Episode 185 | You Can DIY Your Dream Home on a Budget | Dena of Fletcher Creek Cottage

Dena is perhaps best known on the internet for sharing about how she and her family self-built their home from scratch for only $70,000. Dena has had extensive DIY, renovation, and design experience on a number of homes, and she is sharing her best tips with us today. She shares lots of practicals, but we also dive into what it looks like to embrace your own definition of “dream home” and create a beautiful home that your budget can sustain. For anyone with a DIY spirit, this episode is such a good one!

Join us as we discuss:

How Dena and her family built their home from scratch for only $70,000
Why it was important to them to build their home debt-free
The reality of self-building a house from scratch as a family
Where to start when you are designing your home
Budget-friendly tips for creating a home you love
Behind the scenes of creating content about your life and projects
Design specifics: window treatments, outdoor furniture, rugs
What you need to know about adding old charm to a new build
Top two must-haves when designing your dream home
Evaluating your perspective on “dream home” when you are trying to live within your means

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About Dena

Dena Breitmeyer is a lifelong DIYer, wife, homeschool mom, and the voice behind Fletcher Creek Cottage. She and her husband have renovated many homes together and are best known for designing and self-building their current home “Fletcher Creek Cottage” from scratch (five years ago) for only $70k!

Fletcher Creek Cottage has been featured in multiple national magazines since Dena launched her DIY & Design Blog in 2019 after building the cottage. Dena is very passionate about design and creating beautiful and functional homes on a budget and she shares all kinds of DIY and home improvement projects that are super budget friendly. Dena and her husband recently designed and built a backyard pavilion, raised garden beds, chicken coop, greenhouse, and a garden fence on their 65 acres near their hometown in Northern Michigan. She also loves gardening, decorating, antiquing and especially loves hosting large family get-togethers for her 11 siblings and their families.

Dena and her husband Aaron have spent the past year self-building their dream home…which is not yet complete.This 4,000+ sq ft is by far the largest DIY project they’ve ever taken on together and will easily take these hard working DIYers at least one more year to complete. Dena shares the process of what it looks like to design and build a DIY home on a budget on Instagram @fletchercreekcottage as well as on her YouTube Channel and blog in hopes to encourage and inspire others to work hard for their dreams and to simply do the best they can with what they have!