Tag: DIY

Blowing Smoke

Published on by Our Humble Abode19 Comments

Roofing has taken priority over the bathroom, and while I’d love to make progress in there and call it done, I’m waiting for Ben to work on the trim.  While he was on the roof sweating his butt off installing shingles, I decided to get something done.  I looked around the house and decided to finally paint over the red accent wall in the living room.

If there’s one thing I know about my personal decorating sense it’s this: I am not a red person.  In stores, I never gravitate toward anything red.  Not clothes and not home decor.  There’s nothing wrong with red, I just prefer blues and greens.  Heck, I can appreciate orange and yellow, but red?  Notsomuch.

So this red accent wall was on my list.  What spurred this painting session?  For one, I couldn’t stand the red any longer.  Two, I picked a paint color and I could kill two birds with one paint can stone.  Cover the red and test the paint color before painting the entire room only to realize I don’t like it.  And three, it would be easier to paint around the entertainment center before Ben installs the upper shelves.

Even before moving in, I decided I would use Glidden’s Wood Smoke for the main areas.  It was my second choice when I repainted our living room at our first house.  On the sample card, Wood Smoke looked like a medium dark warm grey, just what I wanted.  I could easily wrap the color around to the family room and down the hall.  The boys and I hopped in the car and headed to Home Depot to pick up a gallon of Wood Smoke in a satin finish.  Because we have two little (dirty) boys, I buy satin for the easy wipeability.

We got home and I immediately started painting.  Like I had hoped, the paint covered the red well in one coat, but the nooks in the textured walls called for a second coat.  And here we are now:

You can see I didn’t get rid of all the red.  But that will change soon.  When Ben built the lower cabinet boxes for the entertainment center, he also built two upper shells.  He added backs (which I’ve already painted) so it would have been a waste of time to paint behind that.

When we find the time to remodel the kitchen, most of the wall from the right side of the bookshelf over to the door will go.  Who knows when that will happen, but I’d rather live in a space I like until then instead of staring at the red.

Now that we’ve given the paint a test drive, I’ll have to buy a few more gallons to paint the rest of the room.  Still haven’t figured out how I’m going to paint over the stairs.

And after I paint the living room, I’ll work my way to the family room.

Hopefully I can talk Ben into hauling the painted shells up to see the accent color in action.  Any guesses what color I chose?  Have you been painting this weekend?

Bag of Health

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

We’ve never had a bathroom that didn’t have drawer storage.  So, I’m working on a few ideas to make the main bathroom as functional as possible, sans drawers.  I’m still searching for the perfect baskets, but I decided to make a zippered bag to store first aid supplies.  To get started, I bought a yard of silver metallic ironing board cover (hey, it was cheap, durable, and shimmered) and a 12 inch blue zipper.

Knowing I want to fit all our first aid supplies in one bag, I cut two pieces of fabric 12 inches wide by 17 inches long.  Yes, this is going to be big.  Then, I placed my fabric on the table, right side up.  Lay the zipper over, face down, keeping the bottom edge of the zipper flush with the bottom edge of fabric.  Pin in place.

If you have a zipper foot for your sewing machine, now is the time to use it.  I thought I did, looked all over for it, and couldn’t find it.  Instead, I sewed the zipper on by hand.  Sew close to the zipper without running into it.

Once you’ve sewn one side on, add the second piece of fabric putting the right sides of the fabric together.  Sew along the zipper edge again.    When the fabric is folded over, right sides out, the zipper will have a nice clean edge.

Because I sewed this by hand, I went back over and added top stitching with my machine, following along the edge of the fabric for a straight line.

Now face right sides of the fabric together and pin along the bottom.

Sew along the edge, leaving a half-inch allowance.  Unzip your zipper few inches-this is crucial to turn it right sides out when you’re done.  Leave the fabric wrong side out.  Pin the edges and sew a straight line, a half-inch from the edge.  Do this to both sides.

If you were to turn it out right now, you’d have a flat bag.  To give it a boxy shape, pinch the corners together.

I found it easiest to put one finger in the corner of the bag, holding it upright, then flattening the point like this:

Your point will be perpendicular to the edge seam.  Pin the corners to hold in place.

For my first corner, I made a straight lone across and sewed along the line.

Then I measured my width and marked the three remaining corners at five inches, just like my first one.

After sewing all four corners, cut about a quarter-inch above.

Then fill your bag up with cosmetics, travel toiletries, or first aid supplies.

To make a different sized bag, keep this in mind:

  • The zipper length will determine how big the bag is from front to back.  I had a 12 inch zipper, so I cut my fabric 12 inches wide.  For an 8 inch zipper, cut your fabric 8 inches wide.
  • The length of the fabric will change how wide it is from side to side.  I cut my fabric at 17 inches, which is really wide.  For a size more like a regular cosmetic bag, cut the fabric between 8 and 12 inches.
  • For a boxier bag, widen your corners.  I pinned mine at 5 inches, which I think would be perfect for a cosmetic bag, but that can change.

Timber!

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Yesterday afternoon, Ben picked up another load of foam insulation.  Just as he came home with it, I went out to the post office.  In the twenty-ish minutes I was gone, Ben did something.

Can you tell?

He cut down (most of) the apple tree.  We had talked about this for a few weeks, not certain when it would happen, but eventually it would.  While we both love trees, heck, Ben planted 17 fruit trees at our last house, this one wasn’t working for us.  First off, it was too close to the house.  Structurally speaking, the roots could damage the foundation.  It also blocked a lot of our view and darkened the kitchen and breakfast nook.  Now we can actually see our back yard from the kitchen.

But the main reason Ben cut it down yesterday afternoon is this:

Hauling bulky insulation to the pool room.  With the first load, Ben and Handy Sammy walked up the stairs, maneuvering around the big rock.  Now that the tree was out-of-the-way, they could easily set the insulation on the landing, and haul it in from there.

Once through the door, the boys loaded it in the pool.

Inside the house, it’s wonderful not having the tree.  From the outside, it looks so bare.

When Ben is ready, he’ll pull the rest of the stump out and we can get to work on the landscaping.

Until then, he’s got several tons of shingles to install.

After we get our hardscaping done, we’ll figure out what plants and trees we want to add for shade and greenery.  We’ve already talked about fruit trees and a pergola for shade.  Despite being a ways off, I’m getting excited.

What are your favorite shade trees?  Do you have landscaping ideas for us?

The Chicago Blues

Published on by Our Humble Abode6 Comments

Knowing we’ll have several rounds of visitors over the summer (and in the next few weeks) we’ve pushed to get more done in the main bathroom.  Despite the vanity needing a few details, I put the first coat of Chicago Blues on.

I love it.  The swatch looked a little nuts, but in the space, it reads as a brighter navy.

A second coat will follow once Ben installs the top trim pieces, but the change and progress is welcome.  You might notice I painted the walls and ceilings.  Well, everything that I could around the patched areas.  In my mood board, I used Stone White from Ben Moore, but it looked too blue in person.  Eventually, I’ll paint the main areas Wood Smoke by Glidden, so I had the paint guy at Home Depot give me a 25% tint to flow with the rest of the house.  I figure getting a first coat on the majority will help.  Then I can prime and paint the patched areas, go over the entire room again for a seamless paint job.

Handy Sammy’s family stopped in to stay with us, so I added a few accessories to pretty it up a bit.

We’ve got more trim work to do, grouting in the shower, and painting, but we do have a functional toilet complete with toilet paper holder.

Fingers crossed Ben has time to grout the shower to get it functional for our guests.

How was your weekend?  Did you do any painting?  Maybe you installed a toilet?  We had fun chatting with family and eating dinner on the deck.

Suck it Up

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

Back at our old house, Ben came up with the genius idea to install a central vac system.

I mean, why not?  We had a junky canister vacuum and an unfinished basement.  And it was one of the most practical, daily routine changing things we did.  The first time we toured the mountain house, we got excited the previous owner had already installed one.  Whew, that saved us time, money, and the hassle of buying an interim vacuum.  But did it?  No, the vacuum was too small for the size of the house.  Which meant the suction was lame, especially compared to the over sized vacuum Ben chose for our first house.  Of course we didn’t think to plug the vacuum in the port to check it before we bought the house.  Only after closing did we realize how lame it was and that we’d need to replace it.  To top it off, the vacuum only had low voltage wiring.  No motorized head for easy carpet cleaning.

At first, it wasn’t too bad.  Then we started living there and Jack flopped all over the rugs, matting dog hair in.  I wish I would have taken a picture of that, but trust me, it wasn’t pretty.  We knew we had to do something sooner than later.  Ben did his research and found a good deal on a vacuum that seemed to kick serious butt and could suck your socks off.  It’s called, the Killer Whale, but we’ll refer to it as Willy (you know, Free Willy).

Before Ben could install Willy, he had to run a new outlet because a regular outlet doesn’t work.  In the few weeks we’ve had Willy, he has gotten quite the workout.

It has so much more power than the old one.  By the way, we’re keeping the old vac to use if/when we build a shop at the edge of the driveway.  This vacuum is in the same place as the old one, the garage.

My opinion?  Willy, together with the rug attachment, cleans like the Moby Dickens.  Get it?  The vacuum nickname is killer whale and Moby Dick was a killer whale (in the literal sense).  And the vacuum cleans like the dickens.  Our rugs have never been cleaner since bringing them in the house.

Oh, and it’s not loud because the motorized parts are in the garage.  Yay for making my life a little easier.  No more dusting, just add a small brush and I can zoom over table tops and baseboard.

Because this post was word heavy, I decided to add a few photos I took of last night’s sunset.

A storm rolled in, showering the mountains in the distance.  Clouds covered the city greenery, but the sun gleamed against the dry fields at the edge of town.  We got a peek of a rainbow, too.

Yep, we’re still smitten with the mountain house views.  Seeing the weather changes from a distance is a nice reward for all the work we have to do here.