your new favorites! Check out my blog post for the full gallery and details!

If you think antiques shouldn't be painted, don't look! I promise, you won't be happy :0)

took about six months from start to finish, with my husband working nights and weekends to complete the job. As you can see in the "Before" Photos- there was one room with mirrored walls and a bathroom already built out, but everything else was unfinished.

We stayed close to our $7,500 budget by using these tricks:

DIYing most of the work. My husband and his dad did all the framing, insulation, and sheetrock hanging. They installed all the cabinetry and the doors. We hired subcontractors to lay the flooring and finish out all the paint and trim work detail. We also hired a friend who is an electrician for all lighting and electrical. The painted stairs were done by yours truly. :)

Shop for bargains and use what you've got. We found a discontinued floor display at a local cabinet shop for just $750, so we bought it and delivered it ourselves then my husband reassembled it after the floors and walls were finished. The granite was a scrap piece that we got at a huge markdown. All the furniture was either hand-me-down or purchased used from Craigslist. The wall art was my own photography enlarged to poster size at Costco and framed in Hobby Lobby discounted frames. I work in the construction industry, and had the flooring material leftover from another job so we only paid for labor.

Use free programs such as Sketchup to draw out the space before construction to see how it will look afterwards. It's better for everyone to see things in 3-D to you can all be on the same page with how it is supposed to look.

Now my husband has a great place to escape all the cartoons that play on our living room tv for our 5 year old. It's also a fun place to host Polar Express showings every Christmas. The kids love the arcade and the foosball coffee table.