Bathroom Update

We finally got rid of the ugly cabinets in the upstairs and master bathrooms! I wish we had taken a few more photos to show just how nasty they were. Just imagine that I had to cut the bottom out of the cabinet because the plywood on the bottom had swollen so much that the drawers wouldn't close. They were also very short, I didn't realize that until the new ones came in 2 inches taller, it makes a difference! 

I love how the white cabinets look. To be honest we had no idea what to put in there, and they cabinet guy said that all the new construction homes were putting in this white with the grey marble looking top, so we went with that. 

Before: Upstairs Bathroom

After: Upstairs Bathroom

After: Upstairs Bathroom

After: Upstairs Bathroom

Before: Master Bathroom

After: Master Bathroom

After: Master Bathroom

After: Master Bathroom

After: Master Bathroom

Kitchen Update

Before:

After:

Facelift

Our little fixer-upper got a new look!

The most impressive part is the back deck. A few new boards, railings, and a thick coat of paint can do wonders!

Before:

After:

Ahhh, so much better!

Entryway Bench

Our plain entryway was missing something. I put a little table there to throw my purse on, and that was nice, but still bare. Maybe a bigger table?

Since buying this house I have become a bit OCD with cleaning. We decided to put in darker laminate floors as it's the thing to do these days, but my goodness do they show dust! Mopping is a bi-weekly chore. It dawned on me as I was mopping for the umpteenth time that I am always coming across puppy prints, which makes me smile; and boot prints, which infuriates me. Size 13 boot prints everywhere, every day. Husband is the love of my life, but does he have to trounce across the floor with dirty boots on twice a day? That's when it dawned on me! A little bench would do just fine to spruce (or pine in this case) up our entryway.

I used the plans from Ms. Ana White, with whom I've become obsessed! She makes all of this wonderful furniture and puts up free plans online. This bench is a beginner piece, and since I've never built anything, I figured this was the place to start! http://ana-white.com/2009/11/modern-farm-benches


One trip to Home Depot where the young man in the lumber department cut all of the pine boards for me. What a wonderful thing, when you're a new DIYer and you don't own a bunch of power saws! Some wood filler and 2.5" screws and I was ready to start my bench. I whipped it up in about 30 minutes, the plans were so easy to follow.

 

A couple of times across with the sander and 2 coats of stain later and this bench is complete!

 



Now Husband can plop his booty down right when he walks through the door and take those giant boots off!

 

 

Thanks again to http://ana-white.com/ for providing these free plans for the "modern farm bench".

 

 

 



 

Loveseat Makeover

This is my first, and last, re-upholstery project EVER. It wasn't hard, just very time consuming.

Here she is, our ugly floral $60 loveseat from Goodwill. Her stuffing is good, not much wear and tear, she's just outdated. Husband and I like to imagine that she lived in a nice old lady's sitting room.

The first step was easy, just start pulling out staples. 1,000,000 staples later and you have this:

As I pulled off pieces I labeled where they came from. Center, side left or right, as well as top or bottom. I used my floral pieces to cut out my gray pieces.

The dog helped me. After I cut out all my pieces then I started stapling the new material back on, the same way that I took it off.

 

 

 This went along fine and dandy, until it came time to do the cushions. I procrastinated on these for awhile. Once I finally mustered up the courage, I started sewing through the gray fabric, and broke 3 needles in 15 minutes. Then I used my brain and went to the store and bought heavier needles actually suited for sewing upholstery fabrics. Halfway through the first cushion the sewing machine went all wonky. There my project sat for months until a friend lent me her sewing machine.

 

Taa-daa! This project took almost the entire box of 1,250 staples. $120 of upholstery fabric, and waaay too may hours of my time. I started this on January 11th and just finished today, March 23rd.

 

I love how it looks, but next time I need a furniture update, I will be at Ikea.

 

This may be the only time I get to post a photo of our house with SNOW!

We're in hot water now!

We limped along for 3 months on our crusty water heater, but when it started smelling funny and it became black with char, it was time to go!
 We put in a service request on our home warranty for a plumber to come out. They were out the next day and he was amazed that it was still producing hot water! As we figured, he said there was no saving it. Unfortunately our warranty wouldn't cover anything besides the tank and labor (of course), and our water heater would not pass code, which is a requirement for gas water heaters. The price tag on the whole lot was around $1500. Our portion was $861 + $60 service fee. That means we just broke even on our warranty which we paid $499 for. Oh well! I'm sure something else will break down in the next 9 months!

Crusty

Before: Black char of DOOM!

After: Shiny and up to code!