Tag: tutorial

Tub Thumping

Published on by Our Humble Abode15 Comments

Before we can officially move into the new house, I’ve required a working bath tub.

See, we pulled out the claw foot tub and we’ve replaced it with a five foot jetted tub and shower combo.

Which also required removing the small half wall and building a new floor to ceiling wall.

The plumbing runs through the new wall, and a Hardie Backer surround, tub to ceiling.  Ben taped and filled the seams and we’re waiting for it to dry.

We also gained a little bit of space for the toilet.  A claw foot tub plus a wide half wall in an eight foot square room is a tight fit.  Now a five foot tub with a standard wall gives the cramped toilet space a few more valuable inches.

In other bathroom news, we picked up our shower tile and a remnant for our vanity counter today.  Hopefully Ben can start (and finish) the shower surround tomorrow.  But here’s the counter:

The counter is a 45 inch by 25 inch piece of white quartz.  I love that it is light and will allow me to paint the vanity any color I want.  Ben got it for 60 bucks, which is about $400 cheaper than the quote we got from the other granite supplier in town.  Score!

Even better, this granite place has piles of damaged materials.  Ben saw a few pieces of Carrera marble in the heap, so he asked about it.  The company is trying to get rid of these and the employee said Ben could take anything he wanted, free.

Those babies are sitting in the garage, waiting for Ben to cut them down to fit our end tables.  He sure knows the way to my heart.

In other new house news, I hung a few pictures.  Mostly because I don’t want to look at the epileptic seizure inducing wall paper.  And because I have about 10 boxes of art at my disposal.

We were able to sell the old bathroom vanity on Craigslist, and now we’re trying to pawn this enormous wooden pergola on someone.  No clue of its original purpose, but it’s in our yard and we want it out of there.

We met another neighbor yesterday; Rocky, the rock chuck.

That’s the latest progress.  Bring on the bath tub so we can move our beds over!  Tell me, what kind of counters do you have in your bathroom?  Have you scored any free things lately?

You Say Suspenseful I Say Fenceful

Published on by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

After this post, a lovely reader asked if we could write-up a quick post about our fence and how we made it.  Always happy to answer questions, here it is.

The fence is made up of 4 inch by 4 inch by 8 foot long posts and 2 inch by 6 inch by 16 foot long lumber from Home Depot.  Ben measured eight feet apart, used a post hole digger to make a 4 foot deep hole.  He did this for each post, 22 total on our property.  After setting each post, leaving it 4 feet above ground, we attached the 2 by 6 horizontals.  These are about 4 inches apart, for a total of five high.

We staggered the seams to keep the fence as strong as possible.  The gate took longer to finish because Ben couldn’t find strong hinges.  But, with the impending closing date looming, we knew it had to happen, sooner than later.  Ben bought a set of hinges and a latch at Home Depot.

To build the gate, Ben cut a 2 by 4 to the match the height of the horizontals.  Then, he screwed five 2 by 6 pieces, keeping the gate square as he went.

On either side of the gate we have a 4 inch square post and a 2 by 4, which is actually part of the gate.

Luckily, the hinges are perfect for the 2 by 6, so Ben installed one at the top and another on the bottom to hold the gate in place.

To protect the fence and keep it looking spiffy, we use Behr’s Solid Color Wood Stain, just like the rest of the fence.  So, that’s the simple fence we have and how to make one yourself.

Previously, we had a chain link fence, which Houdini, I mean Jack escaped from regularly.  We’re happy to report she hasn’t been able to get out of this one.  Also, this style fence can work for smaller dogs by adding 2 by 2 pieces between the 2 by 6s.

What style of fence do you have?  Why did you choose it?  To keep kids and pets in?  To keep neighbors out?

Trim Tutorial: Master Bedroom

Published on by Our Humble Abode7 Comments

Shame on us.  We haven’t shared a trim tutorial in quite some time.  What were we thinking?  Obviously, we weren’t.  How would you like to see our master bedroom and bathroom trim?

Let’s get started.  We (well, Ben) started with 4 foot by 8 foot MDF sheets.  One that is 3/4 inches thick and another that is 1 inch thick.  He cut tons of 2 inch wide strips, several 3 and 5 inch wide pieces out of the 3/4 sheet.  Then, he cut 1 1/2 inch wide pieces from the 1 inch thick MDF sheet.

To start, we installed the 5 inch baseboard around the perimeter of the room.  Then, we started placing the 2 inch wide verticals, placing one centered on each wall.  From there, the verticals have 12 inches of wall space before the next edge.  The horizontals are also spaced 12 inches from edge to edge.  With the grid in place, we added the three-inch wide top rail, capped off with a 1 1/2 inch deep by 1 inch thick piece, to finish it off.

Now, onto the tricky parts, the doors and windows.  Ben had the idea to install lights above each window and door in our master bedroom.

Door and window casement starts out the same as the rest.  Rather than a piece of casement at the top, we’ve added three trim pieces.  First, a piece of 1 inch thick MDF, cut into strips and routered for a decorative edge.  Then, a piece of 3/4 inch thick MDF cut into 6 1/2 inch widths.  The tricky part was cutting the crown to fit against walls; both doors nearly touch the wall.  For Ben, the easiest way to tackle this obstacle was cutting, gluing, and nailing the crown to the flat trim, leaving a 4 1/2 inch reveal.  After the glue had set, Ben cut the pieces to size, installing the whole piece over the routered rail.

The lights tuck neatly inside the crown, glowing at night.

That concludes our current home’s trim treatments.  Anything else you want to know before closing day?

Stick a Fork in It

Published on by Our Humble Abode56 Comments
Because the kitchen is done!  All it took was a little sanding and painting on the ceiling.  Ben hates sheet rock work, hence the reason we just finished it.  And mostly pressure to get the house ready to sell.  But, it’s done, and that’s what matters.
If you recall, before we started work, the kitchen looked like this:
Almond appliances, orange oak cabinets, too small drawers and cabinets, and one large wall trapping the cook in the kitchen.  After months of work and tearing everything out to start from scratch, we’ve created this:
A warm, open, light filled, and functional kitchen.
Replacing the soffit with cabinetry has added even more storage.
A low profile vent hood keeps the focus on the wood counters and new cabinetry.
And I can’t forget the wall of marble tile.  Oh how I love thee.
We will definitely miss this kitchen, but it was such a learning process and we love how it turned out.
Because Ben built our cabinets, our total kitchen budget is about what our store-bought cabinet budget was.  Yes, that is the single most money-saving thing we did.  As you can see, our appliances more than made up for that savings.
So what do you think?  Every potential buyer has commented about the kitchen and how nice it is, which makes us happy.

P.S.  If you haven’t been following from the beginning, you can catch up on all things kitchen renovation in these posts.

One Percent {P}inspiration: The Artful After

Published on by Our Humble Abode54 Comments

Well friends, it’s been nine days since my pals Ashli, Sara, and I announced our Pinterest art challenge.

After some deliberation, I decided to put my own spin on the Wild Herringbone art from Cozamia.

I just loved the clean, colorful, graphic design.  And, I recruited some help on this project.  To start, I grabbed plain white card stock out of my printer, hauled my craft paint box out, and tossed one of Ben’s shirts on each of the boys.  I let V choose the colors he wanted and he started painting.  E was hesitant, but got a few strokes on the paper.

 

V made several paintings, E, only one.  I made a few for fillers, too.  Using my handy paper cutter, I cut each sheet in half length wise, then into 1 1/2 inch wide strips.

I have a large roll of white paper, so I tore a sheet off to use as my backing.  A few pieces of double sided tape on the back of each strip to hold in place and I started arranging.  To keep things straight on the first row, I used a ruler to line up the edges.

I made sure to mix the paintings up to spread the colors throughout.

After about twenty minutes, I had covered the paper and had to fill in the edges.

 

Here she is, edges filled and trimmed, ready for a frame.

So I popped it in, hung it up and took a few steps back.  That’s when I realized I didn’t like the pink V had used.

While E took his nap, V and I painted more.  This time, I limited his color palette to blues, greens, yellow, and silver.

I followed the same steps, but loved the result this time.

The pop of color in this corner is perfect.

And, I love that it’s not kitchen specific, so it can travel around the house if we ever tire if it in here.  The best part, this art was made using everything we already had in our home!

Now it’s your turn to share your Pinterest inspired art project with us!