How to fill a big hole (with wood filler)

So we're in the process of rehabbing the kitchen, slowly. Directly to the left of my (gas) range is where the original wall oven unit used to be. I know there used to be a wall unit because my neighbor has the same kitchen and his is still functional. Some previous owner replaced the oven/cooktop with a range. The oven space was converted to countertop, which I suspect is a huge improvement in functionality compared to the original (no counters directly adjacent to the cooktop - what were the builders thinking?). Whomever did the upgrade was pretty sloppy - none of the cuts were straight... and there was a chunk missing just to the left of the range hood (which we are in the process of replacing).  See?

If I used wood filler alone, the suff would fall back into the hole. What I needed was a way to provide support for the filler....

After filling and sanding (and a little painting). Obviously it needs more work, but a step in the right direction!

The inside of my closets

No, this is not a post about organization. It is one about creating extra storage.

First, the den. Here it is in the original-ish state:

And then I framed in a couple closets to flank the fireplace:

Which I shared with you here. The dirty little secret was that these closets were absolutely.empty.  No shelves, no hooks, no closet rods. Not very useful closets, right?

Now:

I installed two upper shelves and closet rod, and in the case of the right-hand closet, a lower set of shelves. The carpet in this room does not extend to the nooks, so I had installed a laminate floor in the first part of closet creation. To hold the curtains to one side, I just used those cheapie picture hangers. ($2.99 for a pack of 5). Here's what they look like:



The band of fabric just hooks on.

Technically this is a den (it's right off the kitchen and opens to the backyard). However, we find it's useful as a guest room, because it's close to the powder room and on the opposite end of the house from our bedroom, which is nice for privacy. When the basement is finished (ha!) it will be closer to the guest shower than any other bedroom. Some of our relatives have trouble with stairs so a main floor guest area that is not part of the main living area is really appreciated.

Oh, and by the way, I cleaned the fireplace. Much better, no?

Price breakdown:

2 closet rods: $10
2 sets closet flanges: $5
boards for shelving ~~

• cleats: $6
• upper shelves: $15
• lower shelves: boards on hand + $5

paint, stain and caulk: free, already had
picture hooks: free, already had

Total for this project: $41

Pretty good for 6 solid wood shelves, no? The cost is approximately the same as for the cheapest wire shelving and it looks exactly like I want. Per The Sagulator each shelf can hold about 90 lbs of stuff without visibly deflecting. I figure that if this room ever turns into a hobby room or play room, those closet areas can be fitted with even more shelving without too much work - all without intruding on living space.


Running total for this room interior: $420 + $41 = $461
See more posts about the den here

Linking up to:

"Best DIY Projects of March" via beneathmyheart.net

Guest Bedroom Reveal

Before:

The upstairs guest bedroom is a pretty small space and gets lots of morning light especially in the summer (those windows are east-facing). Its major redeeming quality are the hardwood floors.  For reference, the door in the first and second pics are the same one - access to a tiny walk-in closet.

One drawback:  that ceiling fan. See how there's a dangly stem above the motor housing and big ole' lights below? Now, don't get me wrong - a ceiling fan in a second-story room on a hot summer night? Brilliant. But this one I could easily reach without stretching (I'm 5'2"), and it made a short room feel entirely claustrophobic. As in,  'when are those flowery frosted glass thingies going to fall on my head'   scary. 

And by the way, that closet? one little teensy 12" shelf.  Folks, this is a 40+ year old house! How can you live without either closet rods or shelves?

      

After:

Knowing that my budget was smaller than the room, my goals were two-fold. First to make the room seem livable - enough space and storage for all that people normally want in a bedroom, some way to control heat/light. Second to showcase that beautiful floor, since nothing else I could add would compete in quality.


Wall color: April Sky in Olympic Flat (this is a really light color that works well because my house has short walls and small windows. With newer construction I would go 1-2 shades darker on the paint swatch)
Trim color: Olympic semi-gloss base 2 with floetrol
Light fixture: Krylon ORB and Valspar frosted glass
Heat registers: Kilz Primer and Rustoleum semi-gloss white
Closet rods: Minwax

 

I'm not a huge fan of boob lights, but I am cheap. This one was originally residing in the hall, and after a few coats of orb on the metal bits and frosted glass spray paint on the dome (see more here), it looks pretty good for free!

The width of this closet  - less than 4' - meant that doubling the shelving/closet rods was an absolute must to increasing capacity (each one holds a mens XL fleece jacket with plenty of clearance). However because this closet is pretty much a square, there was space to add hooks along the right and left for longer items.



What I did / cost breakdown:

1. Removed the surface wiring system (there were already four outlets in this room, one on each wall): free
2. Added a battery-operated light to the closet: $13
3. Painted ceiling, walls and trim: free, paint from previous projects
4. Removed vinyl mini-blinds and installed two curtains, including a roman shade lined with blackout fabric: ~$75 for both layers, including curtain rods.
5. Installed shelves, closet rods and hooks: $35
6. Spray-painted heat registers: free, paint from previous projects 
7. Installed a door stop: $3
8. Removed the ceiling fan and replaced it with a boob light: free
9. Replaced all the outlets/switches and covers with white ones: $5

                                                                           Total Cost: ~ $131

Work still needed:

1. Install smoke detector done
2. Add molding to and paint doors (satin white) or just replace the doors
3. Hang art done
4. Build/find/buy a side table
5. (optional) build a headboard
6. Bring in the dresser from our room (originally in downstairs guest room)
7. (optional) Find a better rug
8. Find an oscillating fan that looks nicer.
9. Add hooks or full length mirror to inside of closet door

Couldn't have done it without you!

Remember this shot?

After all that work on the door, the grody 70s iron porch support was in serious need of tlc. I was having some work done on the overhang which required my contractor to remove the support for access so I just asked him to leave the 4x4 treated post, which I then wrapped with cedar boards and stained black.

I all honesty, I would never have attempted this project if it wasn't for a tute on porch column construction published by Traci @ Beneath My Heart. You can find it here. (Traci and Cy also just did a brilliant remodel of their kitchen top-to-bottom in record time - check it out!). My initial thought was to chemically strip the many many layers of rusting paint (lovely, right?) and spray paint the thing with a few coats of Rustoleum's hammered metal finish. Soooo glad I did this instead.....

Thanks for the inspiration, Traci and Cy!

Front door love

That title sounded way cooler that this post warrants. A more accurate title would be: "How many unfinished things are in this picture?"


Last year I painted the front door black. No, I do not have a before pic. It was a chalky white that collected dust in every crevice. And who paints a front door with flat paint?? Basically it was grody and I couldn't get it clean. Since the shutters are black, I thought it would be dramatic to paint the front door to match. (well actually I wanted red, but it would have clashed with the brick).  Have you ever painted anything black? I knew it would take a few coats, but .... I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong or what. Two coats of grey-tint primer and 3 coats of valspar paint later ...

In hindsight I think the problem was using valspar. I should have stuck with Rustoleum. The valspar stuff took forever to cure and isn't black-black as I would like it. ("black magic" if anyone is wondering)

We also installed a Pella storm door. I *heart* this storm door. The wide expanse of glass unmarred by a horizontal divider, the fact that the handle is on the same side as the main door handle, the sturdy closers that are unfazed by gusts of wind, the nifty little button on the bottom that lets me lock the door in open with my foot.... swoon!! The solidity of this door is well worth the upgrade in cost (I say this after a year of use). Let me put it this way - the "structural integrity" of a $100 door is in the glass insert. This door (approx $215) is sturdy even without the insert.

Let's look at that bad boy again:

Finally, decorations. I have a very very tight budget, an aversion to clutter and little sense of "staging" or "decor" (don't ask about the teasing I used to get working in retail). This wreath gets used for all seasons, and I have no desire to de/re-construct it four times a year. Hence the ribbon. This year I added a knitted strip (too short for a scarf) for some extra texture. tada!

I did take the wreath down during the week of Halloween to put up a spiderweb. The purple looked great inside (with the wood finish), but for the outside I think orange would be better. Maybe next year I can use twinned strands of orange and purple?



Bonus round #1 - the unfinished business

• threshold and jamb need (re)painting
• touchup paint around door knob
• remove excess paint on (wood door) glass (from previous owner's paint job, thank-you-very-much)
• weave in end of yarn on scarf

Bonus round #2 - stuff I haven't even started that is in/near this pic

• replace house numbers with something that is readable from street.
• replace/refinish porch light.
• seal/paint concrete floor.
• come up with better seating. maybe an adriondack chair?

Linking up to the February Linky Party at Beneath My Heart

Halloween decorations

I followed directions found here

Pinterest is a time sink

... but so useful for organizing project ideas.

much better than the system I was on in gReader.

see my boards here



My new and improved method for using gReader.

1. install the toolbar buttons for both gReader and Pinterest

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

The leftmost one, labeled "Next >>;", allows me to scroll thru gReader unreads in my browser. To install, simply go to Reader Settings, Goodies, scroll down to "Put Reader in a bookmark" and drag the button onto your toolbar. Voila!

Pinterest is rather self-explanatory

2. Now all I do is click "Next >>" and periodically "Pin It". Sooo much easier to see all the effort people are putting into their blogs and comment. Fun times!

I have fallen off the bandwagon

 

Remember this post where I whined about the disastrous state of my house?

Well I totally fell off the bandwagon.

Between deadlines, and traveling....nah, that's just an excuse. Anyways.

Today's post at My Happy House was inspirational.

I'll let you know what happens.

More electrical work

This was a electrical box in for some of the den lights

See how it's not attached to anything? Not safe, or up to code.

Because the switch was an afterthought, there is no adjoining stud to fasten to. Enter the old-work box:

See that flag sticking up? and the screw in front? After shoving the box into the hole, tightening the screw clamps onto drywall between the front lip and flag. There's a second flag on the bottom of the box. Easy peasy. Seriously, it was an 88-cent fix.

Grumbling

Check this out:

Yes that is Romex peeking out directly from the drywall. No, this is not up to code.

Updated chandy

How many of you have one of these guys? Mine is the el-cheapo model, which meant the brass coating was already wearing off. I'm not really sure how something hanging in mid air can wear off, but anyways.

Happy House Cleaning Challenge

Week1 score: 7/7

Yay! Some days I didn't get to until I was procrastinating on other tasks  after lunch. So this week my goal is to get the bed made before lunch

I need a clean house

Do you ever feel that you want need a clean house? I do. Usually it's when I'm in the middle of a big project at home/work and haven't had the energy to do much more than get dishes into the machine and dirty clothes into the hamper. Or that time of the month. Whatever.

But I think right now is especially atrocious. T is off yonder for school and I've indulged myself by taking on tons of diy projects and slipping on my housekeeping.

I need help.

And I am frugal with a capital CHEAP, which means any solution has gotta be free.

Enter:












The rest of the peeps are on week 3, but I'm starting today, with week 1.

Fingers crossed

[Thanks Molly!]

diy FAIL

Yay!  I have a working kitchen faucet.

When going to repair this monstrosity:

No need for a workout

Spring is most definitely in full bloom. And, in addition to the years of neglect that my poor house has experienced inside, outside is just as bad.

The backyard is a two tiered terraced garden down to a flat/grassy area and then the house. It's a fairly significant slope (guesstimate 45 degrees?) and the area right next to the house is absolutely FLAT. We can all guess what happens during heavy rain. Yep, basement leakage [thankfully not flooding].

My first task is regrading the area directly adjacent to the house. And in order to do that I first had to remove the railroad tie edgers.

Man those are heavy! I think the long one (5 ft) weighs about 100lbs. It took me about 2 hrs to move these suckers from the backyard to the front. Part of the problem is that it's just lil ole' me doing the heavy lifting, and the second part - well, see those three little pieces? They used to be one, which was too long for me to wiggle around the house. So I used my sawzall to cut them up. Word of advice: get the longer blade, next time.

Part 2:

Digging a french drain to intercept the water coming to the house.

Oops...

As documented here, I am on a mission to be rid of all brass in my house.

Enter one brassy fireplace:

An oldie but a goodie

So this was actually my first second third real project in the house. At the time I just took pics for Mom and my memory. Sorry for the poor lighting. My photog skilz are mad limited [okay, I'll stop ...], and this room doesn't have any windows nearby, plus, knowing me it was after 10p.


This tiny powder room on the main floor had those ugly peel 'em stick 'em tiles that did not match the rest of the house. And when I say did not match I mean to the left beige diamonds, to the right green boxed. See for yourself:

Let there be light!

After my fan and dresser projects, I was feeling positively giddy about spray paint. To the point of looking around to see if there are other projects that I could "fix" for a mere $2.97.

Enter builder-grade fixtures:

Blearch! We're talking builder grade from the nineties, folks. Since the house was built in the 60s, this was an upgrade. Not only are they cheap-o [12.88 @ Lowe's], they're brassy. And they only hold one bulb each. Grr. Their only redeeming quality is that the knob that holds it all together isn't flush. So it's a fairly straightforward  task to change out bulbs.