Make your house a home by maintaining it and decorating it on a budget. Learn how to fix-it-yourself (or give up and get a good deal on a professional when necessary)!

5 steps to remove old linoleum

5 Steps to Remove Old Linoleum from Your Bathroom Floor

Is the flooring in your bathroom old, outdated, and showing wear and tear? Is it peeling up from the floor, bubbling from water moisture, or stained? Do you dream of getting new flooring but can’t justify paying thousands to get it done professionally? Then I have good news for you. Because this is another project that you can totally do yourself, and while sticking to a small budget. We’re talking less than $100/bathroom, depending on the size. From start to…

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Crayon Coasters

Transform metal coasters into Usable coasters

Whoever thought it was a good idea to give coasters a metal lining did not test their product before marketing it. I must be one of the few fools to buy them without realizing how awful these coasters would actually work. I just thought they looked nice. However, if there is any condensation that drips down onto these metal-lined coasters, the coaster will get stuck to the cup, and will rise with the cup when it is picked up. But…

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Fixing the chirping smoke detector

I’ve been learning a lot of new things since I took the leap and quit my job – how to cook fish, how to change the air filter, make curtain rods, refinish wood furniture, spray paint things, make necklaces, etc, etc. So when the smoke detector in our master bedroom started chirping in the middle of the night last night, I looked at it as another opportunity to learn something new! This time the lesson would be in replacing smoke…

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Sand and Refinishing Table

Refinishing an old wood table

Today I assisted in refinishing an old wooden table that my mother in law wanted to modernize for the grandkids’ play room. We used an electric sander to remove the shiny varnish from the entire piece of furniture, and then wiped off the dust thoroughly with a damp rag. Then we used a mini roller and painted the top with gray chalk paint and wiped it to give it a distressed look before it fully dried. For the sides and…

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How to Make an L-Shaped Couch from an Old Mattress

How to Make an L-Shaped Couch from an Old Mattress

This is a project that I completed a couple of years ago when we bought a new mattress and I didn’t want to throw away the old one. We needed a couch (and a bed) in the basement, so I did some googling and found instructions on how to make a sofa from a mattress. 8 hours and $10 of supplies later, we had our new l-shaped couch: Since it was made from a queen mattress, it is also comfortable…

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Easy, Cheap, and Quick Holiday home decorating

Who says wrapping paper and bows are just for presents? These cheap but festive items can really spice up any holiday decorating in your home. We put my husband’s nutcrackers on the mantel, but it needed something to snaz it up. So, I used my daughter’s free poster from the nutcracker, wrapping paper and bows to do the job. I added the bows about the nutcrackers and the wrapping paper pieces to the wall. Festive feel up 100% ?: This…

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How to Clean Your Own Gutters to Save Money

How to Clean Your Own Gutters to Save Money

It is extremely important to clean the gutters on your home at least once a year. Twice a year is even better. You don’t want to skip it. Why? Gutter cleaning is one of those small home maintenance jobs that keeps other bigger and badder things from happening. However, it can be a bit expensive to hire someone to clean the gutters for you. For our smaller home, it would run about $100 per gutter cleaning. So I tried to…

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Tips for Hand Sewing Girl Scout Badges Easily

3 tips for hand sewing girl scout badges easily

Are you tired of losing your child’s iron-on scout badges? But do you also cringe at the thought of hand sewing badges instead? Never fear! I’ve got some tips for you that will help you hand sew them all on without getting murderous thoughts.  My daughter’s troop is very active and she ends up with a LOT of badges. I kid you not- I had over 50 badges to sew on her brownie vest this year alone. And she still…

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Patio Power Washing Therapy

Patio power washing therapy

Ah, the power of power washing! I knew the patio needed to be cleaned, but I had no idea how badly. My in-laws let me borrow their power washer and I set to work spraying it down this morning. Once I got everything hooked up correctly and figured out how to turn it on, things went smoothly. Well, as long as you don’t mind getting dirty. By the time I finished power washing the patio, I was covered in a…

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Best picture hanging tip

Newspaper. Cut newspaper to the size of every frame you plan to hang on the wall. Then tape them where you think you want them on the wall. Take pictures, move, measure spacing, align, and review until you are happy with the groupings and look of the newspaper shapes on the wall. Then nail away! This saves a lot of heart ache and provides good results every time. I forgot to take photos of the newspaper when I hung these…

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