My First Crate

I have been wanting to build a crate for awhile now and finally the opportunity came when our school was doing an online auction.  They requested a basket to sell/store the "fun in the sun" collection of things and I knew this was my chance to build for a good cause.

I started cutting the boards and side supports at 24" long and 18" long and planned it to be 18"tall (they wanted it BIG).

I used wood glue and my 16 gauge nail gun to put the sides of the crate together.  I followed that by cutting a bottom out of a solid piece of 1/2" plywood using my bench saw and jig saw.  Yes, that is my wood stash in the background.

I glued and nailed on the bottom and now I was ready to stain it.

I decided to use my vinegar and steel wool stain to give the wood a more antiqued look.

When I first finished the stain it was too dark so I added a white wash by just lightly brushing on some white paint.  I used some homemade rope my boys made at a scout activity and drilled holes that I tied the rope through.  I lightly melted the fibers at the end of the rope to reduce any fraying in the future.  I was really pleased and the crate was a hit at the auction.  Get out there and  build yourself a storage box, I can't wait to build one for myself!  

I my husband and I throw a Halloween treasure hunt party every year.  Because we have 30-40 people at our house for the night I love to have new decorations.  This year I made 3 based on designs I found on Pinterest (you have to love the resource of Pinterest).  Here are this years creations!

I made these cute candy corn decorations with 2 X 4' 's.  I love how they stack up and look rustic.  If I were to make them again I would make the angle I cut the wood more extreme on one of them so there would be a greater height difference but I am still very happy with how they turned out.  You can find directions here: Candy Corn tutorial


I couldn't stop with just the candy corn so I looked around my building stash and came across a great white cupboard door.  With a broom from one of our local home decorating stores and some hooks I spray painted I created this.

The picture is fuzzy but you get the idea.  This is the project that inspired me Broom parking sign


I also updated our photo wall with cute Halloween inspired pictures.

I made my 31st sign with a black plastic serving tray like what a catering company would bring food on to an event.  I glued a frame hook on the back and Ta Da!  To see the pictures more clearly check out this link: Spooky family pictures

I made a few other projects that I hope to post soon so check back for more Halloween updates.

Storage box makeover

I received this great wooden box from my sister and knew I could make it look great!  We always have a need for storage at my house and this box is really big.

I started with a light wood box that had a rose stencil and lots of stickers on it.  I forgot to take a true before picture but through the primer you can see a bit of the rose image.  It took some elbow grease  and goof off, to remove all of the stickers.  I then taped off or covered with newspaper all parts of the box I didn't want painted.  This box has a nice cedar lining and I didn't want that covered up.

I sprayed on some primer with my command max paint sprayer to ensure that you would not see the rose image and then sprayed on a black paint that I already had.  I also did some roughing up because I like how that makes thing look and there were some scratches and dings in the wood that I didn't fix.

Now we have a beautiful box that can hold tons of stuff!  We have blankets stored in it because we love to use blankets when watching movies.  It also works well as extra seating when needed.

I love it and I hope it inspires you to spruce up something in your home.!

Thanks for the help and numbers of what I did

I compiled some numbers of what I did during the remodel that may interest some of you, this is just based on my personal calculations so just imagine what my Dad and others contributed:

Cases of soda consumed: 7 (168 cans) - I rarely drank carbonated drinks prior to the remodel but you've gotta do what you've gotta do.  Just for the record I did not actually drink every can personally but I did make a significant dent in them. Lloyd put it best when he said, "this job has driven you to drink".

Days worked on this project: approximately 114 days, I didn't keep track of some of my shopping days and computer research days early on in the remodel and I took a long break after the flood to emotionally recover and prepare for the holidays.  

Hours worked: 874 total hours over 7 months, this does include the time I spent driving in the car.

Miles driven: 7446 miles, YIKES!!  That is 391.9 gallons of gas for my mini van.

Trips to the Hardware store: 58, this is just my trips, my dad also made stops as needed.  We really did try to plan out what we would need so that our trips would be limited but you can only do so much.  At least both Lowes and Home Depot are about 2 blocks from each other and less then 10 minutes from our remodel (it was a dream).

Trips to the Habitat for Humanity Restore: 16 stops, but only 8 times did I successfully find what we needed.  I was lucky that I have one about 5 minutes from my home and the Denver store is on my route to the remodel site.

Plugs/outlets purchased and installed: 44 (6 were GFI's)- due to electrical problems even the plugs I did not install I had to pull out and check.  My opinion is that the electrical turned out to be one of the biggest problems we faced at the apartment, 2nd only to the broken water pipe that flooded the apartment.

Trips to Burger King: None for me, but my Dad and Lloyd went nearly every day for lunch during the last few months.  I estimate they went more than 40 times and had a regular order they placed every time.  I have assured them that there is a Burger King not far from my house if they ever come work up here.

The apartment remodel would never have been completed without the help of many hard working hands:
Lloyd (our general handyman) who put up with my questions and intrusions on his work space.
My mom Lois who watched my kids more often then she ever planned.
My sweetheart James who made his work schedule adjust to allow for the days I didn't time myself well to pick up our kids, or just felt I was needed to do "a little bit more", and for being the best dad ever!
Laurel for her design suggestions and even more for her emotional support, i made a lot of calls to her over the 7 months.
Mira for her hospice care skills for both Mom and Dad as they recovered physically during  this remodel, and as being a verbal go between as needed.
My kids for going to work at the apartment "just one more time", and because "you need to learn to do hard things".
And especially for my Dad who had endless patience for my questions and pushed me to step up and do more than I thought I could!

Top floor walk through

Now onto the upstairs. when you reach the top of the stairs and look straight ahead you see a shared bathroom. This room was a pretty significant transformation.  Because of the amount of use this bathroom has seen over the years it was in very bad shape.  Here are some before photos.

Yuck!!

Now the transformation.  

The tile we used is the same one we used throughout most of the house.  We also choose to install a beautiful jetted tub.  For some of you that vanity make look familiar and that is because my parents have the same one in their main floor powder room, I picked it out for their house too.  This bathroom is large but there is not much width for a vanity so this fit the bill perfectly, I was excited when I found it at the Habitat restore.  And yes that great light was another spray paint redo with new $2 light shades.  The mirror was left over from the bathroom set we purchased for the basement bathroom and since that cabinet was ruined in the flood and a new mirror came with the new cabinet I purchased it worked perfectly in this room.  Total estimated cost for a new bathroom (I have to go off the prices my dad said he paid for some items, I don't have every receipt): $1079.  Not too bad for a new bathroom including the towel bars and toilet paper holder (we did keep the original toilet).

There are 4 bedrooms on the top floor and then the amazing master bathroom.  The master bathroom was pretty narrow and had a tub/shower as well as only a single sink in it.  My dad had the idea to widen the bathroom a few feet which made the neighboring bedroom a bit smaller but it is still a good sized bedroom.  The difference in the bathroom is significant, it is sometimes hard to imagine how much 2-3 feet can change things.  Most of the actual bathroom layout stayed exactly the same except we moved the shower to the right wall and just closed off the left end.  We did debate putting in some shelves in that space but because it sat right above the toilet which seemed an awkward storage space and was more work for us we just closed it off.  

Some before pictures.  

It had the same brown cabinet as the rest of the house had, and a builder grade mirror.  There was also a long wood curtain rod hung as a towel bar.  It seems like a good idea to use a curtain rod as a towel bar except that the paint peels off with all of the moisture.

 Now the after pictures.

If you are trying to imagine the original width of the bathroom, look at the  bulk head location and that is where the wall was located.

Hanging 2 mirrors even with each other is much harder than you think it would be, especially when you take into account walls that are not straight themselves.  You can't really tell in this picture but the plug on the right is a little to close to the sink so the mirrors couldn't be hung centered over the sinks or under the lights.  Nothing seems to be simple in this bathroom.

Did you notice the double shower heads?  They are set at different heights to be his and hers.  I found the beautiful sinks on a great clearance, however I soon learned that buying faucets for sinks with wide set handles are significantly more expensive then your typical faucets.  It also turned out that there is a ridge around the sink that required us to sand off the back of the handle bases to allow the to lay flat.  In the end the clearance sinks didn't save us any money and certainly not any time but they look beautiful and sometimes that is more important in the end.

Total final cost for this master bathroom: $1492.12, to the best of my knowledge (I do have most of the receipts for this room so this price is pretty close)

Basement walk through

 In the beginning...the basement was a blank slate.  There was plumbing for the washer and dryer, and the rough in's for a bathroom.  When my dad came home (I believe it was his 1st day home) from rehab, remember he spent 2 weeks in a rehab facility recovering from back surgery at the beginning of this remodel, he came to the apartment with my sister Laurel and we all went to the basement to plan out this AWESOME layout.  The plan was for 1 bedroom, a bathroom, the laundry room, furnace/storage room, storage under the stairs, and then the rest of the space to be open with a closet that can be used for storage.  For Laurel and I the big things were the laundry room layout, the layout of the open space and storage, of course we also managed to get a great bathroom out of it.  My dad is a great designer and he can sneak storage into anywhere.  I did not want to overwhelm people with pictures so for some there may be to many and for some there may be too few but I jut did the best that I could.

When you come down the stairs to the basement straight ahead of you is a door that leads to this laundry room.  That is just over 8 1/2' of counter top you are looking at.  We put it on narrow upper cabinets near the door to allow easier access for appliances and people and then full width for the last 4 1/2'.  There is a bar sink at the end by the washing machine.  Yes, I do have appliance envy for the washer and dryer, they are much better then what I own.   You can just see it on the left where there is another 36" cabinet and then there is a turn in the laundry room with short hallway that allows access to the furnace room and then a closet with you guessed it STORAGE! When you enter the furnace room you have an area about 5X7 in which to store things.  There are some built in wire shelves along one wall but certainly more room but put additional storage.


Just to the left of the laundry room is another door that leads to this beauty!

  We finally were able to use the boxes and boxes of granite tile that my dad has been storing for "just the right project".  I happened to find a really great vanity and sink set that happened to have a granite sink which was an exact match to those space cluttering tiles and since it was on clearance with an additional markdown I had to buy it.  Unfortunately the original vanity was destroyed in the flood before it could be used and I was then on a mission to find a vanity base that would fit my granite sink because I wanted it all to match, why should I settle for less just because of a flood.  It is a challenge to find an 18" x 30" vanity at a bargain price.  I never get excited about the things I have to pay full price for.  I finally came across a set that I liked and because it came with a different sink, we sold the sink to off set the price.  The cost of the entire set was less then buying an individual vanity base and when I sold the sink we came out ahead.  Especially when you factor in what the insurance company paid for replacements, It balances out the actual replacement costs elsewhere.  Notice the light fixture, it was a restore $10 purchase that started as brass and I spray painted it a beautiful brushed nickle.  I do not have the cost for the shower door or the base tray for the shower but everything else from the tile, new toilet, lights, towel bars, faucets, mirror, etc.  the total is approximately $500.


On to the left again is the great open space.

  It is "L" shaped and has a closet along one will for more storage!  In the largest part of the room we wired one wall with a plug high on the wall for a TV, that is the sort of thing my dad thinks of.  That door at the end leads to the bedroom.

The basement has a great layout and is a pretty use able space for most families.  

Main floor of duplex walk through

The main floor makes me smile!  It is a pretty open floor plan so we made some small changes that made a big impact.



This is the old front porch light. 

Just starting at the front door a little change can breath new life to a place, and since this is the first thing you see when you arrive I wanted it to look good.  

That is so much better!  The cost?  The light was free, another item scrounged from my garage that was originally from my dad's (I did have it hanging at my house but found something I liked better so this was just looking for a place to be used and it was too cute to donate). We only had to buy the house numbers for the total cost of $8.  Now both sides of the duplex have matching address signs and lights that almost match.  

When you first enter the apartment there is a bathroom and I wanted to remind you what it looked like before.  Linoleum flooring, classic bar light and basic builders mirror but it was sectioned into 3 parts, I have no idea why there was 3 mirrors in a bathroom this size.  It was a pretty blah bathroom.

(Please ignore the women in the mirror).  Now it has a beautiful tiled floor, framed mirror, and a new light.  The light is another spray paint makeover, the cabinets were painted black, new faucet, new towel ring, and I hung a framed mirror.  Total cost: $110.  We will be adding knobs to the cabinets but they had not arrived when I took the pictures.  

To the right of the door is a large family/dining room.  We replaced the wire mesh fireplace cover and hung a new light fixture. 

I did paint the fireplace hearth with a black gloss oil based enamel paint.  It was nice to paint with because there were no brush lines but I hate cleaning up oil based paint so I wore gloves and used a foam brush so I just tossed it all.  The previous tenant installed a gas fireplace log so the beautiful new fireplace cover now makes it much safer, that small hole on the right is the gas shut-off.  This fireplace opening is extremely large so my dad actually framed the sides of opening in steel that I painted to match the frame and even up close it looks like it is meant to be that way. I am becoming a professional spray painter, I even used high heat paint on the inside of the fireplace.  It looks so much better.  Also notice the beautiful custom blinds in those very narrow windows.  Yes, the blinds were on sale!

I did spray paint this light too, it is the one that hangs in the dining space ($35).  The most challenging task for me was rewiring it so that it was long enough because the ceiling is VERY high, it wasn't hard to actually do the wiring but it was something I hadn't done before.  For my husband the hardest job was hanging this light!  He is 6' tall and stood on the very top of our 16' ladder and could barely reach high enough to hang the light for me.  The only reason he did it was because I had told him my idea to get the ladder high enough for me (5' 7" tall) to reach and he felt that him standing with no support on the ladder was safer than my plan.  My plan involved putting the ladder on 2 tables and using bricks to make sure it didn't slide off, I figured if I did it while my 5 year old was there he could use my phone and call for help if anything went wrong.  I do realize it wasn't very well thought out but it did seem like a good idea at the time.  As I write about this plan now I can't believe my sweet husband wasn't more shocked by the idea, and then it occurred to me  that I probably have more "plans" like this than I realize and he has just learned to help out in order to keep me safe from myself.

If you were to go to your left from the front door you come to the stairs and the breakfast area.  Yes, another painted light hanging in the dining area ($25).  The tiles in the entrance, bathroom, and kitchen were $1.19 each for a 20 x 20 tile.  They were left over tiles from CHASE bank remodels.  The beautiful hardwood floors make a big difference in how large every room looks, previously there was carpet.  I did lay a few feet of flooring but it is very slow work when doing it on your own.  It works better to have 1 person lay out the flooring and another staple it down.  I have always wanted to learn to lay hardwood floors and now I know how to do it.  It is almost as fun for me as painting.  

The kitchen is the biggest change we made on the main floor.

  We put in all new oak cabinets, tiled the back splash, and opened up the wall to create a breakfast bar.  The original kitchen had a 3 foot square window opening.  It now is a 6 1/2' wide opening and it goes all the way to the ceiling where we installed 2 can lights. There will also be knobs on the cabinets but they also had not arrived yet.  The counter tops are a HD finish laminate.  Total cost (excluding the cabinets): $1511.  I also replaced the hall lights and put in all new blinds but there are no pictures of these.  I painted the exterior of the french doors leading to the back yard, it was the first time I was able to use my new paint sprayer, I guess it is as good as anything to learn on.  All in all it is now a very beautiful and livable space.

Some of my best work at the remodel

After the flood some of the doors on the kitchen cabinets were split from the water.  I used a wood wax product as well as a dark wood polish to fill the cracks.  I think they worked pretty well.


Before

And after

It is amazing what a little elbow grease and the right products can accomplish.

  I also took on my first tile back splash.  Prior to this I have only helped on floor tile but I had heard that a back splash was easier than a floor to do.  Since I was the one who wanted the back splash my dad felt I needed to figure it out, especially since we were down to the wire on time.  It really is pretty easy to do.  I am not particularly good at math so I tried to lay out the tile by hand so that it would end where I wanted it but when it came down to it things didn't work out how I thought they would. It still looks good and that is all that really matters. 


This is just the in process of installing the back splash pictures.

I put a plastic edge like you might have along shower tile because it seemed like it would be nice for cleaning purposes next to a breakfast bar (you can see it in the top picture but it blends in pretty well).  This tile is almost an exact color match to the floor tile.  I did keep it simple so it would not be a distraction to the beautiful oak cabinets, faux granite counter tops, and I didn't spend a lot of time messing with tile layout or spend extra money on tile renters might damage with the wrong cleaning products.  Through the entire remodel it was sometimes a struggle for me to remember there would be renters, I was having fun picking things I liked, but you never know how an apartment will be treated, even if they are paying a high rent.

The finished tile back splash!

I was so proud of myself.  This was one of my projects that I had doubts about actually completing on my own even though I knew the "How to's" of the actual project.  Sometimes you do just have to jump in and you can surprise yourself, I had a hard time leaving on time to drive home each day while doing this project because it was so much fun.