It’s All In The Details: Simple Ways To Make a House a Home

By nothing but the grace of God, in a few short weeks, we will be homeowners again. To say I am excited is an understatement.

The links in this post may be affiliate links.  That means that if you click them and make a purchase, this site makes a commission.  It will have no impact on the price you pay or the experience of your purchase.

I can not express to you the love I have for taking a home and making it my own.

I never knew how much I would miss paint on the walls and seeing the faces of my family, in picture frames strewn throughout as well.

I don't think the ink was dry on the contract for the new house before my Pinterest account started to get really active with all the different DIY ideas I wanna execute on.

I also got to reflect on all the work we put into our last home. How much work my husband and I did and the blessings because of it.

DIY VALUE

Making your house a home is work but work that is well worth it.

When we moved into our last home there were things I knew I wanted to do off the top.  And then some things just happened as I looked at the space long enough and realized I needed (or wanted) change.

For me, I want every room in my home to have my touch on it.  And minus one of the bathrooms, we did something to every room in that house. It was almost a complete extreme home makeover.  Almost.

The bathroom was next on the list. Until we up and decided to move.

We had always spoke of moving down south. But with the purchase of that home, we said if we were to stay in Cleveland, we would like that to be our forever home. So I treated it as such.

We put in a lot of work, but less money, so that it a) was done the way we wanted and b) kept our coins in our pockets.

In doing so, not only did I make it a personalized space for me and my family.  We also added a great deal of value and equity to our home.

Ultimately, that left us in a position to make upwards of 50k at the time of selling it.

PUTTING IN SOME ELBOW GREASE

We did most of the work ourselves. And by ourselves, I mean my hubby worked hard.

I do have a heart for a good DIY, but the heavy lifting was all him. We didn't take out any loans or have a spending fund for it. It was all done on a budget and out of what we had.

EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER ON A BUDGET

Choosing to do our home over allowed us to make our move when we decided to pack up and trust God for a better life in a place we wanted to be.  The place we now call home, North Carolina.

I'd like to show you the details of what we did with our last home and how we achieved the style we wanted and the feeling of home, all on a budget.

I will say that a little paint goes a long way.  As we started with painting every room in the house before we moved in.  We later added accent walls to make the rooms POP!

KITCHEN

What We Did:

• Updated Floor Tile
• Added Backsplash
• Painted Kitchen Cabinets & Changed Hardware
• Painted Walls

How We Saved:

• We bought the floor tile wholesale
• I did the backsplash installation saving on labor costs
• Hubby helped to do the floor work which cut down on labor costs
• We paid a neighborhood fix it man and his crew to paint the cabinets because with the complexity and amount of time it would have taken us to do it, we couldn't afford for the kitchen to be out of order that long.

the old man had never done floor tile before, particularly with the fancy cuts that were done, but he is a quick learner and they knocked it out in a couple days

DINING ROOM

What We Did:

• Painted walls
• Changed Light Fixture

How We Saved:

• Hubby did the painting and installed the light fixture
• We bought the Light Fixture from the Habitat For Humanity Restore for next to nothing.  We got that fixture and two outdoor lights for $70.  I priced this light fixture alone at a big box retailer for over $200.

For whatever reason the people before us put this manufactured hardwood over the real hardwoods.  It was my plan to pull that up and refinish the original floor like we did in the living room as I wasn't fond of the color.

LIVING ROOM

What We Did:

• Painted Walls I love accent walls rather than painting whole rooms
• Removed carpet and refinished hardwood floors under carpet
• Removed railing room divider and built half wall

How We Saved:

• Hubby did or participated in all the labor him and my brother in law built the half wall
• Priced and planned materials at different retailers to determine who had best pricing before starting the project

I really felt like the railing was dated and so I called for the addition of the wall but I wanted to keep the open concept so we made it a half wall.

When we saw the wood stairs we were certain there had to be wood floors under the unfavorable colored carpet so we pulled that up and sanded and buffed out what were great original wood floors.  And added some polyurethane to top them off.

MASTER BEDROOM & BATH

What We Did:

• Painted Walls added a neutral accent wall in here 
• Painted bathroom
• Added carpet in all bedrooms
• Added wooden baseboards to bathroom
• Added storage space on wall

How We Saved:

• We did all the painting in the house  Most of it was done before we even moved in to make sure that we didn't have to deal with moving and protecting furniture
• Bought carpet wholesale
• Hubby helped install carpet

 

The bathroom was one of the spaces that was already updated with a newer vanity and nice tiled floor.  So all we needed to do was spruce up the paint, added the baseboards and i did a DIY on the storage cabinet wash towel rack.  Along with adding decor that brightened up the small space.

This space was probably the least amount of work.  All minimal in terms of cost.  Moreso changes that made the space POP!

BEDROOM

What We Did:

• Painted walls
• Carpeted floor

How We Saved:

• Same as master bedroom

Choosing to lighten up the walls made the room more open and fresh looking.  The room was used as a little girls room before and it was my daughter's room as well.  I think it was just a cleaner look overall.

BACKYARD

What We Did:

• Refinished Deck with paint specifically for deck
• Cleaned up landscaping

How We Saved:

• Did yardwork and landscaping on our own

The deck made a big difference.  It had regular paint on it which was peeling and coming up.  We redid it with a paint that was more resistant to weather and made specifically for decks.

We also dug up and treated the lawn for all the weeds and redefined the landscaping to clean it up.

OTHER PROJECTS:

BASEMENT

We updated the basement making it a home office and playroom.  It gave us a space to work and the kids were able to be near and play since they seem to migrate to wherever we are anyway.

** the before picture is how it looked when we saw it online and visited before we put in our offer. By the time we moved in the previous homeowner allowed his dog (or some animal I assume) to pee all over the floor leaving a horrible smell and mess, so we started from scratch down here after hubby thoroughly cleaned to get the smell out. which included ammonia, bleach and a lot of elbow grease. Love that dude….

BATHROOM

I updated the bathroom by simply making over the vanity a Metallic Paint and refinishing the sink with concrete using this tutorial.  The bathroom was all mine.  I was so excited with the results!I will add that siding, a new roof, and windows in the upper rooms were done on the house as well in our first year.  That added to the value of the home as well.

I am so excited to be a homeowner again and to have DIY projects to make this house my home. My theme for this house is a Rustic Chic, with a hint of farmhouse elements. To see some of the ideas I am swooning over you can check them out right here.

It is about to be another extreme home makeover in full affect.  But  ssssh, don't tell my husband…

I will be sharing my progress in a new series that will be focused on making a house a home on a budget. It is my hope you get some inspiration to take on some projects of your own in your home and make it yours!