Category Archives: DIY

Nice Legs!

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hairpin-painted

When something doesn’t go the way you planned… just put some hair-pin legs on it… and everything is alright! Nothing beats a nice pair of legs, right? Long, short, skinny, thick… metal, wood, or concrete…. there are so many kinds to love. Of course I’m talking about furniture and particularly the little tables we planned for our bed side.

These pretty legs arrived a week ago after I realized the little “box” tables that Richie built for our last platform bed would not work in our new master bedroom. The tables are suppose to hang and “float” on the wall but ….

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Closet Doors

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Closet Doors

As August pushes it’s way through..(way too quickly)…I’m trying to wrap up projects like the bedroom closet. When we rebuilt the closet I left the doors as they were with the intention to refinish them. It was the last major project on my master bedroom list. Glad to say they’re finally finished. Wheewwww!!!!

 

 

The first order of business was to order up the special laminated shoji screen paper and tape required.  These special papers are amazing because they’re very thick and then they’re laminated to keep them clean, strong, and very easy to work with.

As usual this project has taken on ….

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King Sized!

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DIY Platform Bed

After lots of work and a failed attempt at making our king sized platform bed for the master bedroom I’m happy to say “roll over and stay on your side”….. IT’S DONE!  Well, almost… I still need a mattress (minor detail).

Poor Richie… check out the sweat drip coming off his nose in the 100 degree weather. Wonderful husband!!

Boy does it feel good to say “it’s done”.   I know Richie just about had a heart attack when I told him I wasn’t happy with our first attempt at making this bed.  If you read a recent post that we ….

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Leftovers

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donated grass

I love leftovers! Yes, not having to cook is always a good thing at our busy house… but I’m actually talking about grass! I know… that doesn’t help much and now you might be completely confused. While we are currently working on some pretty big projects there are always small things that sneak in between and sometimes I stop and realize those small things are the tiny wins that get us that much closer to the vision in our heads of how this house will “someday” be.

Back yard of our old house. I couldn’t find one of the front ….

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Autograph Doors

I believe our mid-century modern home is not only fun but also a little bit fun-ky. Which is one of the reasons we fought so hard to get this place. The Goode’s (previous owners and architect) were definitely a creative and very talented pair and they did some things to this house that made it really special. Some of the wonderful things about this house, for me, are the awesome door bell, the cool mail box, and the autograph doors as you enter the house.

Our mailbox is pretty fun, as it’s built into the fence that surrounds our house and ….

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Update: Bedroom Cabinet Refinishing

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cabinetfinish2

Well there’s nothing like a quick little project to breeze through and spiff up your house is there? ….. unfortunately I know nothing about that idea.  Quick… NEVER, Easy… RARELY, Spiffed up… POSSIBLY!  Thank goodness for blogging because I had to go back to figure out when the heck I started this refinishing project…. turns out April 23rd! Good grief, I’m slow.  Okay so it only took me 6 weeks minus the two I couldn’t work … so 4 weeks!  It ain’t love but it ain’t bad!

I have a million pictures so please excuse all the visuals… ….

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Cha cha cha changes…

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coffee creamer -New

I can’t seem to have a thought in my head without breaking out in song!  Thank you David Bowie.  Changing things in my house is a constant and I’m always doing tiny things that keep my hands and mind busy.  Little things start to get on my nerves and I have to cha cha cha change them!

It could be that I’m trying to distract myself from the bedroom cabinet project.. which is almost finished!  While I was playing lovely assistant to my husband as he fixed the squeaky shower valve in the bathroom it only made me notice ….

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She’s lovely… but she squeaks!

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Danze Parma

It’s always SOMETHING! I guess that comes with home ownership, doesn’t it? There’s always a “to do” list that seems to shrink and grow at the same time.
(add to list — Repair Shower Valve)

So here’s my lovely Danze shower valve with chrome trim. I love her. She batted her eyes at me online and said “buy me, I’m so simple and pretty, buy me”! I fell for it, she was mine. After glowing reviews and 5 stars a plenty… she arrived during our bathroom renovation and was installed end of 2010.

We really don’t use this bathroom much at all… so ….

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Help, I’m stuck!

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George Nelso Jewelry Storage

After 3 weekends of doing nothing on my bedroom project because of my job, I finally have a weekend to get back on track. I’m at a point in the refinishing of our built-ins where I need to make a decision and just can’t. I’m having such a hard time and Richie tends to pull that “oh, whatever you choose will be fine”, thing. I appreciate his flexibility but it’s not helping me to actually come up with a FINAL decision that I won’t regret later. (ahhhhhhhh!)

So many of you have incredible homes and amazing design eyes… so I need ….

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Stripping Down

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sanded drawers

Weekends are made for fun! Right? So now we’re starting fun weekend project #568. Okay I’m exaggerating it’s probably more like #425 give or take a few. Time to start refinishing the built in cabinets in our bedroom.

When you’re having to live in a house that you’re renovating (as so many of you do) and you’re going room by room and trying to continue some sort of “normal” life in this mess, it’s almost more difficult than if we had moved out and tore up the place. Every time I get to a room it sometime feels like I’m going ….

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DIY: silkscreen

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Front Atrium

It’s been a busy week at my day job, and I found myself brain dead by the end of each day. Hours and hours of starting at a computer screen writing code for an upcoming event that required online ticket sales and tons of graphics just about drained all my creative juices. I was determined to take advantage of this 3-day weekend and not only relax but try something I’ve been dying to try… silkscreening. I really want to silkscreen some fabric for our bedroom project… maybe some pillows, curtains, anything. Something that is mine, not bought, and made by ….

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This weeks finds

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Hand Carved Wood Man

I’ve been a little too quiet this week…sorry. My “real job” is sucking the life out of me and taking me away from the fun stuff I enjoy. I always try to make time for the fun stuff, rest assured! So I thought I’d do a quick little update on some cool things Richie found this week. He always manages to come home with something, even if it’s small enough to fit in his hand… there’s always a little something.

Richie has many talents. One of course is renovation, the other is his musical abilities, another is his annoying ability to ….

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Oatmeal is good for you

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Oatmeal Cookie Bars

At least that’s the excuse for making a sweet treat for us yesterday. Yes, yes, I need to lower my cholesterol… with butter, sugar, and of course oatmeal. HA HA! Lets just say both of us have a sweet tooth from hell… but Richie is the WORST! I decided to just make something instead of him bringing home cookies, candybars, getting DQ malts, or killing me with freshly baked donuts. He’s not easy to be around. At least as far as sweets are concerned.

So I made these Oatmeal Cookie Bars and thought I’d share them with you. Just because they’re ….

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globe lights

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Yard Ball Light

Lately I have noticed that the back yard is looking super cool at night because of the lights we put out in the yard. I don’t think I ever showed you the DIY globe lights we created. I guess the days getting longer and maybe the sun a little brighter lately has caused the solar lights to kick in stronger and last longer. They have been pretty dim this winter and some nights they don’t glow at all. Now they are glowing like crazy.

We have always loved those very expensive (of course… don’t we always love the expensive cool stuff!) ….

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Yarn-It!

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yarn poms and bottle

I have nothing but complaints lately so I haven’t posted anything. It’s been a rough few days and I feel like I’m moving in slow motion. So I’ve decided to just breathe deep and tell you about it later… but for now I’ll share some pictures of a few fun things I did last week. Come on… it’s better than complaining. And just think, you’ll have that to look forward to.

When I’m feeling stressed it’s better for me to just sit down and do mindless things. I needed to do that.. and quick! So I pulled out some rolls of ….

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