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Category: remodel

  • Crown Molding

    There are two things that Wade and I swear we will never do again…but somehow we forget the pain of it (like child birth) and end up finding ourselves doing it again…over and over.  Laying tile and putting up crown molding.

    Way back in September of 2009, we decided to redo the floors, pulling up the carpet and adding laminate.  In the middle of undertaking this project, we decided to paint since the floor was up we would not have to put down drop cloths.  Of course when we went to paint, we decided to add a double crown molding to the entire entry/kitchen/living area.  We bought the molding, I primed and painted it and we went to put it up, we found out that our cheap little miter saw was not going to cut it (literally) for what we needed to do.  We painted the wall where the crown molding would go up and then left it.

    For 2.5 years.

    One fine March day in 2012, I woke up and decided I was tired of looking at this 1/2 way done paint/crown molding job.  (The picture above was taken after we had already started hanging the pieces.)  I went and bought a new miter saw and told Wade to put it on his calendar because the next weekend we were going to finish the project we had started over 2 years ago.

    And we did.

    Although we did not finish the ENTIRE project in one weekend, we were able to get the long pieces up.  Then over the next 2 weeks, I came back and cut the corners (having rounded corners meant a small one inch piece in each joint), caulked, and touched up the paint.

    FINALLY we finished!  I am so happy how well it turned out.  But I swear we will never do crown molding again…

  • Pinterest Project #3- Bathroom Remodel

    *Dimensions and cost break down at the end.

    If you follow me on Pinterest (and if you don’t you should!), you probably saw me pin this.  Everybody has the same ugly master bath, and now we all have the same pretty master bath…thanks to Pinterest.  (I am not the only person that did this…you check out my friend Paul who also did this to his bathroom.)  I had intended to surprise Wade but, I only got half-way through before he started seeing I was up to something.  But…in the end, he did help a little to get everything in place.

    I build the shelves first the weekend before.  It took me about 4 hours to build these and then they got 2 coats of paint.

    The shelves were a guessing game.* I messed up a few things (like the bottom seam and I could not find the regular wood filler until AFTER I had filled the holes with the dark stuff!). But they turned out pretty good for not having any plans to go by!

    Friday, I cut all of the trim pieces for the mirror, which took about 2 hours and another trip back to HD because I cut a piece wrong. Those were painted and left to dry overnight.

    With those out of the way, this weekend, I tackled the bathroom itself. I did end up asking Wade what color he wanted the bathroom painted. I already had an idea in mind, but he told me “Andes mint green.” Um….NO. We went with the color I had in mind-gray.* (To give him credit–he did pick out the lights. He is the one that LOATHED the light we had and I was not super picky about them.)

    I started by taking down one light fixture, painting, hanging the new one, then doing the same for the next one. As that was drying, I painted the rest of the room. That took the LONGEST. I started at 7am (and minus swapping out the lights which probably took an hour), I was finished painting by 4pm.

    Next we glued the trim pieces to the mirror using Gorilla Glue. Most people use Liquid Nails…either will work. Gorilla Glue dries in about 30 minutes. We did have to hold the pieces in place for several minutes before taping them to the mirror just to make sure they stayed.

    Once the mirror was trimmed out, we added a finishing piece to the top. I will mention that Wade is so tall he does have to bend down a little or it chops the top of his head off. Oh well.

    Up until this point the shelves had been sitting there, so now we actually screwed the shelves to the wall. THIS IS THE ONLY THING HOLDING THE MIRROR IN PLACE (and a caulk line at the top of the mirror). Some builders glue the mirror, we just had 3 clips in place.*

    That’s it! I am certainly pleased with how it turned out! We still have some decorating around our tub area, but that is for another weekend.

    BEFORE:

    AFTER:

    *Things I would change:

    • The gray we picked out has a lot of purple in it (esp with the new florescent energy lights). I would have liked more of a slate gray.
    • I would have made the shelves about 6-8 inches taller, or maybe even gone to the top of the angle on the ceiling.
    • With taller shelves, I could have extended the top trim piece up some and put a screw in it through the wall to hold the mirror in place AND it would have given Wade some more room to look.
    • I would had made the trim on the top of the shelves flush with the wall. (pic below)

    And if you do this, make sure you paint the back of the trim pieces because they will show up in the mirror!

    Now for the important things.

    COST TOTAL- $140
    Shelves: 2- 1x8x6- $12, 1- 1x2x8- $3, base trim- $4, crown trim- $11
    Mirror frame- 28 feet of base trim- $21
    Mirror top- 7 feet- $11
    Paint- $26
    Lights- $60

    DIMENSIONS
    Shelves- 46″H x 16″W x 10″D
    Mirror trim- 39 1/4″ (top and bottom), 36″ (sides)

  • New Floor

    When we moved into our house in 2006, we had every intention of ripping up the carpet immediately and installing laminate. Well…that did not happen. Wade argued that we might as well wear the carpet out first. So we did. After 3 years, I was tired of it and we had many reasons to fix the flooring throughout the entire house.

    We ripped up the carpet and then had a BRILLIANT idea to paint while the floor was bare.

    We went with a brown color.

    At the last minute we also decided to do a double crown molding through the whole living area. We were not ready to take on that project quite yet, so we decided to paint the area where the molding would go and just leave it until we got around to it.

    I realized that I took very few pictures of the “during phase” of putting the floor down. Sydney was actually a big help, bringing us pieces and helping measure for the next. Here is the hall during:

    The laminate we bought was snap together…and really did snap together very easily. The whole thing just confirms how much I hate carpet! Now we only have it in the 3 bedrooms. 🙂

  • Wood Working

    For the last 2 months, we have had the saws set up in the garage as we worked on the floors.  (Meaning…we have to park in the driveway…yuck!)  Every weekend, the boys across the street make their way over.  The older one is 5 and loves to help.  Sometimes I will go outside and he is out there by himself…sweeping.  The younger one who is 3 is a little more mischievous.  I never know what he is up to.  Wade and I have to make sure that every time we leave the garage we unplug the tools other wise we find the younger boy in there trying to build things.

    Here is our table where we work.  One afternoon I went out to find this on the table:

    I guess the little one thought he needed to help us.

  • Guilty Dog

    We have almost finished painting.  *Almost*  The only thing left is the kitchen…which I am slowly working on.  Daisy…the strange dog that she is…

    Decided she needed to test the paint to see how it tasted.  No wonder why she spent the next 2 days throwing up!  (We noticed this 3 days after this was painted…)

  • The NEW Art Room

    Isn’t it funny how it took only 2 hours to empty a room but it took over 2 days to put it back?

    We have been painting and installing laminate flooring.  I am not sure why we decided to do it at the end of the summer/beginning of the school year…it is not like that is the BUSIEST time of the year (except for maybe Christmas)!!!

    I have been dreading the day.

    I swore that when we moved into the house, I would not move the art room until we moved out.  The shelves were NOT easy to put together…and well…I have an art room most people would be jealous of.  It is the one room in the house that I am overly anal about.  And as Wade says…I have a container fetish.

    First, a little history behind the room.

    The day we signed on our house and got the keys, I drove over and ripped up the carpet in the study and painted the floor.  I had asked that they not even lay carpet in the room, but since the builder owned the house until we signed on it, they refused.  So we have lived for the last 3 years with a rust colored, painted floor in the front room of our house.  Pretty tacky when you walk in the door.  Wade insisted on putting doors to the room so he could close it up so no one had to look at it.  In hind sight…that was a good call.

    Here are the before pictures.  I am not sure why I do not have a whole room picture.

    But the time has come.

    We started in the back of the house laying floor and worked our way up to the front room.  There is only about 300 feet of laminate left to lay.  We cannot do it without taking apart the art room. 🙁

    And apart the room came.  I had to put stuff in 5 different rooms to get it all out of the front room.

    Wade…he is such a trooper.  He hates the stuff…but he finally is ok with it.  He felt like our “playroom” never really had a purpose.  It was an ugly catch-all room that was just there.  A space that was totally under-utilized.  Not any more.  He had a good time adjusting the shelves with me to make it all work.

    And the final product…

    Wait for it…

    Ta-da!!!

    There are a few things that still need to be rearranged, but for the most part it is finished.  I am so glad.  I was dreading the day.  Now it will FOR SURE not be moved until we move out of the house.

    The girls have their own space.  We use a sheet of MDF cut in half for their desk.  They can color, paint, glue on it, etc…  Every once in a while, I sand it down so it looks a bit cleaner (and it gets the glue spots and paint globs off).  They also have a computer to share right next to me.  I am within arms reach of helping with anything we do.

    Stay tuned for the house remodel coming up in a few weeks!