Tammy's Tips - Updating Your Home

Thursday is my day when I like to share tips on how to organize your life.  This week we just finished the flooring job in our home.  If you missed the pictures of that post, click here.  We had to clear out everything from the front room and dining room.  It was a great way to get some heavy duty cleaning done.  I rarely take out our collections in the curio cabinet, but since we needed to move it I did.  Everything was dusted and cleaned as I put it all back.  Same with our entertainment center.  It felt good to throw out items we rarely used.  (I even sneaked out some kids things...shhhh.  Do you know how many color books we had?  I bet there were 50 of them...now maybe 10). 

Yesterday I ran over to Pretty Pink Momma's house.  She was so excited to show me her family room and kids room/closet after a week of organizing.  It looked great!  She took the basket idea and is now hiding all the kids toys, books and games.  They moved the majority of the kids toys upstairs to their rooms.  One idea I had given her was to give the kids a tote where they can bring toys down but at the end of the night, they need to go back to their rooms.  They are implementing that rule right now.  Kids know how to put their toys away, they do it at school and friends houses...why not at home?  I am giving Kimberly an A+ for all her hard work and great usage of baskets.  (Here is my basket post in case you missed it).  If you haven't check out Pretty Pink Momma, head over and give her some bloggy love.  She has some awesome giveaways going on right now!  Go and take a peek.  Tell her Tammy sent you.

So back to the topic of updating your home.  My hubby and I have been married 11 years (almost 12) and we have always reinvested back into our home.  The easiest way we found to do this (without going into a ton of debt) is by taking half of our tax refund and putting it back into our home.  Homes need maintenance and if you don't put the time and money back into your home you won't be able to sell it at a price you want or you will begin to have some major issues.  I thought I would share with you some pictures of all the projects we have taken on since we have been in our house.  Our home was built in 2001.  It is not old but we are making it "our" home.

Our first project was in 2003 when we put beadboard in our dining room and kitchen.  I wanted to define our dining room from the living room where it's hard to know where one stop and the other begins.  Here is a picture of the beadboard.


In 2004 and 2005 we spent money landscaping our backyard.  We added flowerbeds, a small fountain/pond and a garden.  We worked in stages on this until we were satisfied.  Hubby would like to revamp some of the backyard later this spring or summer...so we will be at it again.  I don't have a picture of this but will try and get one posted later this morning.

Our biggest project was residing and painting our home in 2006.  Our homes were built by a contractor who were throwing up houses in our neighborhood quickly.  The front looked great with hardiplank but the rest of the house was T-111 (a vertical looking siding).  We chose to reside those with hardiplank and paint.  Paint jobs are such a great way to update a home.  We put two coats on our home for about $500.  Now we did this ourselves (with the help of both our parents) and saved a whole lot of cash. 



Since 2006 took us most of the summer we decided to just enjoy the year 2007 and do absolutely nothing.  (We both needed that)!

We went back inside for 2008 and put in granite countertops.  We had formica that just didn't do it for either of us.  The granite made this kitchen look so much richer.  I even got a cool new deep sink without a divider.  Do you know how nice it is to soak a big pot in the bottom of the sink?  I am sure many of you know.


The kitchen stayed in the works for 2009 also.  I shared my interest in having hubby build built-ins around the fireplace.  He explained that it would be smarter to work the floors before we did that.  We looked at our return and started a budget for flooring and wood.  We started in the kitchen and tore up the vinyl flooring, had to pull or yank out the particle board, lay down cement backer board and then put down the tile.  It was much more labor intensive than we thought but it looked awesome once it was done.



The family room was done next and we put hardwood down in there.  It took all of a weekend which was such a pleasant surprise after the time it took us in the kitchen.  Hubby then drew up plans for the built-ins and went at it.  Every little stage I got more excited.  It has added so much storage in our house by building those.



Now that brings us up to date.  You most likely have seen the post on Monday of the finished floors in the living room and dining room.  We will be tearing apart the half bath downstairs in the next couple of weeks.  Here are some bathroom pictures of the before.



The reason for this post is to show that you can spend a little money and some time and get a great reward.  A home that reflects who you are.  I know not every hubby out there is a handyman or not everyone gets a tax refund.  You can make a huge difference by adding a fresh coat of paint to a room for about $20, a large room rug for under $100 or new curtains or valances for about a $100.  Take a look at your house and see what you can come up with, I bet you can find something.  Try things yourself too if you don't have the help.  I have learned how to use a screwdriver for just about anything.  They have some girl friendly tools out there too!