First room done!

Remodel your house they said. It will be fun they said...

Taking on the challenge of remodeling your home, and landscaping your yard, by yourself in an effort to save on money is a commendable decision. However, be ready for stressful days where nothing seems to go your way, when every single task that you take on becomes ten times more difficult than it should have been, when you realize that you need to buy a new tool for every project (you will soon learn a great deal about tools by the way!), and you will learn that nothing is as simple as the Do-It-Yourself Youtube videos portray it to be.

In the end though, when the project is finished and you get to stand back and really acknowledge the work that you've done, you will feel a sense of satisfaction that is not really comparable to anything else. You will feel proud. You will feel accomplished. You will feel renewed with creative inspiration for your next project.

These are the things that my husband and I figured out when we decided to take on this enormous task. Our home was last renovated in the 1970's, needless to say the multi-colored shag carpets and faux-wood paneled walls desperately needed a change. We are not professional carpenters or painters of any sort. We decided to just wing it, learn as we go and just try to do the best job we could!

So this was our first project, thus far. Our guest room - previously, as seen, a very dark room with faux wood paneling, green shag carpet, and yellow and brown flowered wallpaper! First thing first was strip the wallpaper!

We bought a big tub of Killz water-based primer and had at it...

 

 

Chose Summer Green as the main wall color, pearl white for the trim.

I even painted the wooden windows, which I think updated the look of the room, and we bought a white metal paint to do the heater strip under the window (it was a dark beige before). 

We found a great deal on laminate wood (clip together) flooring, entire room for under $300!

We bought about $60 worth of heavy duty drape material at the craft store and I sewed together some beautiful drapes to match the color scheme of the room!

In the end, despite the seemingly endless issues that arose every other day while tackling this project, we are happy with the outcome. I think it turned out looking spectacular, and that beats out any difficulties that we along the way! I feel proud of my husband and I whenever I look at our hard work, and the best part is that I know we did it all ourselves, we didn't hire a crew for thousands of dollars. We did this entire room for under $1000.00 - probably less, but I don't have all the receipts!

Hopefully soon I can post on our next big project.... Our bedroom!