When you're fixing up your own place, DIY style, the cost to any project is a combination of materials (and tools) and your time. Let's address materials first. I have found two great resources providing significant savings on materials- Craigslist and the local used building material Re-Store.
When someone is remodeling their home, they sometimes make mistakes- buy the wrong size door, multiply wrong and purchase twice as much tile as their bathroom needed, love the look of a vanity online, but hate how it looks installed. All these others' mistakes can turn into your great fortune, simply by keeping an eye out for projects you might be thinking about tackling in the coming year.
A short list of some of the best deals we've jumped on in the last few years:
-a 6ft live edge cedar plank for 10$
-25 sq ft stacked stone veneer for 5$ (we purchased a matching box new from the manufacturer to finish the project at 70$ for a total cost of 75 rather than 140)
-43 sq ft quartz countertop in two slabs perfect for our own kitchen upgrade for 250$ (just got it this weekend, and boy is that stuff heavy!)
The remaining costs to a home-improvement project vary depending significantly on how valuable your time is and how competent your DIY skill is (it would even more costly and disappointing to try the project yourself and then have to hire someone else to come fix it!). So, if there's a project you want to tackle, but it's just outside your DIY range, give us a call.