Bathroom Bling

Im back with another update on the shower. It might be a minor update but it's progress none the less and progress is what we want when it comes to getting this shower finished.

After my last boring post about the piping, the next step was to buy the shower faucet so Josh could hook the pipes up to the valve. I don't know about you but im all for trying to find the best deal possible and standing there in the isle of endless faucets @ Lowes, I just had that voice in the back of my mind telling me 'look online. Look elsewhere' and in true form I listened to that little voice.

And there she was. Shiny, simple and sleek. I wanted something that wasn't to 'dressy' in the sense that when we are looking for a new fixture for above the sink, it will broaden our options as far as style and it all blending together.

And no I most certainly did not pay $147 dollars plus 85 cents for that simple shower faucet [which BTW, was just for the trim, that's not including the valve].

Can you believe something like this costs close to 50 bucks? Okay... maybe you can but I can't and I certainly couldn't swallow spending $42 buckeroos on a vaaaaaaaallllveeee [you have to say it with that drawn out boring voice].

And so I was on a hunt. A hunt for the shower fixture we decided on yet did not want to pay almost 200.00 for [for the faucet and the valve]. After about an hour of searching the best deals between site A and site B and so on... I finally ended up with site Z being the best of the best as in I scored us that Delta Faucet for $66.21 and the valve for $26.93. And the fact that they had free shipping was just icing on the cake.

ZING! Total spent for the complete Delta Faucet trim and valve - $93.15. I love Lowe's, I really do but I couldn't see spending over 100.00 on a faucet trim and than an extra 30-40 for a valve. Since I had budgeted roughly $200.00 for a faucet and valve [I always over budget money so I know im 'safe'], that extra 100.00 went right into savings!

2 days later look what was at our front door when we came home from work.

Our bling-blingidy-bling was here and now this weekend we should officially have all of the plumbing hooked up in the shower which means........................... we can finally move forward with getting the walls up, finishing the floor and tiling! :)

[In case your wondering, we ordered our faucet and valve from efaucets.com. This entire post is all about my own personal experience and opinion. Efaucets has not contacted us in any way to try and get us to 'review' a product. We just like a good deal and good customer service :) ]

A financial outlook for 2011

The other day when I posted about resolutions and goals, I mentioned how the only major thing that was pretty much noteworthy for 2010 was buying our first home. Well later on I started to think more about what was actually done in 2010 for us. The things we did, the places we went. It was like I was playing my own version of a home movie, but inside my mind [amazing how that works huh?]. Well with my brain juices flowing [and all this time I thought there was mainly just dust and those dried tumble-weeds rolling around in there] I remembered that buying our first home was NOT the only note worthy happening for 2010.

June of 2010 I had officially paid off my car. It was a super big accomplishment. Not only for my family, but for myself. I bought this car pre-baby and pre-Josh. Back in my 'younger years'. Right off the lot of the local Acura dealer. At the time it was my only major debt because I was still living in the dorms, on base. After the initial paper work was signed and it was financed I thought I would NEVER pay this thing off... Not to mention I was a little careless and should have gone for something with a little bit of a cheaper car payment... but that's besides the point. Well she is now officially paid off. Title is in MY name... she is all mine.

Another big note for 2010? I paid off my other baby toy. Yep... bet you didn't know I rode motorcycles did ya!? I bought this here Kawi brand new, right out of the showroom... also pre-baby and [kind of] pre-Josh [I say kind of because we were friends at the time, just not officially dating]. This is actually the most recent accomplishment as my bike was officially paid off in November of 2010. Sadly... she has been sitting in the 'garage' for quite some time now without being ridden. She has a little mechanical issues and has been jotted down on the list of things to work on... I don't feel so bad because the traffic around here in just the past 2yrs has gotten so much worse. It's crazy and scary out there, it makes riding not as fun as it used to be [when it was just a weee bit safer].

That's my bike's boyfriend. A.k.a - Josh's bike. Yep... he rides too. One of HIS major accomplishments is that he paid off his bike in 2010. He actually made it a point to pay it off before signing the contract on our first home because we wanted to go into this big purchase [buying a home] with as little debt as we could possibly have. Sadly... as with mine... it too sits in the garage, for the same reasons. At least they keep each other company.

Ugh... I am so tired of this ghastly beast. This is Josh's truck... although I drive it all the time because it's safer transporting a toddler in this thing, on the highway, back and fourth to work, than it is in my small, tiny little car [crazy drivers and all]. Josh bought this truck right before we had Jayden. He traded in his [paid off] tiny little S10 for this and considered it the 'family' vehicle. Meh. I beg to differ... but as you can guess, there is still a lingering car payment on this eye-soar.

So now with 2011 here, our main focus, as a family, is finances. Since I now have an extra $630.00 in my pocket from no carpayment and no motorcycle payment anymore, I will be focusing on helping Josh pay off the truck. That way the more money we put into it, the faster it will be paid off, which will mean even more money in our back pockets [a.k.a savings]. I don't plan on contributing the whole extra $630.00 but my plan is to contribute an extra $300.00 on top of his $400.00 he already pays [he pays more every month].

Our goal for January is to create a calendar/spreadsheet with all of our finances. Both of our incomes, along with money that is going out [mortgage, utilities, daycare... etc] and savings plan for 2011... not to mention the money we will be setting aside for the current Master Bath reno and future house projects.

So that is our money plan for 2011. Between my aspirations of being an extreme coupner [you should see my dining room table right now. It looks like redplum threw up all over it]. and being an extreme saver... I hope that by the time we retire we can be at a place where we are extremely comfortable.

How about you. Do you have any finacial goals for 2011?