Table of Contents

• Demolition
• Framing
• Prep
• Paint Wash
• Installation
• Trimwork
• Finishing Work

Finishing Up Demolition

This tray-style wood accent ceiling is going above the kitchen island that I built last year. My entire ceiling was torn down to the beams. Some areas of my ceiling have plumbing in the way, so I can only bring the accent up to the 9-foot height in one spot.

Framing for the Wood Accent Ceiling

Once I have the space for my ceiling accent cut out, I am framing the edge to create a perfect rectangle. Then, I am adding 2×4 supports across the middle and screwing them into the ceiling joists. I had to shim these up to be level because the plaster ceiling is not level at all. In some spots, I shimmed as much as an inch. It is important that these supports are level because they will be what is holding this wood accent ceiling up.

Prep Work

Now that my ceiling is ready, it is time to cut and prep my plywood. I am starting with a big 4×8 sheet of 1/2-inch thick maple plywood. Next, I am cutting out holes exactly where my lights are going to hang. I found this by holding the plywood sheet up to the ceiling and drawing the circles with a pencil. The sides of the accent will also be plywood, but my dimensions of the opening are 10 feet by about 5.5 feet. For the 10-foot sides, I could not find 10-foot-long plywood, so I joined a few pieces together using a bevel joint, pocket screws, and wood glue.

The sides of this accent are supposed to slant upward towards the 4×8 sheet of plywood. To create a slant I am cutting an angle, like a bevel, on the edge of each piece of plywood. I am making these cuts with my table saw.

Paint Wash for the Wood

Once all of my wood is cut, I am creating a paint wash. This wash is just a little bit of paint in a lot of water. Paint wash allows you to control the finish more than a stain does. In addition, it kind of masks some of the wood grain below. My plywood is not all maple; some of it had to be birch. I knew if I stained it would end up different colors. Making it all match is so important! I also think that this is going to help me blend the seam from connecting multiple pieces of plywood. I am applying one coat, and after about 10 minutes of it soaking it I am going in with a cloth and wiping up the excess. This color matches my island finish so well! When it is fully dry, I am going in with a high-grit sandpaper and knocking down the raised grain. After this, I am sealing it with a spray-on matte poly.

Installation

For the installation of this wood accent ceiling, I had to enlist the help of my husband. These pieces are not easy to hold over your head! To help us, I came in with a 4×4 plank and tensioned it between the sheet of plywood and my kitchen island counter. This worked and let my husband drop his arms. To attach this, I am using panhead screws, and they are going into my wood supports on the ceiling. Now is the moment of truth!! Time to see if my bevel cuts line up with the edge of the sealing and the plywood. When they were pushed into place, the seams were TIGHT. This allows me to just nail my finish nails right through the piece of plywood into my framing and the plywood. I had to do a lot of trial and error with my end pieces, so I recommend using scrap wood first.

Trim Work for the DIY Kitchen Wood Accent Ceiling

Now I am cutting custom trim work. This is for the edges, to cover up where my beautiful plywood tray ceiling meets the drywall. I want to make this edge look pretty; the trim is going to make it look so polished and finished. These have to be cut custom because nothing in the stores fits what I want. I am using the furring strips that I took off the ceiling to make this trim. To get the look I want, I am cutting 30-degree bevels into them and carefully using my table saw to make trim that is 1/8th of inch across. To make these furring strips look good, I have to fill SO many imperfections in the wood then sand them smooth. I am using a primer to seal them.

Finishing Work

Before I can install any of the trim I have to completely finish the ceiling. This includes caulking all of the corners and edges. I am using color-matched caulk to make the edges blend in and disappear. I am also resealing the whole wood accent ceiling with roll-on satin poly. Once this is dry, I am installing my trim. I am installing with a miter joint! Now, I finally get to add the hanging light pendants from Lowe’s. This really brings the whole ceiling feature together!

I hope you love this wood ceiling accent as much as I do. I think it completely transformed my entire kitchen! If you want to see more accent ceiling designs I have done, I have an entire roundup!

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Angie from House Becoming Home

Angie is an incredibly talented designer and furniture builder! I recently fell in love with her DIY bunk beds and have been down a rabbit hole loving on all her amazing builds.

I don’t know why she keeps making all this amazing stylish stuff for her kids instead of herself, but I was also blown away by the DIY vanity you see above in their kids’ bathroom. Go check out her blog to be impressed with all the furniture builds and unique modern projects she has going on!

Sonya from At Home With The Barkers

I’ve followed Sonya for a long time and love her positive personality! She has a cozy and casual vibe and brings in modern elements to her home’s style. She recently painted her bathroom walls all black (a very daring thing to do!) and I love the result! It reminds me of how nervous I was to paint my dining room wall black.

My other favorite recent of hers was the green board and batten she added to her dining room. Green is a very trendy color right now and she did it justice! Her DIY fireplace makeover is also definitely one to see!

Nicole from Repurpose Life

Meeting Nicole was very inspiring to me because she is a one-woman show! Just like me, she does all aspects of her projects by herself. Looking through everything she’s accomplished, I’m so impressed. My favorite project of hers are these modern sliding doors (you might remember I have a couple sliding doors in my new home, too).

I love her fearless attitude towards building whatever she dreams up. You should definitely see these modern outdoor chairs that are easy to build without complicated tools. She also did a really awesome fireplace update that will inspire you! In getting to know Nicole, I felt it was important to share a little back story on why she started blogging because it’s so touching:

My husband suffered a severe traumatic brain injury 8 years ago while wakeboarding and our lives were instantly turned upside down. I spent long days in waiting rooms while he was in the hospital, therapies, doctor appointments, etc. At that time, a new platform called Pinterest had just come onto the scene and I spent a lot of time perusing it. I was amazed by all of these women completing room makeovers and building furniture…using power tools! So, one day I came home from one of the appointments, ripped the carpet off of our stairs (as my kids watched me as if I had lost my mind), and created a beautiful wooden staircase. It was the start of MY therapy and now it is my joy. 

Nicole from Repurpose Life

Megan from Two Feet First

Megan is a blogger on a mission to update an outdated house on a budget! Her kitchen cabinet makeover is jaw dropping – you won’t believe the before and after. I love the modern, clean lines of her designs.

Megan also made a reusable frame sign which is a popular project for her. And if you’re still not impressed by those ideas, don’t miss her custom closet organizer! I wish I had one in my closet! Go join her email list so you can follow along as she works on taking out a wall in her kitchen to open the floor plan and building extra cabinetry.

Joanna from In Joannas House

Joanna’s blog is only a few months old and I’m excited to be introducing you to this talented brand new blogger! While she may be a newbie to blogging, she is definitely not a newbie to her craft – building, renovating, and home improvements. In her own words,

My husband Jared and I have been building and renovating our own homes for 13 years (since we were 19 & 21 years old). We built our first home after we married (we’re high school sweethearts) in 2007.  In 2012, we bought a foreclosure property and over 7 years (while we lived in it) completely renovated it inside and out plus landscaping. We are now planning on building again (this will be our 3^rd home) an amazing Urban Forest Farmhouse that we totally designed (Jared drew up the blueprints himself). This is a full DIY as well so I recently decided I wanted to share the whole journey from beginning to end with blogging. We want to inspire other DIYers and renovators with design, building, and money saving tips. My husband also is a skilled woodworker and builds custom furniture, barn doors, concrete countertops etc. All these things will be incorporated in the finished home; we will build as much décor and furniture ourselves as we can.

Joanna from In Joanna’s House

Some of her most impressive posts are linked here:

Toni from Girl Just DIY

I’ve known Toni for quite some time now because she heads up a women’s woodworking group I’m often inspired by on Facebook. Toni dabbles in a lot of different DIY’s from crafts to custom furniture.

These are some of her favorite project she wants you to see:
https://www.girljustdiy.com/easy-tiffany-mirror-diy/
https://www.girljustdiy.com/diy-modern-end-table/
https://www.girljustdiy.com/diy-2×4-plant-stand/

That’s all for today! I hope you found at least a couple of these modern bloggers that peaked your interest. Please go check out their best projects and be inspired!!

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Goal 1: Narrow In My Topic

When I first started blogging, I wrote about A LOT of different topics that were near and dear to my heart. I wrote about parenting, DIY home improvement, crafts, interior decorating, frugality, and even financial advice. I used the all-encompassing headline “A blog for the homemaker in you” to try to tie these topics together. However, as my audience has grown, the audience demographic has shifted. The majority of my readers are not interested in child-rearing advice. I already nixed money-saving tips and financial advice from my blog two years ago; now it is time to narrow it in even more.

I will be focused solely on DIY, home decor, and craft projects on my blog. I will still sometimes do big home improvement projects, furniture flips, and building pieces. I want to turn the blog into a tutorial utopia instead of an advice column. I still have not decided yet if I will remove the parenting navigation tab at the top of the website. If you would, please weigh in on that in the comments.

Goal 2: Quality Over Quantity

A few years back, I committed to posting once a week so my regular readers could know what to expect from me. Before then I posted as frequently as possible, 2-3 times a week. As I have taken on more content curating for large Facebook channels and social media promotion, my work-life balance has suffered. For the New Year, I am not going to be posting every week. However, I will post every time I have a creative, charming DIY to share! I want my articles to be high-quality projects and I do not want to be so concerned with how often I post. Although my post schedule might be more sporadic, you can still come back often for inspiring ideas!

Goal 3: Hit 50,000 Facebook Page Likes

I have really enjoyed the community that develops from growing a Facebook following. My readers are interactive and inspiring, sharing their DIY projects with me often and asking my advice. More than any other social media channel, I want to put my efforts towards Facebook to grow readership and create relationships. I have some amazing people who show up on my Facebook page every day to comment and chat with me. Melissa, Yvonne, Lisa, Joy, Kelli, Debbie, I’m talking to you! If I could hit 50,000 Facebook page likes in 2018, I would be over the moon!

Here is where I need your help! I am asking each of my readers to invite at least 5 friends to LIKE my Facebook page. This will hopefully give me a big jump-start towards my New Year goal!

If you aren’t sure how to do this, follow these simple instructions.

Super easy, right!? I would so appreciate your help to reach my blogging goals!

Thanks for reading today, join me this month for a lot of great projects I have coming up. I am redoing a midcentury modern dresser, decorating for winter, making adorable owl crafts, repainting my famous teal coffee table, and much more!

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Deep Clean All the Bedding

Of course I regularly wash our bedding, but in the spring I really refresh them. I wash the blankets and sheets and duvet covers in hot water on heavy duty cycle with detergent and bleach. Then I hang them up to dry in the sun. Is there anything more refreshing?

Clean Out Window Tracks

When we replaced our windows to all white a few years back, I knew the dirt and grime would show up more. After the windows have been closed all winter, they need a good scrubbing. I use baking soda and vinegar to create a chemical reaction which bubbles up and blasts away caked on grime. For a step by step tutorial on how to do this, visit this blog’s instructions.

Flush Water Heater

If your water heater is less than five years old, you should be flushing it once a year to maintain the water quality and lengthen the life of the appliance. If it is older than five years, do not flush the water heater because the sediment you disturb on the inside will be extremely difficult to flush all the way out. Flushing your water heater is actually really easy, all you need is a garden hose. Learn how here.

Windex Windows Inside and Out

When that spring sun starts shining in your home, you will definitely want to clean the windows! Grab a bottle of Windex one sunny day and get to work! If your home does not have pop-out or crank windows, you will need to use a ladder on the outside of your home to reach.

Wash Baseboards

Even if you don’t have white baseboards like me, once a year you should wipe your trim down with hot water. I like to use a toothbrush to get in the cracks and really get the built-up dust and dirt off.

You better believe our white walls, white trim, and white windows all get a thorough spring cleaning when 3 young children eat in this dining room on a daily basis.

Scrape Out the Freezers

I have a deep freezer and regular refrigerator freezer. Once a year I unload both of them, wipe them out with dish soapy water, and scrape the built up ice from the walls. This will help your appliance cool and run more efficiently.

Wipe Down Cupboards Inside & Out

Hopefully you clean out your fridge more than once a year, but it’s likely you don’t with your cupboards. Taking out all the dishes, pantry items, and utensils in your cupboards is important to do once a year so you can clean. You will find spills you never knew happened, long expired items to throw away, and maybe even discover you have a mice problem (hopefully not!). Besides cleaning the insides, use hot dish soapy water and a toothbrush to clean the cupboard doors, hinges, and exterior surfaces.

This is my spring cleaning check list for the interior of my home. These tasks I only do once a year and when they are done, everything feels so clean! What are some spring cleaning jobs you take on once a year?

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1. Keep a Running Grocery List

Keeping organized is super important for making your grocery shopping more efficient. A comprehensive grocery list enables you to eliminate impulse buys at the store. As soon as I notice I am low on an item in my fridge or pantry, I write it on my grocery list. This also eliminates running to the grocery store multiple times a week. If you’ve crossed off everything on the list, you know you have everything you need.

My highly detailed grocery shopping list helps me keep focused in the store.

2. Stretch your groceries as long as possible

Because I have such a comprehensive grocery list when I shop, I can usually buy groceries for two to three weeks. That means I only go grocery shopping twice a month. Going to the grocery store less often saves money by reducing the number of impulse buys or purchases you made before you really needed it.

It always surprises me when people say they have “nothing” in the house to eat and have to go grocery shopping because I look in their fridge and it looks full to me. This is a comparison of my fridge before and after grocery shopping.

Eating every last bit of food in your fridge can help you stretch your dollars at the grocery market.

When I’m running low on food in the house, I do meal plan a little. I try to come up with as many meals as I can make with what I have left in the house and write them down. Usually, when I feel I need to get groceries, I can still make four or five meals with what I have on hand. I find meals with very few ingredients besides spices, like this noodle dish, this Mexican rice that uses mostly canned ingredients, salsa verde crock pot chicken, or cumin dusted chicken breast. All I do is look at what few ingredients I have left to eat in the house, plug them into google, and prepare the best-reviewed recipe.

3. Compare Prices

The places you might think are the cheapest, really aren’t. For instance, many people will pay for a Sam’s Club membership ($40/year) to get discounted grocery items in bulk. But a price comparison I did at our local Sam’s Club and Walmart of more than 80 items revealed to me there was no price difference. The only difference is at Walmart you can buy individual packages of the same item and at Sam’s Club you have to buy bulk. These companies are even owned by the same company and founded by the same person, Sam Walton. Compare prices of stores, but also the cost of groceries on a per ounce or per pound level. Many stores will have this math done for you right on the price tag, you just need to pay attention.

4. Shop At ALDI

I love ALDI because it has lower prices on everything and you save without having to think. Getting used to private label brands took some trial and error, but now we do 95% of our grocery shopping at ALDI only. Compared to Coborns, we are talking HALF the price. Compared to Walmart and Sam’s Club, about 20-30% less most of the time. Introduce yourself to ALDI through the eyes of my friend Jon, he gives a detailed first-hand account on his blog.

5. Buy Meat Deeply Discounted

When I do head to Walmart, I always check their discounted meat. We don’t spend more than $3 a pound on meat in our house. That means no steak or seafood. Sometimes I do get a pound of shrimp (and stretch it to make two meals). The only meat I buy at full price is chicken (at $1.50 a lb or less) and the other meats are purchased when they are deeply discounted and close to expiration. Then I freeze them in my deep freezer for another time.

6. Cut Back on Meat

In general, eating less meat will drastically reduce your food budget. Not only do I buy meat on discount, but we eat way less of it than the average family. I usually make recipes like casseroles, skillets, soups, and pasta where I use half the amount of meat the recipe calls for and it still feels proportionate throughout the serving. We also eat a lot of chicken and vegetarian dishes. Making chicken tacos instead of hamburger made that meal HALF as expensive. Some of our favorite vegetarian meals? These vegan burrito bowls, this coconut squash soup, these Asian noodles, just to name a few.

My favorite vegetarian meal, vegan burrito bowls, by Cookie & Kate.

7. Avoid Processed Meals

The first few years I began preparing meals every day for my family, I bought a lot of premade, processed foods. Pasta and stir fry already put together in a bag. Waffle fries and chicken nuggets, boneless barbecue wings and pizza rolls. These meals are fast, but that’s really all they have going for them. They are unhealthy with high salt levels and preservatives and they are SO expensive. When I started eliminating these purchases from my grocery bill, I saw a drastic drop. Of course, I had to cook more often and I needed a new way to make meals in less than 30 minutes.

These tips help me throw together meals really fast and also allow for inexpensive, real food to be prepared at every meal.

• I prepare cooked, shredded chicken breast and freeze. When I need a recipe for dinner, I grab out the bag of cooked chicken and run it under hot water to unthaw.
• I cook rice and noodles ahead of time. These stop cooking when they are cooled, so you can store them in your fridge until it’s time to eat. If I have to make dinner in a half hour time slot at night, I’ll cook my rice in the morning so it is ready to go. This is a fast recipe to utilize that rice.
• Crock pot meals are my go-to for hectic weekday nights. I make this recipe with chicken breast that is a complete meal you can throw together in the morning and forget about until dinner!

To cut back on costs, cook with real food. It’s healthier for you, too.

8. Find Better Recipes

If you think about it, a lot of staples in the SAD (Standard American Diet) are unhealthy and expensive. American tacos feature a meat that is $2.50-$3.50 a pound! Add in the shells, toppings, and a side you are looking at a really expensive meal, especially if you want guacamole. American hamburgers are the same. Why utilize ground beef? It is one of the least cost-effective meats possible, plus it is unhealthy! Shish kabobs, brats, and bacon are some of the foods too expensive for our house. Of course, we have them on occasion, but not on the regular. I search for yummy recipes online that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Two of my secret weapons are frugalnutrition.com and budgetbytes.com.

9. Eat Your Leftovers

I rarely, if ever, throw food away. In our house, we eat leftovers. I was shocked to find this is not the case in a lot of households. It’s a shame perfectly good food often molds forgotten in the fridge. My husband takes leftovers every day for lunch at work and whatever else is left, my kids and I eat for lunch at home. If there are certain things you do not like to eat leftover (for me, that’s mashed potatoes), don’t make as much the first time around. Think of how much money you will save by bringing leftovers for lunch instead of eating out every day!

10. Track Spending

I hate budgeting because it feels stifling and stressful to track when I’m in the store. But tracking my spending after the fact is not stressful for me at all. I save my grocery receipts and add them up at the end of the month. That’s how I know that my average monthly grocery bill in 2016 was $300.14. Knowing what you spent is enlightening. It reveals areas you can spend less on, cutting back on your grocery spending even further. Accurate knowledge is the first step!

This scatter plot charts our spending on groceries for the last few years on a month to month basis. My husband is a statistics nerd. But you can see that the trend line is down since we started tracking and I enacted these tips for saving. This stuff really works!

If you’ve made it through my whole guide to grocery shopping, I hope you were inspired, not inundated. Tell me which of these tips you see yourself enacting to reduce your grocery bill?

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1. My Daughter’s Entertainment Center to Closet Furniture Makeover

Hard to believe, but this project was posted in the beginning of 2016! It has been a popular post, featured on goodhomedesign.com magazine and hometalk.com. I love this small armoire, just the perfect size for my little girl. Bad news, though. Her 2-year-old brother had a terrible tantrum one day and broke the glass door. It is still used in her bedroom, though!

2. My Daughter’s New Bedroom

Alongside this closet furniture makeover, we revamped my craft room to be Lily’s bedroom in early 2016. I had my third baby in April, so we were trying to get bedrooms situated so that Nick would be in the Dr. Seuss room and the new baby could reside in the nursery. Readers loved the pops of lime green and hot pink color as well as the white, multi-functional furniture in this room makeover!

3. Living Room Makeover

The other room I redid this year was our living room. Well, I also revamped our kitchen, but that post was not nearly as popular. In the living room, I painted all the trim white and got new furniture and made DIY lamps and so much more. The whole space transformed. Initially, we had bought a large La-Z-Boy reclining leather sofa for my husband and I tried to make it work in our new room design. But eventually, he lost that battle and we got much more tasteful leather furniture for a space that is modern and stylish.

4. Large DIY Canvas Abstract Wall Art

I love to create in all mediums, especially painting. This year I switched out our abstract family painting and painted something totally new on a canvas I built myself. The new painting was to go with our new monochromatic color scheme throughout the living room design. This project features a canvas painting that is almost 90″ long and 44″ tall, created for only $14!

5. Stair Railing DIY Makeover From Outdated Oak to Sleek And Modern

This was my most recent home improvement project and I could not be more pleased with the result. Our banister was outdated and ugly when guests entered our living room; you can see it in the corner of the above picture. I demolished it, then rebuilt a sleek, metal design. I even recorded and compiled a fast-motion video of the process.

2016 has brought a lot of changes to our house. I am proud to say my DIY expertise has grown and I am starting to feel more comfortable in our 1980’s bi-level. That is what home improvement and interior design are all about.

Huge thanks to all my regular readers who have been with me this whole year and especially those of you that have been reading since the beginning! I love sharing my DIY posts with you and you all inspire me every day to be creative. Wishing all of you the best in 2017, I hope you will continue reading and feel welcome at the Woods’.

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The khaki pants and brown shoes would be easy, my husband already had those. The purple coat was going to be hard to find and the top hat I figured I could try to make myself. I went to a local thrift store and after searching in the men’s clothing, I had no luck (not surprisingly). I wandered to the women’s blazers and found a deep purple coat there that looked about perfect for $7! The only difference is that it isn’t as long, but it was still a lucky find. The floral shirt underneath was also sourced from the women’s section for $4. My poor husband.

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The thrift store finds cost me a total of $11, but the hat didn’t cost me anything. I created a top hat from corrugated cardboard I had already at my home and fabric my mom had leftover in her sewing supplies. Here’s the tutorial if you’d like to make one yourself!

For my getup, I borrowed a brilliant costume my friend had made last Halloween. She put together a “Cotton Candy” costume using colored batting for a tutu, painting high heels blue, buying a blue wig, and wearing a light pink leotard. Here we are:

Stephen’s Willy Wonka Halloween costume turned out wonderfully.

You could say I’m Willy Wonka’s arm candy. Ha!

Willy Wonka Halloween Costume

There you have it folks, I hope you enjoyed our DIY Halloween costumes this year! Tell me what you were for Halloween! Did you make any costumes this year?

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STEP 1. Divide & Conquer

The first thing I did was sort through everything for four hours one day. I filled a huge garbage bag full of toys we barely use. I used criteria that placed toys into two basic categories: loved & lasting VS. shiny and passing. Read more about how to sort your toys to keep only ones your kids will ACTUALLY play with.

I felt so great after taking away more than half of the kids’ toys. Why store something you never use? I tried not to get too sentimental about the toys, to just stay practical. The kids haven’t even noticed their toys are gone. They literally did not blink an eye.

Step 2: Build A New Weapon

I found these old black milk crates off Craigslist for $6. There are six of them, they are all identical. I brought them outside and pressure washed the grime, stickiness, and everything else off of them.

I chose a few fun colors of spray paint (most I already had) and sprayed them.

Next I began to create padded seats for the top that double functioned as lids. I received wood from my dad (he had lots of blandex crap left over). I used fabric scraps and old t-shirts from my seamstress mother. But the one supply I couldn’t resource was the foam for the seats. I search thrift store after garage sale after junk pile for left over foam. Buying foam at the craft store is astronomically expensive. I felt like I ran out of choices. And then…

I bought a toddler bed from IKEA secondhand off Craigslist. The guy delivered the bed and mattress to my home and as I brought it inside, I was curious about the mattress because it didn’t seem as thick or heavy as normal.

I cut open a little piece of the canvas cover….

FOAM! A giant mattress of thick foam!

I decided to use it. Secondhand is the man. Sometimes in a war you have to make sacrifices. I could find another solution for a mattress (like one with actual springs?) and I didn’t see any better solution for finding foam.

Soon I had chopped my foam into equal, perfect sized squares. I even had a large chunk leftover for some future project. I also had to cut the foam squares in half so they weren’t so tall. The foam was twice too thick. I just used a serrated knife.

My three year old took the above picture of me slicing foam. She is the general in this war to organize toys.

Anyway, I finally had all the supplies needed to make my seat lids. I fired up my air compressor staple gun (thanks in-laws for an awesome Christmas gift!) and got to work.

I laid out the fabric (three of them were made using old t-shirts) and cut it to size.

Then I laid the foam (flat side down) on the fabric, followed by the 3/4 inch blandex wood, and used my gun to staple the fabric to the wood.

Lastly, I added skinny wood bars to the bottom that will rest inside the milk crate to make the lid fit tight. These will keep the lid in place when you sit on the crate and provide it with a bit of extra strength. The brad nailer function of the gun made fast work of this step.

I did this process six times. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how we won the war.

Aren’t they cute!?

And they seriously get the job done. I now have ALL the kids toys stored in them. After putting away so many, this is the quantity we have left and it’s perfect!

I love finding ingenious ways to store things. These crates will be with us a long time. I will take care of them like the war heroes they are.

Step 3: Enjoy the Silence With Your DIY Toy Storage

If you often read my blog, you probably noticed these crates reside in my basement. Well, the silence after the war in our house means the kids are now playing with all their toys downstairs, while I work on dinner and other tasks upstairs. Seriously, it has been one of the quietest weeks home with the kids that I can remember.

Since their toys are now more limited and all have a tidy, designated place to be put away, play time is way more engaging. Now my kids are actually PLAYING with their toys. Clean up took hardly any time and was FUN for the kids to fill a crate so they could put on the lid.

So last but not least, I have to prove my frugality to you. The project costs are as follows:

Six milk crates off Craigslist = $6
Spray paint (bought only plum & lime green, the rest was free from HHW facility) = $8
Fabric (I had to buy clearance plum fabric from JoAnn Fabrics and one t-shirt from a thrift store) = $3.50
Foam = $0 (I’m happy with the price I paid just for the bed. The foam was just a bonus!)
Blandex wood = $0

TOTAL = $17.50

I couldn’t be happier with how my DIY toy storage turned out. I hope you liked it, too! Please let me know what you thought. Did you like my color choices? Please share if you were inspired!

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Lesson 1: Know WHEN to shop

Lesson 3: The Drive-by

Sometimes I don’t have time to plan what garage sales I will go to before heading out in the morning. Sometimes I am at a city-wide garage sale event where many didn’t advertise on Craigslist. Sometimes I decide to garage sale on a whim and need to know how to judge if a garage sale is worthy of stopping at just by driving by. I’ve gotten pretty good at scoping a garage sale from the street. There are many things I look at to determine if it’s worth a stop.

A lot of times, people stop at a sale if it looks like a lot of stuff from the street. But some of the worst quality stuff is sold at sales where the garage is overflowing with crap. I once went to a garage sale you couldn’t even see the merchandise from the street because there was so little in the garage, but they had exactly what I needed (12 mo boy clothes) and I bought four heaping bags full! Do not discount a sale just because it is small.

The other way I determine if I should stop at the sale is if the house is in good shape. Does the house look like the owners take care of it? Is the lawn mowed? Did the sale have appropriate signage to direct you to it? This again goes back to the idea of people who take care of their things have the nicest things.

The last bit of advice I would like to give you is a couple cell phone app suggestions. cPro Craigslist is the best CL app I’ve found. It allows you to make a favorites list which helps to save the garage sales you’re interested in. The other app I’ve used is Garage Sale Treasure Map. This app tries to pull all sales from the newspaper and Craigslist and map them for you so you can see the description and what’s relatively close to your location.

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1. Your Top Criteria Should Be Resale Value

  

Once you’ve found your house, buying it is a whole other venture entirely. This is the part where you can save thousands by heading my advice. Putting a large down payment on your house (20% please) is a clear choice for two reasons: you will get a better interest rate and you will avoid paying PMI. Your interest rate greatly effects how much you pay month to month on your mortgage and ultimately how much you pay during the life of your loan. A person with a $150,000 house who puts 20% down will pay $231,906.94 over the course of 30 years if they get a 5% interest rate. If you get a 4.75% interest rate, you’ll only pay $225,351.65, saving you $6,000 and more than $40 a month off your mortgage payment. PMI is private mortgage insurance. This is a fee tacked on a home loan that doesn’t qualify as conventional because it doesn’t have 20% down. Basically the bank is saying, “You don’t have enough skin in the game, so if we’re going to loan you more than we’re comfortable, you’re going to pay us a little extra.” Money paid towards a PMI is money better spent thrown out a car window. At least then a homeless person can pick it up and use it.

6. Get a Home Inspection

Home Inspections are this pesky little step that might seem unnecessary if you have owned a home before and think you know what’s up or are buying a new construction and think there can’t possibly be something wrong – it’s brand new! However unnecessary the step might seem, it only costs about $400 and can save you a TON of money if put as a contingency in your home’s purchase agreement. Even if they don’t find anything horribly wrong, an inspector checks everything from electrical outlets to drain clogs and gives you an itemized list to work towards fixing when you move in. If the inspector does find something alarming with the home–serious mold, an uneven foundation, a roofing flaw–you’ll be thanking your lucky stars you have the ability to walk away from the purchase. I know a great inspector in the St. Cloud area who is very reasonably priced, Greg Theis at Get Home Inspections.

6. Shop Around for Insurance

Shopping for insurance can be as simple or complicated as you make it. Some let their real estate broker hook them up with an insurance company. I did this through Edina Realty when we purchased our first house. I asked the real estate brokerage to help me find home insurance and they quoted me the company that gave them the lowest quote. I did my due diligence and shopped around myself to make sure I was getting the best deal. Turns out, the easy way was the best way. I could not find a quote lower than the one Edina fetched me. But shopping around for the best insurance is a really important task that can save you literally THOUSANDS over the period of time you live in your house.

8. Check for Tax & Property Liens

Usually a title company that facilitates closing on a property will investigate any liens that are attached to the property. A lien is money owed from the previous owner that needs to be taken care of before closing on the home. Typically liens are not the responsibility of the new owner of the property, but you have to be careful to clarify this so you don’t get stuck with delinquent expenses. You can call your county’s recorders and auditors offices to get information about tax and property liens, or you can ask your real estate agent to look into it for you.

9. Ask For Home Improvement Store Gift Cards as House Warming Gifts

Once the actual day of closing has passed, you might be excited to throw a house warming party. Put the word out there you want gift cards to home improvements stores like Menards, Home Depot, or Lowes as gifts instead of normal presents which are usually decor, alcohol, and the likes. Receiving gift cards will save you a bunch of money you would’ve otherwise spent. It’s amazing how much it costs to set up house and how many practical things you never realized you didn’t own until now. You now have to get a drill to hang things on the wall, a shovel for your front steps, a lawn mower for your grass, a garden hose to flush your water heater, and all of it is expensive. Those gift cards will save you so much money, and they will not be frivolous the way traditional house warming gifts are.

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