Category: Home Improvement

Affordable ways to update your home.

Simple Solution: Painting and Hardware

Published on by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

When summer rolls in, we seem to get our rollers out to paint.  Last summer, it was the fence.  Now, it’s our front door.  You see, the trim and step looked like this:

Not pretty.  Or finished.  So, I busted out the gallon of satin white exterior paint leftover from painting the mailbox post.  Three coats later, our trim looked satin shiny and new.  But the antique brass lever handle just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

And Vincent always took the deadbolt cover off, so most often it looked like this from the inside.

Ben bought the front door hardware when he bought the house.  When we bought matching hardware for the backdoor, we couldn’t find the same style deadbolt.  All we found was a lever handle with a deadbolt which locked from both sides.  Locked from both sides!  Why?  That meant we had to hang a key from the  backdoor just to open it!

Umm, yeah.  If our kid kleptos the deadbolt cover, you can bet your bottom dollar that he stole the key all. the. time.  And, the front and back door keys were different.  So we didn’t replace strictly for cosmetic reasons.  We chose a  brushed stainless knob and deadbolt set for both doors.  And, they are keyed to match.  Score.

We love the new hardware and convenience from the switch.  Oh, I should mention we chose a knob because V liked to hang from the lever.  Yep, hang from it.  I know, I should have better control of my kid.

We’re I’m still too lazy to touch up the paint around the door we installed two years ago.  I do have a lame defense though.  One, the paint in the living room is old, so it separates while painting, so it isn’t the same color.  Two, when we remodel the kitchen, we’ll have to repaint the living room, so we’ ll choose a completely new color.  Three, I hate touch up painting.  Well, painting in general.

The backdoor is decked out with a new lock, too.

And tons of fingerprints.

Seriously, were these kids raised in a barn?  Must be to have that much grime on their hands.  They’re lucky they’re cute.  Ha.

Now I need to convince Ben to replace our original garage doors.

You’d think it wouldn’t be difficult given the condition.

F0r some reason, he’s resisting.  Apparently the garage is last on the priority list.

Please tell me your kids get fingerprints all over your house.  Or hang on doorknobs.  Do you prefer a lever or knob style?  Do you have two different keys for your doors?  Find it as annoying as we did?

Green Equals Green: Laundry

Published on by Our Humble Abode18 Comments

While we’re not completely eco-friendly, we’re taking small steps to save the earth and a little money along the way.  How about a little how to launder your money?  Not the illegal laundering, but saving some dough with your laundry.  We recently picked up an Energy Star rated, front loading washer and dryer.

Of course, the Energy Star rating means the appliances are energy-efficient, which saves us some moolah (both in our monthly bills, but we also scored them at a great price) and is a green appliance choice.

Don’t have the loot to drop on a new, more efficient set?   Try some or all of these ideas to further save money.  We use high-efficiency, low-sudsing detergent.  Because the washer uses so little water, we were able to cut down on the amount of soap we use with each load.  And the regular soap and the HE soap are around the same price at Costco.  For an eco-friendly and skin-healthy bonus, try a free and clear (no perfume or dye) detergent.

We try to make every load of laundry a full one, so we’re eliminating another round.  Of course, this is partly because I loathe laundry, though, not as much as I used to.  We also set the temperature to tap cold/cold, to eliminate the need to heat the water.  Because we wash nearly everything on cold, we don’t have to separate our clothes.  Just toss everything together and wash, again, partly due to laziness.

When we run out of our laundry soap, I think we’ll try using an even more earth-friendly detergent, like Seventh Generation or Mrs. Meyer’s lavender detergent.

 

Or, we could make our own soap like the folks at Yellow Brick Home.

Now that we have the new, larger dryer, our clothes dry in about half the time it took for our old dryer.  To help speed the drying process, I used dryer balls in our old unit.  Of course, with nice weather, line drying is the most eco-friendly option.  Though, birds always seem to crap on my stuff.  But, the smell of line-dried clothes is great.

What about you guys at home?  Do you have any green laundry ideas?  Have you made your own laundry soap?  Perhaps you swear by a specific brand?  Do you use the dryer balls?  I’ve seen commercials for Mr. Steamy.  Have you tried this?  We opted not to get the steam dryer, so this might be a good substitute.    I think I hate ironing more than I hate doing laundry.  Scratch that, I hate folding clothes more than I hate the washing process.  That’s easy now.  Everyone Anyone just hate doing laundry?

Lots of Work and Some Play

Published on by Our Humble Abode13 Comments

Sometimes, we work on our house, but that little project isn’t worthy of a post.  Today, we’re sharing the boring projects/maintenance we’ve recently completed.

Ben brought a pressure washer (Vincent calls it a water compressioner) home to wash the mold off the north side of the house.  I complained about it here, and Sam M suggested a hot pressure washer.

He hooked it up to hot water and it worked quickly and came off easily.

Then Ben used a leaf blower in reverse to suck the leaves out of our window wells.  Nothing life changing, but it looks much better.

Before the attic become sweltering, we decided to install an exhaust fan in the master bathroom.  Previously, this was a half bath, so it never had a fan.

It made a mess in our tub, (Mickey didn’t approve) but it was long overdue.

Side note: When Ben was younger, he asked his mom what the bath fan did.  She replied, “It takes the bad air and puts it outside.”  He asked, “Under the rocks?”  She said yes (they had an earth berm home).  She asked how Ben knew this.  His response?  “Because I’ve smelled under them before.”

Our window boxes looked terrible; everything died over the winter.

See, dead.

Another side note: When Ben was about 4, he went outside and saw icicles had fallen off the house.  He called to his brothers, “Guys, look at the icicles, DEAD”  Can you tell they grew up hunting?  Of course if they we on their side they were dead.  I about died laughing when I read that in Ben’s baby book.

To remedy this, we took a trip to Home Depot to pick up flowers.  I chose Coleus, Creeping Jenny, Impatiens, and Pansies.

Better, but I hope the tiny flowers actually grow.  If not, I wasted $15 per window.

I also had a few rose bushes die over the abnormally harsh winter, so I chose three plants for roughly $10 each from Lowe’s.  See how much bigger the new plants are compared to the original one on the right?

One of Ben’s apple trees died, too, so we bought four fruit trees to plant.  Two apples and two cherry trees. Vincent helped Ben while Everett hung out on the blanket.  I worked on refinishing the bench.

I also stole clipped a few lilacs from the neighbor’s bush to display in the dining room.

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a baby girl, due to arrive any day now.  I’m so excited to make girl items, and a butterfly mobile seemed perfect.  I bought a macrame hoop from Hobby Lobby for three bucks and chose assorted pink and purple card stock.  Using fine gauge wire, I separated the hoop into 8 sections.  Then, I drew a butterfly and traced half of it on my paper.  I folded the paper in half and cut out tons of butterflies.

I poked a small hole near the top of each with a needle and strung white thread through to hang the butterflies from.

Here is a shot from a BPOV (baby point of view).  A small cup hook easily holds the mobile above the crib.

Do you remember the scene from The Shining when Wendy discovers Jack’s ‘book’?  The pages covered with ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’

Well, sometimes, that’s what we feel like.  A trip on the boat, on a Thursday no less, can help that.  I love Montana lakes surrounded by mountains.  That never happens in Minnesota.

We had fun until the wind picked up and we had 8 foot waves to compete with.

Is your to do list overflowing with little projects and/or maintenance?  It can be overwhelming, can’t it?  What do you do to get a relaxing day away from your list?

Warmer, No, Hot Bench

Published on by Our Humble Abode34 Comments

I teased you all with the bench refinishing process yesterday.  You’ve waited long enough.  Feast your eyes on a sanded, stained, sealed, upholstered bench that nearly required more labor than my kids.

The fabrics are from Joann, so nothing crazy or expensive.  This way, when I change my mind, I won’t feel bad.  Though, I did choose a neutral fabric for the seat so I could change the pillows out to go with a different color scheme.

I found the ceramic stool at Ross a few weeks ago for $30.99, marked down from $45, but originally $95.  Score for a 68% discount.

The seat is a few inches taller than the cushions, because I used a 3/4 inch thick plywood and added another inch of foam.  One long cushion makes the piece look more like an outdoor bench than a couch, in my opinion.   And, the plywood base is much more sturdy than the sagging canvas.

Surprisingly, the trellis pattern wasn’t difficult to keep straight.  Perhaps because it is a small-scale?  Speaking of small-scale, I want to add another set of larger pillows to beef things up and add comfort.  Maybe 18 inch square ones?

Overall, I think this was a great transformation.  A little time-consuming, not too expensive, but I worth it.  Last night, Ben finally admitted he said he thought the bench was ugly so he wouldn’t have to help with it.  He thinks it looks cute now and said he saw the potential from the beginning.

Just after I finished upholstering the seat and setting it in place, I plopped down to enjoy it.  Then, Vincent sat down with a bag of tortilla chips.

 

For a more dramatic before and after, how about a side by side?

Now, for a cost breakdown:

Bench: Free

Sander and paper: Already owned

Stain: Left over from another project

Clear Protective Finish: $19.99 for a quart, with tons left over for another project

Cushions: Reused from original bench

Mattress Topper: $12.49

Fabric: $25.79, including two yards for the seat, two yards of vinyl, and one yard for pillows

Pillow forms: Living room forms displaced by new World Market pillows

Grand Total: $58.27  

Not bad, especially when I checked prices of similar benches I liked.  Like this one for $289.00 or this teak Smith and Hawken bench for $649.00.  That is a savings between $230.73 to $590.73.

The process was fairly simple, but time-consuming.  Nothing a patient DIYer couldn’t handle, though.  What do you think of the change?  Was it worth the time, effort and money?

Outdoor Bench Refinishing

Published on by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

You know that free couch turned outdoor bench I shared several weeks ago?  And the desperate please-give-me-some-love shape it was in?

I finished refinishing it.  Before we get into the details, here are a few more before photos of the worn finish.  This was at the front edge, where the cushions rest.

And on the back support.

The back was in the best condition.

Here’s the play by play on how the sanding, staining, and upholstering happened.

Of course sanding had to happen before I could do anything else.  It’s gotta get worse before it can get better, right?  I used an orbital sander with 220 grit paper to sand all of the flat surfaces.  If you’ve never sanded something and have concerns, use a high grit paper (this will prevent removing anything too quickly) on a hidden area until you get a feel for it.  I started with the arms and the top rail.

For rounded areas, I used a combination of the orbital sander and good old fashioned sand paper.  Again, this is much easier with a high grit paper.

After an hour of sanding, I had the back and the top pieces sanded.

Then came the front and the detail work.  Sanding between the slats was a pain the my butt.  But, that afternoon, I had the entire bench sanded and ready to stain.

Well, I skipped the under side and the back bottom slat because the cushions cover that up.

See, you wouldn’t know if I didn’t show you.  I’m really that lazy.  So, that was day one of my bench project.  It’s looking Scandinavian a little pale for the summer.  Day two consisted of staining to give it a Brazilian tan.

As planned, I used stain (Minwax Dark Walnut) left over from the bookshelf I refinished last summer.  We keep old shirts to use as rags.  Along with rubber gloves, I applied a coat of stain with one rag and wiped it off with another seconds after applying.

Better, but not as dark as I had in mind.

I let the stain set overnight and applied a second coat the following morning.

 

Day four, I bought a quart of Minwax Clear Shield Exterior Oil Based protective satin finish.  The oil based clear coat protects the wood from heat and moisture.  To apply, I used a Purdy paint brush.  I don’t work for Purdy and I’m not getting paid to say this.  Purdy brushes really are great.  One even coat and another day of dry time.  Then, another coat and 24 hours of dry time, which completed the wood refinishing stage.

I decided to upholster the cushions for several reasons.  One, the cushion base was simply stretched canvas, which sagged.  Two, I wanted one cushion, not three.  Three, I didn’t want/don’t know how to sew three fitted slipcovers with zippers.  Four, I’m cheap and wanted to buy half the fabric.  I’m not an upholsterer, but I’m definitely not a seamstress.  Disclaimer: I’m sure I did many things that a real upholsterer would cringe at, but it worked for me.

I had Ben cut a piece of old plywood to size to use as my base.  A new piece of 4 inch thick foam would have cost about $80, so I decided to reuse the old cushions.  I bought a full-sized foam mattress topper to cover the cushions for a seamless look.  I also bought two yards of clear vinyl table cloth for a water barrier.  Then, I gathered a staple gun, staples, scissors, and my fabric.

With my supplies ready, I prepped the cushions for upholstering.  First, I stapled the cushion pads to the plywood to prevent shifting.

For a seamless look, I covered the seams with a strip of foam.

Followed by another layer of foam.  I placed the foam smooth side down, with the cushion covered plywood on top.

Starting on the long sides, I stapled the foam at the center.  Then, pulled the other side tight and stapled again.  I stapled the entire length and then started on the corners.  For a straight, smooth corner, I pulled the foam tight.

Then stapled straight out from the corner.

Pull the outer folds and staple down tightly.

Staple inside for a tight grouping.

Cut the excess foam and repeat for all corners and materials.

Honestly, the foam was much easier than the vinyl.  The vinyl is less pliable and creased more.  The fabric was easy in comparison though.  And, here’s a tip:  If you’re not using an upholstery grade material, buy extra fabric to fold over several times to keep the stapled areas from tugging free and fraying.

That was my process, we’ll share the finished bench tomorrow.  For now, I’m wondering if you’ve refinished or upholstered furniture?  Have you sewn tailored cushion covers?  Got any refinishing/upholstering tips you’ve learned along the way?