Flippin' Crazy

In February of 2010 I purchased my first house - well it's a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo in Centreville, VA, - and I was able to get it for a big bargain! I love that B word. However...it was a disaster zone . And when I say disaster zone I mean my lovely boyfriend, who I will call Mr. Emily, wouldn't even step foot in it. The carpets smelled like cat pee, the kitchen was straight out of 1970, the walls were dirty, there was crap everywhere; it was just a nightmare. But I saw sweat equity! This blog post will show you my attempt at a kitchen transformation for under $5,000. Here are the "before pictures." As you can see, the cabinets were outdated, there was a faux brick wall, a washer in the kitchen (my personal nightmare), 3 appliances that didn't actually work that well (dishwasher not at all) and horrible blue tile which was also in the foyer and bathroom. Lucky me!!! So...ready for the after!? Remember - still a work in progress as I need granite counter t...

Hiya! Welcome to my wonderful blog. This is a first for me so let's hope I don't mess it up! I never understood people who had blogs and wanted to document their lives but here I am. Only I'm not going to bore you with details about my already pretty dull existence and all of the pretty dull things I do every day at work or whatnot. Instead I'm going to bore you with one of my major passions in this world - renovating houses and designing on a budget! Growing up my father was a do it yourselfer; if something was broken or my mother needed something built - he was your man. Once HGTV came around that's all they watched - well that and the Food Network. In turn I learned at a young age how to do things such as reupholster (nothing fancy - seat cushions, simple chairs, etc.), sew pretty much anything, make my own custom lampshades and so on and so forth. Over the years I'm managed to turn all my tricks of the trade into an extremely fun and non expensive hobby!...