Hello readers! It’s been a little while now since my last post here. At 26,000 views on this site alone and over 2500 followers, I think it’s time that I start adding some more content. Especially now that living life to the full us is even more important than it ever was before. Don’t get me wrong it was always important. But with the events of our current time, it’s really mandatory for survival to stay mentally, emotionally, and spiritually happy. You can’t forget about your physical health either. These days, many people are finding refuge and sanctuary behind closed doors of their very own homes. While I refuse to be a part of the indoor generation, I’ve made my home a sanctuary too. Just last year I’ve started doing renovations on the house. Well I intend on relocating at some point, I want to be able to enjoy the place that I’m living in now. It’s not easy doing renovations without the money to do it LOL. I was very lucky that I was able to find some cheap do it yourself ideas. many people are finding refuge and sanctuary behind closed doors of their very own homes. While I refuse to be a part of the indoor generation, I’ve made my home a sanctuary too. Just last year I’ve started doing renovations on the house. Well I intend on relocating at some point, I want to be able to enjoy the place that I’m living in now. It’s not easy doing renovations without the money to do it LOL. I was very lucky that I was able to find some cheap do it yourself ideas.

Since my house is a larger split level, I had an upstairs and a downstairs to do both. We bought the house back in 2016 when my father was still with us. It was his dying wish to leave us with some property that we could have some security with. He knew all too much throughout the years, how much of a struggle it can be in paying bills and trying to ensure that you have a place to live for your family. When he got this house, nothing made him more proud. Except for me LOL… Just kidding. My father was pretty proud of me though.

Nevertheless, we bought the house with a basic hardwood floorupstairs and then some laminate floor downstairs. The laminate flooring resembled hardwood flooring, but definitely isn’t the same thing. I experienced a flood in my downstairs about a year after I moved in and so the original laminate floors were destroyed. A person who my call my own Earth Angel, came to the rescue and helped me to replace the flooring. I had to, people do come here for readings and I didn’t want them looking at the old asbestos tiling that was revealed when the damage floors were lifted. The walls had been painted just prior to us moving in. As a cheap way to make things look nice, they painted every room in the house and even the outdoors, the same exact coloring! It was that peach colored that you get in the box of Crayola? You know the one that they used to make the kids use to color in Caucasian kids in a coloring book? LOL. It was not really all that nice of a color for interior decorating that’s for sure. It wasn’t good for your spiritual or mental mood either. We got tired of looking at it as it was everywhere.

Stairs and Upstairs

For our stairs, there are two sets each containing six steps. There’s a little foyer that has six steps left, taking you to the upstairs house, and then six stairs to the right taking you downstairs. There was some old wood paneling there and an old white rot iron handrail. Heading off into the downstairs all of the walls were drywall, painted white. It was really bland to be honest with you. We kept with it though, throughout the years because anything else would have cost a lot of money to do in order to dress it up a little bit. My father didn’t want me investing any money in doing so because for some reason he never really felt as though we’ve stayed permanently here. I know that he never thought at home here, partly because he knew he was going to pass on. He didn’t want to get used to the home and get comfortable knowing that everyone was going to continue life on in the house, without him. He was right about us not wanting to stay here though. But there’s no reason why we couldn’t enjoy living here until then. Plus, making the house look nice will definitely help raise the value. And so I’ve made some adjustments.

I started with the upstairs and ended up painting it a very light gray color. I was going to go with white but I felt that it was just too plain and overrated. I slapped some nice light gray on most of the walls and did an accent wall around the bay window. We colored that a dark bluish gray. I started adding some beautiful spiritual plaques. I then started working on the kitchen area. The kitchen had a stationary wall which is really just half of a wall to block off one room from the other. I always wanted a little breakfast nook in so I started a project and making myself a little bar area. But if I was going to work on the kitchen, I’d have to paint the kitchen as well. Therefore, I use the same light gray coloring that I used for the living room and dining room since it was all connected. I then took some decorative wallpaper which looks a lot like wood but isn’t. I wallpapered one side of the stationary wall and then added the bar platform. The bar platform was constructed out of plywood which I then added trim to and then added some tiling on top of. Are use the same gray scheme, as I did with the paint in the house so it would match. And then topped it off with some resin to give it a counter top like appearance. For the wallpaper, the paint and the materials to make the bar on top of the stationary wall, it cost me a total of $246. Now if I would’ve hired a professional painter to paint the entire upstairs and build me a countertop for the breakfast bar/nook, it would’ve cost over $1000 some dollars. I saved a lot of money just doing it myself and it turned out pretty fantastic. The resident itself is still stayed a little sticky after a while, but with some work, I could probably get it as it needs to be.

Since I had leftover materials I ripped out the wrought iron handrail going down the stairs. I took the leftover wallpaper that I had from the kitchen wall and I wallpapered over the brown wood paneling. It really brightened up the space. I then bought some LED disc lightsand I ran them up the trim lining the stairs. I added a nice fake vine around the lighting, and it really brightened it up even more. During the day it doesn’t have that claustrophobic feeling because of all the brown paneling anymore. It has nice texture and looks like a whole brand new space. At night time I hit one switch and it lights up the stairway and the vine makes it look very earthy. I’m truly proud of the hard work in those areas. To top it off I added two pendulum lights. I hung one over top of the stairs to make it somewhat like a makeshift chandelier. It was very inexpensive and I got it for 50% off at hobby lobby. I also took the fake vines that I had bought to line the LED lights on the stairs with, and I wrapped the hanging cord of the pendulum lamp with it. It disguised the cord and made it look even more earthy. The second Pendulum White was hung over the breakfast counter/nook. I really don’t do well with any kind of technology or artificial lighting. If it’s too bright or less off too much energy, I’ll start to feel drained. The pendulum light makes it so that it lights up the space and makes it look cozy. Before we had to turn on the light connected to the ceiling fan in the dining room area or the overhead kitchen light, in the middle of the kitchen ceiling. Those lights were far too bright for me and definitely didn’t make it feel warm or welcoming. I really love the pendulum lights.

Noah’s Room

After I finished off the stairway and all of the upstairs, then went to work on our upstairs bathroom. It was always very bland and boring. Like I said it had that peach tone to it for the paint job, and it really didn’t say anything other than being a boring basic bathroom. So I painted the walls with the leftover bluish gray paint that I had for the accent wall in the living room. There was still some left from when I had used it before. I painted over the peach coloring in the bathroom with it. And then I added a new shower curtain and some accent pictures to match. It really made it look like a totally brand new bathroom! For the bathroom space I had only spent about $50 in total. My daughter also went out and bought $19 mirror lights. They had white bulbs on them sort of like the lights that they use around mirrors in Hollywood? All she had to do was just plug them in and positioned them around the mirror. It turned our bathroom mirror from being a basic mirror on the wall to being that with a bit of glam.

I decided that my son‘s room had never really had a makeover either. The poor boy was sitting at peach colored room with his bunkbed and really no curtains or decorative blankets. Most kids have a theme with their comforter and their curtain set. When we lived in the house prior to just moving here, my daughter and son had to share a bedroom since the house was smaller. There was only three bedrooms there. My parents shared one of them, and then I had one that I used for my bedroom/office space for work, and then the third was set up for my daughter and my son. They never really had anything decorative there either because my parents didn’t want them fighting over what kind of theme they would getI decided that my son‘s room had never really had a makeover either. The poor boy was sitting at peach colored room with his bunkbed and really no curtains or decorative blankets. Most kids have a theme with their comforter and their curtain set. When we lived in the house prior to just moving here, my daughter and son had to share a bedroom since the house was smaller. There was only three bedrooms there. My parents shared one of them, and then I had one that I used for my bedroom/office space for work, and then the third was set up for my daughter and my son. They never really had anything decorative there either because my parents didn’t want them fighting over what kind of theme they would get. I mean they were different genders and so it was in evitable that one would want one thing, and so with the other. When we moved here the house just remain the same and so I thought maybe my son could use a room or space all of his own now. So I went out and I bought a baby blue colored paint. I thought that I would hand craft some cloud lights that were trending online. After purchasing the paint for $18.98, I bought more disc lights and hung them on his ceiling after I finished the paint job. I then started crafting the cloud lights on the ceiling around the lights. They were color changing. He was really excited. I then went out and bought him a basic solid colored comforter and sheets it from Walmart which cost me only $20. To redo my son’s room I think it cost me just a little over $65. Now he never comes out of it LOL.

Now my daughter Amber is another story. Since she’s an adult, I left her room up to her, to decide. She didn’t want to be the only person in the house who’s room didn’t have some kind of nice Decour. She had already painted previously before I had even started the renovations. But she did go out and buy some beautiful lights and hanging vines and put them on her wall as well as brand new blanket set for herself too. Even though she’s 21 she did her room very trendy. It’s adorable.

Now that the upstairs had been completed, it was time to work on the downstairs. I had already painted down there myself after a while, maybe about a year or so after I moved in. I got tired of looking at the white walls. But, I needed a change. I had already had a few people that had visited and seemed to like my ideas of decorating down there and copied a bit of my inspiring theme. The theme I had chose originally was of white and gold. Yes there were some beige pieces of break it up a little bit, but I picked that because it really reminded me of heaven. But this time I thought that I would do something a little bit more signature. I wanted to use my own personal favorite colors and style. I’m not going to reveal what I did with it for obvious reasons but I am extremely happy with everything that I did with my downstairs space. It’s warm, it’s full of love, and it makes me feel very safe. People that go down there often feel such a mystical vibe, but they can also sense my energy so strongly because I’ve put so much of myself not only into the atmosphere, but into the decorating ideas overall. It definitely speaks Alura.

Downstairs: Nursery etc

Since I have never use the bedroom, no matter where I’ve lived… I thought to use the spare bedroom downstairs across the hall from my office/living space as a room for my new babies. I had shared it with Adree when she was first born, but only in regards to our belongings being in the same space. She never slept in that room and neither have I. In fact I never really slept at all and so I never had a need for a bed or a room to put one in. I still had bought a new bed to fill that room up when we first moved here though. But it really just said they can leave. Now that I had two adorable little babies, I figured they could use the nursery/playroom. It was extremely cheap to do. My mother had already bought a toddler bed for my 2 1/2 year-old. All I needed was a matching bed for my one year-old. My best friend had bought one of those teepees that they’re selling on Amazon for kids to play in, and so that sort of inspired the rest of my theme. I went out and got my one year-old son Alexander, one of the zone. I placed both of the Teepees over each of their beds and stationed the beds, one in each corner of the room. And then I needed to pick a theme. It wasn’t easy. I think that was one of the hardest parts of remodeling the entire house overall!

I picked the theme based on things in my childhood. I am raising my 2 1/2 year old to be like a little mini me. I don’t really need to work hard at that either! She’s happy to follow in my footsteps. And now my one and a half year-old Alexander, also follows along. They really love their mommy that’s for sure. Still, finding a neutral theme that really expressed magical moments of my childhood took a little bit of time. I really did have a very magical childhood after all. I didn’t have any friends and I didn’t really hang out a lot with my parents either and so I only really had the heavens and spirit to be friends. they taught me so many things and it was like living in a whole other world of magic, while still being here on earth. I’ve always been higher vibrational and able to see worlds overlapping worlds. Since that was really the only special thing I had about my childhood, I tried to think about things that I had in my childhood that really connected to very specific times and memories. Since my father had just died, I thought that I should maybe remember him in someway. He was never really home during my childhood but I can tell you that when he was, he didn’t spend time with me doing the things I loved. He always took me into nature and around animals. Everyone knows just how much I love nature and animals. My spiritual mother is all about that. And so I picked a cute theme that represented nature and animals. I went with a woodland theme which kind of blended nicely with the TVs that I put over their beds. I bought a green carpet to look like grass and I put an arts and crafts table over top of it that I had already bought for the kids just a Christmas prior to that year. My best friend had also sent a soft camping set for my 2 1/2 year-old for her birthday when she had mailed in the Teepee. I also positioned that on top of the green rug as well. I then painted a plaque of their names and with woodland animals on it, by hand. On the walls, I added decals of woodland animals and trees. I positioned them beside each child’s bed. Alexander got a rabbit, a raccoon and a pine tree. Adriana got a bear, a fox, and a giant oak tree. It’s not really for them individually but I just thought it would be nice if they each had some thing to wake up to individually when they weren’t using the room together. The only thing I was missing at that point were matching comforters and a lamp. I finally found a nice tree lamp and then I had to customize an order for two blankets.

I had their names put on the blankets and for my 2 1/2-year-old daughter, I had them add roses underneath of her name. I did that as a little accent to remind her of her mommy since I love roses. For Alexander, I just added some cute vines and leaves under his name to make it more gender comfortable for him. The room turned out to be a great success! It cost me a little more to decorate than the rest of the house though. Both blankets were about $60 each and I had to purchase them separately so as to be able to afford them. The paint itself was only $20, but the wall decals cost me about $50 alone. The tree lamp cost me $20 at HomeGoods. The little carpet itself was very cheap and only cost $9.99 on Amazon. It really turned out great though and now my 2 1/2-year-old daughter doesn’t even want to sleep with me anymore LOL. Little Alexander still sleeps with me though. But at least Elora (Adree) is getting a lot of use out of the bedroom. A used leftover paint, to paint my half a bathroom downstairs as well. I use the same paint that I had used in my office/living space. I paid $20 for a matching bathroom rug set. And so the bathroom was done. The only thing that I really had to do with it later, was purchase drawers, to put some of my personal items in. That cost me about $40 on Amazon.

Everything seem to be complete but there was one space that continued to really irk my soul. My laundry room. It was dingy and it definitely was very unorganized. Overtime the family would just throw things down there without putting things on any kind of shelving. When we moved in there was a wooden shelving system that the owner of the home had crafted. It was big and bulky, and it was built right onto the wall self and so it wasn’t easy to get rid of. I had to use a drill and a sledgehammer both, to remove that piece by piece. After removing it, I cleaned out all of the junk that had been piled up in there that no one was using. That included things like all the crafts that nobody finished, some bags of clothes that nobody was ever going to wear again, and packages of paper towels and toilet paper that were never opened or put anywhere. We used to have an arts table down there too but I remove that as well for more space. I donated the bags of clothes and throw everything else away since it was almost ruined anyhow. I then painted the concrete brick wall behind my washer and dryer, whites. I had to use a paint with a sealer in it though. This was to make the wall look shiny and to fill in any of the little tiny holes or pores that each of the concrete blocks had in them. I didn’t want it to look like a poor paint job after all. I then went to the Home Depot and bought a shelving rack set. I had to use a drill to hang up the brackets to them positioned the shelves. I re-organized everything on the shelves and then I added a cart on wheels in there as well for cleaning products and extra supplies. I painted any exposed wood, a light blue color that I had left over from the kids nursery room. I added more white to the paint that I had left over from the concrete wall as well. Mixing them, really made a very very light color blue, that was Sophie you could barely see that it was blue. It definitely brightened up the space and made it a lot more comfortable to be in. I really hated even going in there to do my laundry because it was so packed that it was often claustrophobic. The laundry room was finally almost done. I really wanted to seal and paint the concrete floor as well. Seems the concrete is a very absorbent surface and so overtime anything that has spilled has been absorbed it is greatly stained into the floor. That included candle dies from making candles in there, and many other things.

I still haven’t gotten around to do the floor in there yet though. But for the most part mostly everything had been done. It really looks so fantastic in here. My mother was even generous enough to complement the new paint jobs and help me improvement projects, by buying a cheap sectional to match. While it isn’t the greatest quality of furniture, it really did make it look nice in here. Before we had a brown sofa that we had brought from our last residence. But my father had sat on it every single day before he was dying, and kind of sunk The one seat cushion in. You couldn’t even sit down on it or you would fall into the actual couch and on it’s Springs. I was happy that we finally got rid of it. Even though it had sentimental value because of my father having sat there before he passed, I definitely felt that if we were going to have visitors and such, that we should have a better piece of furniture to welcome them with. My mother made that possible and so I was really thankful. Now that all of that is done, the only thing I really have left now is to get to my garage. I want to clean it out and make it into a little bit of a she-cave. You know how they have she-sheds?Well it’s sort of like that. I want to turn the garage into a little space where I can do my crafts and work on making my products for my business. I still want to use it a little bit for storage but I would love to have more workspace in regards to making my products because sometimes we make so many of them, we don’t have anywhere to really store them. I don’t want to mess getting all over the floors like I did in the laundry room either. I’ll get around to it before the summer is over but for now, the garage is still pretty packed with all of the stuff that I still wanted to keep from the laundry room. I’ll post pictures when I finally get around to doing the garage.

Family time and Instilling Virtues

Ultimately, it was pretty cheap to do all of these projects room to room. I just use a lot of stuff that I had bought and whatever was left over from it. Any additional pieces I looked for on sale. There were a few other items that we got throughout the process of it. I did buy my son a new dresser since he had been using a small little plastic bin. That really made it look very nice and tidy in there to add to how beautiful it looked. I also bought a few little accent pieces for the kitchen and a couple of organizational cards for the kids. Everything really does feel very warm here now. And to think that just rounding it up to the nearest dollar, everything only cost me a little bit under $500! And that was throughout time. I didn’t just buy everything all at once. I had to save up money on the side, to be able to do anything. But it was a lot better than having to pay thousands of dollars right? To have had the upstairs and the downstairs both painted, it would’ve went over $2500 according to New Jersey painting contractors. To build the countertop space for the breakfast nook, that would’ve cost roughly about a grand as well by itself. And so just for those few things, I’m very grateful that I was able to be creative myself as well as thrifty. I really made the home a whole other place as well as a much more welcoming and happy environment.

If you are getting tired of how your inner sanctuary looks, you could probably do the same thing that I did. Save up a little money on the side and once you have enough, go out and look for paints and decorations etc. that falls within your budget. I also added a brand new kitchen faucet as well. I had to learn how to do these things on my own. Before my father died he asked me to buy him a Ryobi tools kit. I wondered what he was going to do with it since I knew he was so sick and weak that he probably would never get around to using it. And so I asked him who is it really for? He admitted that he wanted me to buy it for him for Christmas, but it was going to be mine in the end of things. I am glad that he made me do that. He knew I was going to need it for something right? So far throughout the process, I’ve been a carpenter, a plumber, a painter, and organizer, and I’ve also built pieces of furniture that came in, that weren’t built already.

It’s really funny. Amber and I have an inside joke that we often say to each other which gives us a little bit of a giggle. Amber often says that when we’re making brochures for our business in spiritual advising, that we should also add painting, plumbing, yardwork, landscaping etc. LOL. We are a jack of all trades my daughter and I. Were able to conquer pretty much anything we set out to do together. You have no idea how many pieces of furniture we built over the years. I guess that’s how it goes we don’t really have a man of the house. My son was always young and my father, always too sick. You learn pretty quickly when you don’t want to pay out-of-pocket for somebody to come and do it for you. in all, I’m really pleased with how the house is turned out. I truly would not have decorated it any other way. It’s true that your environment really does affect you. Not only do I have to keep up with regular atmospheric cleansers, but I have to also do aura and chakra cleaning on all of my relatives weekly. I do my own every few days. The energies out there are harsh and stifling. If I leave the house for even half an hour a day, I come back feeling like I’m dying. The peach colored paint really wasn’t helping anything. Therefore using the light gray really opened up the space and it’s a color that’s neutral with anything. If I ever decide to add accent pieces of A different color, it’ll go good with the gray. Right now we’re sticking with the light to dark gray color scheme with furniture and decor so far, but if I choose to switch that up with pink or any other color tan like gold or blue etc. it’ll all work wonderfully together with the light gray.

It’s a known fact that if you have a green walls and you’re always in that room containing the green walls, that is going to cause your heart chakra which is associated with green, to go over active. It’s the same if you were to reside in one color all of the time anywhere. Still though, the gray itself is a wonderful choice because it doesn’t interfere with your chakras or aura in anyway. Gray isn’t really a color after all. The energy of the atmosphere also depends upon the people that are in it. If others are feeling down, then it will fill the environment that way. Making the place look nice and renewing how it looks in the atmosphere, makes everyone else feel a lot better when they’re in those spaces. Therefore we have a lot more positive energy than we did before, for sure.

Make yourself a nice inner sanctuary too. If you need any ideas let me know. I’m not a home decor expert but I do have some really wonderful ideas up my sleeve. Doing projects like this really helps you to bring your family closer as well. I need my 14-year-old son build his very own dresser which taught him a skill. He learned how to use new tools, and I got to spend time with him teaching in hell. My toddlers also didn’t feel the lend a helping hand at moments, with painting. My daughter Amber also helped with some things here and there when she was available. It was nice on top of that too because, when my children’s father visited, he also helped in painting Noah‘s room.

I brought the two guys together and really shared that he cared while he was here. I really enjoyed doing all of this and I really hope to be able to share the renewed space is people, they get to come over and visit here. Since I don’t get to leave the house very much because of the energy and how it affects me outside, I really want to invite people to visit me. I don’t want to be isolated after all. I’m more than happy to travel out to others, where to spend some time outdoors, but for the most part I can’t go into too many public spaces because of how sensitive I am. Still though, take my advice, it’s really great to do you things on your own and nothing makes you feel better than a job well done when it’s done by you. Good luck on creating your inner sanctuary is everybody and thank you for reading.