So this year we’re pretty much officially done with home repairs.  My DH has a couple more projects left inside the home, probably the equivalent of $500 I’m guessing.  I don’t think we can really afford to do the couple of windows I wanted to do this year because of the cost $1100, unless it’s covered by warranty still. I have to hunt down talking to home depot about that.  But this year, unlike previous years we’ve spent double our home repair budget.

In 2007 we spent $4512 on home repairs, 2008 we spent $4152, and in 2009 I assumed again $5k for the year.  Sounds reasonable since I have previous data to show around 1% of our home value is spent on repairs annually.  I like to believe we’re being responsible home owners.

So what ended up happening?  Well we knew we had to do the heat pumps this year in order to sell the home, and we had nursed them through the winter last year.  But then we ended up doing a lot of other projects, some due to vanity and others because of our baby.

According to my excel spreadsheet we’ve paid $2500 on painting, $3750 on heat pumps, $1325 on heat pump labor, and $1800 on insulation.  We’ve also spent $1500 on painting supplies, insulation, sod, leveling the backyard, etc for do-it-yourself projects this year.

I can justify the painting as being necessary since we had lead paint removed and walls properly repaired in the nursery and stairway.  Absolute necessities to sell and for the baby’s health.  The heat pumps were necessary as well, and the tax break on the insulation too good to pass up.  So the grand total was $10868 on home repairs this year, plus probably another $500 for a few extras these next two months.  I guess windows are out of the question this year.

But did are we really spending that much?  With the heat pumps and insulation being federal tax deductible we spent $5550 *30% = $1665 or the maximum $1500 tax credit.  That means we get back $1500 in federal taxes paid.  I’ll take that.  We also get a $500 cash rebate from our electric company for installing more efficient heat pumps.  Nice.   Finally, we get back 75% cash back from our gas company for weatherizing our house with insulation to the tune of $1350!  Thus we basically are getting back $3350 in cash in our pockets!  This is not counting any extra cash we get back from our state income taxes.  I’ve heard from neighbors there are state tax credits as well. Whew.

So the total damage we’ll be spending after rebates will be at least $7518 (and ~$11k out of pocket!), but it turned out a lot better than I expected.  Plus this is not counting how much we’ll save on with the more efficient heating system, better insulation. I am going to guess at least $1k this winter alone if not more.

I’ll post after the winter, although we’ll likely be spending the same and raising the temperature in the house from 55 to 68.  And while I’m not wild about all this spending, at least it makes our lives more comfortable.