they work for now. They are both run off of the Zone 2 on my main living room receiver so I didn’t have to find a place for another whole receiver just for 2 speakers.
Also picked up some new office furniture on sale at OfficeMax. New L-shaped Sauder desk with hutch, and a lateral 2 drawer file cabinet. Also grabbed a brother laser printer (sick and tired of constantly buying ink) and an epson flat bed scanner. This pic was before picking up the file cabinet, but it sits just on the other side of the desk (making a “U” shaped desk essentially).
I’m debating having the house re-appraised to try to get rid of the mortgage insurance payment. I think they said that I no longer have to pay it once the loan is below 80% of the value (or the value of the house goes up). But I’m not sure if it’s worth it since the taxes will go up due to the higher appraisal… lol.
You’re taxes are going to go up. You need to do the math, IIRC you’re house is very under valued, could see $1000/yr (or more) increase. Depends what you’re PMI premium us.
i hope you know the difference between a assesment and a appraisal.
if the town assessor comes to your house and wants to come in to re asses your home and make the value go up it will not help you to let him in. the reason why is the taxes will be raised if he feels the value of the home went up. thats how they tax you. they use a certain percent of the assessors said value. so if you let him in after you remodeled your taxes will go up. every few years they come back to re asses just tell them to asses it from the road or outside the home or to do a current market analysis. sleeper houses are the best imo and they are cheaper to insure and taxes are lower
if its a appraisal on the other hand go for it. you might have to pay for it but it helps you. the higher the value of the house the better. you could sell it for more or use it for more collateral on a loan.
insurance is expensive but worth it imo. you dont want to pay a house off then remove the insurance. the insurance protects the buyer or owner. thats why the bank makes you get it because it protects their investment.
but at the same time if you pay $5k a year for flood insurance and live in the desert it might not be the best thing to do. but you never know what could happen
It’s not home insurance… I’ll never go without that… lol. I’m talking about mortgage insurance, which is an extra charge (I want to say $150/month but I can’t remember) that the bank charges so that if I were to default on the loan, they are less likely to get screwed. I only had to do that route because I wasn’t expecting to get approved when I did, so I had very little saved up for a down payment. So I went with the FHA loan which was only 3.5% down but required the PMI.
Ryan: Can I just get the house appraised for the PMI without it getting re-assessed by the town and getting raped on taxes, or are they both pretty much one in the same now?
The town shouldn’t really have any way of finding out what you refied the house at. Thats private information the only thing that should be public record is what your purchased it at.
