When you're "DIY"ing your own home...

sometimes small projects end up being BIG projects.

That's what we're dealing with right now.  Again.

My plan was simple:  move a closet 5 feet back.  I wanted to create a walk-in closet using the existing closet that was already built.  This is what the floor plan looked like before our project:

The master bedroom was originally set up as a studio apartment so it served as a living area/bedroom.  When we moved into the house I didn't like the fact that in order to get to my bed, I'd have to go around this huge wall/closet thing.  My other concern was that I didn't want the kids to have walk so far to get to me if they were to wake up in the middle of the night.

Because the closet was built separately into the room, I had figured it wouldn't be so much of a hassle to just move it back a couple feet and create a walk-in closet area in the back and move the bed in front of the closet wall.  This was my plan:

 This whole moving the closet project took us about 2 1/2 weeks.  It's still not completely finished yet either but we've made progress, so hopefully we can get it finished and move all our things in by the end of this week.  Here's what the room looks like as of this morning:

The infamous closet.

 Our Air Conditioning unit will be moved to that pink boarded up hole in the wall.

This part of the closet is still not finished.  We need to extend it to the wall.

This will be the "bedroom" area - where the bed, tv, etc. will go.

 I've already moved my clothes into the closet because I'm impatient.

 

I've even moved my cabinet in to use as a sort of vanity.

So much more space than before.  And my bags will go on the shelf up top for now.

 Oh, and the cabinet is filled with my shoes - which need to be organized later.

So, that's just ONE of the projects I've been doing lately.  Kind of the biggest project so far, I mean, at least for now.  I've got a couple other little projects that I'll be posting about soon (hint: DIY shorts) so stay tuned!

And if you've got any home improvement tips, I'd love to hear them!  I enjoy getting feedback and inspiration from you guys!!

Takeover Tuesday: Money Saving Tips On Redecorating and Renovating

So if you've been following me from the beginning of this blog journey, you'd know that Joey and I have been slowly and not-so surely fixing up our house.  We've done a few minor projects here and there (painting, furnishing, and other basic "prettyfying" projects) but the one big project we tried to tackle is STILL not finished.

I'm totally blaming Pinterest, HGTV, and the DIY Network for filling my head with insane ideas and goals for the failure of our kitchen project.  I had high hopes of re-tiling the countertops, re-facing the cabinets, and laying down some wood flooring up in that biznatch.

Unfortunately, because we're always so busy on the weekends with sports, parties, cleaning, etc., we've had to put off our project.  For almost 2 years.  Yeah.  And now that Joey's leg is broken...well...If slow and steady wins the race, we're totally winning right now.

 Raw concrete countertops and cabinets that have this leathery vinyl coating thingy - yeah, I don't know...

 Where the kitchen sink used to/should be.

 And a better view of the retro tiles we got going on up in here.  Don't stare too hard, you may get hypnotized.

So if you're into the whole 'no kitchen sink or countertops' thing, then do what I did.  Otherwise, read up on these tips first:

Saving Money Tips for Redecorating And Renovating Your Home

If you have considered giving your home that much needed makeover it is crying out for, you may have been put off by how much it might cost.  However, there are many clever ways to avoid putting yourself into debt and injecting new life into your home, often with even better results than if you spent more money.  Below are some hints and tips to help you cut the cost and give your house a new lease of life.

1.  DIY

Although there are some jobs you will need someone with relevant training and experience to cover for you such as plumbing and electrics, there are other jobs that you can do by yourself and save money.  Although the old saying about time being money is very true, someone else's time is probably going to be more expensive than your own.  So if you can find the time to paint, sand, insulate and even lay some flooring you could save a considerable amount of money.

2.  Consider Alternatives before Installing New Windows

In order to save some money and time, consider lightening up darker areas and rooms, by choosing a lighter shade of wallpaper or paint.  Another great solution is to hang mirrors in clever spaces to give the allusion of a room being bigger than it is.  If you can afford a little bit of building work being done, you might also want to look into using light tubes to help fill darker areas with more natural light.

3.  Consider Decorative Shutters

A great way to increase the value of your property is to purchase exterior shutters.  Not only are they inexpensive at as low as £50 for a pair, they also are very easy to install by yourself.  They can give the outside of your house an almost instant makeover and although the plastic ones are for show, they look like the wooden ones when painted and are much cheaper and lighter too.  As they are plastic, they are very cheap to keep looking good as they don't need to be repainted often, if at all.

4.  Search for Bargains

As well as saving money, searching in places such as antique stores, eBay, reclamation yards, auctions, junk and salvage yards for accessories and materials for your makeover work will help you find items that have character.  In these types of places you can expect to find anything from wooden beams, stonework, bricks, and complete staircases to ornaments and kitchen utensils.

5.  Consider the Bigger Picture

When it comes to redecorating and renovating work on a property there are many false economies that may seem like they are saving you money, but in the end the saving is not as much as you had hoped.  Always factor in the on-going costs and savings of anything you do to your home.  Take insulation for instance - buying thick, good quality insulation may cost a lot of money in the beginning.  In the long run however, you will save far more money over the course of 10 to 20 years on your electricity bill, which is always on the rise.  Another great example of this is solar energy panels that cost thousands of pounds to install.  However, over the course of time they could save you anything from 7% to 14% a year.  You should also factor in the amount of time you plan on living in that house, some long term money savers may not be worth it, and it is also wise to consider the effects changes you make to your property will have on the resale value you of your home.

Author bio: This post was brought to you by Anthony Bendel who blogs about a number of topics including plastering courses and finance.

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Definitely could have used these tips BEFORE I tried to take on something bigger than myself.

Oh, well.  If anyone knows an awesome contractor who'd like to finish the job for me, I'm all ears!

As long as they work for free.

♥ Duckie.

Kitchen Design: No cabinets

As most of you may know, we've been in the process of remodeling our home for about a year now.  It has been a long, s..l..o..w process - as in, we half finished a few projects here and there.

One of the biggest things that I had hoped would have been finished since last year was our kitchen.  But let's face it - I'm more of a planner than a do-er.  We had taken out the kitchen sink and most of the old, cracking tile that was still lingering on our concrete countertops and we had planned to re-tile the whole shebang and reface the cabinetry.  Well after getting down to the nitty gritty, I realized that the cabinets were in pretty bad shape and refacing them instead of replacing them would just prolong their demise.

But, in the real world, replacing all the cabinets in our kitchen will be COSTLY.  The price of cabinets is much higher than you would think and since we're not so handy, building all of it on our own would probably cost us a finger or two.

So, I decided to look for alternatives.  In other words, I googled "kitchen no cabinets" and remarkably found some new kitchen inspiration that would save me a couple grand!

Our kitchen layout is sorta like this picture above, except our sink is near the windows and the stove is placed in front of the plain wall.

I think eliminating the wall cabinets and replacing them with minimal shelving would be a great idea especially since those cabinets are usually empty anyway.

What do you think?  Are you more traditional and prefer wall cabinets?  Or would you dare to go bare?


♥ Duckie.

P.S.  I know I slacked on yesterday's outfit post.  I was just SWAMPED with work yesterday (and still am today).  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten your requests, I'll get them up soon, I promise!