Realtor To Renovator – Update Your Home On A Budget

Just look at what’s on your plate. Step back. Assess. What season are you in? Yeah. Is this something that should stay on your plate right now? Is this something that maybe you pick up at the start of next year and then what can you outsource? There’s only certain areas of my life that I am able to fill that role.
Welcome to the imperfectly empowered podcast with DIY healthy lifestyle blogger on a former empowering you to transform your life one imperfect day at a time. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I am your host on a former today. I’m introducing you to Lena Taylor.
Lena is a successful realtor, turned home renovator. She is the influential face behind the DIY inspiration on Instagram at flipping gorgeous, where she shares her passion for inspiring others to create a beautiful life with their hands, sharing her expertise and budget friendly hacks to create the home.
Of your dreams. Welcome Lena Taylor . Thank you for having me. Absolutely. This is so fun for everyone listening and watching. I met Lena at the Haven conference. Many of you have heard me talk about it before it’s the national. DIY home decor conference for influencers and bloggers. And I was speaking on podcasting and Leno was there and we had a great conversation and it’s so fun because actually at the conference, I rarely have time to actually dive into people’s accounts and what they do and seeing kind of what their niches.
So I had so much fun diving into yours. I was looking through your Instagram. I was like, oh girl. Yep. We got all kinds of things that we can talk about. we really do have so much in common. We really do. I love it, but let’s press rewind. So for if, for everyone listening, she is, I kind of mentioned this when I introduced you.
She is a DIY expert home renovator however, you started as a realtor. Yes. So I think I’ve kind of coined this term that I’m a realtor turned renovator that’s the best way I can describe it. My background is in real estate. So I’ve been a real licensed real estate agent for almost a decade. And when the pandemic hit, well, I guess I should back up even before then.
I have three small children. So first, how old are your kids? How old are they? My, my oldest is seven. I have seven, five and three. Love it. So I got into real estate right before I had my first child. So getting into real estate, you know, with no kids was very different. So my real estate career really. It shaped, it shifted over the course of my career from going into it, you know, having no children to then welcoming three children over the past, you know, eight years.
So going into real estate, I always wanted to get into real estate because when I was younger, my parents flipped houses. Mm-hmm so going back, it’s funny to see I’m a big believer of like everything in your life kind of happens for a reason. Yeah. And then you put all the threads and pieces together and you’re like, wow, this is how I ended up where I am.
So when I was younger, my parents. Flipped houses. So some of my earliest memories are my parents taking me into these like gross houses. And , I love that you buying them. That’s gonna be my kids one day. Yeah. That they’re gonna, yeah. And I’d love gonna be like, oh my gosh, my parents would drag us through these like mold infested.
Yes. I loved it. I loved, I mean, my sister hated it. I loved every minute of it. I would have my mom’s like floor plan books spread out on the floor, like going through houses and being like, oh, look at this one. So I always loved homes and design. So after I went into the corporate world out of college, and then I had the opportunity to change careers because I was getting married, I was moving to my husband’s home town.
We didn’t have any children. It felt like, okay, if I’m gonna do real estate, this is the perfect time to get license mm-hmm . So we were playing a wedding, I was doing some consulting work and I decided I’m gonna get, I’m gonna get my license now. And a lot of that interest came from my childhood and I always thought eventually I wanted to get into the renovation side of it, the investing side of it.
But to start, I wanted to learn about the business by representing people, buying it and selling homes. So that’s where it all kind of started for me. And then over the course of having children, you know, I would take some time off from actively selling real estate because I was raising small kids. And then my husband went back to do a surgical residency.
And so my real estate career really helped us get through that financially mm-hmm mm-hmm so it was a great career, but if I’m being very honest, I think my passions always lied in the creative aspect of what real estate could be. Again, finding homes or helping people see them versus selling them.
Mm-hmm so when. I would have a baby, I would take some time off and then I would feel like I would get going back in my real estate career and then something would happen with one of my kids or something like that. So flash for it. I had just had my third child. This was, she was born in 2019. So February of 2020, I was like, okay, I’m ready to get back into real estate.
We had moved we had been in this house that had been renovating, you know, we had bought a house that we thought maybe would be in for two years. I was like, it’s perfect. We’ll fix it up a little bit. Right. So February, 2020, I was like, all right, I’m established the baby’s six months old. I’m gonna get back into real estate, joined a local brokerage, started like full force full gun.
Well, we all know what happened in March of 2020. right. How many people have that story? Right? Like how many of us were like, it was the beginning of 2020 and we were, and then the world shut down. Like, so I was ready. I was ready to run with my real estate career. I mean, you know, you can go back and find maybe some of my, uh, accounts where I’m making all my real estate videos, but I was ready to go with it.
And then we all know what happened. We all found ourselves at home. Well, my husband is in the medical field, so he wasn’t at home. Mm-hmm so it was me at home with three small kids, homeschooling, you know, my oldest one who was about start kindergarten. And then, so I had three under. Six at home with a six month old.
So at that point, my real estate career came to just hard stop mm-hmm because I couldn’t leave the house. You know, I was trying to manage the kids and hopping online when I could. And in a weird way, looking back, it’s almost the forced pause that I needed. Yeah. To allow myself to explore these other things, because I always thought, oh, well, if I’m gonna be successful, I need to be doing real estate.
So when the pandemic hit, like everybody else, we are at home and feeling like, wow, what is gonna happen? How long is this gonna happen? How long am I gonna have to be home? When are the kids going back to school? And I started painting walls and repeat, when are the kids going back to school? When are the kids going back to school?
Remember myself that several times stayed on repeat . Well, I remember we were having a, a meeting for one of my sons talking about his kindergarten transition for the next year. And everyone of got the notice and it was like, oh, weird. Okay. Well, I guess we’ll see you the week after spring. It never went back.
We’re like, no way they’re gonna keep it out more than a week. So yes. When are the kids gonna go back? So I, I remember feeling just really out of control, worried. I was looking at my dining room and I was like, I’m gonna paint this dining room. I’ve been wanting to paint this dining room. So I started painting the dining room.
And just in that process of painting, it was really cathartic because the world was so out of control. Everything was so out of control. I couldn’t control when my kids were going back to school. I couldn’t control when I could go, you know, hang out with my friends. I couldn’t control anything, but I could control the color of that wall.
Mm-hmm I could paint that wall. I could make what I want. And in that moment, it really. Just made me realize that being creative and working with my hands is really my outlet in so many ways. So it just snowballed from there. Right? Cause I was at home with the kids. I was doing anything. I was like, okay, well we’re gonna, we’re gonna paint this dining room.
Okay. Now I’m gonna go, what color did you go? Paint the dining room. Now I’m curious. I think it was a gray. I think it was a agreeable gray. Yeah. It was like two years ago when gray was like the hot color yeah. Oh, and agreeable gray was like the gray color. That was the, go check it out. If anyone likes a warm gray, agreeable, gray.
There you go. I think that’s what I painted it. And it had, you know, Wayne’s coating. So I freshened up all the Wayne’s coat. Yeah. And then I, I snowballed into. Oh, let me see if I can make over these outdated countertops. And again, we didn’t have a lot of money at the time, you know? Right. We had just come in out, come out of my husband’s surgical residency.
So we had a lot of data and people need to understand. So having, you know, being a nurse practitioner myself and understand like when people hear, oh, surgeon, it’s so easy for people to see these home renovation worlds and be like, well, they have money to do that. Okay. Surgical residency, I’m not gonna put any type of dollar sign on your debt, but that does not mean that you come out and now you have all this money debt.
You know, the funny part ultimately have a lot of debt. So this is something to remember when you see these influencer accounts and you see these homes. A lot of times we are doing these things on a significant budget, especially coming out in the first couple years, which is exactly where we were. I mean, we were less than.
I think we were only not even a full year out at that point. Yeah. And so things I remember thinking were done, it’s supposed to feel easier. And that first year out felt hard. It felt so hard. And so we were still trying to penny, you know, save money wherever we could. So this house that we bought, we thought we were only gonna live there for two years because my husband was gonna do more training.
right. On top of all the training we already done, he was gonna do more training. So my real estate background said, Hey, this area of town that we’re moving into, it’s actually back then, again, this was two years ago, cheaper for us to buy a house. Live there for two years and sell it versus rented for two years.
Mm mm-hmm. just with the way the market was in the area. We at the time. Yeah. So I said, let’s find a house that’s in a great neighborhood. It just needs some cosmetic work. We’ll fix it up over the course of two years, just like we had done when we were residency, you know, we moved into his bachelor pad and I renovated that.
That was my first big renovation, a hundred. We sold it. Yeah. So that was our, that was our goal. But again, I was doing a lot of these renovations myself because we didn’t have the money. So once I was forced to stop, and again, I had that feeling of I’ve gotta get back into real estate because we’ve got, we’ve got pay these bills.
Yeah. And I feel that pressure absolutely. Yes. I thought the only way that I can really contribute this is a mindset that I’ve changed at the time. I felt like, wow, the only way I can really contribute is going out and selling real estate, trying to make these commissions, put that commission towards whatever it is that were, whether it was student debt.
We had a lot of medical bills from having our daughter, you know, it was just a lot of things. Mm-hmm , it was a heavy time. And so in my mind, I thought the only way for me to really be contribut and successful to my family is I’m gonna go out and sell real estate. Well, then it came to a hard stop and it was a real shift of, wow.
Okay. I thought being successful was going out and doing real estate. I literally cannot go do this right now because what, what my family needs from me right now is different. They need me to take care of the kids. They need me to support my husband while he he’s still having to go into work when everybody else is at home.
So it was, it was something that needed to happen. And like I said, it allowed me to kind of open up this space of that creativity of seeing, okay, well now I have time to do this project that I’ve been wanting to do, but we’ve just been putting it off cuz I’m trying to do whatever. So again, it snowballs to let me renovate this bathroom.
Um, you know, let me paint the countertops easy ways in expensive ways. Yeah. And then I think the first big project that I tackled in that was the kitchen and I did it by myself and that gave me, I think the confidence to tackle bigger things. But the main thing was I knew I wanted to sell that house and I saw the market rising and I was like, I won’t be able to sell this house without renovating this kitchen.
Right. But I don’t have $3,000 to go replace the countertops. Mm-hmm , you know, I don’t know if we get that money back. So I had to get creative. So that was like my big first renovation and I documented it. Yeah. And everybody at this time too, was downloading TikTok. And I kind of had a love, hate relationship with social media, to be honest with you for a long time, I was always on social media because of real estate.
Right, right. You you’ve seen it if you know, realtors in your area, they’re all over social media. Right? Yep. And I really loved making videos. So I made a lot of informational videos when I was in real estate. You know, talking about the market tips for selling your home. So always loved doing video, but then when I wasn’t doing real estate anymore, I was like, okay, well, I don’t have anything to make videos about, but I still like making videos.
Here’s my cute kids. you know what? I don’t show my kids on. I don’t show my kids really, which is fine. Yeah. Yeah. That was another thing. Like sometimes I do it and then I got a little like, well, I don’t know if I really it’s funny cuz I’m out on the internet, but I’m also a very private person. I don’t know if this is something you can relate to.
At all. I mean, so initially it was funny when I very first, so I had zero social media when I started none. Yeah. And to be honest, I would have none again, if I wasn’t doing it for a living. Yeah. Um, but when I very first started, I was very, very anxious about making sure that like my kids weren’t on it. I didn’t share mm-hmm like, I was very, very protective.
And then it took me like about one hot minute before I realized if somebody really wants to find me. They can find me. like, yeah, I don’t go showing my house number. But the reality is anymore. I, I found so much joy in actually connecting to the people who were showing up in a large part of that organically was my family, because we have been doing renovations as a family.
Like my kids are swinging hammers too. So it was like, you know what? I own this. And they’ve just been a sweet part of it. However, I fully fully support the idea of maintaining your privacy. And if it’s something you’re not comfortable with, don’t like, I think it’s, it’s just different for everybody. It’s different.
Yeah. For everyone. Yeah. I think mine is mainly like, my kids don’t cooperate in cute ways. like, like, like I’ll try to jump, but they’re gonna do something crazy. 100%. I have, I have two boys and they’re like off the wall. So I think naturally it just was like, okay, my content’s gonna, so going back. Yeah.
Like I just, I decided, you know what? I love making video. I’m doing my renovations. Let me. This TikTok app seems fun. Yeah. And you took the point, let me download TikTok. Yeah. And it felt, you know, I was anonymous on there. Nobody knew me. Right, right. I was like, I’m gonna share my, share my DIY projects. I don’t care if anyone judges it versus going on to like my social, my established social pages and being like, oh, here’s my DIY and smoking.
That is awful. . So I just kind of anonymously started sharing them on TikTok and then started getting some traction. I was like, wow. People really like this DIY stuff at the time. I never thought like, oh, you can make a career out of this. In my mind. I was still thinking like, Hey, I’m just at home with my kids and I’ll eventually go back to real estate.
But for now this is fun sharing all this stuff. So that’s, it’s kinda how I’ve, I’ve ended up where I’m at becoming from a realtor to a renovator. We sold that house that I was talking about earlier. We found our forever home. And it’s a, it’s so exciting project. is a big project. Somebody who is waiting to find our forever home.
I get very excited when I hear when people found their forever home. So that’s so exciting. Yeah. So I’m very fortunate that when we found this after, you know, years of, like I said, that hard work in the presidency years of working hard after I was in the position now to say, okay, you know what? I’m just gonna keep focusing on raising our kids.
Um, my kids, both my boys are on the autism spectrum. Hmm. So they’ve got some different needs that again, mommy needs to be around for a lot. So in this season, in my life, I felt really called to as hard as it was to say, you know what? I’m gonna walk away from actively selling real estate to focus on my family.
That’s what I felt really called to do. And. For a long time, I felt like I was like trying to make things happen and I felt a little lost and I wasn’t sure where I should be. And kind of, I remember taking a word for, uh, 20, 21. I pick a word at the beginning of every year. Yeah, that’s great. And the word for 2021 was surrender.
Hmm. And just to kind of let things like, okay, I’m gonna stop holding on so tight to these ideas of what I think I need to be doing. I’m just gonna let it go. And the things that I feel like I’m being called to do, even though they don’t make a lot of sense. Hmm. I’m just gonna follow that. And that led to finding, I think this house being able to do the creative work and now ultimately kind of starting a brand new career in the renovation space.
Yeah. Yeah. I love what you said about the idea of surrender and just the realities of, you know, it’s really hard when you go from finding a lot of value in maybe what feels a little bit more like a brick and mortar career. I mean, real estate’s, you know, sort of brick and mortar, you’re still. It’s more of a brick and mortar career than the virtual one that we’re currently in.
Mm-hmm, , it’s certainly a lot less kind of real life and in person with other people. However, talk to us a little bit about the mindset that goes into that sense of, of surrender. What went through your head as you’re processing, cuz it comes down to a value thing, I think for a lot of us and just even finding your worth and you know, you found so much value in this with such a large part of your identity and then you’re shifting to something else where you feel like maybe there isn’t as much, even though, you know, in your head, it’s valuable to be a mom.
It’s hard. It’s hard to go from this being such a huge part of your life to now I’m a stay at home. Mom, tell me a little bit about what goes through your mind and what you would say to a woman who might be in a place like that as well. Just that concept of surrender. I think this is an issue that a lot of our women in our generation particularly are struggling with.
I say a lot of times I came out of college, completely prepared to go get a job, live on my own, take care of myself. I don’t feel like anyone prepared me on how to be a mom or a wife. And I think it’s great that we wanna encourage women, especially my daughter be independent, take care of yourself. Mm-hmm, all these things.
But the reality of this, when you start having children and you get married and maybe your spouse is trying to accomplish something, like I said, mm-hmm, my husband wanting to go into surgery. It shifts and your identity shifts within that. And when you’ve come from a place of my value has been, I make a paycheck.
I do things on my own. I don’t rely on anybody else right. To now, okay. We’re a family. My main role is going to be. Raising the children while you chase the dream a bit and I’m gonna support it in the ways that I can, but it was a real identity crisis for me. Mm. I think, and just recently have I felt like I’m in a place that I have been able to accept that what I’m doing may not bring the financial, you know, I’m not getting cut a check for raising my kids.
Right, right, right, right. But there’s no greater value I’d ever, there’s nothing more important that I will ever do. And unfortunately, I think we do live in a society that doesn’t. Celebrate that mm-hmm . I remember I was one of the first of my friends to have children. Mm. And so the thought of me saying to people, well, I’m just gonna be a stay-at-home mom almost came with like a sense of shame.
Cause I had all my friends that were running and, and chasing their career. So that’s why I think for a long time, my thoughts of success was, well, if I’m just being a mom and I’m just supporting my husband, that’s not success. I need to be being a mom, being a wife, pulling in a paycheck, being all the things mm-hmm
So for so long, I was just pushing so hard to make all these things happen and I couldn’t do it all. It was becoming just overwhelming. You know, I was trying to have a real estate career, my sister and I started a business together where we were doing like a skincare line and I raising children and trying to support my husband.
And I was just coming to like a breaking point. Yeah. And that’s when the surrender came and it was. Okay. I can’t do this all. So I’m just gonna sit back and I feel like, you know, I’m being told right now to focus on my family. And even though that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, because during the pandemic also, while I was doing these renovations, I had kind of started my own social media management company because I wasn’t out selling real estate, but there were a lot of real estate agents who wanted my help with their social media, because they had seen my social media when I was selling real estate.
So making videos, making graphics, all those things. So at the time I had a mass three, pretty big real estate clients, and I was making like $5,000 a month. Mm. Just making these people social media. So that’s pretty good from being at home. Absolutely, absolutely. So I was like, wow, I’m doing this. And again, that value coming back to my value is with making money.
Yes. Yeah. But then. The value of like, wow, okay. I, my, at the time, my, you know, I’m running this social media thing, I’m like, wow, this is great. Maybe this is my new business. This is maybe what I’m gonna build up. I’m gonna become a social media manager. Okay. I’m making this money at the same time. This is right.
When my middle son was kind of getting diagnosed with, um, being on the autism spectrum. And it was lots of doctors appointments and it was there piece and it was still trying to raise my two other kids and then having to let go of that. I don’t think I can do the social media stuff right now because I’m feeling like I’m feeling my kids.
I’m feeling like I’m feeling athletes also, you know, you’re in a situation where people are needing you the same with real estate. So not only does my family need me, well, I got clients needing me. Right. And so it was just very overwhelming. So on paper, it really didn’t make sense to say, yeah, let go of these three clients, tell ’em you can’t do this for them anymore.
And let go of this fairly easy income. Yeah. Focus on. For example kids, but I just remember being like, okay, I’m gonna surrender this. It doesn’t make sense to me right now, but I’m just going to trust that this is gonna lead me to where I need to be. So I think anyone who is struggling with making that transition from maybe you’ve had a paycheck, or maybe you are wanting to step back a little bit from.
How much you were working to focus on your kids cuz they’re young or maybe you’re supporting your spouse and their dreams right now. I just want you to know that there’s so much value in what you do. And if you calculated what it would cost to replace you someday, I’m like, oh my God, nobody had no one could ever do my job that I do.
You wouldn’t pay somebody enough. So there is value. And I think finding your, and to know that things are also just seasons. I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned is everything is a season. So there might be a season where like, I just, this past week, my youngest one just start preschool. And I feel like I’m coming into a new season.
Yeah. Like I’ve been, moming really hard for seven years. Right? Like moming have been, you know, with real estate sprinkled in, but my main thing has been being a mom and now my youngest one just went to preschool for, you know, the week. And I feel like I’m kind of shifting into this new chapter of like, wow, okay.
Now maybe I’ve got a little more time to focus on me and focus on these new goals and dreams that I have. So again, everything is just seasons and sometimes to hold on tight to your drink, but like to also let go and just to know it’s gonna work out. Yeah. And I think that is the piece right there. What you just said, holding tight to certain things and letting go of others.
Yeah. When we talk about overwhelm. You know, the offline, the one-on-one conversations that I have with, whether it be fitness, nutrition, clients, or, you know, bloggers influencers as women overwhelm as hands down the number one word. If we had one pain point, I think it is overwhelm. And there’s so many reasons for that.
But I think we often get caught up in this really diluted center point where we can’t quite separate. Our goals and this idea of we all wanna quote unquote, live our best life, and that looks different for each of us, but then you don’t want to strive so hard that you simply miss living life. Well, yes.
And so learning how to take a step back and assess, and, you know, I’m encouraging two people listening and watching right now as well. And as you’re hearing Lena’s story, and I love hearing, you know, your mindset because I think it is so applicable to many of us is what is that? You know, what is that goal?
What is it in your head that is your best life and look at all of the things that you are doing because you may be spreading. So if you’ve got six things going on and you’re only giving 20% of yourself to each of them, yes, I can do math. That’s 120%. But think about it. You’re now giving 120% to a million different things and not to one.
And you end up feeling like I’m knowledgeable about a lot, but master of nothing. So to Leanna’s point, take a step back, write down all the things you’re giving your time to. And because your time is so valuable because nobody can be you. That is your uniqueness. No one has your story. Nobody can be you.
So what needs more of you? And then I think you will see a lot of other things happen. So your point was perfect to that. Being able to let go of certain things and now look where you are. You never know the story that will be written when you do that. I love it. Absolutely. And I think exactly what you said.
Just look at what’s on your plate. Step back again. Assess what season are you in? Yeah. Is this something that should stay on your plate right now? Is this something that maybe you pick up. At the start of next year, what is really pressing and most important. And then what can you outsource? Like you said, you can only be new in so many areas and this is another thing I really, oh my gosh.
I was the worst at asking for help for so long because I thought, well, if I’m capable of doing it well, then I need to be doing it. Especially when I first became a stay-at-home mom. Because again, yeah, I wasn’t necessarily, you know, going into office every day and doing things. So I call this pressure on myself, like, well, my house needs to be perfect.
I need to be doing all these things. I can, I can do them. I should do them. And so I’ve really had to adopt in the past year so that there’s only certain areas of my life, that I am able to fill that role. I’m the only person that can be mom to my kids. I’m the only person that. Make my social media content.
Yeah. I I’m the only a person because that’s you mm-hmm yeah, that’s me. I don’t have to be the person who picks out my groceries. I’m willing to risk a bruised banana for the two hours that it saved me. Amen. Or clean my house or clean. Yeah. And you know, not everyone is at the position where you’re, I mean, you know, I, for a long time, I could never afford any help with my house.
Yeah. But then I got to the point where it’s like, okay, what is worth my time? Mm-hmm. Sometimes paying someone to do something is worth your time, if you have the means to do so, because it frees you up in other areas. So again, if you’re a mom, who’s feeling overwhelmed, look at the things on your plate, decide what needs to stay there and then look at them again.
Is there something that you can outsource grocery shopping? Everyone can do. Like, I, I am such a fan of the pickup grocery in, I do Instacart. I’m even lazier than you I’m like, and I’m not going to pick it up. I do Costco delivery. It’s like, my husband’s like, amen. Seriously. I’m like, yes, people, if you did not know this Costco delivers to your house, this was life changing for me.
I’m such a Costco fan. I was like, oh my gosh, the day that they actually deliver groceries to my house, my life will, they do yeah. Through Instacart. And you only pay a 5% delivery for your total order. It is life changing and then it keeps you outta the store. So I don’t spend an extra couple hundred dollars that I don’t.
I don’t really need 500 of those bars, even though I think I do. So I think looking at your plate, and then let’s say, you know, you and I are pursuing different things. You pursuing your podcast, creative outlets, coaching, right? So you’ve got other things. So when it comes to household stuff, maybe outsourcing those things.
So you can free up yourself to pursue your creative or your career ambitions. Once you get to that point. But again, look, what’s on your plate and maybe you’re listening to this and you’re like, well, I don’t have a podcast. I don’t have a YouTube channel, but maybe there’s just something else that you wanna do.
Maybe it’s again, look at your list. And if you have someone, maybe you don’t have the financial means for a babysitter or somebody like that. If you’ve got family close by, maybe you can ask someone if they can just help you for a couple hours each week and give you that time. But again, just remembering that everything’s a season and not everything needs to be on your plate all at once.
And what do you also feel happiest doing. I mean a lot of things. What brings you life? Cause we want mm-hmm but then I realized like, oh my gosh, I was spending so much time and effort on these pursuits. I was miserable doing mm-hmm miserable. But in my mind, I thought, well, if I don’t achieve this, I’m not being successful.
Yeah. And then I’m like, but I’m so what happy, what is the point? So I think once I surrendered to let go of that mindset of, well I’m, I’ve gotta be a great real estate agent or I need to build this business. Yeah. And I let go and I’m like, okay, well I’m just gonna do some things. I like, once you start finding something, you feel good at, it just is so natural.
That that’s where it’s gotten to me where I’m at now. Yeah. I didn’t really feel up. And it overflows then into the other areas of your life. Yeah. 100%. So, yeah. Sorry. That was rambling. Yeah. No, no, not at all. And I’m gonna throw this out there too, for people, you know, especially any of you listening, who are hopping over here from Lena and you are meeting me for the first time.
You don’t know. I have said this before, because so many of you are women that listen to this podcast. And I did an interview with a woman called AJ Vaden, who is like a crazy, crazy, you know, seven, eight figure. She started multiple companies and we had this whole conversation. Exactly what you’re saying, Lena.
And one of my tips when we were talking is so many of you don’t have the financial resource. Two hire somebody to clean your house. Maybe even to hire childcare, you might not be in that place, but there are other ways to creatively delegate. Cuz what we’re talking about here is delegating. I’ve said it a million times delegate to accelerate, whatever it is that you want to see happen in your life.
Delegation is crucial letting things go. So one of the things that I recommend doing is find a couple friends. If you’re in a church, find people at your church, find neighbors, find friends, whomever, and offer a swap of some sort. Maybe that person loves to clean and you hate to clean. So you’re getting rid of cleaning, but you might offer to get her groceries.
I’m spitballing here. But my point is this. Somebody is looking for something. Here’s another one that I often recommend that so many women want is an accountability partner. Hm, simply somebody who will show up via text message via DM. Maybe they have fitness goals, maybe they have health and wellness goals of some sort, and you can offer, I will text you every day for X number of days to help keep you accountable in this area.
And then for that swap, they might come clean your house. Every other week. Accountability is one of the easiest things you can do for somebody else it’s free. And we all value it, cuz we’re all trying to, we all need accountability with, with something. So I’m throwing that in here because that is something that is exactly to Lean’s point.
It’s a struggle for a lot of women, but don’t do it all. You will find so much joy in your life when you can let go of certain things and partner up with other women, women, empowering women love. And here’s another, um, here’s another one of my greatest life hacks that. Was, I don’t know, it saved me. It’s got me through so many things.
If you have a gym membership and your gym offers childcare. Mm who’s. That childcare, I can’t tell you how many times. I, I mean, from when I first just had babies and I was like, I just need to shower. I just need to shower. I just need to have some time for myself. Put ’em in the childcare. I just go shower at the gym or that’s amazing.
I love that. Yeah. Well, I didn’t have any, that’s a great idea. We didn’t have any family around and my kids were in school and little. And so if you’ve got, and now. Even, I mean, I would take my laptop to the gym and I would sit and work on if I was doing create, if you have a creative pursuit, let’s say you have a blog.
You wanna write, let’s say you have just anything that you feel like you need to sit down and concentrate, but you’re like, I’ve got these kids. I don’t have anyone to help me. I can’t send them here. I can’t hire a babysitter. If you have a gym membership and they have a good childcare, put them in childcare.
No one has to tell you that you have to work out. Yeah. It’s not a, it’s not a pre crack with it or walk really, really slowly on the treadmill while listening to the business podcast that you need to listen to or whatever. Exactly. Exactly. So I love that. You’ve gotta sometimes get creative to use your resources of it’s easy to think back and go, oh, I don’t have any way to help you.
But I mean, I utilizing my gem membership. Really one of my greatest babies centers. That’s a, a phenomenal life hack. I absolutely, I haven’t had a gym membership in like a decade and a half, so I would’ve never even thought of that. So that is amazing. Take notes, ladies, save this. Yeah, share this. Like I said, women, empowering women, especially moms, empowering moms.
It’s as you said, it’s a different world. Once you become a mom, it’s hard. Yes. It’s challenging. Yes. You’re no longer just you, you are you plus multiple pieces of your heart walking around. So it is . It is challenging. We are gonna take a quick break, but when we come back, stay tuned, we’re gonna play a speed round of this or that with Lena.
We’re gonna learn more about Lena and we’re gonna chat her expert. Hands on recommendations, budget, friendly hacks to upgrade your house to the home of your dreams. Right? When we come back from this break, you have tried it all worried. You will never lose the extra weight or reclaim the energy you once enjoyed, want to achieve bat loss without spending hours in a gym or eliminating entire food groups from your diet.
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Whichever comes to mind first, would you rather go see a musical or a play play? Um, garage sales or thrift stores? Ooh, garage sales. Mm-hmm oh man garage sales. I’ve not been to a garage sale in years and it hurts my heart a little bit, but I can’t because we’re in this rental house and I have no space.
There’s no space. Would you rather decorate or create so like decorate or DIY something like a project DIY I’m actually a horrible decorator. Fascinating. So this is a really good insiders. No, this is true. A lot of people don’t realize they are two very, very different things. For example, I am incredibly creative, but I cannot draw so I can see mm-hmm, so many things in my mind, but when I actually go to draw something, I cannot draw at all.
I want a table this point, because I think it’s an important thing to come back to and speak to please. So let’s, let’s circle back around on that when you’re done with the game. Okay. Cause I really, I wanna dive into that for a second. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. We’ll dive. We’ll put a flag on that one. Okay.
Fall decor or Christmas decor. Ooh. Oh. Or I could say DIY, like fall crafts, Christmas crafts. All of you. I like Christmas. You know what? Christmas is fun. Doing different. I made these little gift card trees last year for my husband’s like referral. And that was really fun. Yeah. Mm-hmm , that’s a really cute idea.
First thing you noticed about somebody else, smile or hair. Probably they smile. Mm. Would you rather wear flats or heels? Flats, candy or baked goods? Ooh, baked goods. What’s your favorite baked? Good. And do you have good? No, I’m such a sucker for anything like cookies, brownies. Yeah. Cookies and brownies. I can’t keep that in my house.
Have zero self control. Yeah. I would eat them all. anything similar? I loved all baked goods. Yeah. I love baked goods. We’re like desserts on weekends over here. That’s kind of our, yeah. The way that we roll. Okay. You’re at a movie. Last question. You’re at a movie. Are you gonna buy popcorn or candy? Popcorn?
Do you have a specific? Yeah. Do you just buy the regular butter? Do you have like a specific. Probably just the regular, like with the movie theater butter, that’s terrible for you. Yeah. But just like, you know, when it gets kind of soggy, I mean, you’re already like rotting your brain with a two hour movie that probably has nothing edifying for your life anyway.
So you might as well just eat. Yeah. The popcorn. My kids want this sweet. I’m like, give me the popcorn. I don’t want the sour patch kids. This question has led them from like fascinating. Some people are real passionate about what they eat in their movie theater experience. Like I had a guy who said all he ever, he gets caramel and butter mixed caramel.
Oh, I didn’t. They don’t even offer that at mine. I don’t think sweet and salty or maybe it’s not caramel. It’s like the sweet caramelized anyways. It sounded actually kind of gross to me, but I get it sweet and salty. Anyway, people get real passionate. What they eat in the movie theater. Yeah, we, um, are a fan now we’ve got these movie theaters by us, but like, you can go have dinner in movie theater.
Oh, Ooh. Yeah. They serve dinner. So you can go a few minutes before they have like full blown menus. So like, while you’re watching, while you’re watching the movies, my kids would never, people would hate us. I, I don’t think it’s really, it’s more for adults. I never, I was gonna say my kids would be running.
I wouldn’t take my kids growing stuff on their forks. we would it’s date night, movie, date, night movie. Not bringing kid’s a cute idea. Yeah. Huh? Uhhuh. It’s like, it’s like theater. Like we have a dinner theater around us where. But it’s like a live theater, so it’s a similar, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s nice. You show up, you say they have a menu, they have like waits coming around.
They have a certain window that you have to order before the movie starts. So you’re not interrupting people. Right. But it is, it’s a nice experience. So we’ve, we’ve been a fan of that lately. So I guess hamburgers and salads in your movie are now in addition, I would rather that than popcorn, frankly.
Yeah. Hamburger sounds. Yeah, they’ve got fabulous. Good choices. Mm-hmm I love that. Well, listen, we’re learning all kinds of all kinds of things here. Okay. So we put a flag in that one topic, and then we’re all gonna dive into Lena’s favorite DIY hacks to upgrade your space, but really quickly. So we can come back to your thought touch on the.
I’m creative, but I can’t draw. You are an excellent DIYer, but don’t enjoy decorating well, I thought it was so interesting that you said I’m creative, but I can’t draw because I had the reverse feeling for a long time. I thought, well, I can’t draw. So I’m not creative. Right? I think a lot of us, and again, I think this is part of the mission that I’m on is I think what is missing for a lot of women caretakers is that creative outlet, because you get so busy helping everybody else.
And I think a lot of us think, well, if I can’t sing or dance or draw or paint, I’m, I’m not creative. And my sister is an incredible artist. So growing up my thing actually incredible artist. Yeah. Phenomenal painter. So I thought in my mind for a long time, she’s the creative one. I’m, I’m hardworking. I’m good.
At school. I’ll be like, I’m not creative. So I’m, I’m gonna be the business one. So a lot of that mindset or those things, I started telling myself at a young age because I was comparing myself, led me down the path that I was on. Because again, I never thought like, oh, I’m gonna go be an interior designer.
I’m going to be all the things I’m doing now that, that wasn’t even on my radar. I thought, well, I’ll go sell real estate. Cause I’m hardworking and I’ll be good at sales. I’m not creative. Because I can’t draw and I can’t do these things, but I think the DIY has unlocked this creative side of me. And I’m realizing that being able to walk into a space, probably like you can too and see it for what it could be and not what it is, is a special form of creativity.
Not everyone can do that. Mm-hmm so I started to kind of accept like, wait, I am creative. Maybe I do have creative gifts that other people don’t have. And I think since I now allow myself to say, you know what, I am creative, I don’t have to be all buttoned up and tied up businessy and super serious. Like I can be a creative.
Oh, it’s just opened up. So it’s just like, feels free. Yeah. You know, I love that. Like I’m yeah. I’m creative. So you are, if you are listening, I want you to know you are creative. Even if you don’t think you’re creative, there is some aspect of your life that you can do that somebody else can’t do. And that means you’re creative.
Even if you’re good with spreadsheets, that’s creative. Right? like, if you can organize, if you can take stuff and put it in, in a certain type of way, I can’t do that. So that’s, mm-hmm , I mean, I don’t like to do that. You know, I’ve got a friend who’s like spreadsheets queen, and I’m like, half your spreadsheets.
Like this is art, you know, I’m like seriously. And it is art I will pay for. Yeah, yeah. Or if you, I mean, if you bake, if you make cookies, if you can do something. Yeah, absolutely. You feel good with a circuit pro and love to like label everything that’s creativeness. Right. So I want everyone listening that if you feel like I’m not creative, Or you used to be creative and think about the things you did as itself.
And the children sucked all the creative cells out of your body. yeah, we were just too busy taking care of they’re still there. They’re still there. Yes. Yes. You’re just too busy taking care of everyone else that you’ve allowed yourself to not be creative. So I would say do something. That you’ve loved doing as a child that maybe you forgot about.
Mm-hmm , that’s a great tip. Mm-hmm and yep. You are creative. So I thought that was interesting where I kind of had the reverse, like, oh, I can’t draw. So I’m not creative. And I’ve had this kind of awakening of wait. I’m actually creative. Yeah. Just in different ways. Yeah. I that’s. That is a great advice. Tap into that.
It’s still there. It’s still there. It’s somewhere. Yes. Let’s get into the nitty gritty. So you, you renovated this home for a couple years, and then you found your dream home and bottom line you are taking, I have not dived in super deep into the home that you’re currently in, but if I’m guessing it’s basically like a dream builder grade home that you are upgrading to kind of make your, what you want it to be.
Is that. Correct. It’s kind of the exact opposite. what was the exact opposite? Kinda the exact share. Okay. This is unusual. So my husband always thought I was so crazy because when we were renovating this old house and then we knew, like I said, what we bought that previous house at all of my renovations started off, like my early talks, my early social media, what I’m renovating is that house that we knew we were only gonna be in for about two years because we thought we, oh, so is that one, so is the one currently on your Instagram?
Is that the other house? No, that’s my house now. But if you scroll back like two years ago, right? Yeah, yeah. Um, or, you know, two years ago, a lot of the projects I was doing is from that, that previous house. Mm. So once we knew we were actually staying in the area we’re currently in for long term, I started looking at other houses.
Well, me, I think in my real estate. And I think in my husband’s, uh, not my husband, my back. I don’t wanna buy a move in ready house. I want the fixer upper I’m that crazy person that’s like, give me the fixer upper. Give me the thing nobody else wants because okay. From a real estate standpoint, I’m like, wow, I know I can put some work into this.
Cause I’ve got that real estate mindset of I’m gonna buy low. I’m gonna fix it up. And I’m gonna, so the one that you bought is a, is a fixer upper. It looked pretty nice. It’s a really unique piece of property. Yeah. So that’s beautiful. Um, we bought a two acre. Kind of, we’re not in a neighborhood we’re just on like two acres.
Yeah. But it was very unique cuz we live in a pretty populated area. So to find this and when I first saw the pictures come up, because again, being a real estate agent, I’m always in the MLS mm-hmm like, I’m always looking at things. I would take my husband to see these houses. Like I literally took him to see this house and he was like, get me out of here.
This is a dumpster fire. There’s absolutely no way we’re buying this house. Cause you know, it was in a great neighborhood. It had so much potential, but it was completely like they just, it went into foreclosure. It had mold in the basement miscarriage. Okay. So a lot of things that, so I’m looking for, you must have done a lot to it since then.
Cuz when I quick scrolled through, I definitely did not get that impression, which means you have already done a lot of work clearly. So yeah. So the property that we bought is very unique. It’s actually kind of like a family compound. So we’ve got multiple structures on the property. Yeah. And it’s pretty neat.
Like actually the person who built it before me, he was a builder. So he didn’t build, like, he built a custom home, but they did like some funky stuff. Yeah. Right. So I think when it first came on the market and I was looking at the pictures, first of all, they had cell phone pictures, all the mirrors were gone.
All the light fixtures were gone. There was no furniture. I was like, what happened? Did someone, is this an estate cell? What hap like, is this, it does sound like what what’s going on though. Yeah. So we came and, and saw it in person. And like I said, because it was a builder who built the home, he did some really beautiful, like there’s some aspects of the home that are so beautiful and high quality.
Like they did really nice molding all the doors, but everything was just dark dingy, wallpaper. Yeah. They also . They did weird things. Like she hung all of her lightings off center. Like all of her light fixtures were not in the middle of the room. They were off centered, like over where her furniture was originally.
So walking into this house, I think a lot of people would’ve been like, wow, this is, this is weird. I’m not gonna buy this house too much work. They also did not finish the upstairs of the home. Huh. So we have an upstairs that’s completely unfinished, just framed out. So that’s our gonna be our next, really big project.
They were a little bit older, so they didn’t have small kids. So we’ve had to do a lot of things to make it functional as a young family. Mm-hmm and just make it feel like our home, like the kitchen just was not very functional. They had this really high island. So right now, as the kitchen is my main renovation, we didn’t have a pantry know I’ve got it’s beautiful.
That’s what I was seeing. Yes. I was looking at the kitchen. I just have been renovating the kitchen. So that’s been my big renovation right now because I feel like the kitchen is the heart of the home. So we’re almost done renovating the first floor. You know, they had like dark carpet, they had carpet in the dining room, so we’ve done a lot of renovations we’ve painted we, so again, going into like my favorite.
Fixes or DIY things. Um, just looking back at what I’ve done. DIY hacks. Yeah. Yeah. DIY hacks are just hacks in general to update a space. Yeah. I think paint is the biggest and most transformative thing you can do. And it’s fairly simple. I mean, I personally don’t love painting rooms, but I’ve painted a lot of rooms in my day mm-hmm
And even if you just have, like I said, when we moved in the house was brown, everything was like a dark, dark brown. And so just painting that I picked Sher one Williams, Greek Villa, just painting everything white already. The house felt so new and fresh and alive. So I would say number one, if you’ve got a space that is, you know, just outdated or it doesn’t feel great to you or.
You wanna revamp it, start with paint. Mm-hmm paint would be number one in my book. Mm-hmm it can transform everything. So that’s my favorite. And, and do it yourself. Or if you can hire someone, hire someone to do it because, or hire your kids, the money. Yeah. Hire your kids. Yeah. I mean, you know, on their age.
Yeah. Painting’s pretty easy. Anyone can really paint. So paint would be number one, number two, depending on how comfortable you fill with this. I think changing out light fixtures, just simple light fixtures, you know, mm-hmm is also a big way to transform your space. Mm-hmm but like when we moved in here now, if you’ve got big chandeliers and things, I wouldn’t recommend doing those on your own, but you know, little small lights, spin lights, wall lights.
Most people you can YouTube at that and handle that. So, or again, do the exchange idea. If you know somebody who’s an electrician or somebody who is comfortable changing out lights, this is generally speaking, an easy DIY to do. This would not be something super difficult to find even just a handy man or woman to do, and then offer to do something in exchange.
Also, a hack for lights is find your dream lighting, like go on pottery barn or wherever you love lighting. And then. Copy and paste the pottery barn description and put it in Amazon and then dos will come up on Amazon. That’s just a hack. Cause lighting is something that is so easy to buy on a budget because you’re not, it’s not right in front of your face.
It’s usually above you. So it’s hard to distinguish what is and what isn’t. So that’s just the lighting lighting out. So that’s perfect. I’m speaking into that idea. Fabulous. I have all of my, I have all my favorite lighting finds on my Amazon storefront, so I oh, perfect. So visit basically. Yeah, my Amazon storefront.
I have all my favorite lighting. I would say that 90% of the lights in my house are from Amazon. Just like you said, I would find something. I like a deep on the Amazon. Here’s another trick. Scroll down when you look and see what the price is. If you scroll down, if there’s an option to buy it used. This is one thing that has saved on Amazon and the money on light.
Yes. On Amazon mm-hmm is if you have the option to buy it used, it usually will say like, used very good. That just means someone bought it and returned it. Yep. And then you can get like 40 to 50% off sometimes. So that’s been another way that I saved a lot of money on li that’s also great to definitely look for that.
I think I’m kind of semi DIY. Remember that show that cooking show Sandra Lee, and it was like semi-homemade with Sandra Lee. You remember that? Don’t SIM . I feel like I’m semi DIY was awesome, especially in this house that I can. Take on myself. Like they need to be done by, um, a professional. I don’t really mess with plumbing.
I don’t mess with intense electrical mm-hmm . And so it’s interesting cuz some of these projects I’m doing and maybe you find yourself in this position is I’ll say, okay, I’m gonna hire professional to get me to this point. The stuff I can’t do, and then I’m gonna take it from there. So speaking of this pantry that I just finished building because our house didn’t have a pantry.
I built this Butler’s pantry, but I, I probably could have framed it myself, but I didn’t really have the time mm-hmm you know, sometimes seeing how much time these guys spend on multiple days. I’m like, wow, that would’ve taken me three months to spend between kids and all the other things. So in my mind I thought, okay, I’m gonna hire someone to get me to the point where I framed out this pantry, the electrical’s been installed, the drywall’s done.
I’m gonna take the inside of it. That’s where I’m gonna tackle. And so I DIYed the whole inside of it. And I used, it was a pretty narrow space. So here’s a little hack. If you’ve got a laundry room, a pantry, something small, and you really wanna add some storage, use upper wall cabinets for base cabinets.
So that’s exactly what I did in this pantry said, okay, you get me to the point where the pantry is framed out, done. I’m gonna take these cabinets. I’m gonna paint them. Uh, and again, that would be another DIY hack. Just paint. I can paint. If you can paint cabinets, vanities. That can really totally transform a space mm-hmm so I painted these cabinets and then put the cabinets in and then I did the black back slash and just made it exactly what I wanted it to be.
So, yeah. And I wanna touch on that just for one second. Yeah. The upper to lower cabinet is excellent. That’s one of my favorite hacks too. So for people listening, wondering if you have a space in mind that you’re thinking about, so specifics, upper cabinets are 12 inches, deep base cabinets, traditionally are 24 inches deep.
So the idea is you basically create upper and lowers out of upper cabinets. So you have a 12 inch depth now, and then you just cover the upper cabinets that you’ve put on the floor. You would just get a countertop that would be like 12 and a half inches deep over those lower cabinets. And you can specifically see, go to Lena’s Instagram, is it flipping gorgeous?
And you can see this picture as well as her YouTube channel of this pantry. And it is a phenomenal way to give yourself more storage and space in a small. Especially if you want closed storage. So yes, uh, yeah, I’m using the lower cabinets and I just got them from home Depot. So you don’t have to spend a ton of money.
You can go get an expensive or affordable cabinetry and then make it look expensive through paint or through adding some details. So that’s a fun DIY hack too, is I think taking, I love flipping furniture. I love taking something that somebody wants to discard and then giving it new. And it usually just requires some paint or if you wanna get a little more into it, staining it, that’s a little more work if you’ve got a wood piece versus just putting, you know, some furniture paint on it.
But I think that’s why a lot of people, I, I think start, if you’re nervous about doing a DIY project or renovating something, start with piece of furniture, mm-hmm, something that you don’t care about. Just find something on the side of the road that’s being gotten rid of for free and, and play around with it.
I just wanna encourage you to try and I actually saw Alina’s video again on her YouTube channel. Flipping gorgeous is your YouTube channel called flipping gorgeous. Yeah, it’s flipping gorgeous TV TV. Okay, perfect. So YouTube is it’s flipping gorgeous TV, flipping gorgeous, but you also did a really great video on, so you painted these cabinets with cabinet paint, but then you did a glaze on top of it.
People are all often really, really scared of like the really technical finishing. It is not that technical, I’ve glazed many things, and I’m gonna add a hack for her. Um, that I thought was excellent is to actually add a glaze, one of the easiest ways to do it as a wet sponge. And that gives a lot more dimension.
So if you’re like, oh, I kind of wanna try something, but I don’t know if I that’s another great one is take a piece of furniture. Find off the side of the road, look on Facebook marketplace, try out some furniture, paint, and then a glaze. Who’s your favorite furniture paint? I really like. Who would you tell people?
Jolie paint. I’m a big fan of Jolie paint. I’m actually gonna go buy some today because , I just picked up one of my latest projects will be, we have a mud room and we’ve had this tiny little cabinet shoe rack. Five of us things are just overflowing. So my next project after I was done with the kitchen is I wanted to transform the mud room and build out like big haul trees.
Mm-hmm so I’d been researching, how am I gonna do this? I want a storage. I want us to have our, you know, almost like individual lockers, if you will. Yeah. Mm-hmm . And so I was thinking to myself, how am I researching this? How am I gonna build it? A little intimidating to build, to be honest. So I’ve been researching, how am I gonna do this?
The other day I went to go pick up. I love Facebook marketplace, another DIY hack, same, find so many things on Facebook marketplace. Amen. To, to upgrade your home, whether it’s. Things to decorate with or pieces of furniture to refinish, to put into your house for a long time, I could never afford to buy furniture.
So I had no option, but to refinish furniture to put into our house, I was literally pregnant with my second child. We didn’t have a garage. We were living in a 1200 square foot town home. And I was painting a bed in our kitchen at night. Mm-hmm because we didn’t, I wanted to have like a, yeah, I had a crib, but I wanted to put like a little bed in his room and I found this day bed and I was painting it.
So, I mean, I have been painting furniture out of necessity for so long. Yeah. And Facebook marketplace is my best friend when it comes to that. So even today I’d still love buying stuff. And my kids, uh, won this bunk bed. So I was going to pick up bunk bed from someone’s house. It turns out they were selling a whole bunch of stuff in this garage.
And I see these wall trees yeah. On the side of their garage. These massive exactly what I’ve been visioning. This is the danger people at Facebook marketplace. I have my own stories like this. It’s scary. I was like, are those for sale? Can I have that? Oh, I just she’s like, I just put them up on Facebook. I was like, take them down.
I want them. Yeah, they’re mine. I think they’re gonna be perfect. So I, this is a story for another day, rented a U-Haul the same day. My poor husband had no idea what he was getting into when I said, Hey, can we go pick these things up? Cuz it required a U-Haul. They were that big and that heavy. But I’ve been working on those the past few days to modify them and I’m going to paint them.
Um, and Jolie paint is the paint that I will likely use on anything that’s furniture or cabinets. Now, kitchen cabinets might be a little bit different if you’re really trying to renovate. I’ve done it a couple different ways before I’ve used, you know, just your local big box, their brand of cabinet paint.
I don’t know. That would recommend that it depends on your level and what you’re doing. I mean, if you wanna get really technical and redo some cabinets, like your kitchen cabinets, you probably need to strip them completely sand them down, use a very good primer and then use more of like an acrylic cabinet paint if you want them to hold up long term, but for pieces of furniture or like this whole tree that I’m gonna do.
I I’ve been using the Jolie paint lately. Now when it’s, um, maybe like a more simpler piece of, for if it just depends on what I’m doing to it. Rustoleum is also, I think a really good. Chalk paint to get started with. If you don’t wanna spend a lot of money, Jolie paints are a little bit more expensive. So I was gonna say, if you’re gonna start with your local hardware brand, go get Oleum.
Rustoleum also has an excellent entire kit. If you just want it to be really simple and you’re not quite ready to expand to more creativity yet they have a cabinet transformation kit. It’s by Oleum. I used it to transform our kitchen cabinets in our second fixer upper. It is everything is in one kit. So I kind of to Lean’s point start somewhere cabinet transformation kit.
You can use it on any piece of furniture as well. They also have a countertop transformation kit, but this is like an all inclusive it’s all in one kit. So that’s another great. Great hack, redo your own kitchen cabinets or piece of piece of furniture. Yeah. What other hacks? Any other hacks so far we’ve gotten paint.
You’re hearing a lot of paint. Paint is an easy upgrade paint. It’s a super safe DIY, cuz if you don’t like it, guess what you repaint it so that’s a great, yeah. Paint. We said the kitchen cabinets on the lower, um, we said lighting, we said redoing furniture, redoing. Yeah. We’ve said all kinds of stuff. Any other hacks that come to your mind?
Like I said, the semi DIY hack, if you don’t feel confident. Yeah, yeah. And doing something, you know, absolutely get, get professional to do to some point and then run with it where you feel comfortable. And I would say lastly, hardware, hardware can change a lot of things. Like kitchen hardware, doorknobs can completely transform a space.
And those are so easy to put on yourself. Yes. And can also be relatively affordable. Again, Amazon, they have so many options. And don’t have to spend, you don’t want to mortgage your house to buy hardware yes. Unlike some. Yeah. Well, if people want to see more of Lena, which you do, I promise you, you do, where can people find you?
Where do they need to go visit? On socials. I’m active on my TikTok, which is flipping gorgeous also on Instagram, flipping gorgeous with a small little underscore, but if you just type in flipping gorgeous, you’ll probably find me. And then on my YouTube, which is flipping gorgeous TV. I love it. That’s what I, Matt, I love it, Lena.
You’re amazing. I just pray. God’s rich is blessing over your heart, your home, your kids, your husband in surgery. Bless him, sticking out the, doing the hard things in medicine. And you are such an inspiration. It’s been an honor to have you. Well, thank you so much for having me and thank you to your listeners for listening to me.
And I hope to connect with some of you guys and connect with you again too. Love it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the imperfectly empowered podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts from today. Head to your preferred podcasting platform and give the show an honest review and let me know what you think.
Remember, you cannot be redefined only redeveloped one imperfect day at a time. Your story matters and you are loved.