DIY
DIY Chimney Plug
Chalk this DIY up to one of the most random projects we’ve ever done in the name of saving a buck. We have two wood burning fireplaces we do not use. We could, but for a variety of reasons, we really like our forced-air gas furnace. However, the draft from our chimneys was wreaking havoc with our heating and cooling bill. For some unknown reason neither of our fireplaces have a damper. I could stand next to the fireplace in the living room and feel the cold air pouring into the house this winter. Not good. It’s just as bad as one of my kids leaving the back door open. Except this…
Scrapmaster Project #4: Dove
Last year, Handy Husband decided to rip all of our random scrap wood into 1 inch wide strips. Out of that, we made rolling milk crates, arrow art and a growth chart. There was still a little bit of wood left, but the lengths were all pretty varied. I wasn’t sure what to do with it all, so the wood sat in our garage waiting for inspiration. In the meantime, my kids decided the wood made for excellent swords. I’m sure nothing can go wrong with that game. One day, inspiration finally struck and mommy took away all of the kids’ fun (and quite possibly saved an eye or two). A wooden…
When Would You Paint A Counter?
The the burning question of the day is when would a sane person paint a counter? Answer? When they are desperate. In picture form, desperation looks like this: That is an unfortunate countertop made doubly worse by some sort of permanent marker that even Mr. Eraser and his band of toxic cleaners could not fix. To the child that decided to draw a heart on the counter…I’m not feeling the love. And no, it wasn’t one of mine. The countertop came to us this way. This bathroom needs to be gutted and reconfigured, but that’s not happening in the near future. In the meantime, I thought I would read all of the…
Fixing Nasty Grout Is Pretty Easy
The Junk Whisperer is coming to visit me next month and it prompted me to take a good hard look at the bathroom she would be using during her stay. Normally, if I have to go in there, I just kind of squint and say to myself, “hey, it’s not so bad…if you don’t turn on the light.” I’m fairly certain the bathroom is original to the house. My powers of deduction lead me to conclude that the grout in this bathroom is also original to the house. While I’m holding on to the most fervent of delusions that the grout has been thoroughly cleaned periodically in the last 50 years,…
Arrow Mantel Art
Brace yourselves. Today I’m going to show you a work-in-progress. I thought it would be super fun to see how long it takes for me to figure out how to finish what I started! That was sarcasm, folks. Seriously though, I have a feeling it’s going to take me awhile to figure out how this project ends. It all started because I needed art for the mother of all mantels. It’s probably 8-feet long. As most things begin around here, I had an AWESOME idea and a spare piece of plywood. I’m running out of spare pieces of plywood though, so I might have to stop blogging then. 😉 Through a bit of…
Camouflaging the Dog Door
I’ve been waiting for months for the outside temperature to drop below 90 degrees so that I could paint our exterior doors. I could have painted them during the hottest temperatures of the summer, but that would require keeping the door open for awhile and that defeats the purpose of getting our AC fixed. I’m pretty sure I would have melted too. It’s okay if you want to feel sorry for me. Last week our daytime temperatures held in the low 70s, so I knew it was time to paint! We have a beautiful back door. Except someone ruined it by installing a dog door. This is nothing against dogs, it’s…
Fixing the Rattling Windows in the Back Door
I love old houses and the beautiful doors that often accompany them. However, there is a sound that just makes me shudder. It’s when the kids slam the door so hard that it rattles the windows in said door. They aren’t trying to slam the door and shake the entire house. It just happens during their haste to get outside. It’s actually quite shocking to me that one of those windows hasn’t broken yet. This is the door in question. See it back there? This door is used for 99.9% of our comings and goings. The other day, in one of those fits of productivity where you cram in more useful…
Kid Chairs Get a Little Glam
I’ve haven’t been feeling too motivated in the crafty, decorating department lately. What can I say? Sometimes you’re on fire, sometimes you’re not! When the urge to spray paint something this week surged through me, well, I grabbed the first thing in sight that hadn’t yet been altered: the chairs at my kids’ game table. I’ve had these kid chairs for a few years now. And yes, they still had the price tags on them. *insert forehead slap here* They are from The Container Store and are probably the only thing I’ve ever purchased from that store. At the time, I was looking for a set of kids’ chairs that weren’t obnoxious.…
Repairing Nicks and Scratches in Linoleum or Vinyl Flooring
If you were to play that game “which of these things don’t belong,” well, the flooring in our kitchen would definitely win the prize. It does not fit in with the gorgeous wood floors throughout the rest of the house. It is a big sheet of chipped, scratched, dinged and maybe-burned linoleum. I really have no idea what could have caused so much damage to one section of flooring. While this was not the overall ugliest linoleum I had ever lived with, it was certainly the most damaged. I couldn’t wait to tear it out. But then I couldn’t decide what to replace it with. So, I sat there staring at…
Kitchen Refresh Part 7: The Reveal
Have I kept you waiting long enough to see how our kitchen refresh turned out? I’ve been living with it in a final-for-now state for a little more than 2 weeks. Remember how it looked before? I know, I know. Try and contain your jealousy. Not everyone can have sticky, puke green-colored cabinets. Ready for the after? Here’s that same corner now. Much better, right? I’m so glad this house presented the opportunity to paint the bottom cabinets black because that might not happen again. It’s my favorite part about this little refresh. The black paint works like magic and almost makes my black appliances disappear! The other thing I’m so…
