DIY Archives - Better Than Newlyweds

DIY Master Bathroom Makeover: The Mirror | Better Than Newlyweds | Stacy Hudson

July 18, 2014 by Mrs. Hudson

Everything big happens in small steps. That’s the way things go in our house anyways! The BIG thing we would like is for our outdated master bathroom to get a full makeover BUT the reality is that it will happen in small steps until we can afford to gut it if we choose. We are doing things the Dave Ramsey way so right now our budget (everyone should have one!) is focused on paying off debt. In our 3+ years of marriage we have worked hard and paid off credit cards and one student loan and are now working on our last student loan! So there is no big money to redo the bathroom. However, When I found a mirror that could replace our old tri fold medicine cabinet mirror… for only 15 bucks… it was worth it for me! Even if I had to give up a few cups of coffee to make up the difference in our budget! However, I try to include “craftiness and DIY desires” in our budget! We had a budget meeting where we decide what goes in the budget… Ill discuss that in another post! 😀

I found the mirror I used to update our bathroom on a Facebook re-sale group! I LOVE buying from other folks! It is basically a combination of a garage sale and an auction! Two of my favorite things!

We were not fans of the color but I knew that could be fixed with a can of spray paint or two! What mattered was that it was the right size! We had a tall narrow spot on the wall to fill. So after measuring and then buying the mirror it was time to paint! I just set the mirror on top of an old bar stool that could use a coat of paint anyhow… and sprayed away! It took maybe 5 – 10 minutes… I did 2 coats to be sure I covered up the lovely gold.

After painting it was time to put it up in the bathroom! My hope was that the new mirror would cover up the old wallpaper we discovered under our old mirror (don’t worry the counter top is my next project!)… that did not happen…

So thankfully the previous homeowner left us a BIG bucket of paint that was leftover from when they painted the house right before we bought it…..so we busted that out and I got to stirring and painting!

My sweet hubby helped me rewire the back of the mirror so it would hang easier on the 2 screws (with drywall anchors) I put in the wall. I will probably go fill in the old screw holes left by the old mirror…. one day! But for now we are enjoying our new mirror… and not seeing myself from 3 angles when I wake up in the morning in all my half awake wonderfulness is a plus! 🙂

p.s. Don’t worry… that light fixture is on our to do list too! 😉

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NASB) “12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

DIY Curb Appeal Makeover Phase 1: Front Garden Project |Stacy Hudson |Better Than Newlyweds

June 10, 2014 by Mrs. Hudson

So my to do list for my business, household, house projects, and just life never seems to end. I’m trying to just get things done instead of waiting to have the perfect plan to get things done… cause in reality… things never work out like we plan them anyways right?! And DONE is better than NOT! So we are learning to do things in phases. Sometimes that means things look a little ugly before they get prettier BUT the important part is they eventually GET DONE!

Our front garden area was always a project we knew we would have to tackle one day but we just didn’t know when and it really wasn’t a priority. Well, over the past few months we have been praying about the path God wanted us to take and a calling for us to possibly move. This would mean of course, selling our house. THAT would mean A LOT of things but we knew that it for sure meant we needed to work on our curb appeal in case that was the direction we felt like God wanted us to go. So we got to work!

This is a picture of the front garden as it has grown over the past year and a half or so that we have lived here…obviously we neglected it and it grew!

front before 20140302_175341 — This is a picture of the front garden as it has grown over the past year and a half or so that we have lived here…obviously we neglected it and it grew!

So first thing I did was trim what we already had in place and it looked better BUT neither of us was really happy with that as the final product. And with my HH (Handsome Hubby) being a realtor… I knew for sure it wasn’t gonna fly like that if we ended up selling and moving. What do you think……(picture below)? 😀

So we decided to dig everything up. Some of the plants we decided to relocate… others we gave away or just tossed. You know no one wants those annoying painful sticker plants anyhow! It always seems we wait til it is warmish or hot to do outdoor projects! One year we will have to do these when it is cooler out! Either way phase 1 of clean up and dig up was under way! We had some leftover pavers from the patio we put in on the side of our carport (post coming soon) and I wanted to use them in the front somewhere. I tried them out for a path way but decided to do something else with them that I’ll be posting about later! So stay tuned!

front garden removing plants

Our dog, Lagniappe (pronounced Lan – Yap), offered to help us dig! 😀 It is one of his specialties! After we dug up the plants we added some dirt to the beds to fill them out some! Then we tilled it to mix up the new/old dirt. My great Father in Law helped us with that! 😀

Phase 1 done! Here is a list of all that we did! It was a lot of work but the end result will be worth it!

cleaned up old bed
trimmed old plants
dug up old plants
relocated old plants
added dirt to beds (we did the left side of the house too!)
tilled the beds

front right garden before 20140302_175253 tilled 20140321_132143_Port Hudson Dr

Now we are ready to figure out the shape we want and plants we want! Phase 2 post coming soon!

Do you like to garden? What is your favorite plant?

Share your garden adventures in a comment below!

Jeremiah 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

DIY: Reclaimed mirror spray painted and made new

May 25, 2014 by Mrs. Hudson

Decorating a new house is a huge task! When we got married we moved in to the house my husband already had and we tried to make it our own BUT we knew we would be trying to sell it soon so we didn’t really decorate it. We tried to sell it before we got married but it didn’t happen so we took it off the market and I moved in after the wedding and we were there for about a year before deciding to move closer to my side of the family. The year of “seclusion” (it seemed so far from anything for me!) was good for us in a way because it allowed us to focus on each other with less distractions. So our first year of marriage was sometimes hard but also wonderful because when we had a tough time… or a glorious time… we were closest to each other. We really became each others best friends…. more than before. Any who, back to the house!

Above is the living room in our 2nd house! After moving in to this house we knew we would be here for at least 5 years (according to our plan anyways… God can always shake things up a bit!) SOOOO I was going to be able to decorate! We were finally going to be able to make our house a Home! 😀 Once we finally figured out our furniture layout (thanks to my amazing hubby!) it was time to decorate the wall! 😀 yay! I really wanted something over the couch BUT I didn’t want to spend a lot of money! yanno how that goes? So the search began and I finally came across this mirror below and claimed it as our own… and got it for a steal at $20! I knew I could spray paint it white and it would fit in and be right at home in our new house! 😀

I liked the decorative pattern on the reclaimed mirror too! That was an added bonus! To get it ready for painting I stuck newspaper under the edges of the side and taped the papers together… I then set up a tarp outside and after wiping down the mirror edges free of dust and sanding any rough spots…. I painted the first coat! 😀

It took 2 coats to make the reclaimed mirror look ok but I went ahead and did a third coat to make it a more solid and crisp white since the darker blue underneath was hard to cover up! 😀 After I finished painting I decided to plat with sanding it and making it have worn spots. Once I was pleased with how those came out… on the wall it went! 😀

I have since added frames to the side of the reclaimed mirror and filled them with pictures of people we Love. 🙂

Proverbs 14:1 ” The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.”

What is your favorite DIY project? Have a link to one you have done… please share below! 😀 Thanks for reading!

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NASB) “12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

Proverbs 14:1 ” The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.”

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