Steph and I have been sharing projects from our homes for the past 2 years. Clearly, we see that most of our readers are looking for ways to improve their homes on a budget. Of course, we love to share DIY projects that can help you achieve that, including our home renovation.
While Steph’s home was a new build, she has incorporated a lot of fun ideas into her home. Overall making it reflect the personality of her and her family.
On the other hand, Steve and I bought a dated 90’s fixer upper and have spent the last couple of years renovating our home. Clearly, we enjoy working together creating a space we love, while increasing the value of our home.
Today I’d like to take you on a tour of our home. Not only will you see each room before and after we’ve renovated, but also we will share tips for doing it on a budget.
And in a couple of weeks Steph will take you on a before and after tour of her home. You’ll see how she took basic builder finishes and created a custom looking home.
Home Renovation on a Budget
Unquestionably, a home renovation is a major undertaking. Not only with the scope of work, but also it a major financial investment.
According to Home Advisor a home renovation for a 2500 sq. ft. home can range between $15,000-$200,000, depending on the type of renovation.
Clearly, that’s a lot of money, and making your dollar go further is what we love to do.
When we purchased our home we carefully planned out each area, making a list of priorities as well as how far our budget would go.
Before your home renovation do your homework. . .
First, you’ll want to do your homework, checking prices on flooring, paint, etc. We knew that our home renovation would require a major kitchen remodel.
In fact, we planned on relocating the kitchen to the far end of the house. With this in mind, we carefully planned out how much of our budget the kitchen would take.
I realized that the majority of our budget would go towards the kitchen. With this in mind, there had to be some give and take. For example, I knew that we would need new cabinetry.
So, I decided to look for used appliances on the Marketplace. Not only was I able to find good quality pieces, but I also saved hundreds of dollars.
Don’t think that you’ll always get the best price from your local home improvement box store. I initially priced out my cabinets from the home improvement store and found a local cabinet builder was much less expensive with a better quality cabinet.
DIY what you can . . .
Doing as much of the labor yourself will definitely save you thousands and thousands of dollars.
Luckily we like to get our hands dirty and tackle home improvement projects. However, be prepared to ask for help, or hire out jobs that you are not comfortable with.
Enlist friends and family with “work parties.” Not only is it a great way to get a big job done, but also it makes the job a lot more fun.
Our Home Renovation Before and Afters
Creating a master retreat . . .
I admit it, I’m a neat freak! Because we were going to live in our home during the renovation I needed a place where I could retreat to, someplace away from the mess, where I could relax.
With this in mind, before we actually moved in, we painted the walls and installed new flooring in the master bedroom. This made a long renovation doable for me.
All of the furnishing we brought with us from our old home. Other DIY tutorials for this room are :
Master bathroom home renovation . . .
The master bathroom renovation was just completed this last year. Because I was always planning a major renovation here, I would just close the door and ignore the space.
You see, someday I plan to move the fixtures around and add a soaking tub to this bathroom. While it does have a large walk in shower, it’s lacking the one thing I really want, a soaking tub.
As a result of a little contest, I decided to give my master bathroom a mini makeover last year.
With some paint, tile floor makeover with decals and a bit of sweat, we created a space that I now love. Don’t get me wrong, that major renovation will still happen. Because a girl needs her soaking tub!
But, it now feels a little bit more luxurious and I’m not embarrassed to leave the door open.
Kitchen renovation . . .
The original layout of the kitchen was small and lack storage and counter space. Therefore, creating a new floor plan for the main living area was a must.
In order to create a larger kitchen we opted to relocate it at the far end of the house. As a result, I was able to more than double the cabinets and counter space from the original kitchen. In addition, I was able to create a large island that is perfect for entertaining.
Home renovation | open concept living area . . .
In order to create this open concept family room, we took down the wall that separated the original kitchen and formal dining, created one large room.
At the far end which was once the formal dining, we installed a gas fireplace and built in bookshelves. Resulting in a room that’s large enough for our extended family, yet still is cozy and inviting. The room features a gallery wall of old family homes and the bookshelves display family mementos.
At this time the budget did not allow me to replace the dated railing. Therefore, I refinished the railing and painted the spindles.
Living room . . .
Overall this home felt cold and sterile when we moved in. Clearly, there was an over abundance of white tile and green carpet!
However, what this house did have was large windows that flooded the house with beautiful light.
One of the major projects was removing all of the white tile. I’m sure we have more than 1000 sq. ft that we removed.
The living room received new paint, flooring and window coverings, which we did ourselves. Really a quick and easy update for this room.
A couple of projects that we did hire out included a painter to paint the ceilings and a drywaller.
The entryway . . .
In the entryway we got rid of the ledge and moved the coat closet around to the hallway. This created a wall where I could place my bookcase.
In addition to paint and flooring we also updated the chandelier.
Guest bedroom . . .
Not only does this room serve as a guest room for my favorite guests, my grandkids, but it’s also a place for them to play. It’s bright, cheerful and is a happy place to be.
There are toys, games, crafting supplies, dress up clothes and a fun chalkboard wall.
Once again this room just required paint, flooring and window coverings.
One major change we made throughout the house for our renovation was painting all of the doors a dark charcoal gre. Behr, Peppey. I think it adds a bit of sophistication to our home.
Office - craft room . . .
In my opinion, this home was very much a “grandma house.” Lace curtains on the windows along with plush green carpeting.
However, with a fresh color palate, new flooring and window covering, each room was transformed during our home renovation.
I find the office – craft room a very inspiring place to work.
One major item that we added throughout the house was new moldings. We opted for 6″ baseboards along with new door casing.
While it is a bit of work to replace the all of the moldings, the overall cost was very minimal.
I believe we paid less than $500 to replace all of the molding in the entire house. It’s a great way to update the look of your home.
Guest bathroom . . .
As it happens, when we got around to remodeling this bathroom, the funds were low. However, I believe I created a timeless bathroom with some unexpected elements on a small budget.
For instance, I chose a basic white subway tile and added a black boarder along with a penny tile.
Not only did this create a designer look, but it was very affordable. We installed the all of the tile ourselves, which took about a week, but it saved us thousands of dollars in the long run.
Likewise, to save on the vanity, I kept the vanity base and had new doors and drawers. And the marble countertop was also a remnant.
Exterior Home Renovations
Creating curb appeal . . .
Just as the inside of our home felt cold and sterile, the exterior needed a little loving too.
The first areas we addressed was to cleaning up the flower beds and creating some curb appeal. In fact, we enlarged them added more visual interest with new shrubs and perennials.
Personally, I’m not a fan of the brick color of my home. If it was just my choice, I would have done a lime wash or a German smear on the brick. I had even thought of taking off the brick and replacing if with stone. But my hubby did not like that idea!
Therefore, we chose to paint the exterior of the house making the brick look better.
For the stucco pop out, I used the same charcoal gray paint that I used inside on my doors, Behr, Peppery. Then on the main stucco area I used Behr, Sculptors Clay.
To add a little pop of color for the front door, withBehr paint’s Dragonfly. Learn how to paint a front door like a pro.
Last summer we also built a deer fence around our vegetable garden. Since it is visible from the street I wanted it to be beautiful.
I love the way it turned out with the arbor running along the top of the fence. In the spring I will be planting wisteria along arbor of the fence.
Creating an outdoor living area . . .
Actually, the possibilities of this backyard is the reason we bought this house. Our home is located on a secluded wooded lot that was largely left in it’s natural state.
Clearly, we could see the possibilities of what it could become and we were sold.
We have worked on this backyard little by little carving out a dining area and installing a paver patio. While, further up the hill we created a seating area with a fire pit.
There are also areas for the grandkids to run and play, including a zipline.
It’s the perfect outdoor living space, a place to relax and unwind at the end of the day.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of our home renovation and perhaps found some inspiration for improving your own home on a budget.
Are you planning a home renovation project? We’d love to hear about it, so please share below. We’re always looking for new and creative ideas!
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Thank you so much for sharing your experience and providing me with inspiration for home renovation. I’m astonished by how beautifully your home turned out based on the before and after pictures.
Thank you Keith. I appreciate your kindness.
Great blog! Thank you for sharing these before and after photos. It’s really cool to see how it looked before you transformed your home. Do you have any advice for people who wants to renovate their own homes as well?
Thank you! When renovating, have one space where you can get away from the mess and relax. And take it one project at a time, and enjoy the process.
Fabulous! Love everything!
Thank you Nancy for visiting our website. We are thrilled that you enjoyed this post. Transforming our home has been such a fun project for us. We hope you will continue to enjoy other projects we share with you.