Budget Breakdowns
The Big BHG.com Front Porch Reveal!
Oh happy day! The time has finally come to reveal our recent front porch makeover that we completed as part of the 48-Hour Challenge with Better Homes & Gardens and Home Depot. The task? Turn our snore of a front porch into a bellissimo outdoor space for relaxing with a $500 gift card to Home Depot and our wits. Here’s a reminder of the booooooring blank slate of a before that we were working with:
But lets not dwell on the past. It’s time for the after pictures!
Our big porch makeover project can be broken down into four major categories: painting, building, sewing, and hanging. First we painted the old dark-planked porch with tan and cream stripes for an instant face lift (we really wanted our new “outside room” to feel light and airy to match more of what we have going on inside). We even used an extra bit of cream paint to lighten up our old black square planters (we actually got them at Home Depot right before the challenge and painted them black- d’oh!).
Then we assembled our glider bench and made a totally workable little side table with a large planter and a terra cotta saucer that we sealed, painted and turned into a tabletop. Now there’s a spot for a book, a little drinky-drink, or even a plate full of bbq.
We also purchased a sweet green paisley lounge chair cushion… only to take a scissors to it. Cutting it in half and resewing each piece back up created two all-weather floor pillows. And you know what floor pillows mean to Burger, right?
A perfect place to unwind after a hard day of chasing bugs. Look at the sheer bliss on his little dog face. He LOVES his new puppy lounge and sits staring at the front door in the living room until we let him out to play- er, bask.
You might notice the leash on Burger in the pic (although I don’t know how you could see anything at all beyond his adorable face). Well, we couldn’t very well allow our precious pooch to roam free like we do in the fenced-in backyard, so we devised a way for him to have full range of the porch without being able to take off after a squirrel and dash into the road. For just $2 we snagged a hook and a carabiner which we used to create a little leash-holding-apparatus for added peace of mind. And he doesn’t seem to mind a bit! Safety note: we use an extra long leash so Burger has full range of the porch and can even go down the stairs and into the yard (so he can’t hang off and get strangled). We also never leave him outside unsupervised (we like to have him on his leash even when we’re out there in case he gets spooked and bolts for the street). We do not advise recreating this hook setup if you plan to leave your pet unattended at any time!
Maybe it’s because we also made a small food and water station for him with a piece of wood, some wood glue, and four molding pieces that we reimagined as legs. Painting it green made it fit right in, and Burger loves grabbing a snack or a sip whenever the mood strikes. What more could a dog want?
We also wanted to add more greenery and texture without breaking the bank. Two feathery hanging ferns (for just $9 a pop) created even more of the “outdoor room” effect by serving as abstract dividers so you feel enveloped on the front porch, even though they don’t really obscure any of the view.
We also snagged a tan doormat that works well with the tone on tone stripes that we painted as well as our cheery red door.
The mat and the bench coincidentally had extremely similar coloring, which injects a nice bit of balance and cohesion to the whole space (gotta love happy accidents).
We also seized the opportunity to bring in more green and cream planters to flank the bench and a few plush outdoor pillows for that sit-and-stay-a-while vibe. Oh and see that pillow with the cream and green medallion detail? That baby was just $6 on clearance. Gotta love Home Depot!
For a bit of interest and ambiance (and because we still had a few bucks burning a hole in our pocket) we created hanging candle holders with inexpensive bulb covers from the lighting department and some wire (we were all about trolling every aisle for ideas).
We intentionally picked thick durable ribbed glass so they’ll hold up outside (we’ve already had a few torrential rains and we’re happy to report that they’re doing just fine).
Here they are doing their thing in the dark. Ooooh. Ahhh.
As the sun sets slowly and the stars come out, so ends the big porch project reveal. Of course we’ll be back with step-by-step tutorials for every project (from the pooch food & water station to our striped porch painting process). Stay tuned…
But wait! There’s still the budget to attend to. Here’s an approximated breakdown for ya:
- Glider Bench: $200
- Porch & Floor Paint: $45
- Planter-Turned-Side-Table: $40
- Other Planters & Plants To Flank Bench: $80
- Bench Pillows: two for $25
- Lounge Cushion Converted To Two Floor Pillows: $25
- Dog Feeding Station: $10
- Burger’s Leash Hook: $2
- Hanging Candle Holders: three for $20
- Hanging Ferns: two for $18
- Doormat: $15
- Misc. Supplies (paint brushes, hanging hooks, etc): $18
- Grand Total: $498
Words can’t even express how happy we feel every time we step out the front door (which has been happening quite a lot these days, rain or shine). Thanks so much to Home Depot and BHG for this amazing challenge. Air kisses all around!
Oh and don’t forget to head over to BHG.com to check out our reveal pics and details as well as the fabulous transformations that the other four challengers drummed up!
Appraise The Lord
One part of our recent refinance that we haven’t yet expanded upon was the home appraisal that was required as a part of the process. It was admittedly a bit exciting and nerve racking at the same time. Exciting because, for the first time since we purchased in 2006, we’d know exactly what all of our improvements were worth to our home’s value. Nerve racking because, well, we all know what the market is doing to home prices these days…
The appraisal process was also interesting because it was a chance for us to reminisce about all of the improvements we did over the last 3 years (the appraiser asked what we updated and couldn’t believe our lengthy list). In being asked to recite all that we did, we came up with this list of everything that’s changed (each bullet is conveniently linked to more info & pics on that subject):
- Several trees removed from front to create grassy yard
- Gravel driveway paved
- Uneven, cracking slate patio replaced with cobblestone pavers
- New energy efficient windows throughout
- New hardwood floors in half of house (replacing linoleum)
- Refinished hardwood floors in other half
- New appliances in renovated laundry area
- Three widened doorways for more flow
- One closed doorway to create 3rd bedroom
- Dining area added to formal living room (pendant light & shelves installed)
- Built-in closets flanking the bed in master bedroom
- Crown molding added to living room and all 3 bedroooms
- Radon mitigation system added
- New light fixtures throughout the interior and exterior
- Fully renovated kitchen with new cabinets, counters and appliances (now there’s a dishwasher!)
All in all, Sherry and I estimate that we’ve spent about $30,000 completing the above improvements and realized full well that not all of it would show up in our appraised home value in this sluggish economy. But we were still pleasantly surprised when our appraisal came back $30,000 higher than the purchase price. Not to mention that the appraiser said it deserved to be even higher, he just couldn’t find comps in the area to justify it on paper. We’re just overjoyed to see our home’s value moving in the upward direction at all, let alone recouping all of our improvement costs thus far in such a bum market.
Have you guys had any interesting home appraisal experiences lately? Or are most of you just shielding yourselves from even having to know at this point? Do tell.
I Like To Move It Move It
Most guys don’t log time with their sister’s boyfriends by helping them rearrange their bedrooms. But then again, most guys don’t list “furniture placement” among their interests.
So when my little sister Carrie recruited us to give her boyfriend Robert a hand with his clunky bedroom layout (after we spruced up her living room last fall) we were totally up for the challenge. And the budget? Zero dollars and zero cents.
For a guy just out of college, Robert has a pretty sweet townhome and a surprisingly grown-up bedroom set. He was just struggling with a way to functionally cram all that serious furniture into such a modestly sized space. Here’s what his room looked like when we arrived (we didn’t really give him fair warning to clean up - but at his age I wasn’t exactly obsessively organized either).
Robert had two main complaints about his room: (1) not enough space to move around and (2) an unused corner that collected junk by default. We noticed that it also felt crowded when you walked in – the biggest piece of furniture (the bed) stared you straight in the face while the tallest object (the dresser) practically bumped right into you as you entered. So in about 45 minutes we cleaned, rearranged and spent absolutely no money to give Robert a more spacious feeling furniture arrangement. Here’s the rearranged result (from the same view):
Not bad for a no budget switcheroo, eh? Cleaning certainly helped a lot, but here’s a rough floor plan to show you where furniture arrangement really made the difference (note: Robert’s bedding is in fact a blue and brown combo, but it somehow looks purple in the pictures):
The biggest difference was moving the hulking headboard out of your initial line of sight and exposing more of that big back wall to let your eyes “breathe” a bit when you first enter the room. A few other helpful changes were swapping out the large office chair with a lighter-looking one (borrowed from elsewhere in the house) and positioning the matching table lamps on either side of the space for a more balanced look (and consistent lighting throughout the space). Robert also loved that we centered his desk under the window so he was no longer staring at the wall while he worked.
And now, instead of the practically walking into the side of the dresser upon entry, the bedroom door opens to this much lower-profile nightstand. It still gives Robert a place to toss his keys without risking a lamp in the eye.
You can still appreciate the classic, masculine look of the headboard from the other side of the room. Heck, from this view you almost forget that this modestly sized space does double duty as a bedroom and office.
Best of all, Robert’s two pet peeves are no more – he has more walking room and no more wasted corners. He plans to add art, hang that mirror and possibly add a round circle rug from Ikea and some slate blue corduroy curtain panels. But for now we think he should be pretty proud of his “new” room which called for absolutely no money, and just a little moving.
And I have to hand it to Robert for being a good sport about the whole thing. Not many guys would take well to their girlfriend’s older brother dismantling their bedroom. And if the worst thing we uncovered during our rearrangement was a few too many issues of Popular Mechanics (engineering porn?) then I think I’ll let him keep dating my baby sister.
Floor plans created using Floorplanner.com
Olivia’s Design Dilemma: Solved
OK, we’ve been bursting at the seams to reveal this fabulous before and after and it’s finally finished (insert party kazoo sound effect here). And the reason that we’re so excited to share this perky pink makeover is that it’s a little girl’s room (we often do adult rooms but kids rooms are so much fun). To add to our enthusiasm, we were also able to reinvent amazing thrift store finds and raid Ikea to transform little Olivia’s bedroom on a serious budget ($200 to be exact). So without further ado, the blank slate before pics:
Eight year old Olivia’s house is a new construction here in town, and her mom (who just happens to be John’s lovely sister) was looking to add plenty of playful pink along with a major dose of personality (for her fun loving and fabulous daughter). The room had great bones to begin with (a giant picture window and that amazing built in shelf behind the bed to name a few) so we couldn’t wait to create a whole new room for Olivia without breaking the bank. One of the first pieces that we found was this desk at a local thrift store. It needed some love, but the open shelving and the clean lines had us at hello. Not to mention the $15 price tag. That was a major selling point too.
A coat of oil based primer followed by two coats of punchy pink paint (Benjamin Moore’s Milano Red) took the old desk from drab to fab. Here it is living happily ever after in the corner of Olivia’s reinvented room:
But our affordable desk overhaul didn’t end there. We also picked up a custom cut piece of plexiglass to lay across the top of the desk to protect it from endless scribbling while lending a crisp modern look on a dime (well, more like 300 dimes- it was only 30 smackaroos).
We also snagged a $5 desk chair at the same thrift store where we found the desk, and even grabbed two magnet boards from Ikea, which we covered with some cheeky wrapping paper (that says “there’s no place like home”) to add even more texture and fun on the cheap. And for even more pattern and pinkness, we snatched up a $20 Ikea desk lamp to complete the layered pattern-on-pattern look. Now Olivia can file in style (we kid you not, the girl has a serious office supply obsession).
And because we wanted to create balance and inject some more of that poppy pink paint, we also painted Olivia’s hand-me-down dresser (located on the other side of the bed) the same punchy hue. Plopping a $9 green Ikea rug in front of it added even more fun and freshness, and also helped to tie in the color of Olivia’s existing bed skirt as well as her darling Olivia sign above the bed.
We also softened the windows and framed that gorgeous view with some easy, breezy grommetted curtain panels from Ikea. And even upholstered her headboard by hand (click here for our oh-so-simple tutorial). Then swapping out her existing duvet for something a bit more graphic and mod really polished off the entire room (for $13- gotta love Ikea).
And because creating a personalized and inviting space for Olivia was the name of the game, we grabbed a few of her favorite books (which just happen to share her name) and lined them up on that great architectural shelf above her bed. It doesn’t get much more customized than that…
And because we know you guys like to see how we worked with our $200 budget, we included a little price breakdown for your viewing pleasure. We may have spent every last penny (well, we actually had a few of those left since we rounded all of our prices up to the nearest dollar) but we’re definitely proud of our penny pinching purchases.
Olivia’s Cost Breakdown:
- Thrift store desk: $15
- Thrift store chair: $5
- Custom cut plexiglass desk topper: $30
- Pink dresser: free (it was Olivia’s brothers old desk that we painted)
- Two grommetted curtain panels from Ikea: $39
- Two Ikea magnet boards: $26
- Orange wrapping paper to cover magnet boards: $3
- Ikea heart duvet: $13
- Upholstered headboard: $40 (click here to see how we made it)
- Round green rug from Ikea: $9
- Ikea desk lamp: $20
GRAND TOTAL: $200
So what do you guys think? Isn’t Olivia’s new bedroom cozy and cute? Do you have any simple and affordable decorating tricks up your sleeves for transforming a kids room on a dime? Share and share alike.
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