7.17.2011

Lately I've been having a problem with Opie.


I've been tracking in a lot of dirt and grit. I don't know if these floor mats are darker than the previous ones, or what, but I notice it all the time. My side of the driveway doesn't have much room and I often walk on dirt, or mud, littered with acorns, leaves and I'm sure other things.


So, last week I casually mentioned to D that I would like to look at stepping stones at Lowe's. Nothing fancy, just something to keep me out of the muck. To my surprise, D was completely on-board with idea, even though he knew it would mean work for him (most of my projects generally do). I chose the most basic of their offerings and for less than $10 we were out the door.

First we raked up all the leaves, sticks and acorns. We set the stones out and walked them, deciding if we had them too close together or too far apart, etc.


Then D began the arduous task of placing the stones down in the ground. During the dig he found all kinds of tree roots and half a brick (!) but with his trusty mattock, he prevailed. He did a lovely job. It was so nice not to get my heels dirty this morning on the way to church.

Before & After

5.23.2010 #2 - catchup

We've been tackling some projects around the house (and garden, but that's a separate post).

A few weeks ago we found these dinner mats on clearance at Wal-Mart for $1 each. Hard to beat that. They're perfect for our blue and green theme in the kitchen/dining area and they're nice and summer-y too. I was afraid that if the condensation from drinks got onto them, the stain might transfer to the table... so we put a sealant on them. Now we can use them with confidence!


When D and I re-did the bathroom, we chose to keep our current sink and fixtures. They're holding up pretty well for being 30-something years old. The main problem is that no matter how tightly you twist the knobs, the faucet continues to drip.


... and drip.

The problem is with the cold knob but we decided to replace the washers on both sides. D went to turn the water off under the sink and found out that he couldn't! The washer for the turn-off knob had nearly disintegrated and so it couldn't stop the water pressure. He had to go outside and turn off the line to the house.

The bonnet nut under the cold water knob was really, really tight. D fought and fought with it but it would not come off. We read in our "house repair bible" and also online that applying too great of force to the bonnet nut could cause some bad problems. One of the internet forums suggested soaking it in WD40 and waiting 20 minutes, so that's what we did.

D, waiting on the WD40 to work, drinking his can of Dew to encourage his can-do attitude.


Finally! The bonnet nut came off and we got to see what 30-year old plumbing looks like. Yuck!


We were able to find replacement washers at the downtown FI hardware store. It's such a dinky little place and yet more often than not, it has exactly what we need. Viola! D conquered the drip!

3.7.2010

After we finished the bathroom remodel last year, D and I decided to tackle the living room next. We had our living room furniture set for about 14 years. The dog ruined the couch while trying to get to a ball that had rolled underneath it and the cat finished off the chair by using it as a scratching post. For nearly a dozen years we kept the damage hidden with slipcovers and sheets. But besides the cosmetics, the couch was very worn. The springs squeaked and sometimes it was difficult to get up. It was time to make a change.

I neglected to take a "before" picture of the room. This is an outtake that D took the first day we had Elora at home. It's the only picture we have of the original room.


The couch was our first course of business. We looked at couches everywhere. Ethan Allen, Ashley Home Store, Rooms to Go... we even drove all the way to Charlotte to go to IKEA! We discussed fabrics and length and it seemed to go on forever. But if you're only going to get new furniture every 15 years, you have to get it right. One of the things we didn't like about our existing couch was that it only seated three people comfortably. Whenever we had company, it was a little awkward about who would sit in the chair. And if there were more than four of us, someone had to squeeze in on the couch or sit on the floor. So we wanted a large couch. It came down to two choices. An L-shaped couch from Rooms-to-Go, which was a light green fabric, and had a chaise at the end of it, or a cream leather-blend sectional we saw at Ashley. After weighing all the factors, price, pets, etc, we decided to go with the Ashley couch. I found it online with free shipping so we ordered it and crossed our fingers. The new couch arrived on Jan 29th.


When we got rid of our end tables, we lost a place to put our surround sound speakers and antenna. We decided that a small hall table or buffet table, which are generally narrow, would be perfect to squeeze behind the couch. We looked at Wal-Mart, Target, even the antique store in downtown Simpsonville. Ultimately we ended up with a small bookcase from Garden Ridge.


We struggled about whether to have a coffee table or an ottoman, because we've had both in the past. We like to put our feet up, but we eat and have beverages in the living room quite frequently too, so a table was important. I was browsing on the internet and found this one at Overstock.com. It's a wood table with vinyl bolsters, so you can have the best of both worlds.


We wanted to protect the wood but we weren't sure the best way to go about it. Our first thought was glass. D found a beveled candle platter at Hobby Lobby that was perfect, and even though it was the largest size they stocked, it was too small for the table. Our next attempt was to search for an 18" square picture frame that we could take the glass out of. We actually bought this 17" one at Old Time Pottery:


When we put it down on the table it wasn't bad, it just wasn't right. A couple of days later one of us had the brilliant idea of using a ceramic floor tile. It'd be durable, it could handle heat (if a plate or mug was warm), it came standard in 18" squares and it was inexpensive. Thus a quick trip to Lowes and we were all set! I like the way the color of the tile draws the eye to the couch.


A while back we window-shopped for a living-room rug quite extensively but never found what we wanted. We didn't want fringe or floral. D finally spotted this one at Kohl's. I liked it because of the circles. We had already decided to keep our circle-spiral wall-art and this rug kept with the theme. It also had both cream and brown in it (and turquoise!). It was 50% off already but because D noticed a 'power hour' sign that had not been removed, the manager gave us an additional 10% off!


D and I wanted to keep our original chair. It still felt in good condition. Having it re-upholstered would be pricey. I actually ordered a slipcover for it but it didn't fit and we had to return it. It has a T-cushion and it's difficult to fit. Being an 'overstuffed' chair, it took up a lot of space and after consideration we eventually decided to replace it entirely. We were shopping one day and saw this chair in Kohl's (I didn't even know they had chairs, but I hadn't known they had rugs either!) It was on clearance and we thought it would go well with our color theme. I bought a cream circle pillow for it from Wal-Mart, so it would match the couch better. Elora likes the chair! We decided to purchase a small brown towel to keep her fur off of it, a trick we learned from D's grandparents.


We bought our swirly-circle wall-art at Garden Ridge several years ago. We felt there was too much blank space on either side of it and we needed some sconces to match it. We actually bought some at Hobby Lobby that just didn't suit it very well and we had to return them. Then one day we were at Kohl's and we saw these. They match better than any others we've come across. Knowing Kohl's as well as we do, we waited until the weekend and they were discounted 50% off, under $10. We usually keep white tea lights in the candle cups but we found some turquoise votives at Wal-Mart that were inexpensive. I couldn't get the camera to do them justice. In person the color just pops.


Pillows. I got so tired of looking at pillows. The first batch had circles on them, but they didn't look quite right so we took them back. Then we bought stripes and solids, but I felt it was too much stripe, so we returned one and swapped it for an additional solid. We've taken the tags off these, so they are keepers!


We decided to incorporate things we had in other places in the house into the room. I had an angel shelf I had purchased years ago at Old Time Pottery that we hung on the wall. We found this candle on clearance at Hobby Lobby. It's real wax but there's no wick. Instead it has a battery-powered LED in it and it actually flickers like a real candle.


We hung the coats-of-arms that we bought at the heraldry shop in St. Augustine. We had more wall space so we decided to hang the sword LRL gave to D. We looked at several sword hangers online but in the end, we just used an inexpensive coat hook from Lowes. Works for us.


We also brought in the afghan BBL made for D when he went off to school. It matches the room perfectly and we always curl up with a lap blanket on TV night.


And so the room is mostly complete. We still haven't found a clock we love, which will hang above the TV. And I still need to find the right picture frames for the tall black bookcase. But for all intents, the project is finished. It's not how I imagined it would be when we first started couch-hunting. It's so much better. I'm surprised at what a journey we went on and I really enjoyed going through the process with D. It's so different than our first set of furniture. Our tastes have changed since then too.

We had our first guests in the room last night - LRL and BBL came over. After dinner I think BBL and I could have napped on the couch, we were both so full. It's a comfortable room and I'm pleased with it.

11.10.2009

Last night D and I celebrated the completion of our bathroom remodel by taking a bubbly bath. And by bubbly, I mean champagne! In our case it was a bottle of Blood Orange Mimosa, which is nice because it takes away a good bit of the booziness.

We are both very pleased with how the remodel turned out and have a nice sense of accomplishment (even with the hall light debacle and minor craftmanship issues). Most importantly, the structural issues on the outside wall are fixed. We replaced the wood window and sill with vinyl and installed vinyl paneling, so the wood rot problem is no longer an issue. The Re-Bath tub and surround are awesome. The tub is larger than the original and it has a textured bottom so we don't slip. We also like the grab bars although we wish we had thought out the placement a bit more.

Before & After:



We are both completely tickled not to have to look at that horrible yellow-green tile anymore. The cosmetic improvement is amazing. We think going with the two-tone paint was a good match for the marbled pattern on the surround. We have about three-quarters of our paint left so it looks like our other bathroom will be re-done in the same color! When we covered the tile we lost our fixtures but we lucked out by finding a set on clearance at Home Depot. The new light fixture is so pretty, and it wasn't expensive either. I adore the wall cabinet. It's so roomy. I didn't like any of the ones in Lowes or Home Depot, then one day in WalMart (of all places) we spotted this one. So we brought it home. It fits the space just fine, a happy surprise. But I think the shower curtain is the fanciest thing we bought. We saw one during our beach vacation and were so taken with it that we ordered one online. We like several things about it: it's hookless, the mesh lets in the sunlight (which is our reason for keeping the window), and the liner portion snaps out so you can throw it in the wash.



Our only regret, ascetically, is that we did not replace or cover the floor tile, which is showing its age. It just wasn't in the budget.

All that's left now is for the new-paint smell to fade away...

8.13.2009

On our fourteenth anniversary, my true love gave to me..... vinyl paneling?
Yep! At my request....

When D and I first moved into our house, we knew there were going to be projects to undertake. The house inspector made sure we knew that. But we were so very thrilled to actually have a place of our own. We were probably a little blinded by the stars in our eyes. The main bathroom has always been at the top of the project list. It had both structural and cosmetic issues.

It's difficult for me to believe that it's been over a year since we had the folks from Re-Bath install our new sub-flooring, tub and surround. Since then our remodel has been in limbo. Mostly because we're doing the rest of the work ourselves and we don't have the budget to do it all at once.

The Re-Bath installation and the new vinyl window D installed (good job, sweetie) took care of our structural issues. The rest is cosmetic. I have always, always, always loathed the yellow-green, puke color of these tiles. We discovered a primer solution at Home Depot that allows you to paint tile and at one time we considered doing that. But the Re-Bath contractor we asked said it didn't work all that well and there was always a problem with scratches. So, that left us with vinyl paneling.

We decided that we had the budget and the willpower to attack the East-facing wall. It's the simplest because neither the toilet or the sink is in the way.


We knocked the tile fixtures off. Measured, marked and cut our panels. Gooped and grooved and pressed them into place. D was so steady with the goop gun.


My goop lines were all squiggly but maybe that's the artist in me. I had a few words for D....



Viola! Now it just needs trimwork and we'll paint once we have the other two walls paneled.


So! Here's where we started from originally:



How could I have forgotten those hideous swans? I did the happy dance when the contractors took them away. Oh, the multitude of sins that curtain over the window obscured! And where are we are now.... much improved! But still a long way to go. Those other two walls are going to be tough!

Violating the Sanctity of The ManCave

Lately I've been feeling unhappy with my laptop. Not with the laptop itself, although a new video processor would be nice. I didn't feel grounded and I mean that in the psychological sense, not the electronic one. I was a gypsy. I would check my email in the bedroom but they tell insomniacs to move anything non-bed related out of the bedroom. I would blog from the living room but sitting on the couch for a long time hurt my back. I occasionally wrote from the kitchen table but quickly discovered that being in the kitchen for long periods of time is not ideal for those watching their calorie intake! Once or twice I even websurfed from the patio and that has its own set of complications. Which leaves the third bedroom, or as we alternately call it: the office, the library, the 'other' and (to D's chagrin) the ManCave.



The ManCave is where D's desk is; where he does his videogaming, his trumpet practice, where he hangs out. I carved out a small niche on the love seat where I would sit with my laptop. But the more I used it the more I realized I wasn't happy there either. It wasn't the best posture for my back or my legs and I didn't have any space to put out my earphones, the camera, or to prop up a book I was typing research from, etc. I was just not happy being desk-less anymore.

So I broached the subject with D and to his credit, he agreed pretty quickly that we could rearrange the room to provide a desk area for me. One of my requests was that we should face each other. I was tired of always looking at the back of his lovely head. Our first thought was that we could use one big desk or table and sit on opposite sides of it. We went into Wal-Mart and priced tables. We ended up getting two student desks for about the same price. Buying the desks was the easy part. Disassembling and reassembling all the electronics was a pain in both our rear-ends. We still need to purchase some cable tubing to make it look respectable.

I know it's stressful when anyone moves into an occupied space and has ideas on how to change things around. I could tell D was trying hard to be fair and accessible and it made me love him all the more for it. I told D that if he really hated it or if it did not work for us that we'd re-arrange again. And in all honesty, he'll have plenty of time alone in the room as I'll still take my infamous skin-shriveling bubble baths and my reading too. I thought we got along really well during the transition and never once did we approach the black shame that was The Wallpaper-Hanging Incident.



We ended up doing some Fall-cleaning too. We trashed the dozens of VCR tapes that we have not watched in over 4 years. Now that the trunk is empty, D is storing his instruments inside of it and they don't take up floor space. We turned D's old desk into a laundry folding station in the kitchen area.



I think we made some positive changes to the house this weekend. It feels excellent being at a desk again. Now I can make mooney-faces at D, although I try not to distract him when he's in a challenging part of his game. The only one who's upset at the whole endeavour is Alex, who used to sit beside me wherever I parked myself. I'll just have to train him to be a lap cat or he can snuggle up with Feni.