Backyard

We added a covered patio in our back yard. Come visit us and take a dip in the hot tub!

Before.  Tiny cement pad and noisy air conditioning unit.

The finished project.

These guys worked hard for us!

We love using it.

Strange panorama photo but you get the idea.

 

Dining Room Built Ins [Ikea Bergsbo Doors Hack]

I've been working HARD on the dining room built ins.  I have finally mostly finished!  Here are photos and a brief outline of how I did it all.  (Well, Todd helped on 4 occasions so he gets a little credit. ;)  I did most of this during Lydia's naps and after the girls were in bed.  Or, Todd would take them somewhere so I could have uninterrupted time to work.  It is literally impossible to work on anything and have 2 bodies on top of you needing you at the same time. lol

I love the final result!!

 I basically copied this from Fixer Upper.  I love that show.

There is SO MUCH storage in those cabinets.  I don't even know what to put in there!

 The whole long front room.  The Christmas lights on the ceiling were temporary decor for a wedding shower I hosted.

Here is the living room before.

Another "before" view.

And the abbreviated version of how I did it: 

Step 1: Rip out all molding.

Step 2: build cabinet boxes out of plywood.  I built them standing up since they were so tall-- I literally could not lay them down because they were butted up against my ceiling.

This wonderful tool is worth it's weight in gold and made step 2 SO MUCH EASIER!  It's the kreg jig clamp thingy.

Here are the boxes.  I added a permanent shelf 2/3 of the way up for extra support.  Oh, and the brown buffet is from World Market (but I got it off ksl.com for $100!)

Step 3: Glue and nail 1/4 inch plywood to backs.  Step 4. build face frame with select pine and attach using pre-drilled holes and kreg jig clamp thingy.

Step 5: paint white.  I bought the doors but didn't hang them yet. I couldn't use the hinges that came from Ikea because they were the wrong kind.  Step 6: build shelves between cabinets.

Step 7: stain shelves bown, let them dry, polyurethane shelves.

Step 8: Glue and nail 1/8 inch plywood to the wall between the brown shelves (I painted them before hand with black chalkboard paint.)  Step 9: install World Market metal orb chandelier

Step 10: hang doors (I had to buy special 1/4 inch overhang hinges online that literally ripped out chunks of the cabinet doors but I was too exhausted to care!)    Step 11: Decorate!

Again, above is a before shot:

And an after shot.

This was a "one step forward, 4 steps backward" kind of project.  I'll give one example, though there are SO MANY THINGS that happened this way...  I had the cabinet's inner shelves cut to size at Home Depot.  When I got home I realized the shelves were just a bit too long.  So I went to cut them down to size with my chop saw... but it only cuts 6 inches deep and the shelves are 14 inches deep.  So I cut anyway, flipped the board, and cut again- which left a 2 inch uncut section in the middle.  I grabbed my jig saw, and while cutting, broke the jig saw blade.  I ran to Home Depot to buy a new blade, but there are 2 shapes of blade and I didn't know which one I needed!  So I bought both, ran home, installed the correct blade, and finally finished cutting the darn shelf.  Then I ran back to Home Depot to return the unused blade.

All for one cut!  Argh, there were so many times while doing this that I questioned my desire to take on projects at all.  Oh well, I really love the final result.  Shout out a thanks to Fixer Upper, www.fourgenerationsoneroof.com, and megandmartinmen.blogspot.com for the inspiration and tips.

TOTAL COST OF THE BUILT-INS WALL: $1086
All lumber, new tools, the buffet, hanging shelves, cabinet lighting (to be installed soon) doors, hinges, paint and trim cost  $1086.
Most everything else I bought highly discounted or second hand.  The rug, accent chairs, dining chairs, dining table, curtains, chandelier, and all decor cost an additional $860.  So the entire living room/ dining room makeover was under 2 grand.

Bedrooms

I really love our house.  It's perfect for us in so many ways... I have finally put a little effort into decorating our bedrooms! After I had Lydia I got the "itch" to make something so I built all these frames. It was more work than I expected, but only $9 for all eight of them. :)

I only built the top frame, bought the bottom ones.

I didn't build these frames...

November 2014 House Updates

I haven't updated the blog with house projects in 7+ months...  Let me say the projects have slowed way down and I'm pretty burned out right now.  But I have managed to do some fun things over the months.

For my birthday I asked for new door hardware!  It makes such a huge difference from the nasty old hammered brass that came from the 70's.

Original handle.

I had to chisel out new openings for the door latches and fill the space around the new deadbolts.  Lots of work but worth it!

So much better!

We revamped our front flowerbed.  Wish I had a before-photo.  It was a small ugly rectangle with some dead plants.  I still have some final touches to make on this.

Come and stay a while on our swing!  Let's sip lemonade and tell stories. :)

I built a wall cabinet using a tutorial from www.shanty-to-chic.com  

No one should ever see the inside of someone else's bathroom cabinet (gross) but I had to show all the storage!  I love this thing and it cost me around $30.

We had the bathroom floors tiled!  Hooray!  It was only $300 for both of them.  But the tile guy left our doors off their hinges, he left the toilets in the showers so we couldn't use the toilets OR showers, he busted up our baseboards and wanted to charge $150 to tile new ones, and he didn't seal or caulk.  He also left the sewage lines open (you're supposed to stuff a towel in to prevent nasty gasses from entering the house.) We went on vacation and came home to a sewage smelling house and a ton of work.  Good thing I'm handy.

The original bathroom with nasty yellow linoleum floors

I hate the 70's counter above the toilet.  Yuck.  Some day I will rip that thing apart with glee.
Also, our light has a short in 2 of the bulbs.  I need to rewire it but blah, who wants to spend the evening rewiring lights you just put in??

I made a barn door to cover our closet/bathroom opening!  Finally I can stay asleep without bright lights bothering me while Todd gets ready for work in the morning! 

It cost me about $55 and I still need to find a way to cover up the rolling door hardware.  Ignore that part.

So much better! 

The LOVE sign.  People admire this beauty all the time.  I copied www.shanty-to-chic again to make it.  

We planted fruit trees!

And a lot of berries.