I was upgrading my friend’s home and he loved the dishwasher he currently had—the only problem was it was out of date/black. All of his other appliances were stainless steel. We searched around and the equivalent dishwasher in stainless steel would have cost him over $450.00. I decided to see if we could change the…
Home Updates
Flipping an Older Cabin into Your Luxury Vacation Home
We all dream of a luxurious vacation home where we can bring our family and friends to make memories for years to come. Unfortunately, luxury homes come at a premium that most of us are not able to afford. But you don’t have to give up your dreams of owning a fantastic vacation home. Consider…
How to Organize a Garage + Cricut Giveaway
I’ve done my best to keep my garage organized, but with very little storage, it has been difficult. I’d often not know where to put something in the garage and instead just find a place for it in my house. As a result, my home was more cluttered than I wanted it to be. I…
How to Make Wood Storage Shelves
My garage had very little storage and as a result, organizing it was very difficult. I researched how to maximize the storage space in a garage and decided to put in wood storage shelves that custom fit storage bins I had. In my research, I found many use ceiling storage. I was not wanting to do a garage storage…
6 Winter Renovations That Can Be Completed On a Limited Budget
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kohler for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine. For most, winter is cold! As temperatures drop, the temptation to just stay inside rises. Of course, staying inside all the time comes with its own problems, even if it is nice and warm. It’s part of…
How to Make a Table Taller
I have a small table that I bought 5 years ago on the local classifieds for about $25.00. It has been in my living room until a recent remodel, when I moved it into the kitchen/dining area. Even though it is a bit small, it fits my little family (single mom of two toddlers) perfectly. And because…
23 Must-Read Tips on Preparing Your Home for Its Sale
I was getting ready to sale my home. Life circumstances changed, but I had it on the market for four days and received 2 good and one excellent offers. So the following steps did work! I’ve taken multiple real estate courses. I’ve also been doing a lot of research and asking trusted experts for tips on preparing…
DIY Fabric Wall Art
Last fall I was redecorating my guest bedroom downstairs. I needed inexpensive wall art and saw a fabric project on an online decor website. I decided to try it out. It is about as simple and inexpensive as ‘DIY’ gets. For the materials, I found 6 matching frames at a garage sale for $5.00 total. I found a bunch of fabric remnants, yards,…
DIY Memory Foam Side Table Toppers
I found these darling side tables at Deseret Industries for $15.00 each. They sold them to me as a set for $25.00. I went to JoAnn’s and bought 4″ memory foam to top them. I made sure to use a coupon because memory foam is pricey. Then I went to Home Depot and picked up…
How to Save Thousands on a Bathroom Remodel
Most DIY bathroom renovations cost upwards of $10,000.00—especially when they include new plumbing and installing a shower, tub, vanity, toilet, and flooring. Here’s how I did mine for under 9% of that figure. The guest bathroom needed an entire ‘gut remodel.’ There was no tub, shower or plumbing for it. And no flooring. Everything was outdated and old. This is the…
How to Save Money Renovating a Bathroom
According to houzz.com the average bathroom remodel can range from $3,000 to over $100,000! The average inexpensive DIY bathroom remodel is about $5,000. Here’s how we did ours for 10% of that. When we moved into our home, there was ugly vinyl flooring, an old toilet and countertop, and the vanity was broken. We wanted…
How to Save Money on Renovating and Decorating a Master Bedroom
Today I’m continuing on with my renovations series. I’m about halfway through. See below for the link to other before-and-afters. This is the master bedroom ‘before.’ There was water damage, so sections of the subfloor had to be removed and replaced. This is after the subfloor was fixed: with carpet, paint, furnishings, and decor. It seems…
11 Inexpensive Quality Home Decor DIY Projects
You don’t have to spend a fortune decorating your home beautifully. Below is proof of this! Check out these amazing ideas of how you can create quality home decor items inexpensively. 1. Frame Fabric– This is such a gorgeous idea. I have a bunch of frames I picked up at a yard sale. Now I…
How to Paint, Decorate, Furnish, and Light a Dining Room for Under $200.00
I’m continuing my remodel series (finally). Sometimes as a blogger I get too caught up in new ideas and forget about the old ones I’ve started. I recently promised myself that I would continue on with my remodeling our home series… So, today’s feature is my dining room and how I was able to decorate…
How to Install an Inground Trampoline
Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved inground trampolines. We had them at my grandparent’s house and at their cabin. They were so easy to run on and off of, take turns on, and were super convenient for us as kids. When I was a teenager, we had an above-ground trampoline at our house. I…
How to Spray Paint a Mailbox
In my book that I co-wrote, Living a Rich Life as a Stay-at-Home Mom, I mention our mailbox that was falling apart. Instead of buying a new sturdy one at $130+ I decided to ‘Jimmy Rig’ it. Then last summer, while garage selling I found a perfect mailbox that I could fix up and paint…
How to Save Money on Renovating and Decorating a Front Room
Furnishing and decorating a front room could easily cost between $20,000-$40,000. Even on websites with ‘less expensive’ ways to remodel and decorate a front room, the cost for it were upwards of $15,000! Are you remodeling or wanting to decorate a front room yet don’t have $15,000, $25,000, even over $40,000 to spend, and you…
How to Save Money on Renovating and Decorating a Living Room
Making a living room comfortable and decorating it nicely doesn’t have to cost a fortune! Today I’m sharing how we renovated our family room from the caving in walls and part of a missing ceiling to what it looks like now for about $2,000. That includes new doors, part of a ceiling and walls, flooring, paint,…
How to Paint a Lamp Post
Our house is mainly white with blueish-grey siding and brown shingles. But our mailbox and lamp post are black and I really dislike the clash. So instead of buying a new lamp post, I decided to spray paint it. Below you will find steps to how to paint a lamp post. Please ignore our grass/weeds…
How to Save Money on a Kitchen Remodel
The average kitchen remodel costs $25,000-$100,000 depending on location (including appliances). There are many ways to reduce this gigantic figure. Sometimes you do have to sacrifice quality for price but sometimes you don’t. In the examples below I will show you two kitchens that I have helped to remodel which have been done for tens…
How to Save on Home Renovations
When we found my dream home. Although it was a ‘fixer upper’ it had a great floor plan, had many endearing features, matched up with most all of my ‘must-haves’ and ‘wants’, and was in the right price range. We had bid on another house shortly before we found our home but since it was a…
Nursery Closet Organization and Decor
The nursery that I have spent a long time painting and the decorating was finally complete… except the closet was one ugly mess. It was so disorganized and cluttered that I didn’t even want to include a photo of it before its makeover. I wanted to do something cute with it that matched my nursery’s…
How to Make a Crib Canopy out of Tulle
Making a crib canopy out of tulle is very simple, inexpensive, and quick. First, gather an embroidery hoop (mine was 8″ in diameter) and can be found here. Next, buy the tulle. I bought 54″ x 12 yards of it. I bought 12 yards to create a double layer. If you want to have a…
How to Choose a Color Scheme for a Room You Want to Decorate
I have always had a passion for interior design. Since I was 3 years old I was remarking to my mother about details, colors, etc. She said she knew I had a gift when at age four I told her that the paper towels matched the kitchen perfectly. All of my life I have been…
Native American Nursery- How to Save Thousands on a Nursery
Our daughter will be born end of November/early December and I have always wanted to do a Navajo/Native American style nursery for one of my children. With my son it wouldn’t have really worked out because of the carpet. I used the brown diamond Berber carpet as inspiration and came up with this blue, brown,…
How to Paint and Stencil an Entire Room
There are a lot of things you can do to make painting and stenciling more convenient, efficient, and not as messy. But before you start reading please know that the biggest part in painting is prepping the room right. If you fully prepare the room you are painting in, the project will go much more…
How to Install Under-Mount Lights on Your Hutch, Cabinets, Desk, etc.
Installing under-mount lights can really update the look of your furniture, cabinets, and desk without too much time or expense. You will need a drill, screw driver bit, drill bit, measuring tape, pencil, hammer, and the lights (we got them at Home Depot but they can also be found here). 1- Take the lights out of the…
9 Ways to Update a Hutch Without Repainting it.
You don’t have to painstakingly sand, prime and paint an old hutch in order to update it. My mom has gorgeous very large hutch. We are renovating her dinning room and wanting to update it. We went back and forth on painting it or not, weighing the pros and cons. Ultimately repainting it was going to…
5 Everyday Luxuries that Homemakers Deserve
As homemakers we learn the meaning of 24/7. We are always on call if the kids need us. The house is never done being cleaned, meals never end, and laundry keeps accumulating. Plus, we don’t get sick-leave or weekends off. Homemakers are some of the hardest workers out there. Studies from Forbes.com and Salary.com have shown…
