Is it possible to renovate an apartment in the city center with very little money and ecological beliefs ? Perhaps you have already typed the words “cheap renovation” into Google.
For Aryla, 37, who lives in Pau (Pyrénées Atlantiques), the answer to the question is: her ecological beliefs are linked to her desire for autonomy and savings.
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A tenant of a 27 m² studio, she has transformed a “barely hygienic” place into an “ecological and cheap” laboratory. As a
In this article, we will see how it is possible to carry out an ECO and CHEAP renovation project… by multiplying your creativity! It’s worth a visit!
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Renovating an apartment if you are a tenant
It is obviously the biggest obstacle to renovating the apartment we live in: “I don’t own it. I’m not going to do the work; it’s up to my landlord to do it.” But when I ask Aryla what she thinks of tenants who don’t want to invest in the apartment, her response is immediate:
“I think it’s a shame. Sure, it’s work, and I’m not the owner, but even if it’s just for a few months or a few years , it’s important to feel good at home rather than being disgusted and not feeling at home.” She pays a lower rent than if she had found her apartment already renovated, and she enjoys the luxury of living in the environment she has created.
cheap renovation
I know what she’s talking about: I invested 200% in this studio, which I would only live in for 5 months. But I had to feel good there, and my family had to feel good, or we risked going crazy just before leaving for a trip around the world!
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A 95% RECOVERY RENOVATION” “I rented this apartment because I fell in love with the neighborhood and the view. But when I got here, there were yellowish pancakes and horrible brown tiles on the walls. All the furniture was rotten and screwed to the floor.”
Aryla claims that renovating her bathroom and kitchen cost her no more than 100€.
Since she hated the gypsum and couldn’t afford to buy plasterboards to give her walls a new smooth surface, she simply glued restoration boxes covered with several layers of plaster, then coated them with waterproof paint. “It works! She calls it laughter. I don’t know how long it will last, but for now, it was my chance for a year and it cost me almost nothing!”
She also repainted the tiles in her bathroom, threw away old furniture, picked up wooden pallets from the street, and the slate from the roof in an old attic to create beautiful shelves.
When the plastic accordion door fell in her bathroom, she replaced it with a “self-made” sliding door, using pallet wood, oak boards salvaged from old furniture, and wheels for the bearings. The result is simply stunning!
From recovery… to autonomy
“You can actually do anything in life: learn to do your laundry, learn to grow your vegetables, learn to DIY…”
Aryla doesn’t like the idea of “preparing” or “buying everything,” but “learning to do.”
“When you start doing something with your hands, you will see the power we have. It’s hard because we haven’t been trained that way, but it’s a step, after that, try it and you won’t want to waste your money anymore. It’s worth thinking that you don’t need anyone.
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On her terrace, this city dweller has trained, experimented, and informed herself about gardening. She is thrilled to be able to feed a couple through her plantings: a step towards food autonomy!
A washing machine bike that works without electricity The highlight of her apartment, however, is definitely her washing machine installed on her terrace.
“A friend wanted to get rid of it and gave it to me as a gift. We went to pick it up with my partner, we climbed the 4 floors on foot, it weighed a ton!”
It was only after reaching the top that they realized they couldn’t take it down. “Let’s talk about getting it down!”
They then dismantled the machine and connected the drum to a bike frame. Now , Aryla is excited to be able to do her laundry… while pedaling and admiring the beautiful views of the Pyrénées!
“This is only version 1.0, we intend to improve it, especially by replacing this bike with another more comfortable geared bike. We also want to use our pedaling activities to produce our own electricity.
” Aryla didn’t have her first electricity bill, which was on her neck: 78€ for a month in winter without having a washing machine and drying clothes and dishes. Since then, she has tried new experiences to minimize her electricity usage.
RECOVERY AND MINIMALISM
Aryla loves to live simply. Talking about her kitchen furniture, made up of simple shelves, without cabinet doors, she was delighted: “At least when friends come over, they don’t spend their time asking me where the glasses are, or where the coffee is! Everything is visible, simple, accessible, no object is useless.
However, if you do a lot of DIY, you tend to find a lot of things saying, “This will be useful later.” Aryla knew how to impose rules on this.
She knows that good deals are being reworked, and if they have a specific project in mind, she knows where to go:
— Need cardboard? Every Wednesday evening, I know that the supermarket next door throws out boxes
— Need laminated paper, waterproof tarpaulin? Also on Wednesday evenings, the shops on the shopping street in the city throw out posters that you can pick up.
— Need pallet wood? There was a lot of work in my town, and the workers were happy to let us take something.
Sometimes, Aryla also recovers objects with which she tries a few experiments. If these experiments are ambiguous, she returns them to where she found them: the trash! So she had a crush on aluminum beer barrels. She tried to build a “desert refrigerator” before realizing that the principle was only used with materials other than ceramic (The desert refrigerator is simply made of 2 clay pots of different sizes: the smaller one inside the larger one and between them sand that is wet. We put our vegetables in there, pour sand 1 to 2 times a day, and cover everything with a damp cloth. You don’t need a refrigerator for your fruits and vegetables!)
She then tried to build a “rocket stove” (a wood-burning stove that consumes very little wood), but realized that the aluminum barrel was painted and certainly not hygienic. Instead of keeping the barrels longer, she dropped them in the trash.
“It’s not so much about doing it, but it’s not 10 years to wait before doing it. Recovery is the easiest. Anyone can recover a few things. The most complicated thing is not to give up on things that depend on you. I don’t want to live in the midst of waste.
So, one rule: get OK to quickly use the restored object. If the experiments fail, don’t keep it!
THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME
For Aryla, this home is a true refuge. If you are a little depressed, nothing is more important than a home where you feel good.
“From my terrace in the city on the 4th floor, I have a few bees in my vegetable garden, and I even have a lizard that feels at home here, it’s good and beautiful.”
The home is also the main source of consumption: eating, sleeping, heating, washing, waxing, storage. But for Aryla, her need to be at home has multiplied her creativity!
Personally, it’s primarily the fact that I start creating my own furniture that breaks the barriers of my creativity and the limits of my autonomy.
( Check out this excellent book by Nathalie Boisseau that has broken many blocks in my concern for DIY! I will chronicle it here)
And you? Have you invested in your home? How has your home made you creative?
Tag: Renovate a house at a lower cost