Treasure Chest Contents

Between having a computer virus and going on vacation my little blog baby has been neglected, and my DIY projects have too.  Though, I have bought several new items for my treasure chest (actually I just stuff things away until I can turn them into something great).  I usually get my treasures from thrift stores, but I have a few other secrets too.  Here is what I have picked up from my local thrift stores in the last couple weeks:

My absoloute most F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. place to find treasures has to be ....what we call it in this house....the trash pick up.  My aunt lives in the Bay Area (CA) in a well-off neighborhood and three times a year the city does a "special clean up" day in which the residents put their unwanted "trash" out by the street for the city to take to the dump.  I am not even kidding one little bit when I tell you that these people put out A LOT OF GOOD JUNK. At first it is embarrassing, it is like one step up from dumpster diving, but this treasure lover has no shame people...no shame I tell ya!  In the past we have gotten a Craftsman table saw, all of my gas lawn tools, a vintage dress form in perfect condition, and sooooo soooo much more.  This time around I only kept a few things, some pots, garden trellis, a little table and this:

Yeah baby!!  It is actually a rototiller attachment that goes with my gas weed eater that I got last year from the "trash pick up".  I also got this cute little mirror that will eventually live on my gallery wall:

Then, while driving around on my hunt I came across this vanity in someone's front yard.  It had a sign taped to it that read > $25 obo, leave your money under the mat.  Thanks!<  It was totally worth the $25, but I was in free mode and so I passed it up.....then a few hours later I went back by just to see if it was still there...yep, still left it there.  Then after a few MORE hours it started to rain...so I went back by and decided to take the vanity home.  I left $15 under the mat and a note that said....>I am leaving $15 for the vanity, please call me if you do not think that is a fair price 707-#### Thanks, Sarah<  I never got a call so I assume they were happy....I am definitely happy. 

Last but not least, I got these candle sticks from my grandma.  They are actually hand made by an old neighbor of hers.  She told me that there were originally three candlesticks but she sold the smallest one years ago at a yard sale.  I am in LOVE with them.

All in all, I think I have done pretty darn good in the last couple weeks.  Sometimes I get so envious of people because it seems like they find all the good stuff and all that I can ever find is blah.  I had a lucky streak, what else can I say.  I already know what I am going to do with some of the things, others will fall into place eventually.  What have you found lately?  Have you ever bought something on the honors system like I did with the vanity?  Or are you a proud trash picker?....Oh yeah baby, be proud!!

Spray Paint Therapy

Do you ever have those days when you feel like you should be working on something, but you don't really have the energy to tackle a big project?  Today was one of those days.  That's when spray paint therapy kicks in.  It's amazing how a coat of spray paint can change the look of something and be completely dry in 10 minutes or less.   My shelf in the laundry room looked like this:

It worked.  But like I said, I needed some spray paint therapy.  So down came the planter and out to the backyard we went for a quick makeover.

I stuffed the inside with some cheap'o wrapping paper turned mess control paper inside of the planter since there is no need to paint the inside of the planter.  It will never be seen and my ORB paint is like liquid gold to me....not trying to waste it.  Here is the after:

You can even see the hammered tin effect of the planter.  I didn't even notice it before when it was green.  So it was nicer now, but still just OK.  So that's when I decided to be ubber creative and freehand this design:

Just kidding, I told you I wasn't feeling super-duper productive.  Those are just scrap booking stickers.  Yep, regular ol' stickers.  They are actually puff stickers, I got them from Michael's, this is what the packaging looked like:

Super easy project.   I buy my paint at either Wal-Mart or K-Mart for around $3-4 per can.  This is what the overall after looks like:

I like it.  Now if only I could get around to painting the cabinetry then we would be getting somewhere.  What do you do on days when you don't feel like tackling much?  Are you part of the spray paint therapy club?

Inverted Bullnose...?

So we all know that bullnose corners are rounded wall corner edges that most of the new builders (and a lot fancy houses) have.  When the sheetrock is installed on fresh walls a corner bead is installed around the window casings and on all the corners.  It is a aluminium "protector" piece which allows your corners to hold up against bumps.  Traditionally the corners are a straight 90 degree angle, but with bullnose the angle is rounded which softens the corners of the room.  In my house I have the regular ol' squared off corners....not a big deal and much easier to work with when it comes to changing baseboard or crown moulding.  Well, regular corners except for THREE!! Two corners that are in Hailee's room and one corner in Alyssa's room are bullnosed, but "INNIE" bullnosed!!...??  Usually bullnosed are only used on outer facing corners and not inverted like this....I guess my builder was trying to be super fancy.  So I never thought much of it until recently when I was replacing the baseboard in Hailee's room.  >>Progress on that room can be seen here<<  I guess the builder didn't take much consideration of this either because they installed the baseboard at a regular 90 degree angle which led to a gap and overall just not looking right.

I had NO IDEA how to make the cuts work and I searched and searched for a tutorial on how to do it, but the only thing that I came up with was how to do the typical outward facing bullnose.  I took what I gathered from that and went with it.  On a typical 90 degree corner you would miter your edges at a 45 degree angle each but for this I cut a middle section with 22.5degree angles on each side and then my two side sections at 45 degrees.

When you trim the side pieces like above don't set you saw at any angle, just make a straight cut.  I don't think this is the "proper" way to do corners like this, and if some manly man saw this he would probably cringe all over.  Cringe, baby cringe!! 

When you have it all pieced together tack it to the wall with some finishing nails....a nail gun works best, but if your gangsta like me just use a hammer, skinny nails, and a nail setter.  Then caulk around the edges, in the seams, and over your nail holes to fill in any gaps and make it look seamless.  Touch up with paint and your done!  This is my final product....I think it turned out great if I do say so myself.  Total cost was around $30. 

Have you had any projects that you thought were going to be simple and turned into a pain?  Ever have to take 19 gazillion trips to the garage just to get your cut right?  What about your house....does it have any "fancy" little features that make you say SERIOUSLY!!? 

So Much for the Yard Sale

Whenever I have a yard sale I try to update things without spending a bunch of time on things.  I've had this little table thingy FOREVER, well at least a good ten years, and it has served me well.  In my first apartment it was my phone stand, then it eventually migrated to the girls' room and was used as a nightstand, but in the new house there was just nowhere for my little friend.  So for a quick update I decided to give the wood top a quick spray of black paint.  Like I said, I don't like spending too much time on updating yard sale items so I didn't bother sanding the top or filling in any scratches, I just taped off the top and went to work. 

And YES, that is my backyard!!  Not so great huh?!  The house was a foreclosure, you know, one of those great priced homes with lots of potential.....yep, that kind.  In the backyard our only project has been keeping the weeds below our knees so that we can focus all of our time and money into the front.....for the whole curb appeal thingy.  Ok, so back to the star of this post....after it's little update I realized that our friendship isn't quite over yet.  This is what my laundry room looked like before when the door is open....

Yes....dirty laundry in all it's glory...not too cute huh?  So if I just shift the basket right behind that door then that will be tucked away and my little table thingy could live on that wall like this:

The dish/tray works perfect for when my husband comes in from work he now has something to empty his pockets in and it looks contained.  I had bought it at a thrift store for $.50 a long time ago and then spray painted it's little legs white for some contrast. 

In the top two drawers I have some miscellaneous DIY treasures, the next drawer holds my lonely socks, the ones that are missing their mates, and the third is for our grocery bags that we re-use.  Looking at it in the photos I think the picture is too high but for now it's ok, that picture and I are soon going to have a DIY date.  As a reminder,here is another look at the laundry-room-with-the-door-open picture:

And my NEW laundry-room-with-the-door-open picture:

 I'm feeling the change, maybe it's just because that me and that table have been together since the beginning or maybe because walking by that door and looking at a big basket of dirty laundry isn't that appealing.  Either way, this is how my laundry room is going to look for the minute.  Cost of this update....$0.00.  I love when that happens!  Do you have a piece of furniture that you just can't seem to part with or am I just weird like that?

It's A Shocker....

....I bought a contractors pack of white outlets a few months ago because I wanted to start switching out all of my off-white plugs.  They have sat in a drawer for a few months now because it wasn't top priority and because it seemed REALLY intimidating.  However, since I am in the middle of a room redo I wasn't about to put the same off white plates up on my new crisp paint!!  All of the plates were already off because of all the painting that was going on so I decided to unscrew the actual outlets to see what they looked like behind there, and we had a problem!....They didn't look like the outlets that I had bought, the wires were going straight into the back of the outlet and not on the little side screws like my new outlets had >> it will all make sense in the pictures (hopefully!).

 I decided to go to Lowe's and ask somebody why they were different.  They told me that a lot of times builders will install the outlets this way (in the back rather than wrapping them around the screws) because it is faster, but the other way is better. Back home I went now determined that I could win this battle.  I started poking at the old outlet to try and release the wires and -ZAP-, I was the proud owner of a nice little shock.   >>NOTE FOR NEXT TIME:  REMEMBER TO TURN OFF THE ELECTRICITY TO THAT ROOM!!<<  It really didn't hurt, cooking can cause more damage in my opinion, but I don't imagine having electricity going through your body is a good thing.  With the electricity now off, the only way I could get those wires out of the back was to break the outlet and then release them. 

Then I just curled the wire slightly with some pliers and tightened the screws down around them.  Screw them back to the wall, add plate, and Tada!! I timed myself on this outlet and from start to finish, including all the pauses to take the pictures for this post, it took 7 min 44 sec.  Not bad, and definitely worth the pay off.  I bought a 10 pack of outlets for around $14 and a 10 pack of plates for about $2.  Once you get through the first outlet it is no longer scary at all!  Just turn the electricity back on after the first one and try it out to make sure you are doing it right before you tackle too many. 

Hope this eases any fears you may have, if I can do it, you can do it.  Have you done any use-to-be-scared-of projects lately?

From Brass to Oil Rubbed Bronze on the Cheap

One of the first things we bought when we moved into our house was all new door handles.  The house had the original builders shiny brass knobs and we were in the market for paddle knobs (My oldest daughter lacks a lot of strength in her hands so paddles are a lot easier for her, plus they look great, win-win).  Of course we chose nice new oil rubbed bronze paddles.  They look great.  However, I have recently been stepping up my projects (more on why it took so long later) and painted the casings around all of my doors (seen in this post) which made my brass hinges stick out like a sore thumb.  So I went to Lowe's to purchase the matching oil rubbed bronze hinges.  Holy Moly Cow....those things were like $8/package.  Seriously??!  $8 x 11 interior doors = $88+tax just for hinges....  Pass.  I went home and decided to try my ORB spray paint that I had and see what happened.  This is what they looked like in their early stages:

So I took them off with my husbands drill... using a screwdriver to do all of the screws would have been way too much for this DIYer... then took them outside and just lightly sanded the hinges, mainly to get any dirt off and slightly rough up any shininess.  Then I stuck each of the screws in a piece of sheetrock that my husband didn't throw away (typical!)....cardboard or foam would have worked just the same.  And then I gave them a spray:

With the hinges make sure you paint both sides.  I learned this the hard way.  I only painted one side...the only side I thought would show....and hung them back up, but when I closed the door the round part where the pin went was still bright brass....so down it all came to do again.  So eventually you will end up with this:

So much better, and since I already had the ORB paint this project cost me $0.00!!!  Total score!  Do you have any free updates that you've done lately?

Like to party?  I sure do!!  This week I partied with Centsational Girl and Between Naps on the Porch check out all the details here or here.

Painting Interior Casings

So we are in the middle of 1,968,446,354,796,131 remodel projects which means no laying around and sipping iced tea (good thing I don't even like tea).  So to start off this blog nice and slow here is an example of project  #105.....We are the second owners of our 15yr old house, but I don't think that the first owners did anything.....and I mean ANYTHING.  So a quick and cost cuddly project was sanding and painting my door casings.  Not all of the doors were able to go through this process because of damage, but most were ok.  So what I did was sand the wood trim >>side note:  I started this process by hand and then decided to break out the electric sander.  If you are not in the dusting mood then I don't recommend this, but if you want quick results then go for it.<<  Here is the before:

There was no need to sand them down to the bare wood, just rough them up some.  Then I used Kilz oil based primer and OMG that stuff stinks soooo bad!  Then as soon as it dried I applied a super duper white glossy paint over the top and that locked in all the stink.  Much better.

 It took four thin coats of the white paint to make me happy, but I am in love with the results.  Getting rid of the wood trim + replacing them with glossy white = LOVE.  What do you think?  Anyone else out there with an oil based paint headache?

Like to party?  I sure do!  You can find this post along with tons of other great ideas here: http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/04/scary-hang-ups-welcome-to-117th.html