I Renovated My First Home on a Super Tight Budget—Where I Saved (and Splurged)

It’s no secret that homeownership is expensive. Between the down payment, insurance, mortgage, and interest rates, there are so many factors to think about.

And that’s before you even get to the costs associated with maintaining and upgrading your home. I’ve been learning these lessons (and more) since buying my first home last year.

One of the hardest things about my experience so far has been being realistic about our budget, while also turning it into a home we love. We had a lot of projects we wanted to do when we bought our house, but we had to stretch ourselves to buy our home in the first place.

With a bit of ingenuity and lots of DIY skills, here’s where we saved (and splurged) in the last year and a half while making our home truly ours.

Installing Our Own Floors

When we bought the house, the living and dining room had a dated laminate floor that we knew we’d want to replace immediately. But flooring can be expensive, and we knew we wanted to replace the laminate with a durable, quality material, which would cost even more.

To save on the cost of the new floors, my husband decided to do it himself—a DIY he had never done before.

We were able to invest in a beautiful, thick, hickory engineered hardwood because we saved on the cost of installation, and since we had a month before we moved in, my husband had time to learn and get it right.

We were also able to have my father-in-law install the stair treads, making this DIY even more cost-effective.

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Painting the Interior (and Exterior)

Both my husband and I grew up helping our moms paint our houses, so when it came to our own home, it was a no-brainer that we wouldn’t hire a professional to do it.

I also love color, and have used a different color in every room we’ve painted. I love being able to see the work I’ve done pay off in a complete transformation every time.

Doing the painting yourself can save you a lot of money versus hiring a painter, and it’s one of the easiest DIYs you can do, so I’ll always opt to do it myself.

We’re so confident as painters that we’ve even tackled the exterior of our house—while it’s taking longer than it would take a professional, we’re able to save money for other projects as a result.

Landscaping

The backyard of our house was a big mess when we moved in, and while the front was landscaped, it wasn’t really to our taste.

But since my mom is an avid gardener, and my husband and I both worked as landscapers in a former life, we felt pretty good about doing all of the landscaping and gardening ourselves.

My husband even installed new fencing along one side of the yard, and replaced the rickety (and kind of dangerous) deck stairs. We laid sod, dug out garden beds, planted shrubs, flowers, and fruit bushes, and even built a shed.

Light Electrical and Plumbing Work

Despite not having any electrical experience, my husband has replaced almost every light fixture in our home, getting more confident with each one he does.

He’s also felt confident enough to do other tasks around the house as a result, like doing the HVAC maintenance in spring and summer himself, and even installing our new dishwasher.

We also gave our bathroom a small facelift by installing a new countertop, sink, and faucet, which again my father-in-law (who is not a plumber) was able to do for us, saving us money on installation.

3 Splurges That Were Totally Worth It

New kitchen appliances: We can’t afford a full kitchen remodel, but buying a new dishwasher and fridge has gone a long way to helping make our kitchen feel newer and more functional.

New windows and siding: Windows and siding are two areas where you don’t want to compromise, either on the quality of the product or the installation. We hired a reputable exterior company to do both at once, and invested in LP Smartside siding (instead of vinyl) that we knew would last.

New roof: Right after we moved into our home, the roof started to leak after a big rainstorm. While it was $10,000 we weren’t expecting to spend so soon, investing in a new roof didn’t just give us peace of mind for ourselves—it’s also going to be a big selling point if we end up moving in the near future.