When a Winton Hills condo owner first suggested his neighbours paint the development themselves, everyone laughed thinking he was joking. When the estimates for hiring a painter came in, the laughter stopped.The cost to paint the 26, mostly two-bedroom apartments in Hamilton Parish ranged from $70,000 to $80,000. Suddenly, doing it themselves wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.“The current economic downturn is a big concern to us,” said resident Maryann Penner, a retired school teacher. “A lot of us are retired or on a fixed income. With the price of everything going up and up, including health care, the economic downturn is a very big something to be considered.”Residents currently pay $300 a month in maintenance fees for services such as gardening and the water bill. The thought of that fee going up, was daunting for many people.“When we got the estimates for hiring someone to paint the condos, we said maybe we can do this ourselves,” Mrs Penner said. “We started the ball rolling.”The residents started painting the five condo buildings in February and they have one left to go. Mrs Penner said it has been 100 percent participation.“Everyone is doing something,” she said. “You either cook, or buy food for the people working. Some people are paying a painter for a day to help. We are doing different things like that, but mostly people are out there.”She said residents from three to 80 years old are helping to paint, although she admitted that the children just tended to get the paint on themselves.“It is not just the men painting,” she said. “It is mostly women doing cutting and stuff like that. Men come and roll paint on the walls.”At first, residents were doing every other weekend, but now they are on such a roll, they don’t want to stop and are working every weekend.Mrs Penner said she had never done any painting before.“I didn’t know I could paint and I am really quite good,” she said. “We have some people that know and they are teaching us. The women are scraping and cleaning.”The development is being painted a cheerful shade of Bermuda pink. The residents chose the paint colour democratically.“It has brought the community together,” said Mrs Penner. “It is amazing camaraderie.”She said she used to just say ‘hi’ to her neighbours in passing. Now, they all have this experience in common they are all much closer.“I am thinking that we have turned this economic downturn into something positive,” she said. “It is a real old Bermuda spirit thing. The residents keep saying that this is the way Bermuda used to be and we need to go back to this.”To date, they have spent about $12,000 on the project, saving themselves an estimated $68,000. They have spent about $8,000 on paint. They also had to hire someone to paint the rafters, as no-one among them really had the skill needed for that. They also had to pay to have cracks filled in the building.“It is a big savings,” she said. “We are so proud of ourselves. This pride will help us to take care of the place. Now, if we see a bubble on the wall we can go out and fix it. Anyone can do it. It is very cool. I just think it is a miracle. People when they are painting say it is like therapy. It gets their mind off their troubles. It has taken a lot of work, but everyone encourages each other.”Mrs Penner said when the painting is finished the little Winton Hill community will be looking for other ways that they can save money. In September, they hope to start a vegetable and fruit tree garden.Other Ways to Save Money Around the House1. Use a clothesline. If you live in a house with a lawn that is more than 30 years old, you probably have funny posts set some distance apart. Alternatively, you might have a folding metal contraption that looks like the inside of an umbrella. It was once common for people to string a line between the posts, or use the umbrella-like contraption, to hang clothes out to dry. The clothes are held up by clothes pegs. You can buy pegs and line in a supermarket or hardware store. (Google clothespeg if you are not sure what they look like.) Drying your clothes this way saves on energy bills. You can tell your friends you are using solar power to dry your clothes.2. Plant shade trees around your house to cool the yard, and your house.3. Isn’t it irritating that the store never has the herb you want when you want it? Plant a vegetable and herb garden and save on the cost of vegetables and herbs.4. I remember as a child getting a bath in the height of summer in about an inch of water. Water is a precious resource in Bermuda, and ordering it can be a big expense. Taking a bath at least allows you to control how much water you are using. A United States Department of Energy survey recently found that on average people use 12 gallons of water for a shower and nine gallons for a bath.5. Switch your washing machine to using cold water, and buy cold water detergents. It takes energy, and ultimately money, to heat the water in the washing machine.