New Years Resolution

Ok, so clearly its been a while since my last post, but as part of my new years resolution and a little inspiration from a friend I'm BACK! My goal is to post at least once a week for the remainder of the year. Sound good?

A quick update, the bathroom has been finished for about 4 months now-with some finishing touches being completed up until this past weekend. B-Diddy (my Dad) came over Thanksgiving and fixed my difficult sliding pocket door, then my friend Ryan came this past weekend and touched up my wack paint job. Apparently I'm not good at creating straight lines for where the ceiling and walls meet, so his work is much appreciated.

Here is a quick synapses of what needed to happen to complete the project:

First I had to extend the outlets out using spacers to become flush with the bead board:

Before *Yuck*:

Spacers click like legos and had replace switches with new pretty white ones

Place spacers behind the new switches

Yay for the pretty white finished switches

This type of outlet is hard to replace because of the hard copper wiring wrapped around the screws of the outlet. My fingers hurt after replacing this bad boy:

Next came silicone and silicone is a tricky bitch. My Mom aka Mrs Home Depot Lumber Queen said that it was pretty easy to use and gave me the tips of 1) don't cut the dispensing hole in the silicone too large or you'll squeeze out too much and 2)I could just use my finger to smooth it in the joints. Well just like everything else, it was quite the learning experience. I put the silicone tube into the pump contraption and tried to poke a hole in the tip, but I couldn't reach far enough to puncture the tube. I had to keep cutting so I could reach the tube, but by doing so it made the hole size huuuuge-I ended up getting gobs and gobs of the stuff everywhere. As far as smoothing the silicone with my fingers, I ran out of clean fingers to use! When I finished every finger, pinkie included had a bit of silicone on it-not so easy! I freaked out when it didn't wash off with water no matter how much soap I used. I found an old ratty sock and used it to schmear it off my fingers. Later on I decided to use one of those silicone tools and it worked much better with less mess.

So here we are at the end of this project. Lets have a quick recap of the before-ah love that metallic ceiling and textured paint:


And now drumroll please dadadaa: AFTER!

No more home projects for me for a while!

The Bathroom Saga Continues

After sanding all of the walls, it was time to paint. I figured it would look good to lighten the room and painted the walls the same color as the walls in the living room and kitchen...may help with the flow of the rooms and make the place seem a little larger, so that's what I did. I added a coat of primer first, then followed through with Lowes Valspar Paint in Homestead Resort Cream. Afterwards I taped off the ceiling lines and primed and painted it a bright fresh white. It looks a lot better than having the metallic pewter color.
It started to look pretty good, but I wanted to add a little personal flair to the bathroom and decided to go with beard boarding. I went to Lowes to get some advice and to get the sheets of bead boad (pressed board with a striped pattern) and to use the gift card I got for Christmas that's been burning a hole in my pocket since I got it. I game my dimensions to the guy at Lowes and he looked at me like I didn't have a clue. So my math's not the best, but come on and help a sister out! Finally a lady came around the corner (wish I caught her name) and she came to the rescue. I purchased 2 sheets of the bead board, had them cut down there, trim, finishing nails and a jigsaw. It made for an interesting ride home...Friday night, cruising on Peachtree Rd., convertible top down with sheets of bead board hanging out of the top. Looked something like Sanford and Son...literally people were laughing at me. Took a while unloading and getting it into the house, but was psyched to get started with the installation the next morning. Till next time. Love.

Old Becomes New Again

This post is long overdue as was this project.

Ever since I've moved into my condo there have been two major things on my hit list, the bathroom and kitchen. I've been procrastinating on doing anything with them until a few weeks ago when my sister came to town. We spent some good Sunday Funday quality time wandering around IKEA then when we got back home Whitney said, "When are we going to take the mirror down?" The mirror? You mean the giant bathroom mirror that gives me flashbacks of 1987? How in the world would we get the thing off of the wall?

So Whitney and I manned up and did everything I was taught in basic hand tool safety class not to do! Screwdrivers as prybars? Check. Sunglasses as safety glasses? Check. Not having a clue on what we were doing? Double check.

We pried and pulled without getting anywhere, then out of frustration I brought out the hammer thinking if we couldn't get it off in one piece, why not multiple pieces? To prevent shattering, we put painters tape on the mirror around the edges and then ran it diagonally over the entire thing. I smacked it once with the hammer and a perfect mirror circle popped out. I put the hammer down and tried to put some weight into it once more and sure enough the entire corner came unglued. With Whitney's help and a little more wiggling we finally got the whole thing off in one piece, minus the perfect hammered circle.

To my disgust behind the mirror was not my perfect wall, but instead a mass of divots, black tacky mastic/glue and pencil marks. What was I going to do? Whitney was leaving the next day and I'd be home alone (well not exactly alone, Lola's still here, but unfortunately home improvement isn't her forte) to tackle this project all by myself. Heeeelp Home Depot! www.homedepot.com

Home Sweet Home

It was the amazing deck that I fell in love with when I bought my little city condo. I somehow went without noticing the stained carpet, poorly insulated windows and overlooked the dated kitchen and bathroom...yea the deck is that good. I've done my fair share of painting, hanging frames and shelves and little electrical and plumbing projects over the past year. Here's a little history of what's been done thus far.

I had my wood floors put in last year, hand scraped elm in "desert". Initially it was only supposed to be installed in the living room and kitchen leaving the bedroom carpet but Miss Lola had a different idea. While I was at work one day she decided she wanted to chew through a fluorescent green paint pen leaving a giant stain on the bedroom carpet. It had to go. Woody (real name, no joke) and his team showed up and installed the floor everywhere except the bathroom. It definitely spruced up the place, but also made me more aware of how cold the floors can be. I just have to keep a pair of slippers handy and maybe an extra pair of socks.
Here's Lola modeling the new floor.

Since the floor I've installed a new electronic thermostat and new pretty outside deck light. Although some people may might find the task a little daunting, it was merely a matter of connecting a few wires. Seriously, you can do it, just follow the directions and make sure you turn off the circuit breaker to whatever you're working on and double check to make sure you've turned off the correct one. If there's no electricity flowing, you can work safely. Here are the before and after shots:


I also fixed a leaky bathtub faucet, thanks youtube.com! and have had to clean all of the screens in my faucets and toilet. With those tasks the key is knowing how to turn your main water lines on and off. The screens were really easy with just disassembling the faucet, cleaning out the grit, sand and dirt, then reconnecting it again. With the bathtub faucet it was a little more complicated, but still fairly easy to do with the assistance of youtube.

Now the time has come to fix up the old, textured-walled, mirror from wall to wall bathroom. I'll post more later this week.

Love.