Showing posts with label life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label life. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Coffee Table Doppleganger

I'm never satisfied.

Haha.



I saw this picture over Nesting Place, and darn near had a heart attack when I saw that coffee table.







It looks so much better in her house, haha!


I realize that it's my furniture. I need new furniture...



Stay tuned for a The Lettered Cottage knock-off!


Saturday, September 4, 2010

Wishful Thinking

I know I told you that I might be redoing a piece of furniture. Unfortunately, on my only day off, the weather is not cooperating. Ideally, it should be over 65 degrees outside to spray paint. It only hit 62.

I know, I know, 3 degrees shouldn't make a big deal, but when it comes to a big piece of furniture, I know that trying to fix any mistakes will be uber time consuming.

So I'm putting it off for another day. I have a string of days in the 70s coming up, so hopefully I can sneak a quick painting in.


Anyways, not one to let a perfectly good day off go to waste, I've been working on something else.


These were my stairs leading to the basement (we have a partially finished basement):


You don't need to say it.

It's ugly.

Ugly carpet.

Ugly (dark) paint.

My husband tried making the finished room of the basement his "man cave."

I told him that if he was going to have a man cave, he needed to do all the work to make one.

He gave up. He's the one that decided to paint the room that awful dark blue with powder blue trim. I hope you didn't think that was my taste!

I started ripping up the carpet, and to my horror, every single $%&*%#@ inch of that carpet was glued down.




I..hate..carpet..glue.

In case you don't fully understand:
I HATE CARPET GLUE.

Nothing gets it off easily.
Nothing gets it off semi-easily.


Now, instead of a gross musty carpet on the stairs, I have a sticky residue on them.
(Which means that I have sticky crap on my feet, shoes, pants, etc.)

I have been working tirelessly for 2 days, but I've only managed to get 1 1/2 stairs done. There are 11 stairs total....


Things I've Tried

1. Goo Gone
2. Goof Off
3. Industrial strength adhesive remover.
4. Paint stripper
5. Sand paper
6. Every SoniCrafter attachment known to man
7. Mineral Spirits

The only thing that seems to work is the sand paper, but it takes an entire sheet for just 1 square foot. I would end up spending $100 just on sand paper....



It may take me an entire month to finish these stairs. I probably won't get many more projects done, but I will definitely be giving you updates/sneak peeks!

I'm envisioning white stairs, a white railing...


...and a softer wall color like this...



...or maybe this.



Does anyone have any suggestions on getting carpet glue off?
I've heard something about boiling water, but I'm not about to dump a pot of boiling water on wood stairs in a basement. That's just asking for trouble...

Any help would be appreciated!


Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Featured & Some Family Photos


 
Yay! My trunk restoration was featured over at Someday Crafts.
 
That makes my mediocre Wednesday much better.
=D
 
I also picked up some family photos while visiting my grandma tonight.
 
The crafty man behind my trunk:
 
Henry Reis
 


And in 1960, a year before he died.


My grandma said that his "cheapness" drove my great-grandmother crazy.

Don't we call it "being thrifty" now?
I'm proud of it!

Now I just have to find a set of frames worthy of such awesome vintage photos.

(sigh) I love vintage photos....


Sunday, August 22, 2010

Projects Coming Soon

Breathe.

Just breathe.

Sorry, I have to remind myself of that sometimes.

I just finished up one restoration project (that you will get to see soon).
I will be finishing up a magnet project that I did with my daughter tomorrow. It's for her metal board on her new desk.


Oh, not to mention that my daughter, once again, drew on her walls.
This time it was with pen, though.
Mr. Clean helped me out...
I love Magic Erasers. They work on everything (except red permanent marker, hehe).



So two projects are almost done.

Then my grandma stopped by yesterday to see if I restored something that she recently gave me.
I hadn't....
So that's what I'm doing tomorrow after work.

And did I mention that I HATE paint stripper?


My son's bed is also broken. Stupid cheap Walmart bed...
So I told him that I would make him the loft one from Knock Off Wood.

Then our eldest decided that he also wanted a loft bed....

The plans also come with a built-in desk and bookcases, but to save money, I'm just going to stick their current desks under there.

At first, I was reluctant about building them both beds, but then I realized how much space I could free up in their small bedrooms.


I've decided they will get their loft beds......some day......when I have time.
;)


Thursday, August 12, 2010

Built-In Desk

Wow, has it been an interesting few days.
I will explain after I show you my latest project:
Hailey's built-in desk.

My daughter is my youngest/final child. If anyone is the youngest, you know that you generally get last pick on everything.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, the boys moved into bigger rooms. Hailey got stuck with the smallest.
To make it fair, I gave her a second room. Her two rooms equal the size of one of the boys' rooms.
It's still a pretty small space, though.

If she is to get new furniture, I have to keep in mind how it will fit in her room.

I wanted to give her a desk. I thought this space would be perfect for a built-in.

Actually, I thought it would be a great place for a hamper, but since her dresser is in her 2nd room, it would make more sense to keep her hamper next to her dresser.


So I moved the shelf down to a desk height...


...patched the wall...


...and painted it.


I knew I wanted an extra shelf to hold supplies.
I also wanted to keep this a NO COST project.

I found this shelf in my basement.


It used to be in my living room.



You know I wouldn't just throw away a perfectly good floating shelf.
;)

So I cut the sides off the shelf to fit the space.


It got a coat of primer and a coat of white paint.


(Note: All paint used are my leftovers. I now have barely any reserve paint left =P)

Since I cut the ends off the shelf, I also cut off the hangers. But the back is hollow.


All I needed to do was make supports for it.
So I cut three pieces of 1x2's in the same lengths as the shelf's open pockets.


I predrilled holes in them.


And hung them up on the wall level with each other.


I secured it onto the supports with wood glue.
I also found hooks in my garage bins. 5 were screwed into the bottom of the shelf.


You will get to see that in a bit.

Anyways, I also had some flashing just hanging out in my garage.
(I know, I know, I hang onto everything.)

I cut it to size and nailed it onto the wall.


Now of course I couldn't keep those sharp edges there. It would need trim.

I found a perfect-sized trim next to my potting bench.


You can see a little bit of the shelf here as well. The hooks weren't in when I took this picture, though.

Anyways, I pulled up a chair from my basement. It belonged to an old desk that we no longer use.


I took the seat and back off....


...and gave it a coat of primer and a few coats of white paint.


Do you remember these ugly pots from the herb garden?


Here they are getting primed...


...to become art supply holders.


Ready for the grand reveal?









And then, after two days of hard work...dripping sweat everywhere in HOT weather...

...my daughter decided to draw all over EVERYTHING with PERMANENT MARKER!

I...was...pissed.

It was all over the walls (that took me days to paint when I was pregnant with her.)

It was all over her new shutters.


It was all over the new desk that I just spent two days making.



I didn't take any pictures of it. I went into over-drive trying to fix her artwork.

For your amusement, here's what it basically looked like:


I just got done restoring everything to its formal glory.


And do you know what's the kicker?
My daughter's had an issue with drawing on walls since she could walk and hold onto a crayon. I built this desk to give her a safe place to let out her creativity.


Ironic, no?


Needless to say, those supply buckets will not be holding any "permanent" supplies for a long time!


Friday, August 6, 2010

A Project Finished; Urban Loft Photos

It's so nice to be able to get projects done around the house.

Though we were recently blessed with a temporary income, it won't last, so we are still watching every penny we spend.

I got a chance to buy some spray primer. I was ridiculously excited to find out that I had a can and a half of white spray paint just sitting in my garage.
What luck!

So I finally got to paint my daughter's shutters.

All I have to say is:
She had better appreciate me when she gets older!



I have been super-busy lately.
(To the point that if I didn't have a wonderful husband to help cart kids around, I don't think I would make it...)

Yesterday was no exception.

My son was in a Kiddie Parade for T-ball.

Sorry for the terrible picture quality. I was shooting out of a shadow, and I didn't have enough time to figure out how to keep the flash on.

Anyways, I bring this up because while we were waiting, I let him handle my nice/expensive/favorite camera.

Here's what I got when I pulled up the SD card in all of it's UNEDITED glory:





Wouldn't those be great in an urban loft?

Maybe it's just because I'm his mom...but I absolutely adored his photos!



"Momma...I'm going to take a picture of the police car."




Anyways, I have one really cool project that I just completed. I can't wait to show you!
Unfortunately, you're going to have to wait quite a few days.

Today: Work all day, then go grocery shopping (at 10pm).
Tomorrow: Make my veggie bars for a family reunion, go to an auction, go to the reunion, watch the Waterfront Festival fireworks.
Sunday: leave to Milwaukee, WI for a Brewers game. Come back late at night.

Soooo....maybe Monday you'll see it?


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