Master Bath Renovation

As new homeowners we learned quickly that owning your own home is extremely rewarding.  If you feel like painting, you can......if you feel like changing out light fixtures, you can.....whatever it is, you can do it.  It really is great!  BUT...the one thing that IS sucky is that there are no maintenance men to call when something goes wrong...ugh!  When we moved in to our home everything was perfect.  Well, it was all perfect until the carpet in our master closet was soaking wet.  What the hey!! Wet carpet?  In the closet? The culprit....our shower was leaking! Not so fabulous news.  The other not so fabulous news was that we had a fiberglass insert shower stall that was all one piece and there was a crack in the base. 

This meant no more showering in there and the WHOLE thing had to be replaced.  We hadn't even been in our house for six months when this happened. We could have replaced the old insert with a new one (for about $300), the shower doors were brand new so we probably could have just reinstalled them, but we like to do things big. One evening we were watching TV and out of nowhere the hubby got a wild hair and decided to take the saw into the bathroom....on a school night!....this is what we were left with.

I don't know how my husband knows how to do the things that he knows how to do....I just roll with it. There were many steps to getting to where we are right now so here is a rundown.   First, he re-did the plumbing, then then the shower curb and deck

Then we had the room re-textured the same day that we re-did Hailee's room (which can be seen HERE or HERE).  Then I primed over that a few weeks ago....yes, I said a few WEEKS ago.  Today I finally painted and this is what we are rocking right now.....I'm loving it. 

 

 Why is the shower on fire?  It is called RedGuard which is basically a paint on water membrane to make the shower water proof...it goes on hot pink and dries red.  On the walls I used Stonington by Behr in a Semi-Gloss finish.  (Remember to use semi-gloss in area of high moisture such as in the bathroom or in the kitchen, it makes for easy cleaning.) The ceiling is Ultra White by Valspar in a Semi-Gloss finish as well ( I already had a gallon since this is the color I have been painting all of my trim and interior doors). I wanted something light and classy and I think this color scheme achieves that.  I also wanted to stay with a neutral that could easily play with many different pops of color.  We have the tile ready to go so hopefully I will be showing you a finished master bath really soon.  You can see the backside of our tile from this post.  When we moved in I had a budget set aside for fun stuff like window treatments and art, not tile and thinset, but it is what it is people.  Did you have any big projects that came up shortly after moving in?  

Room Reno: Before and.....Midway?

Hailee's room has been an ongoing project for several weeks now.  It started with new sheetrock and scraping the popcorn ceilings (you can see more of it in this post).  As a reminder this is what we were workin' with:

I painted the walls Cosmic Pink by Valspar (eggshell finish) and the ceiling is Tempered Grey also by Valspar.  The walls took one coat of primer and THREE coats of paint, I even used their new paint formula....the one with the primer included in it.  The final product looks great, it was just a major pain to have to go over the walls sooooo many times.  I eventually plan on putting up crown moulding (in an Ultra White finish) so then the contrast will be more apparent between the walls and ceiling.  The bed use to look like this:

I just lightly sanded it, primed, then painted it black.  I got the headboard/footboard free from my aunt.  She was using it as her son's headboard (totally not a boys room piece of furniture) so I suggested we trade my daughter's plain metal frame for this set and it was a deal!  Score! 

The bedding is a quilt that I bought from Target (I think it was $30) and the sequins pillow is from Kohl's that I got with coupons (paid $2). I thought the bedding was fun and age appropriate....Hailee is 8.  The curtains I sewed myself, I bought the fabric from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon and I payed about $35 (buy your fabric all in one piece so you are charged once and able to use your coupon).  Each panel is 7 feet and I have enough fabric left to recover a desk chair or something of the sort (yet to find that).  I bought the nightstand probably 6-7 years ago at a garage sale for $5 and it has been sitting in my grandma's garage ever since.  When I bought it it was white... and peeling... and gross, but I loved the lines of it.  I spray painted it with Krylon's spray paint in pistachio and then Modge Podged some wrapping paper to the top (the knobs are from Hobby Lobby).

I always knew that I would be in LOVE with that table someday.  I still need to get stuff up on the walls, paint the dresser, and find a desk.  My daughter is truly tickled pink to have a room that reflects her style.  Before we bought our house we lived in a two bedroom apartment....and there are five of us!! So just for my Hailee girl, here is a full midway update picture:

 Do you have any hot pink walls in your house?  I do, and wouldn't change it for anything in the world.  What about a piece of furniture that you bought because you love, but just haven't found the right spot for it yet?... Or even a kid with rollers in her hair that melts your heart every time you look at her?  

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!!? 

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.

Room Renovation (part1)

Since we moved in we have only actually completed one room....the laundry room.  But room number two is well on it's way to fabulous.  So here is a little photo diary of what has been taking place.  First, we had to strip the sheet rock and replace it as well as the window due to mold and water issues.  Here is what that looked like:

And since we had to do all that work we scraped the acoustic ceilings as well.  Now, we are getting somewhere!  Scraping the popcorn (my son calls them the bumpy things) makes a world of difference.  Our Pastor came and mudded the walls and then sprayed the texture.  L.O.V.E.!!  I painted the ceilings a light grey color, 1. because I already had the paint and 2. because I figured it would look good with the hot pink that my daughter wanted on her walls rather than a stark white.  Can't forget about our fifth wall people. 

I had originally bought this color to go on my living room walls but once I got it up it wasn't the vision that I had seen in my head so it was a no go.  It looks like a substantial grey in the photos but in real life it shows very light.  And not wanting to reveal too much in this post here is the next step, notice how the grey doesn't look so dark anymore:

So what do you think of the paint color?  It's pretty wild, but my daughter is in love.  Do you have any in-your-face rooms in your house?

Do you like to party?  I do!!  I linked my post up to this party: http://www.houseofhepworths.com/  ....go check it out!!  Parties are a great place for inspiration!

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