Changing direction January 14, 2008
Jon and I have decided that instead of using the money we’re about to pull out of the house via refinance (we hope - appraisal today - keep your fingers crossed for us) to renovate our master bathroom, we are instead going to shore that bathroom up enough to keep it in running order and use the money to renovate the kids’ bathroom upstairs (suffice it to say it makes our downstairs bathroom look posh).
We’re also going to make some improvements to H and J’s rooms (new carpet, paint, lighting), and turn what is now a giant upstairs closet - it’s the size of a full-size bedroom - into an actual bedroom for E. We’ll have to get the upstairs heat pump exchange moved out of there, get a closet built, get it wired and lighting installed, and then have it painted and carpeted. So we’ll be turning our four bedroom house into a five bedroom house. This will allow E. to have a nicer bedroom upstairs with J and H, and will also free up the bedroom just off of ours for C. when the time comes for her to move out of our room.
E. is excited. He already has some ideas about how he wants his new room to look, and he says he’s been learning to paint walls at his Dad’s house and will help me learn how (I am a painting neophyte, while Jon is very good at it). J. is very psyched, particularly abouthaving carpet installed in her room (it’s hardwood now, which she doesn’t find cozy enough). H. says he doesn’t care and would rather keep his wood floor if it means he won’t have to move any furniture out and then back in. He is, however, psyched about having a new bathroom upstairs with a stand-up shower to replace the hot pink minitub with barely functional handheld showerhead that he uses now 
This sounds like a better plan.
Don’t let it stop you from pursuing (begging) those TV shows to do the master bath.
Then you can write about the experience for a magazine.
Either way, it’s decorating and decorating is fun!!
Sounds like you’ll be able to get a lot done as opposed to one bathroom.
Good luck!
Sounds like a better allocation of the money. Good luck with the refi.
Sounds fun. I wish you could talk J into selecting her carpet and binding the edges into a rug that’s just shy of the room’s perimeter. Would be a shame to cover all the wood and to tack into it, such that if she changes her mind in a few years, the floor will have to be refinished. I have been through refinishing a lot, and it’s a terrible mess and hassle.
Also consider FLOR carpet squares… They’re removable, repositionable, washable, and very cute.
http://www.flor.com/service/flor/gallery.html
Katie - we did something similar and we able to “sprinkle” the money much further then if we just renovating our master bath - which does really need it - we stop some leaks but then spread it out on changes that benefited the greater hole. It will still be fun and probably go a long way towards making the whole house feel as if it got a face lift.
Good luck with the re-fi.Too bad you couldn’t have turned that storage room/closet into a bedroom before the apraisal.You might get a higher appraisal.In any event,it sounds like you have a good plan.