Enjoying House Renovation with Neighbors II by Pamela Cole Harris Watching home makeover shows can make us all yearn for spiffy new décor in our outdated rooms. But if Trading Spaces doesn’t call, and your budget only has room for a can of spray paint from the dollar store, what do you do? You get together with your neighbors and exchange free makeovers! Free? Yes, free! Updated your room doesn’t have to cost money! In fact, its more fun if you have to use your imagination instead of your checkbook! So if you find a neighbor who is crazy...no, creative enough to trade rooms, it is best to set some rules ahead of time: 1. Decide on a time limit. I suggest an afternoon (ending at 5pm) to encourage quick and cheap redecorating. Remember, more time equals more money and -depending on your neighbor’s home décor taste - more damage that can be done! 2. To encourage creativity, agree to spend no money on the redecoration. Enlist the whole family in “scavenging” for home décor – leftover paint, old mirrors and frames, discarded furniture and artwork, pillows, old sheets and fabric remnants. 3. Promise speak to each other after the rooms are done! No recriminations and no retaliations! Take the changes in the spirit of fun! 4. Promise to do nothing to the rooms that cannot be undone quickly and inexpensively. No knocking out walls allowed! 5. Finally, only trade rooms. No trading husbands or kids! You will be amazed what can be done by rearranging furniture or adding splashes of color with leftover paint! For ideas about what to do http://www.homeandgardenmakeover.com and http://www.diy-homedecor . Good luck! (I can’t wait to get my hands on that living room next door! That black paint is history!) Pamela Cole Harris has been a writer for over 35 years (Yikes! Has it been that long? Her fun, tongue-in-cheek approach to decorating has made http://www.homeandgardenmakeover.com one of the most popular décor sites on the net.

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