Are you ready to DIY?

Hi my name is Angie and I’m here to chat about how you can save money by taking on home renovations and makeovers by yourself.

Owning your own home is amazing. It’s like your own slice of the pie that you can do whatever you like with, and that is a pretty awesome feeling. What’s not so awesome is when you have ideas on how to make it better, but your cash flow is wagging its finger at you in a disapproving manner. But that shouldn’t be the reason you don’t make your nest the best darn one on the block. Now I can hear you saying how can I make this happen? Well this is my thinking – Clever, careful planning plus a little bit of elbow grease – in another words D.I.Y.

Renovations, even minor ones can be really costly and often take up more time than they need to and that is why the idea of doing them yourself is so appealing to me. A lot of people cringe at this thought because it feels like it would be too much work and responsibility but I can honestly say this, there is nothing quite like the feeling of completing a D.I.Y. project and then stepping back and saying ‘Look what I did, that was all me’.

There is an amazing amount of pride that comes along with this even if it’s not perfect or the lines aren’t always 100% straight.

Before our baby was born we had one room that served as a home office and one as a guest room, but when the little tyke arrived the office had to go and so we were down to one guest room and us using our dining room as a work space, which wasn’t ideal. So we decided to combine the two things that we needed into one space and create a room that functioned as an office by day and a guest room by night. Yip we decided to create the ultimate two in one deal and embark on a money-saving room makeover, where we would do all the renovations ourselves. Dandandaaaaan (insert dramatic theme tune here).

If we hired someone to make this idea of ours a reality, we would be paying three times the amount for it and we weren’t prepared to spend more than we needed to. So my husband and I entered the big wide world of D.I.Y.

At first I was a little apprehensive, I mean it was an ambitious project and if anything went wrong all fingers pointed back to us. But we were determined to make it happen, so we set ourselves a R5000 budget, bought all the necessary bits and pieces and began to make our idea, which we lovingly called The Stage Bed a reality. If anyone at this point is wondering what a Stage Bed is, imagine a contraption/stage that serves as a platform for a desk where you can work, as well a device that a guest bed can slide under, so if you need a place for someone to sleep all you have to do is pull it out. You can imagine it or you can have a look at the photos below, that might be a little easier.

The project went off without a hitch except for a couple of scratches suffered by Shane and I’m happy to report that not only did we create a unique space that works like a multi-functional charm and is Pinterest-worthy to the highest degree, but we also managed to stay within our budget with a few Rand to spare.

So tomorrow why not look at your house in a different light, take a look at something that has been bothering you for a while or a corner that you have been threatening to spruce up since you moved in and then sit down and seriously think about a plan that involves not only saving money, because you’ll be doing it yourself, but also creating something that you can be proud of and that will make your slice of pie just that little bit sweeter. It’s not as hard as you think in fact it’s as easy as A, B, C, or in this case D.I.Y.

Good luck.