DIY – Phillips Flips

October 13, 2018

DIY Ombré Wall

We recently finished a huge makeover of our girls’ shared bedroom (all within a super busy 24-hour period) and one of the highlights of the room was the accent wall behind their beds. I decided to tackle a DIY painted ombré design on the accent wall and I love the way it turned out!

Here’s a step by step of how I did it:

1. Pick Your Colors

I already had an area rug and accent pillows that I needed the colors to tie into. So I used the rug and pillows to help me see how the colors all looked together. Get multiple paint swatches! Even if you think you like the way they look in the store, get extras. I ended up using a different swatch for the lightest green (instead of the one pictured above). It’s also best to look at the colors together in bright natural light. As bad as I wanted to decide on the colors the night I picked them out, I knew the yellow-tinted light in our room could skew the shades. So I waited until the following morning, turned off the yellow light and opened all the curtains so the natural white light could shine on the colors.

2. Measure and Mark Your Lines

I decided on 4 colors for the ombré wall. You could do as little as 3 or maybe a couple more than 4 depending on the size of your wall and how busy you want it to be. The ceiling in this room is a few inches shy of 8 feet. So I measured 24 inch sections starting from the bottom (so the top section would be a few inches shy of 2 feet). You don’t have to worry about getting perfect lines here, just make sure you’re overall lines aren’t slanted. I individually measured both sides of the wall and 2 more spots near the middle and then just eyeballed it to “connect the dots” from each of the 4 spots across the wall to make each horizontal line.

3. Paint Your Sections

I did the cutting in first, then I just used 4 individual rollers and trays to paint the sections. Again, don’t stress about getting perfectly clean straight lines here, you’re going to blend everything together eventually. Don’t worry about blending yet, because odds are, you’ll have to paint a couple coats anyway. It’s best to let these sections (mostly) dry before you start blending. I learned that if you try to do it all when it’s still wet, you have a greater chance of uncovering the wall color underneath.

4. Start Blending

Once you’ve let your painted sections dry (at least mostly) then you’re ready to blend them. I painted and went down to eat dinner and came back to blend. This part is a little tricky (and a good arm workout). It’s obviously easier to blend wet paint than dry, BUT if you try to blend from your original painted sections before letting them dry, you’ll scrape the paint right off and see the color underneath. So my way around this was to keep all 4 rollers in their respective paint colors so I could easily paint over the dry sections with a little fresh paint for blending. Keeping 4 individual rollers and trays makes it easier to change back and forth. I chose to start blending from the top down. So I started with my lightest paint colored roller and quickly painted a small, rolled, line as close to the line where the colors meet. Then I switched over to my next lightest color, the second color from the top, and did the same thing. Then with a regular paint brush, I blended the colors is small, quick X marks all overlapping and moving up and down between the 2 wet colors. This is the part that will give you a sore arm because you have to blend pretty fast and you have to paint pretty hard to really blend the colors. I tried a sponge here originally, but sponges are ideal for soaking up paint, not so much blending it. You have to eyeball the blending as you go. Try to make sure that the sections are blended up and down at around the same areas on the wall. Then repeat these same steps for all of your blended lines.

Tip: Wet paint looks different than dry paint! So don’t be alarmed if your newly blended wall looks a bit off before everything has a chance to dry. Mine didn’t look like full light to dark ombré as some of the wet paint was lighter than the dry versions of the same color.

5. Let Dry and LOVE Your New Wall

Enjoy the ombré! Hang some photos or prints or shelves and enjoy your newest successful DIY project.

If you use this tutorial to paint your own ombré wall, make sure to tag us (@phillipsflips) in your instagram photos or share them to our hashtag, #mycultivatedhome I love seeing how you incorporate ombré into your home!

August 14, 2017August 17, 2017

Our DIY Walk-through Closet

When we first moved to this house, we struggled to decide which bedroom we wanted to make ours. Moving into a house built in the 1940’s with an entire wing and second story that was added in the early 2000’s meant that we somehow lucked out with 3 master bedrooms (as in 3 of our 5 bedrooms are extremely large and have master bathrooms connected to them).

We ended up picking the upstairs master as our bedroom.

The logistics just all worked out best this way, plus, by picking the upstairs bedroom, we had our own private outdoor balcony off the bedroom – which we are currently in the process of screening in. YAY for finally being able to enjoy the outdoors without the mosquitos!

While the room we picked was marvelously huge, the closets inside weren’t. The hallway leading into the room has 2 very shallow and narrow closets that couldn’t hold my clothes, let alone the clothes for 2 people.

Once we got everything arranged in the room, I just felt so inefficient having so much unused floor space in the middle of the room. I literally could have hosted yoga classes in our bedroom y’all! I toyed with the idea of incorporating a sitting area with a sectional couch, an office, a library nook, a mini-fridge/bar or even extending our bathroom to make room in there for a tub (since we only have a shower in our master bath). After finally getting everything unpacked and out of the moving boxes, it was clear that the best use of all of this unused space was to figure out how to increase the closet and storage space up here.

After brainstorming and researching all kinds of closet layouts/configurations and trying to determine the best spot for one in our bedroom, we decided to install a single wall to anchor our bed and use the space behind it to house our closet. With roughly $60 worth of 2X4’s, a saw, level, stud-finder and some screws, my dad and I built this:

We measured the length we wanted for the wall, keeping in mind the fact that the wood would be framed in drywall afterward. We cut the top and bottom 2X4s first and then cut all the interior supports to run between them. We built the framing while it was laid flat on the floor. Once the entire wall was framed and the supports were screwed together, we hoisted it upright and attached it to the floor and ceiling studs. When we installed it, our original floor was still down. We just used a circular saw to cut the vinyl planks where the bottom 2X4 would sit so that the wall would be anchored to the sub floor and through to the floor joists underneath. Luckily I knew we would be redoing the floors with hardwood floors shortly thereafter, so the cuts didn’t have to be perfect.

Before wrapping it in drywall, we had an electrician run an outlet on either side of where our bed would sit for phone chargers/lamps etc. and we also had them install 3 can lights in the closet with a 2-way switch just inside the closet on either side of the wall so that we could reach in and turn the light on or off from either entryway. The electrician also helped us relocate our bedroom lights. Originally the upstairs master had 2 ceiling fans which had been demolished by the previous owners (when you buy a house that was previously foreclosed, demolished fans, graffiti on bedroom walls, missing doors/mirrors/lights/appliances are all standard expectations). We wanted just 1 accent light in the middle of the room and we decided on this brass/gold starburst light from Dot & Bo.

After the electrician, drywall and texture, we we’re about $500 all in for our DIY closet. However, I will say that pre-fab shelving closet units with drawers/shelves etc. (even from IKEA) are NOT cheap. After going in store and building our “dream” closet in their interactive 3D design shop, we ended up changing all kinds of things around because $3,000 for a closet was just not in the budget. We saved significant money by opting for no doors on the closets, choosing shelves and clothes hanger rods instead of drawers, configuring the widths and depths in such a way so that we didn’t have to pay extra for 2 corner units, and leaving off all the very cool, but mostly unneeded accessories (I.e. Pull out tie hanger, shoe holder, jewelry/accessory drawers, ironing board attachment, fancy pants hanger attachments etc.)

The wardrobes/closets from IKEA with the shelves, rods, drawers and delivery charges were roughly $1,000 by the time we had cut things back as much as we reasonably could although you could save on this expense considerably if you decided to tackle some DIY shelving and clothing rods made from metal piping.

When we put this wall up, we knew we wanted to maximize the space behind it and run the closets the full width of the room. One thing I wasn’t sure about is whether or not I would like being able to look into my closets (without being able to shut them off with a door on either side) but I also wasn’t a fan of any of the door options I came across. The pricing of doors and door frames kept creeping the cost of this renovation even higher and frankly, we are total amateurs when it comes to this stuff, so it was a bit intimidating to start thinking about DIY-ing a couple doors. Surprisingly though, since we opted for the black closets, when the closet light is off, you can hardly see into the closets. Here’s a shot of the room with the closet light on.

And here’s a shot with the light off.

With the closet light off, everything just fades into the darkness, and I love the clean modern lines sans doors almost as much as I loved not having to pay for and attempt the install of said doors.

Here are some shots from the inside of our closet. You can see how we saved money by organizing our shoes on shallow wardrobes on the sides with lots of shelves instead of purchasing the expensive shoe attachments. I used the extra wall space for my jewelry and some hooks for a scarf organizer and we incorporated a couple of our original dressers to have a few more drawers. We splurged on 3 drawers built into the wardrobe and used black boxes from IKEA on shelves for other things like socks and underwear. I also organized my fold-able shirts and jeans on open shelving instead of in drawers and it’s actually my preference to store them that way because it’s easier to see all of the folded items as opposed to only the top if they were stuck inside a drawer.

And now we have more than enough closet space to hold our clothes for every season! What creative closet solutions have worked for you? Comment below 👇 I’d love to hear your stories too!

July 6, 2017July 19, 2017

Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 2

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read our last post on my attempt to propagate my fiddle leaf figs (Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1), you can find that link here. That post explains how I got started with my fiddle leaf figs. The following post is the follow up to how my figs did and what worked/didn’t work.

I originally started with 2 fiddle leaf fig clippings. The larger of the 2 didn’t make it. The smaller one however, thrived. While they both sprouted root buds the smaller clipping kept growing into full long roots and the larger clipping didn’t make it past the buds. Slowly all the leaves fell off and we had to chuck that one. I treated both clippings exactly the same: same water, same sunny location, same plant food. The only difference I can figure is the size. Perhaps the larger clipping was too large to sustain the size of the clipping and continue to grow in just a bowl of water. Lesson learned: start with smaller clippings next time.

A $30 Instant Wallpaper Shelving Makeover

I went to Target today to grab a few groceries and like most people I know, I am nearly incapable of leaving without at least 1 additional item that I don’t actually need. Well today I came home with 2. I bought 2 of these temporary wallpaper stick-ons because we’re planning on working on house stuff this weekend and, why not?

I bought one roll of this faux subway tile wallpaper to try out in our kitchen backsplash. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

I also bought one of these fun speckled wallpaper prints to spice up the built in shelves in our dining room nook.

This nook is tucked into a corner that divides our playroom and dining room. This is what it looked like before.

I’m constantly changing these shelves around. Originally they held board games. Then they held seasonal decorations that weren’t being used and before I organized some of our China (pictured above), they were just cluttered with everything from crayons to light bulbs. So today I decided to switch things up again and find a spot for our China in one of our kitchen cabinets.

I started by clearing the shelves. Then I measured the back of the cabinets, unrolled the Dalmatian print wallpaper, flipped it to the back side and used a ruler, tape measure and a pen to mark the dimensions. Then I cut the first panel out and held it up to make sure it fit. Since 3 of the 4 shelves measure the same height, I used the first cut to trace 2 others which made the process even quicker and easier.

Then it was peel, stick and rub. They go on like big stickers and aside from carefully smoothing them to make sure you’re not stuck with creases, they are extremely easy to apply. The directions say to have a flat clean surface. I did wipe the shelves down with a damp rag, but the backs of the shelves are actually textured and the wallpaper still went on just fine. I think it also helped that I was sticking the wallpaper into a boxed in area.

Here’s a shot of the textured back and sides that I stuck the wallpaper to.

After I finished applying the wallpaper, I filled the shelves. I decided to go back with the fun books/board games look!

With our DIY Instant Photo display, shelving makeover, and that fun carved piece that I got in Puerto Rico, this little nook is so cheery now.

The wallpaper was $29.99 and I still have lots leftover. The project took me less than an hour from start to finish… and that’s with a 6-month-old strapped to my chest!

May 25, 2017July 19, 2017

When You’re Good to Paint Pressure Treated Wood- Lessons from a Painting Professional

If you’ve been following along with our backyard renovations and deck rebuild, then you may know that we have switched our plans around quite a bit throughout these renovations. I had a vision of the look I wanted, but after consulting with professional arborists, contractors and our painter, we have changed a few things around. Originally, when we planned to redo our backyard deck, we wanted to put concrete down in place of the old deck that we had. I liked the idea of the smooth light gray and planned to accent it with natural cedar. When all was said and done, we decided concrete wouldn’t work for us and we decided to do a new deck instead. We still plan to accent with cedar although we’re not building our entire deck out of cedar. And because mixed wood tones is a huge pet peeve of mine, I want to paint our deck.

In the midst of our renovations, I stayed in touch with our painter since he was giving us a discount on the exterior painting of our house if we did it after the back deck was removed (and before the new one was built). As I was explaining our plans to him, he gave me some helpful advice that I would have otherwise not known.

You shouldn’t paint fresh pressure treated wood
When we decided to go with wood decking over composite (mainly because of the price) we knew we were committing to keeping our deck well maintained and protected from the elements. I immediately started looking for wood sealers and options for protecting the wood. I knew I didn’t want a stain. I wanted an opaque light gray finish so that the cedar beams would stand out, but according to our painter: You can stain wood right away with an oil based stain, but you shouldn’t paint or seal new pressure treated wood right away because it needs time to cure and dry out before you seal it up. If you paint it without letting it dry, the paint will not last.

Photo Credit: The Feathered Tumblr

Our painter explained that a sealer locks the chemicals and moisture inside and eventually those same chemicals and moisture will eat through the fresh paint and it will begin to chip and peel and bubble. The green-ish hues in the new pressure treated wood are an indication that it has a higher moisture content.

How long do I have to wait before I can paint my wood deck?
After the wood has had a chance to dry. In Florida, this would typically take 1 or 2 seasons. Since we are finishing our deck in late Spring, we will likely paint our deck sometime mid to late Fall. In other extremely dry parts of the world, wood can dry out and be ready for paint in as little as just 2 weeks.

if I can’t paint or seal the wood right away, what do I do to protect my new deck from the elements in the interim?
Nothing. Your wood is pressure treated, and that will keep your wood from rotting while you give it some time to dry a bit. If you wait too long to seal the wood, it will eventually start to go bad, but just a season or 2 won’t hurt it.

How do I know my wood is ready for paint?
You can determine if your deck is ready to be painted by sprinkling some water on your deck. If water beads up then the boards are still too moist to paint or seal. If the water soaks right in, then your deck is dry enough for paint.

Photo: Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford

Thanks to our amazing painter, Sam Rios for always doing quality work at great prices and for sharing your experience and wisdom with a couple young, newbie home-renovators. If you’re local and looking for a painter, we know a guy!

May 16, 2017July 19, 2017

A Budget Friendly Kitchen Makover for Under $250

When you walk into our house, after walking through our small entryway, you enter the large open concept floor plan that is our downstairs living space and find yourself smack dab in the middle of our very open kitchen. Despite the fact that I’m no chef nor do I aspire to be one, our kitchen is quite literally the heart of our home- not because we are foodies, but because our house seems to expand out from the kitchen that is situated in the center. From the kitchen, you can see every room in the house that isn’t a bedroom or a bathroom- although with doors open you can see a couple bedrooms and bathrooms from the kitchen too. Conversely, this means that every room in the house can see the kitchen as well. We learned quickly with this super open concept that there are also cons to having such an open living space including the fact that you can see our dirty dishes from just about anywhere. There’s no hiding them. Also, when we moved in, our kitchen was so outdated and drab, it really brought the rest of the house down with it. I’m always so bad about taking good “before” photos, but here’s the beginning of our kitchen makeover (featuring my lovely husband and our then 20-month-old toddler):

This is a shot of what our kitchen looked like “before”. Although, this shot was after we had taken off a few of the original metal handles and we did paint the top wall (above the cabinets) white. It was previously painted a dark grey color which you can see in the shot below. Knowing that we planned to go with black cabinets, we decided that we needed lots of white to contrast the dark cabinets.

I’ll preface the rest of this kitchen reveal by saying that we did start this process out considering the option of replacing and redoing our entire kitchen. Although we like the layout for the most part, our cabinets were not only outdated on the outside (covered with some fake wood-finish Formica or plastic material) but they are pretty old on the inside too. There’s a good amount of lime green and pink flowery wallpaper lining our cabinets and drawers that looks like something you might find in a hippy bus from the 70’s (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but it’s also pretty worn and dirty in a way that can’t be cleaned or removed easily.

Friends, meet the retro inside of our silverware drawer:

The drawers are also just narrow enough to be too narrow to hold any sort of drawer organizers. So all of our utensils jingle around like the disorganized mess of silver that they are and we have to keep the sharp knives in their own spot so no one looses a finger digging around for their soup spoon.

After getting a couple quotes for an entirely new kitchen in price ranges upwards of $35,000, we decided not to spend the next 3-4 years trying to pay for a kitchen. So we set out to find some ways to update our kitchen in a budget-friendly, DIY fashion.

I knew I wanted black cabinets. I love white cabinets also and we toyed with the idea of going white, mainly because it seemed like a nice safe bet, but I convinced JP that we should go dark and if we wanted to change we could always paint over the cabinets later. We found this Valspar cabinet paint from Lowe’s Home Improvement.

We picked Valspar’s Dark Kettle Black color with a semi-gloss finish. And we needed just a little over 2 gallons to paint ALL of our cabinets. This pint (pictured above) was the last bit that I needed to finish the final coat on a couple of the drawers and its still got about 2/3 of the paint left in it for touch-ups later.

We bought these drawer and cabinet pulls from All Modern in a stainless steel finish.

We scrubbed down the kitchen cabinets and prepped the cabinets for paint. I took all of the cabinet doors off and cut in the edges and corners by hand with a paint brush. Then I used a roller to roll the paint on everywhere else.

Our drawers were a little tricky because the drawers that we have don’t come out all of the way (or if they do, we couldn’t figure out how to get them out all the way) so I just carefully painted around them when they were open, then let the paint dry completely before closing them.

Once the cabinet bases were painted and dried (left to sit overnight), I screwed the doors back on and painted them while they were attached to the bases. Note: this isn’t my first time painting kitchen cabinets. I have painted 2 other kitchens prior to this and previously I laid the doors on a giant tarp to be painted which is actually more difficult and more trouble in our case than just screwing the cabinets on and painting them while they’re attached. When you paint doors that are laying on a tarp, you either need a very large garage or outdoor covered space or a large indoor space that will not be disturbed by pets or babies. Since we don’t have either of those, I decided the safest bet would be to keep the cabinets attached while we painted them and just attempt to keep everyone out of the kitchen for a day while they dried. Also it was quicker to paint them this way because I was able to paint both sides of the cabinet and leave them open to dry as opposed to painting one side at a time while they lie on a tarp.

We decided to get rid of the cabinet and vent hood above our range to help with the sight lines and making the space seem more open. We learned through this process that our vent hood wasn’t even vented out and instead was actually just a glorified fan which would blow the smoke around inside but not actually suck any smoke out of the room.

And we love the way it looks without a cabinet there. We have yet to refinish the part of the ceiling that the cabinet and vent hood were attached to, but it’s on our list of to-do’s.

The total cost of our entire kitchen makeover breaks down like this:

Drawer/Cabinet Pulls (40 count at $2.60 a piece): $104
Cabinet Paint (2 gallons and 1 pint): $116
Removal of upper cabinet and vent hood (DIY with the help of my dad): $0
Total cost: $220

And the finished product:

We finished this kitchen makeover in early September of 2016. These “after” pictures were taken today (May 17th, 2017), a little over 8 months later and we are so happy with how our painted cabinets turned out and how well they have held up. We’ve noticed very little wear and they are extremely easy to clean. The only spot that we have seen wear is the spot right behind our trash and recycling bins. Because of the constant scraping when we open and close the bins, the paint is wearing off a bit. It’s barely noticeable when the bins are pushed flush up against the cabinet, but when you pull them out, you can see the original cabinet finish underneath.

Overall, we think it may be the best $220 we’ve ever spent.

May 12, 2017July 19, 2017

Our Front Landscaping Project- Part 1

We started our landscaping last weekend. When I envisioned what we would accomplish, I had originally planned to start and finish our landscaping last weekend, but I seriously underestimated the time it takes to dig holes and plant plants. Also, home improvement with 2 kids under 3 usually means spending 3 times as long on each task. Luckily the bulk of our work happened on Saturday and the grandparents took the oldest little to Disney for the day. So JP and I knocked out quite a bit with the littlest strapped to me in our Tula (shown below- just so you know that it really happened).

Here’s what the front landscape looked like before.

It was already pretty bare because we purged a TON of overgrown bushes shortly after we moved in with plans to re-landscape everything eventually.

We ripped most of the existing plants out- which ended up being just 4 bushes and a whole bunch of weeds. We left our palm trees and some other small plants around the corner. Then we laid down some weed barrier and tacked it down with metal stakes. (Note: we decided NOT to rake out all the flower beds before laying down the weed barrier. So instead of having clean and fresh dirt, we left the old weed barriers and some leaves down underneath. With the mindset that it would be even more help to keep weeds from growing. If it does in fact keep the weeds out better, then it will be worth it, but it did make it significantly harder to dig holes and plant the new plants.) Here;s a shot of the freshly laid weed barrier.

It took 3 (Kia Sorento) cars full of plants from Lowe’s to stock this landscape, but I planned ahead and picked up a few plants at a time earlier in the week on my lunch breaks. We really just made multiple trips out of sheer practicality and the fact that our car could only hold so much. In hindsight, it was really good to take multiple trips throughout the week because it allowed me to place the plants where I thought I wanted them and get a rough idea of how many more of each thing we needed. I was also able to better gauge the balance of large/medium/small plants and make sure the landscape was well balanced. By Saturday, I just needed a few more fluffy cattails and some smaller ground covering.

Once we had all the plants, I arranged them the way I wanted them. Originally I had envisioned rows and straight lines and once I got them all laid out, I switched it up to clusters. I arranged a lot of the medium/larger plants in triangle clusters. I still used a few lines, with the smaller plants like the spider plants around the oak tree pictured below.

I also used straight lines for the small Mexican Hair Grass and the concrete planters holding the Queen’s Mum African Lillies both shown below. Because the planters are so boxy, it was imperative that they were evenly spaced and level. We actually pulled some of the white landscape border stones (shown in the picture above) and used them underneath the planters to give them a hard surface to rest on and also to raise them up a bit. We actually measured their location with a tape measure and then made sure each one was level before pouring the dirt in.

I found those concrete planters at Target, and I can’t link them for you because they are so gone. I drove to 4 different targets just to find those 3, none of them showed up online as being available (not even in the store) and none of them were able to be shipped so we completely lucked out getting these 3. I loved them so much I got a pair of smaller ones to frame the front door (shown below).

After all the plants were placed in their final resting places, we started planting- well JP started planting. I watched and held the baby and then once he got far enough over I started shoveling the rocks in.

We’ve still got a long way to go before we’re finished, but were just doing a little at a time in the evenings between work and diaper changes and making dinner

Here’s a shot closer to sunset once the spot lights had turned on.

The lights make a big difference, and we’ve got a few more to place before we’re finished. We got these Threshold solar powered spotlights from Target. They’re 15 lumens and work so great. Right now, they’re selling for $10 a piece in store, but you can go to this link and get them for $8.50 online.

My goal for our landscape was to get super low-maintenance plants that are hardy enough to not need to be watered all the time. I didn’t want any bushes that would have to be trimmed. I also didn’t want any weeds (I mean who does?) Are you noticing a pattern here? In case you missed it, we don’t like yard work. So in our search of a nice yard without the work, I settled on a drought resistant, midwest modern landscape vibe.

We got a lot of succulents, cattails, aloe plants, snake and spider plants, hardy grasses and kid-friendly cacti (ones without big pointy needles). I also incorporated some pineapple plants I had in pots in our backyard. We went with white rocks to contrast our dark house color and all in we are very happy with how it’s turning out. We are looking forward to the days when we can be done with yard work and enjoy our easy low-maintenance, environmentally friendly landscape.

April 24, 2017July 19, 2017

Our Dream Home- The Best Flip we will (hopefully) Never Make

We have come along way since June 2015 when we purchased our 3rd home.

Our house stats when we purchased it were:
3,534 sqft
5 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
Purchase price: $160,000
Appraisal value at purchase: $180,000

When we bought this house, we knew it would require a good amount of work. We spent $40,000 in improvements just in the first year, and the majority of that went toward mandatory or practical improvements (not the fun cosmetic stuff), but after a year of work, we can finally rest easy knowing that we made a good investment.

When we moved in to this house, we had insane house bills for the entire first year. Not only were we paying to fix things that needed fixing, but we had added insurance costs because our home had previously been a foreclosure. We also paid a much higher rate for very little insurance coverage due to the fact that we had cloth wiring and extremely old galvanized plumbing. Our electric bill was sky high in the hot months (which in Florida is about 360 days per year) because of old single-pane windows and very little insulation. Additionally the PMI (private mortgage insurance) we had to pay for not being able to put down a 20% down-payment tacked on almost $200 per month.

So we were on a mission to lower those costs in every way possible. We focused on material updates that would increase our home’s value (to help us get rid of our PMI), and also anything to help us lower our insurance costs or save on utilities. The updates we did in the first year included:

Replacing all the windows- $5,000
Replacing one of the A/C units- $1,000
Purchasing and installing all kitchen appliances (there were NONE originally)- $5,000
Paid handymen to remove above ground pool built into part of the deck and the deck that surrounded it- $1,200
Replacing all galvanized plumbing- $5,000
Replacing and updating electrical (removing cloth wires)- $2,500
Drywall repair after redoing plumbing and electrical- $3,000
Installing a home security system complete with smart-home thermostats and smoke detectors- $100
Redoing the hall bathroom (the sub-floor under the tile was moldy from a small leak that was never fixed and when you walked on the tile floor it moved similar to that of a trampoline under your feet)- $2,000
Purchasing and installing doors (multiple rooms didn’t have any doors- thus the beauty of buying a foreclosure)- $600
Fixing leak in sports room ceiling/reworking lighting/drywall repair- $1,500
Replacing lights in kitchen with recessed can lighting- $500
DIY wall install in master bedroom to make a walk through closet- $300
Built in IKEA closets- $1,900
Reworking lighting in upstairs master bedroom and relocating some wall outlets in the nursery- $1,000
Drywall repair and painting for upstairs- $1,000
Replacing upstairs floors (including 2 bedrooms and stair landing) and stairs with hardwood floors- $5,200
Adding foam insulation in walls and attic throughout the house- $800
DIY painting interior walls, purchasing and installing light fixtures (where there were none) and other minor DIY fixes- $2,400
Total first year costs: $40,000

After a year, we were hopeful that our updates combined with the housing market’s natural climb would get us an appraisal of at least $200k to allow us to cancel our PMI payments. (In order to cancel PMI manually, you have to purchase and order an appraisal on your home and it has to come back at least 20% above your original home loan price).

Our current home stats are:
3,534 sqft
5 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
Purchase price: $160,000
Appraisal value at purchase: $180,000
Appraisal value 1 year later: $275,000

After a year of hard work, staying focused on our budget and gritting our teeth while putting our hard earned money into many practical things that will possibly never be seen (i.e. plumbing and electrical), we are proud to say that our home appraised $115,000 more than we purchased it for and with an overall investment of $200,000 ($160,000 purchase price + $40,000 renovations), that gives us a net equity value of $75,000! Also, after cancelling our PMI and making the necessary updates per our insurance requirements, we were able to get solid home insurance coverage and reduce our monthly payments by almost $400.

We are in our dream house and we don’t have plans to flip this house anytime soon, but it’s comforting to know that we wouldn’t be underwater if we had to sell. In the meantime, stick around, follow along as we work our way through our home updates and renovations. Now that we’re through the worst of the mandatory fixes, we can finally focus on the fun stuff.

Next up: Backyard makeover!

April 17, 2017July 19, 2017

Updates on our Backyard Renovation

I’m so excited about the progress we’re making on our Backyard Renovation! So far, we have demolished the entire deck including the second story balcony, stairs and outhouse. We’ve leveled out the dirt to prepare for the new deck and while everything was torn down, we thought it would be the perfect time to paint our house. So we did that too. And after this poll, we decided to go with the darker color for our house despite the fact that approximately 90+ percent of you guys voted for the lighter color. If you know me well, then you know I am anything but the type to follow the crowd, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

Right now our backyard is a construction zone. It’s full of dirt and it’s nearly impossible to keep the dogs from tracking all the dirt inside. So don’t expect too many posts about the inside of our house, until we get this backyard renovation completed, because I’m basically constantly cleaning and yet nothing ever seems clean. That’s the life of a full-time working mama in the middle of big home renovations right? We do make time for our kiddos and we love our family time. This past Easter weekend was full of it. Here’s a sweet shot of us at church yesterday after the Easter service.

We spent this weekend out and about, because there’s not too many spots around here to hangout with the construction zone in the back and the front yard off limits because we are trying to grow us some grass. Luckily, we are fortunate to have family with an awesome pool to spend all afternoon Sunday swimming. Meanwhile in our backyard… There is a LOT of dirt and leaves.

We have made some big decisions on the backyard renovation. We decided to do all wood deck (instead of concrete) for the bottom and top story, so that we could keep our live oak. We also decided not to put a roof over the entire deck, just the top balcony (which is off our master bedroom). The top balcony will be covered and screened in. We may add in a roof over the bottom at some point, but for now, our tree gives us plenty of shade and the Tree Lady says it’s in perfect condition to live on for years to come. You can see the trunk in the picture below.

We have also decided to keep the shell of our backyard shed for now (pictured below).

We have never used this for anything but occasional storage, and had originally planned on tearing it down to make more backyard space for the dogs and kids to play in. However, now that we’re not planning to have a roof put in over the bottom deck, we’re thinking we may take the walls and floors out and keep the supports and the roof to have our own little covered space. Stay tuned to see what we do with it!

I know there is still a lot left to do, but it’s encouraging to see how far we’ve come already when this is where we started.

We can’t wait to share the finished product with you! You can follow us on Instagram (@phillipsflips) to stay in the loop with all of our day to day progress and updates.

April 12, 2017July 19, 2017

How to Choose a Style and Color Scheme for your Home

When it comes to home decorating, most people have a style that they gravitate towards and most people decorate individual rooms with similar color schemes, but should you have a house-wide color scheme and style?

Maybe you should.

While there may be some legitimate reasons to have a room with a different color scheme or style (for example: kids rooms and nurseries or specialty rooms like a theater room or kid’s play room may have some different style/color needs that exclude them from following your house-wide color scheme), for the most part you should stick to a cohesive look. Having significant variations in decor/color/finishes can make your home seem choppy and feel smaller than it really is. Especially with the open-floor plan trending high on most priority lists, a house-wide color scheme and style is even more noticeable and needed.

When you’re looking into buying your decor/textiles/paint colors or considering bigger more permanent renovation projects like changing the floors, cabinets, light fixtures or other major renovations, having a color scheme and style in mind is key to making sure that the decisions you make for your home now will be good decisions for future buyers as well as your future self.

Coming up with an idea board and color scheme for your home is a great place to start.

First, consider your house. Does your house have a style already? Maybe you’ve settled into a 1920’s Victorian. Your mid-century modern pieces probably won’t be welcome there. Victorian houses typically look best with darker wood tones and rich colors like maroon, navy, and maybe some green with off-white accents. The fixtures usually have an antique style with black iron or brassy finishes. They are usually chock full of character and intricate woodworking details. Vintage rugs always pair nice with this style- although I may be a bit biased because I’m convinced that vintage rugs will go with any style.

Some houses may not have a distinct style in which case they are more of a shell to infuse with your own style. The good thing about those houses is you’ve got a clean slate to work with. The bad news (sometimes) is that the more generic houses that are flexible enough to work with any style usually lack the unique character that most people love, but you can always add character pieces in! Other houses may have a subtle style that can be changed by changing colors, finishes or fixtures.

Whether you’re looking to flip or just lovingly inhabit, you’ve got to have a style in mind. Once you’ve determined your style, start pulling together some ideas for an idea board. This is a great time to incorporate Pinterest. You can search on your specific style and/or colors that you’d like to incorporate and get a feel for the vibe you want in your own home. Here’s an idea board example of a modern beachy style perfect for houses near the coast- or landlocked ocean lovers. Someone with this idea board would be looking for most all neutrals (tans, grays, beige, greige – yes! that’s a thing). They would accent with lighter wood tones or vintage or weathered wood pieces, anything white (or white-washed), woven textiles, linen fabrics, and lighter blue tones or anything that pairs well with those. You could accent with a little bit of navy or coral or even bright red if you wanted a more bold look- but not all three.

Consider the more permanent/semi-permanent features of your home. Do your floors and cabinets go with the theme you’ve picked? If not, consider if you plan to change those or if you may need to change some of your ideas around to fit with your current fixtures.

Here’s a mid-century themed board. Mid-century houses are usually accented with medium wood tones, gold or brass fixtures, tapered legs and always the starburst lighting. This is usually a style relegated to houses built in the “mid-century”- think 1940’s to 1970’s occasionally the 1980’s and while this is a pretty distinct style, you can usually infuse this style into a more generic home with mid-century decor and maybe a few added character touch-ups. Commonly used mid-century colors include mustard yellow, dark orange and olive among others. A common trend these days is the mid-century modern style which combines the mid-century board (below) with more modern elements.

Once you’ve got your idea board, pull out some specific things to help define a template for your home theme. What type of wood tones will you have? What temperature will your neutrals be? For example, do you like the warmer tans, beige and cream colored or off-white neutrals like the farmhouse idea board below?

Or would you prefer cooler toned neutrals like pure white and shades of gray? Make a list of your top neutral colors as well as the accent colors or brighter colors you plan to have in your home (if you’re planning for any). And then use your idea board as a guide when you’re picking out new decor or paint colors. This bright bohemian board is almost enough to convert my style. I just love the fun and bright eclectic patterns mixed with the crocheted hammocks and Pom Pom decor. And of course bohemian style isn’t complete without house plants.

For our house theme, we’ve got a industrial modern meets mid-century modern vibe going on and I’m gravitating towards black and white and cool grey neutrals. We’ve got a giant camel colored leather sectional from Restoration Hardware that lives in our family room which is really the heart of our house so the camel color is part of our home decor board. In addition to our cool neutrals, we’ve accented with navy and an occasional pop of yellow- because yellow is just the best color ever! We have a mix of finishes from black industrial-style metal finishes to stainless steel finishes in our kitchen and then a handful of the more mid-century gold accents as well. We’ve installed some light hickory hardwood floors with lots of variation from light to medium tones and we plan to install more downstairs eventually. We also want to add in some polished grey concrete floors in our family room and some fun cement tile accents- probably black and white. So I use this idea board as a base for our home decor purchases and any new finishes. That doesn’t mean we don’t ever go outside of the box. For example, my daughter’s bedroom is a fun cotton-candy pink with grey and white accents. And since our sports/theater room houses our old dark brown and tan sofa and chairs, that room has more warm tones to coordinate with the furniture. Also, the sports room has actual football field turf on the floor which isn’t really part of our idea board, but it makes for a fun (and super cheap) floor covering for the (mostly) football-themed room. Remember when I mentioned those exceptions above? There will always be some. But for the most part, our open-spaced living downstairs, follows the rules for our intended style and color scheme.

Here’s our home idea board complete with pictures of our actual home and decor as well as a few “dream” items.

You’d be surprised at how much an idea board like this helps when you’re browsing the throw pillows at Target and trying to decide if they will go well with your decor or not.

How do you keep a cohesive look in your home?