tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9043373205519465462024-03-12T16:47:09.814-07:00Over on DoverBethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-18476959156111124692016-06-26T10:00:00.000-07:002016-06-26T10:00:38.951-07:00A Little Furniture RefreshBoth the nightstands and the dresser in our bedroom are from Ikea in the Hemnes series. I loved both of them still, but with last year's newly dark stained floors, the black dresser was blending in a bit too much. I had considered the idea of painting the dresser, but hadn't really settled on anything concrete until I came across <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/234961305537905437/" target="_blank">this</a> pin on Pinterest. I loved the two tone look, and it felt so fresh and light. I decided I would redo the nightstands to match, also. I tackled those first since they were much smaller and easier to start with.<br />
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I took them out to the garage and used the orbital sander to lightly rough up the surface over everything but the drawer front, which I sanded down to the bare wood for staining.<br />
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Once they were dusted off, I applied two coats of oil based primer to the main body of both nightstands.<br />
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Followed by three coats of semi-gloss acrylic paint.<br />
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I applied one coat of my go-to stain, Rustoleum's Kona, to the drawer fronts. After that dried, I applied one coat of semi-gloss spar-urethane to the drawer fronts and the night stands. I applied it very lightly to the painted areas because I was afraid of yellowing. Turns out I was right to be, because there are some definite yellow areas. Rats.<br />
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Before moving on to the dresser, there was a project I wanted to complete on the wall above the dresser. I had some Ikea mirrors on the wall that I had fallen out of love with, and so I took them down.<br />
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As you can see, I had applied some of them before painting the room. They were stuck on with adhesive squares, so there was some drywall damage when I pried them off the wall.<br />
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Nothing a little spackle and paint can't fix.<br />
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My plan was to do a gallery wall around the TV, which would also be mounted on the wall. Once I got Chico's pawprints framed and hung next to the newly mounted TV, I made a very detailed drawing on my phone of how I wanted the other frames to look. #sarcasm<br />
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Then, through the magic of the Internet, and a trip to Ikea, the new frames were up and ready to be filled with photos. Which also meant it was time to paint the dresser.<br />
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The process was the same as with the nightstands: two coats of oil based primer and three coats of semi-gloss white.<br />
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I painted the larger drawer fronts in the dining room, which the cats thoroughly enjoyed.<br />
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After much discussion and deliberation, I decided on staining only the four smaller drawers. Those also got one coat of Kona. This time, however, I learned from my mistake and bought a quart of water based polyurethane, which I brushed over the entire dresser with no yellowing at all. Score.<br />
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Looking pretty good, yes? Oh, but where is the hardware? I had used wood filler to cover up the screw holes on the larger drawers to make way for the new t-bar handles I had ordered from Ebay.<br />
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Ta da!<br />
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The best part is that all the hardware for the dresser and nightstands only cost me $16. Thanks, Ebay.<br />
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I'm really pleased with the end result.<br />
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And no more blending into the floor! Woo hoo!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-50438116299946401202016-06-24T13:52:00.000-07:002016-06-24T13:52:52.665-07:00The Time Has Come... For StainingAfter two eagerly awaited months passed letting the new deck lumber air out, Memorial Day weekend arrived, and the time was nigh for staining the deck.<br />
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One small step we had to tackle first was relocating my yucca plant.<br />
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I had hoped to be able to leave it where it was, but it was growing right up against the deck and over top of it, as you can see above, so it really needed to find a new home.<br />
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Once that was completed, we headed to Lowe's and gathered our supplies: a jug of Olympic deck cleaner, a gallon of Olympic Elite Semitransparent deck stain in Wenge, a deck stain applicator, and a cheap 3" paintbrush.<br />
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First thing was cleaning the deck. This stuff worked pretty well and was quite easy to use. We used a hand-held tank sprayer to apply it and then washed it off after the recommended time. Even though the deck was only two months old, it actually got pretty dirty in that time. The above picture is post-cleaning.<br />
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Before slapping on some stain all over the deck and deciding we hated it, I grabbed a scrap piece of deck board and applied some. I let it dry for a couple of days before making a final decision on it, which was a big thumbs up.<br />
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Then it was application time, which I sadly have action no pictures of. Here's the run down though: Our stain applicator had one edge that was meant for getting into the cracks between boards, so I would fill in two rows at a time, then go over the tops of the boards. David would follow behind me with the brush getting down into any gaps or knots that the stain pad didn't cover well enough.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFOHrRDGSyff1q3jOkgGzTcrqqcMQ5MLuNs-tNNZ7uba0wMWuiBTdkMEfGVHp2Kyis5_oXqCAx9YFh-ac1hFTECZYoFxvDi1v3h1r1YRFppdfTs70bRIaBq2wX3Uys47WdsKB_9Z8huaI/s1600/IMG_8668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFOHrRDGSyff1q3jOkgGzTcrqqcMQ5MLuNs-tNNZ7uba0wMWuiBTdkMEfGVHp2Kyis5_oXqCAx9YFh-ac1hFTECZYoFxvDi1v3h1r1YRFppdfTs70bRIaBq2wX3Uys47WdsKB_9Z8huaI/s640/IMG_8668.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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The first gallon ran out with the completion of the top surface. I went out to buy a second gallon, even though I would only need a small bit of it so that we would have extra on hand for any touch ups or reapplications down the road. I used the paintbrush to get all the sides of the deck and with that, application was complete.<br />
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We had to wait 48 hours before replacing any furniture per the stain directions.<br />
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I feel like the stain makes it look much more finished, like it's always been here.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc4V5UKjaSacIB3cBiacWkTdZmFC2dB_vWh11HNpXCQpO-QkrmMbG8rtLOL2WxmxltljVg3oYT4JGGDe9vVMKC8jugIq9LBs6Xk_81No0Ii_clvOnJ9k3DZ7Y-1NI4s8r024I6fESjjqo/s1600/IMG_8680.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc4V5UKjaSacIB3cBiacWkTdZmFC2dB_vWh11HNpXCQpO-QkrmMbG8rtLOL2WxmxltljVg3oYT4JGGDe9vVMKC8jugIq9LBs6Xk_81No0Ii_clvOnJ9k3DZ7Y-1NI4s8r024I6fESjjqo/s640/IMG_8680.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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This photo is probably the most accurate representation of the actual color. A nice medium brown, so it doesn't get too hot on bare feet.<br />
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I'm so thrilled with how this project wrapped up!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-75587953080056239482016-04-21T11:04:00.000-07:002016-04-21T11:04:39.525-07:00Rockin' & Rollin'One last project we wanted to complete in our new backyard oasis (besides staining the deck when the times comes) was laying down some gravel. I had mentioned previously that we were going to do a gravel border around the deck. I wanted to do that to create a buffer zone that would make mowing much easier.<br />
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I also wanted to gravel around our fire pit which had previously been a lonely little pit all by itself in the yard. With the addition of the deck, it was much closer to the action, but I wanted to really tie it in and make it feel like part of the same space.<br />
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I started out by laying my landscape fabric in the rough shape that I wanted. Since the fabric is rectangular, and the shape I was going for was round, it was a pretty rough layout. After I got things looking generally the way I wanted, I took my edging and used the included stakes to lay it out over top the fabric. The I went around the outside of the edging and cut off the excess. I did a bit of adjusting and finagling after that until I was happy with the way it looked.<br />
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Then we were ready for gravel! We went to a couple of landscape places around town, as well as Lowes to check out their bagged gravel. I learned that gravel is quite a bit more expensive than I had anticipated.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSaUwak077-_aWzG3vMXbgxoul35cgYwvdywHG0WH8a1Zc4Q6y2TPGTlUe9EK1CWCtjKYHryBDGO1xytd9t4sFQeWBG4OPmWoZ3ckeYalrqXqE3uJtrFpk2kMYYyjZCVzEdusTOwHzy4/s1600/IMG_8288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSaUwak077-_aWzG3vMXbgxoul35cgYwvdywHG0WH8a1Zc4Q6y2TPGTlUe9EK1CWCtjKYHryBDGO1xytd9t4sFQeWBG4OPmWoZ3ckeYalrqXqE3uJtrFpk2kMYYyjZCVzEdusTOwHzy4/s640/IMG_8288.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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I fell in love with the first kind we saw which was a black granite chip. It was pretty on par with most everything else that we saw, cost-wise. So we ordered 2 tons of it and had it delivered to the house.<br />
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This is what 4,000 pounds of gravel looks like. A little underwhelming right? I was afraid it wasn't going to be enough, but as we got to spreading it, it turned out we had plenty.<br />
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David shoveled it into a wheelbarrow and dumped it out on the landscape fabric while I used a garden rake to spread it around. It took only about an hour before we were done.<br />
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I'm very pleased with it. And yes, we do need to mow the grass pretty badly.</div>
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And the border helps to hide any unevenness of our skirt boards, which is an added bonus.</div>
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I can't wait to make some s'mores out here.</div>
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With the extra we had, we filled in around our paver walkway. Despite a few seasons of attempted moss growing, the results were pretty lackluster. We didn't want to kill what was still there, so we just filled in gravel around it.</div>
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And with that, out backyard oasis is complete! It's been such a huge change in just about one month. We spend so much more time out here than we did last summer, and I am thrilled with how its all turned out.</div>
Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-77173734013156526322016-04-13T18:37:00.000-07:002016-04-13T18:37:10.593-07:00And Then There Was Light!Can I just say how much we have been loving our deck? It has been unseasonably cold and seasonably rainy so we have only been able to hang out on it a few times, but you better believe we have eaten dinner out there every day we could.<br />
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One thing it was lacking, however, was light, which made it difficult to enjoy once the sun went down. Over the winter, I saw some string lights at Costco that I fell in love with. They had large standard looking light bulbs that hung down and were generally awesome looking. I told David that when we built our deck (which at the time was still a "some day" project) I wanted to get them. And so now that we have our deck, that's just what we did.<br />
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As for how we installed them, I looked at a few tutorials on Pinterest and decided upon <a href="http://brightjuly.blogspot.com/2012/09/diy-outdoor-string-lights.html" target="_blank">this one</a>. I liked it because it is easily removable unlike some others I had seen that involved setting conduit or posts in concrete. We followed their directions to a T, with one addition.<br />
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We added a pipe strap further up the conduit for added stability. We were especially concerned about that particular factor because our string lights were of the heavy-duty commercial variety, and thus quite a bit heavier than most lights.<br />
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We used three poles on the yard side. On the house side, we attached metal hooks to the board that runs along the house right under the soffit. I'm sure it has a name, I'm just not sure what it is. We pre-drilled a hole to get through the metal that covered the wood, and then just hand screwed the hook in place.<br />
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I eagerly awaited nightfall all day long. And I was not disappointed.<br />
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You'll notice we also added some rope light. We ordered it from Amazon and attached it under the 1" overhang of the deck with the clips it came with. It's as much safety as it is for ambiance, since we didn't want anyone falling off the edge of the deck or missing the step down.<br />
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I'm so thrilled with how it turned out, and can't wait to enjoy many warm evenings under these lights!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-11949664696858470682016-04-01T09:00:00.000-07:002016-04-07T05:21:19.895-07:00I've Got the BluesOne quick change before I get into the cabinet talk. The dining room was still sporting its ceiling fan over the dining table from its former days as a living room. While having a fan in the living room was nice, having it over a dining table was a little less nice. So when I saw someone on Facebook selling a light fixture that I immediately fell in love with, I didn't hesitate to get all over that.<br />
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I scored this like new beauty for only $60. We changed it over to a dimmer switch and it makes the dining room 1000% more cozy in the evenings. Love it.<br />
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Now on to the cabinets. I had made my poorly photoshopped rendering, which I loved. I wanted to make sure I loved in real life, too. So I removed all the bottom cabinet doors, took them out to garage, where I had created a make-shift spray booth, and sprayed on one coat of paint. After it had dried, I brought a couple doors in to see how they looked.<br />
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And well... I was unsure. It was very dark. I considered abandoning ship or trying a different color. I already had this color on hand (it's the same as the accent wall in the dining room and the stairwell) and I was really wanting to keep this project nice and free. So I left the doors sitting there for a day while I weighed my options. I finally decided that I would forge ahead and really hoped that I wouldn't regret it.<br />
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I alternating spraying the doors out in the garage and painting the cabinets themselves with a brush inside. This is coat #1 inside.<br />
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Followed by coat #2.<br />
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It took three coats in all to get even coverage. I left all the drawers and doors open for a couple of days to make sure there would be no stickage. It was quite a pain in the butt to cook around the doors in the already small kitchen, let me tell you.<br />
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I waited to paint the toe kick last because I knew it would be annoying and I didn't want to worry about touching wet paint on the cabinets while I was rolling around on the floor. But then the whole deck thing happened, so it stayed looking this way for a few weeks.<br />
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So after the deck was completed, and I was going through project withdrawal, I whipped out my painters tape, taped off the floor and got 'er done.<br />
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I'm actually pretty happy with it and don't feel like it's too dark at all so I'm glad I forged on in the face of doubt. It did create another project for me, however. The wall color and the bottom cabinet color don't even remotely go together. So I will eventually be painting the walls. I'm thinking a really pale grey.<br />
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I'm still thinking about removed those upper cabinets and tiling the backsplash, too, so you know I will let everyone know if/when that gets done!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-38734607427044334622016-03-31T10:20:00.000-07:002016-03-31T10:23:11.775-07:00Yeah, So We Built A DeckAt the end of my last post, I had talked about some ideas I had for the kitchen. Those upper cabinets I talked about moving are still firmly in place, but my bottom cabinets are a very different color. That's another post for another day, though, because that project got usurped by another much more exciting project and so isn't 100% complete just yet.<br />
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In case the title of this post wasn't a big enough hint, that more exciting project was building a deck. While we were discussing what we wanted our next undertaking to be, David suggested a deck in the backyard. This is something we have wanted to do for years, so I didn't hesitate to say "UM YES LET'S DO IT RIGHT NOW, I'LL PUT MY SHOES ON LET'S GO TO LOWE'S." I tend to get excited about starting things.<br />
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Now, since neither of us has ever built a deck before, we started out by watching lots of YouTube videos and reading lots of tutorials. When we felt we had a pretty good grasp of the process, we started sketching out our ideas. We started out pretty complicated, with multiple levels and non-square shapes. Then we realized we were complete novices and really just needed to chill out and keep things simple. Thus, we landed on the simple rectangular deck that you see at the top part of the drawing, knowing if we wanted to add on down the road, we could.<br />
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With our layout decided, we took things outside. We used stakes and string and a string level to determine how much of a slope the yard was at and how high our deck would need to be at the low point. We also used the stakes to mark where our support posts needed to go. <br />
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We cut down 4' sonotubes into 16" sections.<br />
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Then dug holes in the ground at the marked locations and stuck those bad boys down in the ground. We wound up with 10 posts total, 5 on each long side of the deck.<br />
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Then we filled each one with concrete and stuck in the post bracket. We used the string and posts to make sure all the brackets were in line with each other.<br />
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After the concrete had dried for 24 hours, we started
setting the posts and attaching the outside supports, for which we used
2x8s. The deck is 12' wide by 24' feet long which makes things much easier for us since boards come in 12' lengths. Hooray minimal cutting!<br />
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This was a pretty tedious process, since we had to make sure everything was level and square.<br />
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Once everything was attached, our low end of the deck ended up being quite a bit higher than we had anticipated, 20" off the ground. We had not included a step in our original plan, but at that point, we knew we would need one.<br />
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After that, we laid down landscape fabric to prevent weeds and grass from growing underneath. We extended it out past the outside of the deck because we plan to do a gravel border.<br />
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Then it was joist hanging time! We had to add a few extra joists to accommodate the decking pattern we had chosen, which was a "picture frame border" and then laying boards long ways with a "zipper seam" in the middle.<br />
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Chico was very helpful throughout this step.<br />
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After all the joists were attached and levelled, we added in the supports for the step.<br />
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What a fine looking step. At this point, we started laying down deck boards like no one's business. We only attached them to three joists at first just to get everything in place.<br />
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We ended up needing to shave 1/2" off the last row. We actually opted to take it off the second to last row, so that the mitered corners of our picture frame border didn't get thrown off. You can see what the zipper seam looks like here, too.<br />
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When everything was in place, we used the circular saw to cut off the ends of the boards flush with one another. We just made sure to set the blade depth so that it would cut through the deck boards, but not into the underlying structure.<br />
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Doing it this way is much faster than cutting each board as its laid down. After that, we attached all the skirt pieces to the deck so no creatures can get underneath and make it their home.<br />
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For the final step, we had some wonderful friends come over with their drills and we went nuts screwing in all the boards. We snapped chalk lines down each joist, then two people went down each line hammering in the screws to get them started, while two others followed behind with a drill screwing them all the way in.<br />
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It made what would had been a tedious, days long step go so much faster! <br />
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And with that, we were done! Everything got finished after dark, so I have no photos of the empty finished deck. We immediately moved everything up and hung out for a while. The entire process took about 3 weeks, with only working for a couple hours some evenings and when we had free time on the weekends.<br />
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I have some very exciting plans for incorporating the fire pit and decorating everything.<br />
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We have to wait a couple months for the treated lumber to dry out before we can stain and seal the wood, which is a bit of a bummer because I'm really looking forward to staining this baby a nice deep brown.<br />
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I think the thing I'm most excited about is not having to move all the patio furniture every single time I mow. Woo hoo!!<br />
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<br />Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-75454996269735957202016-02-04T13:46:00.000-08:002016-02-04T13:46:22.566-08:00Some New Shelves and New IdeasI know it's been over 6 months since my last post, but with David working full time while working on his master's degree, there isn't a whole lot of down time to work on house projects. Not to mention I've been feeling lazy and uninspired. That changed when Cait lent me her new Young House Love book and I was once again filled with the desire to change everything in the house.<br />
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I'm starting out small with the addition of some new shelving. Since we nearly doubled the square footage of the house by finishing the basement, I have found myself more focused on projects that increase the efficiency of the house as a whole, rather than purely cosmetic changes.<br />
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Ever since I moved into this house there have been a couple of cabinets that have bothered me. Can you guess which one it is in this picture?<br />
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Oh, hello awkwardly high cabinet. You sure are strangely placed. Admittedly, the extra height is nice for accommodating taller appliances like the coffee maker that we keep under there, but it was nearly impossible for me to reach anything in the higher shelves without standing on a chair. And so I finally came up with a better solution. Open shelves to the rescue!<br />
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Things were looking pretty rough after the removal of the offending cabinet. The gross wall had wallpaper on it once upon a time and that flesh tone paint is the original color of the kitchen when David bought the house.<br />
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Some spackle and paint improved the situation quite a bit.<br />
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Painting and installing a new end piece for the cabinet sealed the deal. Looking good as new.<br />
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Then I installed two of Ikea's smallest Lack floating shelves. I made that sound really easy, didn't I? It wasn't. In fact, it was one of those tasks that leaves you kneeling atop the kitchen counter, contemplating where you went wrong in life.<br />
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Once the shelves were all loaded up with our coffee and tea paraphernalia, it felt worth the mental anguish.<br />
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Goodbye awkwardly high cabinet, hello adorable coffee and tea station!<br />
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While I was on a shelf-installing roll, I went into the bathroom to add a couple more shelves above the toilet.<br />
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I think I may be even more in love with these. Especially because I can now have plant life in the bathroom without fear of the cats destroying it.<br />
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It feels so luxurious to have fancy rolled up towels and whatnot. Does that make me weird? Maybe.<br />
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So what's coming up next in the house department? Well, remember at the beginning of this post I mentioned there were multiple awkward cabinets? The others are on the back wall of the kitchen, so we are discussing the idea of removing all of them and replacing them with more open shelving. While we were at it, we would also replace the beadboard backsplash with white subway tile, and possibly even paint the lower cabinets a nice deep navy color.<br />
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Are you feeling me? Are you picking up what I'm putting down? I'd love to hear thoughts in the comments since we are still very much in the planning, budgeting, should we even do this in the first place? stages of this project.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-49891376385773384542015-06-15T17:14:00.001-07:002015-06-15T17:14:48.898-07:00Gross ReStore Cabinets To the Rescue!I had mentioned in my dining room table post that I was planning to get a few additional pieces of furniture for the room over time. One piece I really wanted was a buffet to store small appliances and some lesser used dishes, since some of our kitchen cabinets were getting a bit cramped.<br />
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I'd been loving this one from Ikea but not so much that price. $400 for something I don't <i>have</i> to have? I'll pass, thanks. I had seen some great tutorials online for making a buffet out of kitchen cabinets, but after pricing that, there really wasn't much savings to be had.<br />
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One day last week, my mom and I drove all over town stopping at every antique and used furniture store I know of, with no luck on the buffet front other than this beautiful, perfect specimen. Which was $1,200. Yeah.<br />
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I did take home this awesome chair, though. It's way more comfortable than my former office chair and it rolls and swivels!<br />
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The last place we stopped was the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. As I browsed the cabinet aisle, I came across some gross, grey flat front cabinets and angels began to sing. It was just what I wanted and for only $5 each? I could hardly believe my luck. My mom seemed less enthused with my vision as I loaded them onto a cart.<br />
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Once I got them home, I got right to work. I used liquid nails and screws to attach each of three cabinets to each other through the sides. <br />
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While that was drying, I removed the doors and shelves and wiped everything down. I grabbed a can of flat white spray paint I had left over from my <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/05/fabric-filing.html" target="_blank">filing cabinet makeover</a> and started spraying the cabinet boxes. I only had one can, which didn't get me very far, so I had to leave the rest until the next day and a trip to Lowe's.<br />
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While I was getting additional cans of spray paint, I also picked up three 12" wide, 6' long edge glued pine panels. I went with the edge glued because not only were they cheaper than a board, they were actually 12" wide, whereas a board is more like 11 1/2" inches. Since my cabinets were exactly 12" deep I needed that extra 1/2". I picked up four legs and brackets, as well, and went about my merry way.<br />
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I measured my cabinets and cut pieces for the top, bottom and sides.<br />
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I applied a coat of Minwax's Dark Walnut stain and while that dried, I continued spray painting my cabinets.<br />
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I alternated spray painting and applying stain and polyurethane to the wood to speed up the process a bit. I used my flat paint on the insides of the cabinets, the shelves, and the backs of the doors. For the the door fronts, I used a gloss finish.<br />
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You and everything around you will get covered in overspray.<br />
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Once everything was dry that evening, I used liquid nails and attached my pine boards to the outside of the cabinets. I set the bottom board on saw horses and then David and I lifted the cabinets and set them on top of the board. I was a little afraid everything was going to fall apart when it was lifted up, but it held together very solidly. Whew.<br />
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I clamped everything tight and used some concrete blocks on the top to flatten out a slightly warped board. I let everything dry for about 24 hours.<br />
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The next night, I attached the angle leg brackets to the bottom of the cabinet, then screwed the legs into the brackets.<br />
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Then we carried it inside (it is VERY heavy) and reattached the shelves and doors.<br />
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It holds a ton of stuff!<br />
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I love its cute little legs. In fact, I like it even better than the one I had been eyeballing at Ikea. And for 1/4 of the price! Can't beat that.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-54191655916595691492015-06-09T18:12:00.000-07:002015-06-09T18:12:37.576-07:00DIY Patio Lazy SusanEver since last summer, I have been filled with desire for a lazy susan that was made to go around my patio umbrella. I know I must have seen one at some point, but all my efforts to find one have been fruitless. Perhaps I just dreamed such a magical item.<br />
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A while ago, I had pinned <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/233624299396083942/" target="_blank">this tutorial</a> about making one's own lazy susan. This one lacked a hole in the center for the umbrella pole, so I mentally filed it away. Then, a few weeks ago, I remembered the tutorial and thought to myself, "Self, you can totally modify that thing to make it work for you!" After congratulating myself on a great idea, I got started collecting my parts. I only needed two things, so it didn't take long: a cheap lazy susan and an 18" round wooden tabletop (which I got at Lowe's). Both items together cost about $18.<br />
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Here's the pre-made lazy susan I found at Wal-Mart. This one was 2 tiered which I didn't need but it was the cheapest one I could find. I had originally planned to remove the rotating part and attach it to my wooden top, but after further inspection, I realized this wouldn't work and that I would have to cut a hole through the plastic. I had no idea if this would even work. I was fully prepared to have the plastic crack right in two. I measured the umbrella pole to determine what size hole I needed. It was 1 1/2" in diameter. I happened to have a 2 1/4" hole saw already so I decided that would work just fine and got to drilling.<br />
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Fortunately, it cut through like butter and didn't even threaten to crack.<br />
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One note about the lazy susan: make sure it has a ring for the moving portion. Lots of the ones I saw had a solid circle attached at the center, which will get in the way when you try to cut the hole. <br />
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After doing a little victory dance in the driveway, I cut the same size hole in the wooden top, after measuring to find the center. This took a bit more drilling effort since it was so much thicker. To avoid splintering when the bit comes through, keep an eye on the bottom side. When the pilot bit starts to poke through, flip the piece over and finish cutting the hole from the bottom.<br />
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After the <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/04/ive-still-been-working-away-in-basement.html" target="_blank">floor staining color trial</a>, I have quite a selection of stain colors. I started out with ebony, but then decided it needed something to warm it up a bit. I brushed on a coat of jacobean immediately. In the photo above, the left side is ebony/jacobean and right right side is ebony only. After that dried, I applied 3 coats of satin polyurethane to the top and sides. I also applied 2 coats to the bottom, which I didn't stain but wanted to protect in case it comes in contact with water.<br />
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After all that was nice and dry, it was time the glue to lazy susan to the wood top. I used a two-part epoxy that I applied to the rim of the lazy susan. I forgot to take a picture of this step because the glue sets in 5 minutes and I was panicking just a little bit. The main thing here is to make sure both of the holes you cut line up perfectly.<br />
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I'm quite happy with the results. It matches the color of the table really well, which is what I was going for. And that rotating action is smoooooth...<br />
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Now who wants to come over for a cook out so I can take it for a spin? Get it? Har har har...<br />
<br />Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-57940272796280692912015-06-03T13:44:00.000-07:002015-06-03T13:48:46.988-07:00Protection for the Tiniest, Most Precious SucculentsWhen I posted about making <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tiniest-and-most-precious-succulent.html" target="_blank">a planter for my tiny succulents</a>, I mentioned that I was having trouble keeping the cats from eating them. Placing orange peel around them worked for about a day, but it became pretty clear I was going to have to make some kind of cover for the planter, since a lot of the plants were starting to look rather sad.<br />
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I knew it would be pretty much impossible to find something pre-made in the size I needed, so I decided early on that I would make something. I picked up a 28"x30" sheet of plexiglass at Lowe's and started winging it.<br />
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I've never really worked with plexiglass before, and it wasn't too terrible. After measuring the planter to determine what size lid I needed, I got to cutting. I used a straight edge and utility knife to score the plexi, then placed it on the edge of a step outside and gave it a sharp hit. Sometimes it broke cleanly and sometimes my score wasn't deep enough and I had to go back with pliers to break off the rest.<br />
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Once I got all my pieces cut, it was time for assembly. I attached the two long sides to the top first.<br />
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I put together this lovely little set up. I placed the whole thing on that wood circle (for another project to come!) so that I wouldn't get any adhesive on the table. I used the Intel box and the basket to keep each side piece propped up.<br />
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I tried using super glue first, which really didn't work at all, so I switched over to clear silicone. I just ran a bead along the entire seam and then smoothed it with my finger.<br />
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I let those three pieces dry, then attached the two short sides. I used making tape to hold those pieces in place, then applied the silicone. I flipped it over at this point to finish drying because some silicone had squished out and was trying to stick to the wood.<br />
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I let it dry until the next afternoon and then removed the masking tape and placed it on top my planter.<br />
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It's definitely not perfect. My silicone application could have been muuuuch cleaner, but it is working very well at keeping the cats out of the plants, which makes me and my tiny, precious succulents very happy!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-88184364072130719222015-06-01T05:17:00.002-07:002015-06-01T05:17:35.328-07:00DIY Copper Tiki TochesWe love our pond in the backyard. What we don't love is the amount of mosquitos that it creates. Last year, we had purchsed some cheap bamboo tiki torches to try to ward off bugs when we were grilling out or otherwise enjoying the back yard. They stayed outside all winter and didn't fare too well. And by "not too well," I mean they completely fell apart.<br />
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When I came across <a href="http://www.myhomemystyle.com/read/enote/add-style-outdoors-with-a-copper-patio-torch" target="_blank">this tutorial</a> on Pinterest, I was sold. I loved the modern look, and the durability of copper. We picked up the parts to make two torches, which came to about $50. This is definitely one of those cases where DIY is not cheaper, since, despite what Pinterest seems to think, copper pipe is not cheap! However, I was so in love with the look, as was David, so we decided to spring for it. If these seem to do well, we will probably get parts to make two more.<br />
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We followed the directions, with one exception. Our Lowe's didn't have the bushing it called for, so instead of cutting off the end of the air chamber, we left it as is and put the wick directly in it. This saved us about $6 on the two extra pieces we didn't use, though it will make it more difficult to refill the chamber with oil. We also picked up copper caps to cover and protect the wicks when not in use.<br />
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Assembling them took all of 2 or 3 minutes each, so this couldn't have been a quicker or easier project.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-74243962409459467522015-05-27T18:35:00.001-07:002015-05-27T18:35:10.756-07:00Go Towards the Light!The stairs down to the basement have been looking pretty stylish, but it was a bit hard to tell, since there was no light there. David's mom got us the fixture that I had been eyeing from Ikea for Easter. It took us a while to get around to installing it since there was no existing light there. We knew we would have to run wire from the basement all the way to the attic. We had made some preparations during basement finishing to make things a little easier, but it was still going to be difficult. There was a lot of talking on cell phones while David was in the attic and I was in the basement, trying to line up two holes at the top and bottom of a wall cavity.<br />
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Once that was done and a hole was cut in the stairwell ceiling from the attic, David had to get on the extension ladder on the stairs and attach the fixture. I busied myself in the living room assembling the branches of the light so that I wouldn't witness that I was sure was his imminent death.<br />
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Fortunately, no one fell off any ladders and we were left with a brand new light fixture!<br />
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It's so nice to be able to see what's going on when I go up and down the stairs. And the pattern it casts on the walls isn't too shabby either!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-40116970075466301682015-05-25T13:21:00.000-07:002015-05-25T13:21:27.264-07:00Goodwill Stereo Cabinet MakeoverOnce upon a time, about 7 years ago, I found a stereo cabinet at the Goodwill for $7.50 and I bought it for David as a birthday gift. It had a radio, 8 track player and turntable, all of which still worked. It mostly lived out in the garage to provide some tunes for the frequent ping pong games that were played there.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Witness the splendor of the house back when it was a bachelor pad.</td></tr>
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When David moved into this house, it spent a short time in the living room, then got bumped out the garage again and there it has sat for the last 4 years or so. When the living room turned into a dining room, I decided it once again had a spot inside. The only problem was that it wasn't terribly attractive. I wanted to remove the chunky trim on the bottom and add some nice mid-century legs. However, when I flipped over the cabinet I found that not only was the trim not removable, there wasn't even a bottom to attach any legs to. Instead, the solution I came up with was to paint it, but what color?<br />
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I first tried a seafoam green that I had a free sample pot of. I painted just the panels and planned to leave the outside wood tone. However, this color looked really awful under tungsten lighting.<br />
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So then I decided to paint the panels white. This was much more agreeable, but still lacking something. I left it this way for a while, so I could ponder my options. Then Cait gave me the idea of painting the exterior yellow and when she shared her <a href="http://myoldkyhouse.blogspot.com/2015/04/one-if-by-land-nine-if-by-spray-paint.html" target="_blank">painted lantern project</a>, I knew just what shade of yellow I wanted.<br />
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I masked off the white areas with newspaper and got to spraying. But I ran into a slight problem.<br />
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The paint wouldn't stick to the fake wood. After some googling, I realized I should have used a primer made for glossy surfaces first.<br />
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So I got back on track with a couple coats of oil based primer.<br />
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And the paint adhered like a dream. Next up was to swap out that old fabric covering the speakers with something a little fresher and less textured.<br />
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I removed the back, along with several screws from the panel that the speakers are attached to. Aaaaand it wouldn't budge. Not even a slight wiggle. I would have had to completely rip the whole thing apart to get at the fabric, so I decided to just live with it.<br />
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And live with it, I am.<br />
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I love how the yellow fits into the dining room, and I especially love being able to listen to all my records on it.<br />
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So there you have it, a make-over 7 years in the making!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-75449327400722666092015-05-13T08:40:00.000-07:002015-06-03T13:48:24.205-07:00The Tiniest and Most Precious Succulent PlanterI'd been on the lookout for a table to runner for the dining table, since it was feeling a bit naked with nothing on it. I didn't want anything too busy because there was so much pattern in the rug and chairs. I wasn't finding anything I liked, until I started organizing my fabric in my <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/05/fabric-filing.html" target="_blank">new filing cabinet.</a> That's when it struck me that I could very easily make my own and I had some fabric that would work perfectly.<br />
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I just cut two widths of fabric 18" wide and sewed them together to make one long strip, then hemmed all four sides.<br />
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Earlier that day, I had been on the other end of town when I passed by a Goodwill that I've always been able to find good stuff at. I decided to go in, and I'm very glad I did because I found the perfect item for a centerpiece!<br />
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This candle holder was only $2.50 and I had big ideas for it. I had been seeing lots of cute planters online with tiny succulents in them. I had been wanting to bring more plant life into my house, so this was the perfect opportunity.<br />
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I cut and stained a piece of fence picket (the same one from my <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-home-for-my-cameras.html" target="_blank">camera shelf project</a>) and hot glued the candle holder onto it.<br />
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I picked up five 99 cent votive holders from Michaels.<br />
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Along with an assortment of the tiniest and most precious little succulents ever from Lowe's.<br />
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I love how it turned out.<br />
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My cats are big fans of eating plants, so I try to keep greenery out of their reach. I was hopeful since these aren't leafy that they would be left alone. I wasn't so lucky. One of the cats has been munching away and pulling plants out of their pots. I have placed orange peel around the plants which seems to be working for now, but I am considering options of buying/making a plexiglass box of some sort to cover over the whole shebang.<br />
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Anyone else have any succulent planters? I'd love to see them!</div>
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<b><i>Update: </i></b>The cats never did leave the plants alone, so you can see how I made a plexiglass cover for the planter <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2015/06/protection-for-tiniest-most-precious.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </div>
Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-62599538517229749192015-05-11T12:05:00.000-07:002015-05-12T18:33:37.142-07:00Fabric FilingSince the introduction of my craft room, I have been on the look out for a small filing cabinet so that I could try out a Pinterest organizing idea for my out of control scrap fabric pile.<br>
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Sadly, I did not take a before picture but imagine a precariously, leaning, haphazardly folded pile of fabric on a closet shelf and you'll have the idea.<br>
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I had been popping into my neighborhood Goodwill from time to time without much luck, so when I found this little guy I was really jazzed. <br>
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It wasn't too beat up and the drawers still opened and closed pretty smoothly. Plus it was only $5.50 so I snatched it up and lugged it to the register.<br>
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When I got it home, I roughed up the finish with some sandpaper, then got started painting with a matte finish spray paint in white.<br>
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Looking much better already!<br>
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Once it was dry, I brought it inside and got started making my stencil to jazz it up a little. I stuck on some vinyl contact paper where my design was going to go.<br>
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Then I taped a print out over the vinyl.<br>
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Finally, I used an xacto knife to cut through the paper and the vinyl and removed the part that would be painted. While I was at it, I painted the handles, as well.<br>
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After that had dried, it was time to get all my fabric organized! I picked up some basic hanging file folders and cut each one in half at the fold, giving me two hanging pieces from each folder.<br>
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Then I just draped my cuts of fabric over the folder halves. It looks soooo much better than the crazy pile I did have going on. Now, I can actually see what I have and get to it all without a fabric avalanche, or fabrilanche, if you will.<br>
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Plus, it lives right next to my sewing machine for super easy access. I love it!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-15970784289900409812015-05-08T07:00:00.000-07:002015-05-08T09:24:41.280-07:00A Home For My CamerasThe area above the fireplace has been looking a little bare. I knew that it would be a great place to display my vintage camera collection, but I wasn't sure how to do it. My original idea was to install floating shelves but that would require me to drill into the tile and I really wanted to avoid that.<br />
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Then, as always, Pinterest came to the rescue with a solution for my woes: a hanging shelf. There are lots of different variations of this idea, from wire to rope, ceiling or wall mounted. I would hang mine from the ceiling with hooks, eliminating the need to put holes in my tile. I also decided to use wood and rope because I already had those things on hand.<br />
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I found a nice rustic looking fence picket in my scrap wood pile and cut it down into 3 pieces, each 18" long which I had previously determined was the length I wanted.<br />
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I gave them a light sanding and then clamped them all together and drilled a hole in each corner with a 1/2" bit. Then I cut two 8' lengths of sisal rope.<br />
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I had David install the two hooks in the ceiling using anchors.<br />
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I got my first board in place by pulling each end of the rope through the two holes on each side of the board, then tying knots for the board to rest on. I then hung it up on the hooks to make it easier to finish. I adjust my four knots until the board was sitting level front to back and side to side.<br />
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I did the same thing with the other two boards and cut off the excess rope from the bottom.<br />
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I attached a piece of mounting tape to the back of each shelf to keep them from swaying.<br />
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Then I loaded it up.<br />
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I did leave off my two favorite cameras for the first few days because the cats were showing a little too much interest in things and I didn't want them getting knocked to the floor.<br />
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This guy is my absolute favorite. It belonged to my dad. On the back it says "Made in Occupied Japan" which, according to my brief research, indicates it was made between 1947 and 1949.<br />
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Most of the others came from various yard sales through the years. They've mostly lived in storage up until now so I'm really excited to finally have a place to display them!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-8868642540995386212015-05-06T11:14:00.002-07:002015-05-06T11:15:57.690-07:00New Life For the Round Table<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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See that round table? It was David's family dinner table while we was growing up and it spent the entire duration of our basement renovation being shuffled from one place to another and getting lots of heavy tools thrown onto it. Its matching chairs were also mercilessly used as step stools.<br />
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Needless to say, it was looking a little worse for wear once things wrapped up downstairs. I wanted to keep it because I knew it would make a great game table and all it needed was a little love.<br />
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I used some heavy duty stripper (the same stuff I used on <a href="http://overondover.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-ghost-of-astroturf-past.html" target="_blank">the carport stairs</a>) and a plastic scraper to get most of the finish off the top.<br />
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The orbital sander took me the rest of the way down to bare wood. I applied a coat of Kona stain and two coats of satin polyurethane.<br />
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For the base of the table, I painted it grey with a sample pot of paint I had sitting around.<br />
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The chairs, unfortunately, were too far gone from their abuse in the basement. I picked up these chairs at Bargain and Buyouts in Cincinnati. That place is pretty awesome, by the way. The table had its inaugeral game playing on Wednesday night and it worked out great.<br />
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Also on the basement decorating front, I finally got some shelves put up in the laundry room.<br />
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The baskets are holding paper towels, light bulbs and extension cords. I'm trying out the whole detergent-in-drink-dispenser thing. If it seems to be working out, I plan to replace that 2 gallon behemoth with something a little smaller. Update: Since writing this last week, I have found that it does not work at all. The detergent is too thick and just kind of slowly trickles out. No bueno.<br />
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I also put the ironing board up on hooks and made a little shelf to go above the sink. Now there's a place to set the soap! Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-87489244503401615542015-04-30T12:03:00.000-07:002015-04-30T12:03:23.176-07:00A Cushy ProjectWhile I was super jazzed to get my dining table last week, one thing I did want to change about it was the fabric on the chairs.<br />
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It was looking a bit worn from so many years of family dinners, so I wanted to give it a bit of an update.<br />
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The first thing I did was remove the 4 screws on the bottom of each cushion to free it from the chair. Then I used a flat head screwdriver to pull out all the staples holding on the old fabric.<br />
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Once I got it off, I could see what I was working with. The foam was still in good shape, though a little thin. I decided to just add to it rather than replace it, so I bought a big roll of 1" thick foam along with 2 1/4 yards of the heavyweight fabric that I picked out.<br />
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First, I traced the seat onto my foam and cut it out.<br />
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It's a like a foam sandwich!<br />
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Then, I laid my seat, foam side down, onto my fabric and cut it out. I had planned for a 3" overlap on all sides.<br />
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I put one staple on each of the four sides and flipped over the cushion to make sure my pattern was straight and centered.<br />
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Then I just went crazy pulling the fabric tight and stapling along all the sides. I made sure to fold under the raw edge of the fabric so there wouldn't be any unraveling.<br />
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Then it was time to reattach it to the chair!<br />
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I did one chair at first to make sure I knew what I was doing. Once I was sure it came out to my liking, I cut out all my materials and did the chairs all at once.<br />
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I'm loving the bright new fabric, especially with my navy rug and wall.<br />
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Jawn Watson likes it too!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-11477360141781128542015-04-25T17:50:00.001-07:002015-04-25T17:50:45.973-07:00Movin' On UpAfter my last post, David and I had to chill for a few days while the polyurethane finished curing. I have to admit, it was really weird (but wonderful) to not have anything to do for a few days. We actually relaxed after work! We sat on the couch and watched TV! But once Wednesday rolled around, it was time for me to go into overdrive again.<br />
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I started out by re-installing all the quarter round I had removed. I had previously given it all a fresh new coat of paint. There were a few pieces that broke during removal and some of the closets had missing pieces, so I had to buy and cut some new trim for those areas. Once that was up, I caulked the corners as well as where the baseboards and quarter round meet, then painted the baseboards to get them looking fresh and new.<br />
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That took just about all day, so by the time I finished up, Scott and Cait came over to eat some dinner with us and be coerced into helping us get started moving back into the upstairs. David and I were SO VERY EXCITED to be able to sleep in our bed again, which we were able to do that night.<br />
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It took us a few more days to get everything back where it belongs. Now that we are settled again, it is such an enormous breath of fresh air. I keep walking in to rooms and being surprised at how much space I have to manoeuvre. <br />
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One new room we have is what we are calling our Project/Craft room. It's in what used to be our guest bedroom and it houses my sewing machine and a huge desk for David to work on his computer projects.<br />
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But the room I'm most excited about is the former living room.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Please feel free to ignore the spackle on the wall.</td></tr>
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Which is now a dining room. I've never really seen much point in having a formal living room. I know some families use and enjoy them, but I knew we would not be one of those families.<br />
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The table belonged to my grandparents, so not only does it look totally boss, it brings a lot of warm memories with it.<br />
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It's still a bit lacking in furniture at the moment, but I will bring in more pieces over time. I would love to have a sideboard or buffet in here.<br />
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So that's how we are looking at the moment. We plan to cool it on the big projects for a little while and just enjoy what really feels very much like a new-to-us house. Oh, and did I mention how much closet space I have now? It's unreal!Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-40766814370543856812015-04-20T17:32:00.002-07:002015-04-20T17:32:48.053-07:00We're Floored With Our Floors!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After getting things all cleaned and spotless on Thursday, we sealed off that part of the house until we got off work Friday night for staining. Let me just say right here that this step took A LOT longer than I had anticipated.<br />
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The first thing I did was to mix all my stains together. The color that I chose (Rustoleum's Kona, of course!) only comes in a quart so I had to buy 4 cans. In case there were any slight variations in color between batches, I dumped them all into a gallon can and mixed them together.<br />
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We started in the guest bedroom. I applied the stain to one area with an applicator pad that attached to a long broom handle. Then we set a timer for 5 minutes after which David went back with old t-shirts and wiped up the excess.<br />
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After the first room, we were a bit discouraged by the unevenness of the stain application. We briefly googled to see what was causing it and didn't really come up with a definitive answer. Suggestions ranged from inconsistent sanding to "that's just how it is sometimes." We decided to continue on and figure out what to do if it continued to be a problem.<br />
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In subsequent rooms, I applied the stain along the long wall of the room, making each pass parallel with the direction of the wood. This seemed to help a lot, though didn't completely remedy the issue. We also began doing two rooms at once to speed things along.<br />
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Even so, it took us until 1 in the morning to stain ourselves into a little box...<br />
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...and out the front door. <br />
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We did find quite a surprise as we stained in the living room: pup paw prints! Chico had walked on the bare wood a few days earlier with wet feet. I figured since the prints dried and were no longer visible, it wouldn't be an issue. Apparently that was quite wrong.<br />
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The next morning, David sanded down the offending prints and re-stained those areas, which fixed the problem.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxBmMv-tltgFUjdjM3Zh8UCCyTKWXkaB_cRmB-KIreQJMBnlwm9rgDQEWo8hwbH4xIs2YEFnUulZpb0jmZaVk8T4xJVs43SB7egOn48fLXg0jMi0zxGK-lJzAaykRIWrCtX1SOXKlt37k/s1600/image6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxBmMv-tltgFUjdjM3Zh8UCCyTKWXkaB_cRmB-KIreQJMBnlwm9rgDQEWo8hwbH4xIs2YEFnUulZpb0jmZaVk8T4xJVs43SB7egOn48fLXg0jMi0zxGK-lJzAaykRIWrCtX1SOXKlt37k/s1600/image6.jpeg" height="400" width="300" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijf4ByaW64QbZ7Yj37wvmrP83w1pG-6KIIhWEehH7dXwF3j_yvXGUVXAdNssUjyTy-2JW0TImdIXHmc1mWsHP8SI2JIrcUppLqqo5uglswdbvcoEcJQFBEIiCAfa9mbNWMRO-lHTmhyTM/s1600/image9.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijf4ByaW64QbZ7Yj37wvmrP83w1pG-6KIIhWEehH7dXwF3j_yvXGUVXAdNssUjyTy-2JW0TImdIXHmc1mWsHP8SI2JIrcUppLqqo5uglswdbvcoEcJQFBEIiCAfa9mbNWMRO-lHTmhyTM/s1600/image9.jpeg" height="400" width="300" /></a><br />
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I was still a bit unsure about my stain color selection even
as we went to apply it, but I absolutely love the color. It's exactly
what I was looking for: a deep brown without a lot of red or yellow
undertones.<br />
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After I got off work Saturday afternoon, we got down to business with polyurethane. We opted to go with the oil based mainly because of the cost. Water based requires one additional coat, costs more per gallon, and doesn't cover as much square footage per gallon. It was basically a difference of $400 for water based or $160 for oil based. There also wasn't a huge difference in dry times between coats (4 hours for oil vs 2 hours for water) and both required three days before regular use. We also chose a satin finish because I prefer the look and had heard it is better at hiding scratches and dirt than a higher gloss finish. With a dog and two cats in the house, hiding scratches and dirt is high on our list of pros.<br />
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Before applying the first coat, we went over the floors once more with tack cloths since some debris had been brought in and stirred up during staining. Then we opened all the windows and turned on all the ceiling fans (after cleaning them off with tack cloths, of course). Then I got my lambswool applicator and applied the poly. I used long strokes without lifting the pad off the floor until I reached a wall. If I had to lift it off early, I made sure to use a sweeping motion as I lifted to avoid lines in the finish. As we applied the poly, some stain came off with it which seemed to help out the blotchiness issue quite a bit, much to our relief.<br />
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I did the majority of the first coat by pulling the applicator behind me.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcLTo2mO_JEODnd35Kj02yZjEjmuh6FpfCWuLzYcX3DE3pnyLwkldiWg9NxMJyELXeBV6CH8y7atWbkIV08ZZmJB8gLMFnLHK3Tvk1uqAHpqRnThwS1228sAF6KqA3zjkRzbUDQxxtk8/s1600/imagee7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcLTo2mO_JEODnd35Kj02yZjEjmuh6FpfCWuLzYcX3DE3pnyLwkldiWg9NxMJyELXeBV6CH8y7atWbkIV08ZZmJB8gLMFnLHK3Tvk1uqAHpqRnThwS1228sAF6KqA3zjkRzbUDQxxtk8/s1600/imagee7.jpeg" height="640" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorry for the blur. I was movin' and groovin'.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It wasn't until I was almost done when I realized it was much easier to push it in front of me. After that realization, I finished all the subsequent coats in that manner.<br />
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Here's a pro tip: Don't put your phone and drink on a window sill and then finish the floor in front of that window without moving your things. Otherwise, you'll have to stare longingly at them through the screen for the next several hours.<br />
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Once the recommended four hours had passed, we came back inside to check on how things were drying and also to get my phone and drink. There was one area in a bedroom that was still tacky, so we left it for another hour before moving on to coat #2.<br />
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We applied two coats on Saturday, and the final coat Sunday morning. Our poly did not require sanding unless more than 12 hours have elapsed between coats. Because we didn't want to go through the extra work of sanding and removing the resulting dust, we strategically timed our applications so that we wouldn't have to.<br />
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The floors were dry to the touch when we re-coated, but the poly was still very soft and easily scratched so as we stepped inside the house, we removed our shoes and slipped on a fresh pair of these sexy booties. Not only are they very stylish, they are apparently made for someone with a size 20 foot, which meant my size 4 feet were constantly tripping on the excess material. Not cool.<br />
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After the final coat was applied, we have to wait 24 hours for "light use," which is a term I don't fully understand, and three days until we are free to go wild on it and move our furniture back in.<br />
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As far as fumes go, they really weren't that bad when we had the windows open. As we were applying the poly, it was pretty strong, but in the rest of the house it's not very noticeable. It's been raining the past two days so we had to close things up and now it smells pretty strongly of burning rubber on that side of the house, though in the basement and kitchen it is still very minimal.<br />
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Here's how the color is looking with three coats of polyurethane on it. Since we used the oil based it definitely made the color a little warmer, but it actually makes me love it even more. <br />
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David and I were discussing how neurotic we are now going to be about keeping these floors pristine after putting so much work into them. We joked about putting a clear floating floor over top of them so no one can scratch the finish.<br />
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Don't mind the giant hole in the floor. I only almost fell into it a few times while finishing the floors. It's our air return for the air conditioner.<br />
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Here's how my spray painted vent covers are looking. Not a perfect match, but definitely much more subtle than before!<br />
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In summary: Am I glad we did this? Yes! I'm absolutely in love with how they turned out and we saved thousands of dollars over having a professional do it. Do I ever want to do it again in my entire life? NO WAY!<br />
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So my house is kind of miserable to live in right now. David and I both agreed that we feel like we are staying at someone else's house (who apparently needs to be on Hoarders) and we are both very much ready to go home now.<br>
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There are nightstands in my bathroom closet and a box springs in my kitchen. We are sleeping in the basement guest room and if we have to get up in the middle of the night you have to pray you don't stray off the narrow junk-free path and break your arm.<br>
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So here's how our floors were looking Saturday afternoon. All those white spots you see are wood putty that I put in all the gaps and gouges I could find in the floor. David also spent some time finding a lot of the squeaky areas and driving in a few finish nails to make things a little quieter. I had also previously removed the quarter round from each room.<br>
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Saturday night, we went over to Home Depot to rent our floor sander. They hooked us up with a rectangular buffing sander, which is basically a big rectangular piece of sandpaper that vibrates really quickly. We put on some 20 grit paper and dove in.<br>
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We sanded. And sanded. And sanded some more. For three hours in a 10'x10' bedroom.<br>
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This was as far as we got. Not even close to bare wood. We had known before that our floors were not originally finished with polyurethane. It was either shellac or laquer or a mix of the two. We had also heard that shellac was extremely difficult to remove. Apparently "they" weren't kidding.<br>
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At this point, I was ready to say forget it and then set the house on fire. I probably would have (given up, not resorted to arson) if we hadn't just spent the last two weeks moving out of the first floor of the house. Instead, we decided to return to Home Depot in the morning and rent a drum sander.<br>
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We had shyed away from a drum sander inititally because of all the warnings about how easy it is to ruin your floors with one, but I was so frustrated at this point, that was a risk I was willing to take.<br>
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By contrast, this is 15 minutes of work with the drum sander. I nearly wept with joy.<br>
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David chugged along on the drum sander with 36 grit paper, and as he finished each room, I followed behind him with the buffing sander using 20 grit paper to smooth things out a bit, catch any spots he missed on the first pass, and also rough up the edges the drum sander couldn't reach.<br>
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Then I made a final pass with the buffing sander using 80 grit paper. Neither sander was nearly as dusty as we had anticipated. The drum sander did an excellent job of collecting dust and left next to nothing behind while the buffing sander left a lot of dust on the floor, but there was nothing floating around in the air, which was a very pleasant surprise.<br>
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This week David and I used our hand held orbital sander to get all the edges down to bare wood. This was an extremely unpleasant task. Each room took about 2 hours and produced A LOT of dust which covered everything. Also, I think I may have nerve damage from such prolonged use of the sander. I haven't had feeling in the tip of my index finger for a few days now. Hopefully that will return now that the sanding is complete.<br>
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The bare wood is soooo pretty. I'm almost tempted to put poly over it without staining, but I know it wouldn't look the same.<br>
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We are cleaning all the dust up now in preparation for staining tomorrow night. This involves many, many sessions of sweeping and vacumming and using tack clothes to make sure the floors are spotless.<br>
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One quick project I tackled in between sanding and cleaning was to spray paint our floor vent covers. They matched the old look of the floor well, but I knew on the darker stained floors they would scream, "HELLO, I"M AN AIR VENT!!"<br>
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I picked up a can of burnished amber spray paint at Lowe's and gave them a few quick coats.<br>
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Not only do I think the color will match pretty well, but the vents look like new! So fancy.<br>
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So after staining tomorrow and applying finish this weekend, we will be looking at moving everything back upstairs by Wednesday. I CANNOT WAIT.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-62854792788522614932015-04-08T13:05:00.002-07:002015-04-08T13:05:57.772-07:00Installing A Stair RunnerI've still been working away in the basement, but this time on decorating. I knew I wanted to have a carpet runner on the stairs to protect the wood from dents and scratches and also to make it softer and less slick on the feet. I measured and found that I needed 18.5 feet of carpet. Most runners are 7 or 8 feet long so I planned to buy 3. I hunted for a runner in a pattern I loved and a price that didn't make me want to puke (under $40 per runner). Most of the places where I find cheap home stuff (TJ Maxx and similar places, flea markets and yard sales) were problematic because I could never find three of the same rug.<br />
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So when I found this baby on Target.com one day, I got so excited I sent out frantic, capslock, typo-filled texts and e-mails to Cait to get her opinion. She approved and recommended the grey, so I made my order. They were indoor/outdoor so I knew they would be easy to clean. They were also just the texture that I wanted. They were on sale at the time, so along with coupon codes, I got them for $30 each plus free shipping. Score.<br />
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Once they all three came in in the appropriate color (they sent one red one on the first go around) I got started installing them.<br />
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I put down two strips of grippy rug tape on each tread first to prevent any slippage.<br />
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Then I just went along my way pulling the rug tight and stapling with the longest staples my gun would accept. Whenever one rug ended, I just butted the next right up against it and continued on. Fortunately I didn't have either seam end up on a tread. <br />
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I marked in yellow where I placed each staple. Five under the lip of the tread and thee along the bottom of the riser. After I finished stapling one step I hammered each one in all the way because my staple gun is kind of crappy and didn't fire them in all the way.<br />
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When I reached the end, I cut off the excess, leaving a couple of inches to fold under. Then I used the finish nailer to secure the end. I used the nail gun because my staples weren't long enough to go through two layers of carpet.<br />
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After everything was installed, I did go back with a black sharpie and colored each staple where it was on a grey part to make it less shiny and obvious.<br />
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So far, I am loving the runner. It definitely makes going down the stairs a much more cushy experience.<br />
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The pattern adds a lot of interest and really plays well with the square wainscotting.<br />
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With the leftover bit, I got a bonus rug! This guy will probably end up living in the laundry room once I put a finished seam on the cut edge.<br />
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I have a few other projects I have been working on, but they will be taking a back seat for a while since we are prepping for our next big project: refinishing the floors upstairs. The wood floors had carpet over them for a long time and there are quite a few black spots from pet stains. A lot of the finish is extremely thin already, so it definitely needs help.<br />
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This is something we have wanted to do for a long time and now is the optimum time to do it since half the rooms upstairs are now mostly empty from moving into the basement. We are currently moving the rest of our stuff (WE HAVE SO MUCH STUFF OMG) out of the living room and three bedrooms upstairs, so our basement looks like this at the moment:<br />
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A messy house makes me stressed so I am reeeeally excited to be done with this project!<br />
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We sanded a test patch upstairs and tried out some potential stain colors. I am leaning towards the top right hand color, which is my old friend Kona. This decision makes me very nervous, since it something that will affect the entire upstairs and we will be living with for the next few decades. No pressure.<br />
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The plan is to rent the floor sander this Sunday and see how far we get. It promises to be an interesting experience.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-41084872102085945052015-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:002015-03-29T08:35:45.337-07:00It's Finished!After my last post, we finished putting up the remaining baseboard. Then I scooted around the basement and put one last coat of paint on it to cover all the nailheads and scuff marks from where I hit it with the hammer. Then we swept and mopped the floors about 10 times. We had purchased some floor cleaner and polish that was made by the same company that did our floors and we applied that in the living room and were pretty displeased with the results. It left a blue haze in a lot of areas. David is looking into what we want to do about that, if anything. I am leaning more towards seeing if it goes away with time.<br />
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Now, after 6 months of working all day, then spending all evening in the basement, after every weekend being spent downstairs, after countless, "Well, I guess we should get to work downstairs..." "Yeah, I guess so...", I can seriously say that the basement is finished! We are planning to move furniture down today, but before we got started with that, I took some pictures of each room in their fresh, empty state. I'll also be adding some "before" pictures that I took when David first bought the house.<br />
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Enjoy! I know I am!!<br />
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<br />Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-71760633589226552672015-03-27T09:32:00.003-07:002015-03-27T09:32:23.903-07:00Stairway To Heaven: The Final Saga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When I last wrote about the stairs, this is how they were looking, and I asked you kind readers to ignore what I had going on on the walls.</div>
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Well, you can ignore no more because I am going to tell you all about it.</div>
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The first thing that needed to be done was to cover the little half wall next to the stairs. I used 1x lumber to do this. Fortunately, our stairs are at a convenient 45 degree angle, so it made it easy to cut the ends of the boards to sit flush.<br />
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I did have to use a chisel to remove a tiny bit from the bottom corner of the treads to let the boards slide all the way against the stringer.<br />
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I also had a nice little gap underneath that I used my handy dandy plywood to cover. I just cut a 2" strip and nailed it in place. I also sanded down the edges of the risers with a power sander so that they were smoother and more flush with the stringer.<br />
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Once that was done, it was time to get started on a project I had been looking forward to for a long time. Square wainscotting on the stairwell wall. I used a 4x8 sheet of my plywood and cut it down into 4" strips. One sheet was enough for the whole project. I decided I wanted my squares to be 24" just by measuring and holding up wood on the wall.<br />
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I used a 1x4 board with a 1x2 on top of it to create a little shelf along the top, then just measured, cut, levelled, and nailed like crazy. I put up the border pieces first, then the horizontal pieces, then the vertical ones last.<br />
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I found it was difficult to accurately measure when a board intersected with the diagonal board. I got around this by cutting the 45 degree angle on one end, then holding the board up in place and marking where it needed to be cut. <br />
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Not all of my spacing is perfect and I did fudge a few areas to avoid having tiny little squares that would look weird. I don't think anyone would every notice though.<br />
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One problem I did run into was the light switches. The board just barely ran into the cover plate. So I boxed around the switches so they would all be sitting at the same level. I had to use spacers to push the switches out farther, but it was a simple fix.<br />
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It took me about 2 days to get all the strips on the wall.<br />
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Then I caulked and puttied like crazy. I covered all the nail holes, large knots, and seams with wood putty and ran a bead of caulk where the wood met the wall inside the squares.<br />
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Then it was time for painting, which Cait (from <a href="http://myoldkyhouse.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">My Old Ky House</a>) very graciously assisted me with.<br />
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So much painting. We covered the wood and the wall with 2 coats of white semi-gloss.<br />
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Then it was time to attach the bannister.<br />
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We used 3/8" dowel pins to attach the spindles to the half wall.<br />
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We purchased a newel attachment kit to make the newel post good and secure. These brackets will be covered by trim pieces that were included in the kit.<br />
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Then we trimmed down the old hand rail and screwed it into the newel post and the wall on each end as well as to each spindle.<br />
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We used the rest of the hand rail at the top of the stairs, where it is attached to the wall with handrail brackets.<br />
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And with that, we were done! And also ready for our final building inspection. Spoiler alert: it happened this morning and WE PASSED! Which means we are all done as far as the city is concerned and are free to move in furniture and use the space. We have a little bit of baseboard left to put up, then a very thorough cleaning is due before we start moving in. I have several fun decorating projects lined up that I can't wait to get to.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-904337320551946546.post-174433497911837192015-03-26T14:21:00.000-07:002015-03-26T14:21:31.236-07:00A Post About A Post: Disguising A Basement Support PoleBefore I start talking about the support pole, I want to mention a little project I did that I am super thrilled with. I knew I wanted to put a cabinet in between the washer and dryer, but I also knew that a new cabinet in the size I needed from Lowe's was $85 and I really didn't want to pay that much. So I started hitting up the Habitat for Humanity ReStore a couple times a month and browsing their cabinet section. The first few times I came up empty handed, but then one day I found this guy:<br />
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It had an ugly paint treatment, but wasn't too dirty or broken like a lot of the cabinets. It also had slide out shelves in the bottom part. And only $10? YES, PLEASE. I couldn't get it to the register fast enough.<br />
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I applied two coats of paint, attached hardware (both paint and hardware match what is in the kitchen), then stained and poly'd a piece of leftover butcher block counter for the top.<br />
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Then we brought it downstairs, screwed it into the wall and attached the top.<br />
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Love it! And I saved $75, which is always a huge plus.<br />
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So about this column. There are several in the basement, but all of the others are hidden inside walls. We knew we wanted to wrap this one in wood to make it all nice and fancy.<br />
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To get the dimenions of the boards we would need, we measured this top plate, which was the largest part we needed to cover. Then we went out and bought 2 1x8's and 2 1x6's.<br />
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Then came the hard part, which was figuring out how to attach the thing. It was concrete on the bottom and metal and drywall on top, which wasn't exactly the best for attaching things to.<br />
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We started out by holding the boards in place around the column to see how much space we would have at the bottom. Then we cut some little pieces of wood to fit and screwed them into the floor with concrete anchors on two sides.<br />
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Then attached two of the boards with the nail gun. I also used wood glue and finish nails to attach the edges of the two boards.<br />
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We only used wood on two sides because the other sides of the pole had very lumpy concrete that we couldn't really attach anything to cleanly. Since all four boards would be attached to each other, the two supports were plenty.<br />
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Now when we got to this point we still had no idea what we were going to do to attach things at the top. We brain stormed for a while when we come up with the idea to insert spacers at the top.<br />
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We wedged them in on three sides and nailed them in place. They aren't actually secured to anything on the pole or header, but they keep everything so snug against the pole that there isn't any room for movement.<br />
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For the final board, we nailed the spacer onto the board and then attached it to the others.<br />
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After that, we placed a few clamps and let everything dry overnight.<br />
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The next night, we cut baseboard and shoe moulding and nailed them to the top and bottom of the column.<br />
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Then I caulked all the seams and gave everything a few coats of white semi-gloss and called it done. Not having that rusty pole hanging out down in the basement really makes the space feel a lot classier.<br />
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Also classing up the space are my stairs which are 100% done as of today. I'll have a post about that tomorrow so be sure to check back.Bethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629862226480309952noreply@blogger.com10