Meet the mother who says she saved more than $ 20K on her house – realestate.com.au

Mama van Drie Jess Brouwer used it -itself, from upcycling furniture to home renovations for her regional house, to save tens of thousands of dollars.

The 34 -year -old said that living in Albany, a regional area of ​​West -Australia with few affordable furniture stores, meant that she had to be creative, such as upcycling and painting a faux brick wall.

“I have always been big in art and craft,” she said. “I came from a family who is quite large in the Doe -it himself, my father was completely in it and always built something, so it’s always something I like to do.

“When we started buying our own house, it just started a bit from there, I would see small projects that I knew I could do myself instead of paying someone to do it. It has been a bit of a hobby that has escalated a bit.”

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Mrs. Brouwer was born in Perth, her husband born in Albany.

The family lived in Perth, when they moved to Albany three years ago without seeing the house earlier, of which Mrs. Brouwer said it was ultimately influenced by the market at the time.

“The market was pretty crazy, houses just sold that way,” she said.

“We had brought and missed an offer on a few houses, so when it came up, we had no choice but to throw an offer on it without looking at it, because we could not come to Albany on time before it could be offered.

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Mrs. Brouwer used DIY to save $ 20k+

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“So we took an eye on a leap, threw an offer, hoped for the best and was accepted.

“We moved to Albany and started the renovations.”

Mrs. Brouwer said she saved tens of thousands through these home renovations and do it -herself.

“We have done a lot of work, especially the kitchen renovation, we have done all the floors throughout the house,” she said.

“Just small pieces at the time, but I would easily say more than $ 20,000, just in Labor, do things themselves.”

Mrs. Brouwer said that one of her favorite projects was a cabinet -upcycle.

“One of our neighbors laid a nice cupboard with glass doors on the edge, it was very dusty and scratched, so I scoured that back and painted it in a beautiful low -leaf color with a dulux spray and gave it a complete make -over to fit our house,” she said.

“That was probably one of my favorite.”

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Before and after the cabinet cycle

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Another project that Mrs. Brouwer has recorded is a DIY -the self -wall in the bedrooms of her children.

“That was a nice one, I did two bedrooms in this house,” she said.

“I used an ordinary soft sponge from the supermarket and I cut it in the shape of a brick, baptized it in paint and deposited it on the wall.

“The children chose the colors they wanted, we went to Bunnings together and they chose the colors and made a brick wall in their bedrooms.

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Mrs. Brouwer also did a faux brick wall.

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“They were really happy with it and it turned out to be a lot of fun.”

Another upcycled -the -To -himself transformed an old coffee table into a multifunctional chess table.

“I found that table in a store in Albany – I think I paid two dollars for it,” she said.

“The children like to play chess, our chessboard broke, so I used my cricut machine with vinyl stickers to turn the table into a chessboard.

“So if it is not used now, it is a coffee table and then we have the small chess pieces there if we want to chess.”

The Do -It -yourself coffee and chess table

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Steps of the DIY chess table.

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Mrs. Brouwer shared some advice for other do-it-yourselfers.

“I would say you are doing your research, there are so much information online tutorials, how-to-videos etc.” She said.

“Learn from mistakes and just have fun with it.”

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