style with cents

$100 Target Gift Card Summer GIVEAWAY

2013-06-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday, Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! Friday, the 31st, was the last day of school for us, which means it was our first official week of summer last week ... and we packed it full!

Superman and I spent the week putting the finishing touches on our new business venture: Engine 9 Bounce! We just might be crazy! If you live in the DFW area and need a water slide for a party, you know who to call. This week we start our regular trips to the pool, staying up way too late, and eating way too many popsicles.

To help you start your summer off right, I've teamed up with a wonderful group of bloggers to bring you 10 Fun Summer Ideas and an awesome giveaway - a $100 Target gift card!

Please take a moment to check out these great ideas for summer and then enter to win a $100 Target shopping spree! Let's be honest....who couldn't use $100 to spend at Target!?

On to the Summer Fun Ideas:

Lemon Bar Muddy Buddies - Lemon Tree Dwelling
2-Minute Summer Centerpiece - Eating In The Shower
Make Your Own Tetherball - Style With Cents
Create Your Own Summer Reading Program - Redfly Creations
World's Easiest Homemade Ice Cream - Redfly Creations
Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes - Made For A King
Chicken Dip Summer Salad - Eating In The Shower
Simple Slipknot Napkin Rings - Lemon Tree Dwelling
Build a New Fence Using Old Scraps - Style With Cents
Summer Skirt Tutorial - Made For A King

And now on to the Giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to: Build a NEW Fence, Using OLD Scraps

2013-06-04T11:42:00.001-05:00

Um, hi.

We’ve been a little busy over here … sorry it’s taken awhile to get this new post up, but I think y’all are gonna LOVE it for a summer project. If I had to take a stab, I would guess that 99% of homeowners don’t love their fences … and I’m gonna show you how to be part of the 1% without spending tons of money.

Okay. Here we go.

Okay, so this is what our fence WAS … you might remember me mentioning needing to replace it, when I showed you how to stain your fence for dirt cheap. Those wood posts were just a little too wobbly for our liking.

Well.

A little over a year later, the time had come. We had tons of steel fence posts left … when our HOA replaced our neighborhood’s perfectly good perimeter fence a couple years ago, Superman asked the fence company if he could have the old steel posts. They were THRILLED because it meant they didn’t have to haul them off. :D We were thrilled because they were FREE. ;)

So.

Superman tore down the entire side of the fence. This was easy – the house next door is vacant, so there wasn’t anyone to disrupt over there while we got down to business.

Superman used the same holes from the previous wooden fence posts. He stuck a steel post in each and then filled the hole with cement, making sure each post was the same height coming out of the ground and that they were perfectly straight. USE A LEVEL.

Then, he bought NEW cross beams. He put those up … and all that was left to do was just put up the pickets. He reused as many fence pickets as he could from our existing fence, but needed to replace about half of them. So. He turned to Craigslist. He found some other homeowners who also weren’t loving their fences and were replacing. He found several gently used fence panels from several places. He brought them home, stripped the pickets off, and pulled out the nails.

Um. This part is NOT fun. Like, at all. I’d rather jab dull pencils through my eyes. But. It did save us, easily, $2,000. And Superman is a patient man. So. You know. It worked out. ;)

We ended up with several scrap piles like this that later got hauled off.

Dude just picked through each fence post, took the good stuff, and dumped the junky stuff.

And then.

He got to work nailing up each picket. (he still needs to go back and put a few screws in each picket, but that’s for another day)

Something else we decided to do was flip the fence around so that we don’t have the posts on our side anymore. :D HEHEHEHE. You can do that when the house next door is vacant. Now it will be easier for Superman to mow and edge.

So, you can see how many pickets came from our old fence and how many were ‘new’ replacements.

My big contribution was to take all those fence pickets, from a ginormo messy pile, and place them up against the rails so that Superman could easily and quickly get them nailed up. I know. I rock.

When he finished constructing the new fence, it looked something like this:

So, then he whipped out some of his trusty cheaper than dirt fence stain … and got to work:

Firefighters are hawt.

Because the stain he mixed up is semi-transparent, he didn’t need to bleach the boards … it covers all the inconsistencies really well. You can’t even tell it was a ghetto rigged garbage fence, huh?

Our total cost? About $100 for the cross beams. BOOM!!

I married Superman, dude.

Gardening for Dummies: I hate Monsanto

2013-05-13T17:21:00.001-05:00

***** Update: I'm sitting here late tonight totally stressed out about having just fed my plants a Monsanto product. How on earth do they do it?! How is Monsanto EVERYWHERE?! Clearly, I'm a rookie gardener ... I've been honest about that from day 1. I have to learn to read labels and research. Just like I search every label for high fructose corn syrup, I must now google search every company to find out if its parent company is Monsanto and therefore not consumable. Sorry to so carelessly promote something from evil Monsanto.

DON'T USE MIRACLE GRO. I'll be throwing mine out now ... actually, I'll probably take it back to Costco since they have such a great return policy. Or maybe call the money guarantee on the back of the box. Ugh. I'll let you know what I find as a replacement ... and how well my garden does without it.

How to: Clean your windows like a PRO

2013-05-13T15:15:00.001-05:00

Okay.

So. Here’s the deal. We are all going to agree and take an oath and make a pact right now … that we don’t care about my dusty plant, okay?

Because it’s the truth. CLEARLY. I do not care about that plant. Superman loves plants. Me? Notsomuch. They’re just another thing to feed and take care of so they don’t die. Most days, I barely remember to feed my kids.

I’m joking. Kinda.

Okay.

I’m glad we made that deal/oath/pact. Now.

Let’s talk about my disgusting, nasty, grotesquely dusty windows, shall we?

We shall.

Because … this is where I’m going to teach you how to clean your windows like a pro … and I’ll pretend like I do it all the time … even though I don’t … and we’ll all save lots of money on window cleaning … and we’ll give each other high fives, fist bumps, and the thumbs up … and we’ll all go home feeling like rock stars.

Ready, set, go.

Now. Let’s all take a gander at my gross windows …

“Ewwwwwwwwwwwww. Agggggghhhhhhhh.”

I’m just keepin’ it real. I’ve never claimed to be anything but GHETTO.

I don’t know. I just don’t know how on earth I let them get so dirty. So, don’t ask. Cause I really don’t know.

Whew.

Now that my confessional is over and I feel totally naked and exposed, here’s all you need to do something about those gross windows in your house (I can’t possibly be the ONLY one with gross windows):

Sprayway foaming glass cleaner, a lint free cloth, and a squeegee. BAM.

Coat your windows with Sprayway.

** If you are doing the top portion of your window, I HIGHLY recommend placing the cloth along the bottom of the top portion (where the locks are) so that when you squeegee the cleaner off, it doesn’t fill the cracks between window sections. I hope that made sense.

So. Coat the windows with Sprayway … squeegee off … then use your lint free cloth to wipe away any streaks (from the edges of the squeegee). And BAM! Your windows will sparkle!

Sorry, guys. I forgot to get pictures before I put the blinds back down … no way was I muscle-ing them back up. Don’t get crazy. We all know I’m too lazy for that crazy business.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, there’s that dusty plant again … the one that we took a vow to pay no attention to. Thanks for not paying any attention to it.

** As for the outside of the window? … I just sprayed them off with the hose and let them air dry. If you want, you can go all crazy and take the ladder outside and squeegee those too. But, as you can tell … it’s not really necessary.

Happy Spring Cleaning, y’all! :D

Next time, I’ll show you how to dust off all those indoor plants …

Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust. Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidding.

Gardening for Dummies Part 1: Laying Out Your Garden

2013-04-24T21:02:00.001-05:00

Okay.

So. If you know me, personally, then you know that I consider it a great success that I’ve kept my children alive as long as I have. I caved last year and let my three favorite people in the whole wide world get a puppy. And I was so scared. Because, dude. I kill EVERYTHING. (Both children and puppy are STILL alive … I’m amazed, myself)

Enter Superman.

Homeboy EARNS that nickname. Big time.

You saw the tutorial on how to build your garden box, right? … here’s a little follow up (with pictures I took 3 weeks ago … these are now quite a bit bigger).

Behold! A garden! In my backyard! WITH green stuff growing!!

Believe me. No one is more shocked that I am. Promise.

Alrighty. Let’s start on the left and work our way to the right … this is America, after all. (Please excuse our ghetto ‘trellises’ … they’re made from scrap wood … try not to fall over dead from that surprise)

First, we have the cutest little peas I’ve ever seen in my entire life! Since this picture was taken, they’ve figured out how to grow up the lines … they’re now occupying the third line of string. Such strong little fighters, living in my backyard!

Next, we’ve got some beans … green beans … climbing up their lines just to the right. They’re so flipping cute, I just want to pinch their cheeks! I can’t stand it.

And then, in the corner between the peas and beans … we have pumpkins and watermelons. Which, my kids can hardly wait to watch grow!

On the other side of the beans, we are sporting some adorable squash and zucchini plants.

And then there’s the radishes … y’all. There are no words for how cute these are. From planting until picking, it’s like 28 days, or something crazy like that. So. These babies will be getting picked in the next day or two. I’ll keep you posted. Can’t wait to take more recent pictures. You’ll be shocked at how big my babies are getting! ;)

These are carrots, people! Aren’t those the cutest flipping carrots you’ve ever seen?! ;) (I’m totally joking, in case you don’t ‘know’ me yet … I’m not insane … that I know of)

Then there are three different kinds of tomatoes …

… jalapenos (this is TEXAS, y’all … there is lots of salsa in this garden’s future) ...

… and then, my friends … there are the milk man’s babies. I cannot figure out what these ones are. Superman planted this thing … and he’s on shift. I’m sure he’ll text me soon and let me know. Cause, that’s how we roll.

Anyway. That’s it … there’s our sweet little garden. I’ll keep you posted … cause … nothing is more fun than watching someone else’s garden grow. ;)

Please enjoy the ghetto not-yet-mowed-this-season grass. Just keepin’ it real, people.

Hope y’all are well!

Knock it Off ...

2013-04-22T22:23:00.003-05:00

Y'all know I'm a small time blogger ... This is totally not my day job, as evident from my lack of posting / spuradic posting. However, from time to time ... someone out there in the cyber world finds me. And they make me feel important for a minute ... and make me forget that this whole blog thing isn't my day job. And it's wonderful.

So. If you have a minute ... run on over to Knock Off Decor. Um, genius blog planning going on over there. Definitely NOT a moonlighting gig for Beckie. Homegirl knows what she's doing. She's talking about my Pottery Barn table knock off HERE. Love you, Beckie!

Thanks for making me feel cool for a minute! :D

Autism (ACTION) Month–Adult Sized Swing Set

2013-04-17T18:07:00.001-05:00

With the sadness of the Boston Marathon on Monday, I think the world needs to hear something good … something GREAT.

Superman and I had a fantastic weekend. We spent our Saturday morning and afternoon serving one of my favorite families … building a special needs/adult sized swing set in their backyard.

My dear friend, Susan and her husband Joe, have a sweet 13 year old boy with severe autism. Although their sweet Cale is non-verbal, they know that he LOVES to swing. Several weeks ago, Susan emailed me and asked if Superman knew anyone who could come give her a quote to build an adult sized swing in her backyard. Her sweet little boy is a big, growing boy, so the frame would need to be sturdy.

When I asked Superman, he immediately suggested that we get some people together and build it as a service project. See how smart he is? That’s why I keep him around … I’m still trying to figure out why he keeps ME around. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

I mentioned our little plan to a mutual friend (Melissa) who knows Susan and she got the idea to hold a bake sale to raise the money to build the swing (we’re all about going a step beyond) … and the next thing we knew, we were hosting our “Sale for Cale”. All told, 69 orders were placed from a set menu of Easter cakes … and through the sale of cakes and desserts as well as a big painting from me and several cash donations, we were able to raise over $1,700 … in a span of DAYS. See? There is still so. much. good. in this world!!! And, I’d like to add that only 5 of those people knew Susan. The rest were total strangers … coming together to be a part of something great. Something life changing. Something bigger and better than we had ever imagined.

And on Saturday, we had the extreme privilege of working along side some of the most wonderful people I know. I am honored and humbled to call them all friends. And I sat with Susan (and the other wives) and watched … as our idea became a reality. And Susan’s long awaited dream for her son came to fruition.

In the event that some of you reading might be needing some plans/ideas for an adult sized swing set (that is able to hold up to 350 lbs per swing), I’m going to attempt to give you a picture tutorial of what we did. And I’ll let you meet my sweet friend, Susan. And her wonderfully perfect and amazing sons, Cale and Finn.

Superman started the project with a 6”x6”x12’ solid cedar beam. He bought 4”x4”x12’ beams to use as the legs to the ‘A Frame’. He started by chiseling out a spot on the 6”x6” beam for the 4”x4” beams to rest. First, he marked his angle, using his angle tool:

Then, using a saw and chisel, he cut out the openings where the 4”x4” legs would rest:

The legs sat on the beam at 110* angles, for those who want to build one. In between each leg, he placed two braces, both of those sat at 50* angles to the legs they were on. Like this:

And this:

Sorry guys … I didn’t take the best pictures of this project. I was way too excited about what we were doing to think about pictures for a blog tutorial. ;)

To secure the 4”x4” legs to the 6”x6” beam, Superman drilled holes all the way through the legs and beam, like this:

And then used the “create-a-bolt” bolts from Home Depot, because the largest carriage bolt he could find was 12” and we needed 14” at the longest point.

12” carriage bolts worked for the top, but not the bottom bolts (both at the top of the frame).

Once the ‘A Frame’ was bolted together, the guys screwed some of these metal plates to the top of the frame (you can see the placement markings in the picture above) and then bent it back to the leg and screwed it on there, like this:

And this:

Those metal plates made the frame super stable, and they keep the entire swing set from swaying back and forth from side to side. Finally, they anchored the frame to the ground. We bought 30” steel ground stakes that fit around the base of each leg and then extended 2 1/2 feet into the ground! You can always dig holes and use cement. Whatever you prefer!

And now, here are some picture of the crew of volunteers in action (sorry, some are blurry … I’m not a photographer – at all!!) …

Superman took the ‘A’s already put together, in the back of his truck, so that everyone just had to bolt the beam in place, anchor it, and hang the swings.

You gotta love the mother of the 15 year old boy who gets her son where he needs to be at 8am on a Saturday … and even more, you gotta love that 15 year old boy for getting up early on his Saturday! We love you, Parker!

This is Susan (left) and Melissa (right). Melissa was the mastermind behind our unbelievably successful ‘Sale for Cale’.

Tiffany (who had never met me OR Susan, but wanted to help), Susan, and Liesl (who knows Susan from therapy). Liesl’s husband, Dave, worked hard all morning/afternoon.

6 of the 10 men who showed up to work on their Saturday. I’m telling y’all – this world is still filled with so much good!!

Chad Combs (from Eldorado Builders www.eldoradobuilders.com) was a Godsend. I swear that man has every tool under the sun. If you live in the DFW area and have any construction needs, call Chad!! Good guys finish first!

Dave. We call him ‘the wise old man’. He may or may not have given himself the nickname. ;)

Oh my goodness … just looking back through these pictures, I have so much gratitude in my heart for these men. Their wives are lucky women.

There is a frequently used saying around my house. It is: “Many hands make light work.” Ain’t THAT the truth!!

There’s that 15 year old boy that I love so much, again. I love him so much that I gave his momma a job teaching with me 5 days a week. HAHAHA. (DFW ladies, the dude in the black with the hat is single – message me, I know you wanna).

Me, Susan, and Melissa. (If you didn’t vote for Romney, please just ignore my shirt. Nothing personal, I promise.)

Susan and her neighbor, Niki (another dear friend of mine).

Chad was a master at the sledge hammer … regular Paul Bunyan.

See? Dude’s a stud … If Superman had a sidekick (like Batman does), his name would be Chad. ;)

Standin’ around, lookin’ pretty … just kidding. Swing hardware going up!!! Woohoo!!

Love these guys so much. Melissa’s husband, Brandon, on the right.

The wise old man enjoying some one-on-one time with his power tools.

BAM!! They were in HEAVEN! Cale’s brother, Finn, is in the blue shirt on the right. He was BEAMING. See?

(sorry, hard to get a non-blurry picture when he’s swinging)

Remember these pictures, the next time you think YOU can’t make a difference in someone’s life. Because, you CAN! Nothing feels better than helping other people! True story.

Me and Superman … No words can describe how much I love this man. He is a good, good, good man.

And finally, it was time to bring Cale out and show him. There are no words for the joy that his sweet laughter, squealing, and dancing brought to all the volunteers. His reaction made everyone’s sacrifice and time SO worth it. We love you, Cale!!

How priceless is this picture of sweet Susan and her precious Cale? This is the good stuff that life is made of, people!!

I challenge all of you, in the wake of Sandy Hook and the Boston Marathon Bombing and all the awful things going in this great world, to MAKE A DIFFERENCE. No matter how small. No matter how insignificant it seems. Be the change you want to see. Together, we can change things … it just takes a little more love.

And, we are officially renaming April “Autism ACTION Month”, instead of “Autism Awareness Month”.

* For those interested in building this swing set, the total cost with lumber, swings, hardware, anchors, etc. was about $800. And each swing, installed with commercial grade hardware, holds up to 350lbs. Both regular swings were commercial grade swings, guaranteed up to 350lbs. All hardware used was commercial grade, guaranteed up to 350 lbs.

** Cale’s dad, Joe, is not pictured … he was quarantined to his bedroom with the stomach flu. Poor guy.

*** The remaining money from the fundraiser was donated to the family to help with any additional needs.

UPDATE:

After several days of adjusting to the idea of a swing in his backyard, Cale decided to give the swing a try tonight. What a great day! Enjoy these pictures … pure joy!

The pictures say it all. :D

Velcro Pictures–Quick Picture Hanging!

2013-04-08T17:56:00.001-05:00

I know I’m not the only one who has this idealistic vision of a perfectly decorated home … with millions of beautiful snapshots all over the house and up the stairway and on every side table. I mean, really … is there such a thing as too many pictures of your children?!

No, people. The answer is emphatically … NO!

I’ve had this project on my list for years. Truly. Years. And I’ve put it off, thinking it was way more expensive than it actually was.

Over Spring Break, I got a wild hair and went to IKEA … and spent $100 (give or take) and bought 75 picture frames. In the hope of achieving that perfect staircase photo wall …

Now. I’m not a photographer. And I’m not a designer. I’m really not … try not to act shocked.

But, I do have a bunch of snapshot pictures that I just love … you know the ones: the messy highchair pictures, the ‘here, take our picture for us’ vacation pictures, the baby pictures … you know the ones.

So, I uploaded all of them to Costco. Something ridiculous like 300 pictures. But, Costco only charges like $.12 a photo … so I went crazy. Then I narrowed down my favorites to my most favorites. Then I got to work, filling each frame. And then. THEN I pulled out my second most favorite household item, save only RustOleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint:

Heavy. Duty. Industrial. Strength. Velcro. Pretty much my second favorite BFF.

And I had Superman help me cut it into a billion little strips. And then I put the strips on the back of each frame, like this:

The smaller frames only need 2 strips of Velcro. The bigger ones need four.

And then I removed the plastic backing from the Velcro and placed my large frames at every third stair (using a level … but just stuck it up on the wall … NO NAILS!!!). And then I put a medium frame in between each of those (all in alternating orientations). Like this:

And then, I filled in the spaces in between all of them, with the small frames. Like this:

And I had enough frames to go around the corner … still need to buy more to finish the back side of the staircase.

And … can I tell you how much I LOVE going up and down my stairs now? Love. Like, to the moon and back kind of love.

I’m not a scrap booker, but I do take tons of pictures that never see the light of day. I’m trying to change that. Y’all run to IKEA and grab some inexpensive frames. Best money spent.

** I went with dark frames because we are planning to replace our carpet with dark wood floors in June … but I think there were white frames at IKEA too. I think. **

How to Make a Tetherball

2013-04-08T16:30:00.001-05:00

We did this several years ago. My kiddos were YOUNG when I started teaching preschool out of my home … and we didn’t have much in the backyard.

We watched Napoleon Dynamite and one thing led to another.

Just kidding.

It’s a cheap backyard toy and kids LOVE it.

At the time, we didn’t know exactly what would come of our backyard … didn’t know where the swing set would end up … weren’t sure about the garden. Or 14 fruit trees we would later purchase. So, we wanted the tetherball to be mobile and easy to move around the backyard. If you know exactly how your backyard will be set up, by all means … skip the old tire step and just dig a hole and cement the thing into the ground. :D

For those of y’all like us? Here’s how it goes …

The next time you get your tires replaced … ask to keep your tires. A lot of places CHARGE to get rid of your tires. Keep them. You can build several backyard toys with them.

Here’s what you need:

an old tire
2 bags concrete (Qwikcrete)
1 steel fence post, with topper
1 tetherball, with string
some big-ish rocks
sheet of plywood (or a sheet of cardboard, if you’re in a pinch)

Here’s what you do:

1. Place an old tire on a sheet of plywood (you’ll toss the plywood later, but it will help hold the concrete in the tire

2. Mix up concrete according to bag

3. Place fence post in the center of the tire, like this:

4. Brace said fence post with a few big rocks around it (some bricks stacked up around the base of the fence post would work nicely too). You’re gonna need an extra person to hold the fence post … for awhile … so pick someone patient. May I recommend not picking your 7 month pregnant wife? ;) I may or may not be speaking from experience here.

5. Pour the concrete into the tire, leaving those big rocks in (they’re gonna help hold the thing up while it dries, so that your 7 month pregnant wife doesn’t have to). Fill the entire tire with the concrete … to do this, you’ll need to maneuver your shovel around into the cracks of the tire, making the cement fall into all the cracks. Fill it all the way up to the top of the tire … you don’t want your tire holding water down the road … it’s annoying. I promise.

6. Grab a level and make sure the fence post is setting up ‘level’ … nothing more ghetto looking than an unleveled tetherball. ;)

7. Once the tetherball is level (and stable – not wobbling all over), you can tell your huge pregnant wife to go take a break and leave it overnight to harden.

8. Buy a good tetherball. I highly recommend any of Mikasa’s tetherballs.

9. Put the excess string to the tetherball inside the fence post and put and end cap on top of the fence post to hold it in place. Like this:

10. Stand back, admire your handy work, and embrace your inner Napoleon Dynamite.

11. Enjoy many years to come … playing tetherball, like the good old days … with your best friends in the whole wide world. Sigh.

This is totally a family sport, y’all.

And it teaches your kids not to cry like sissies when they get hit in the face with a ball.

True story.

Have fun! Come on Summer!!!

Spray Painted Hardware–What Works? What Doesn’t?

2013-03-14T11:18:00.001-05:00

Okay, people. Here it is … a follow up to the 'Refurbishing Hardware' blog post, where I spray painted every shred of brass in my house using Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint . Y’all have asked. I have listened … and put off this post simply because it’s a tedious one. However, by far the most frequently asked question(s) is/are: “So … how are the door knobs holding up?” or “So, how’s the shower holding up?”

So.

Here is my detailed response. I have not touched up any of these pictures. There are tricks to saving tons of $$$$ spray painting your door knobs, locks, latches, bathroom fixtures, light fixtures, etc. However, there are things that you DO NOT want to spray paint and it’s better to spend just a little money to replace those with the real thing.

Okay.

Here we go.

First of all … the one thing we noticed very quickly was that the catch/latch on all of our doors quickly looked like this, after opening/shutting the doors a few times:

See that little brass strip? Yeah. Not a huge deal. In my opinion, it’s still way better than the whole thing being brass. HOWEVER. There is a very simple and inexpensive fix for this.

Behold:

Home Depot sells packages of JUST the door latches!!!!! They come in packs of 2 … and I think they were $2.48. Do yourself a favor. Buy one for every door latch. At around a dollar each, I promise, it is money well spent.

See?

Bam. No more annoying strip of brass. Easy Peasy.

Next, all but two of my bedroom/bathroom/closet doors look like this (still, 18 months later):

Still in 100% perfect condition … these door knobs (to inside doors) are absolutely worth spray painting. They hold up well. Zero problems. No complaints. (Saves you around $15-$20 per door knob)

However … the powder bathroom door knob (which gets used about 25x more than the average home’s powder bathroom door knob because I have a preschool in my house) looks like this (Ignore my dirty door … I’m doing you a favor here):

See that little bit of paint wearing off around the lock? Does it bother you? If so … buy a replacement. If you’re like me, this totally doesn’t bother you … because it just looks like it was antiqued. I’m not crazy. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the ‘real deal’ and lots of those door knobs look slightly antiqued.

Moving on.

Here is my bathroom, today … 18 months after the renovation (thanks for making me clean it!) :

Boom. Still looks the same today as it did 18 months ago.

Was spray painting the cabinets worth it? Absolutely.

Did the sink/bath tub faucet handles hold up? Sure did.

Was all that tedious work of painting the shower trim worth it? AITCH YES, people!!! Best two week project we’ve ever done!!

Are there areas that don’t hold up? Um. Yes. But, pretty much only the shower door handle where it catches when it gets opened and closed. (Please note: just as before, the spray painted shower door handle holds onto soap scum just like it would if it wasn’t spray painted!! BONUS.)

Do I care about that? NOPE. Why? Because you can’t see it when the shower door is closed!! Winning, people!!!

**However, Superman told me that you can buy one of these door handles at Home Depot, in oil rubbed bronze finish, for cheap. Maybe someday I’ll decide it’s worth a few bucks. Who knows?

Okay.

Just keep swimming.

Remember the light fixture out front? This one:

Well. It still looks just like that. Here. Look:

Okay. There’s some dust on it. And a few water spots on the glass. Sue me, people.

This chandelier:

Still looks the same … it just houses a little more dust than it did back then. ;) (I’m too lazy to take a new picture)

How about the light switch plates?

Bam:

Outlet covers?

Boom:

And now, my friends … here is what you will want to spend money actually replacing ………

Front Door Hardware (Please over look the fact that I desperately need to paint my front door/trim. K, thanks.) :

Um. Yeah. With the heavy use (and need for a key), I recommend just spending the money on this one. I found an oil rubbed bronze finished front door hardware set at Home Depot that I liked for only $93. But. It’s still $93. And, my scratched door still works … so … I’m not running out to buy one just yet.

Because …. at the end of the day, I rarely notice anyone else’s front door handles when I go visit them. And if I did notice … I wouldn’t care two seconds if it was a little scraped. And I know y’all love me enough to not care either. Right? ;)

The inside looks the same … except … I have since replaced the little door catch/latch thing. If I cared enough, I might even just touch up the scuffs. But I don’t care, people. Sorry. I just don’t.

And, lastly, the other thing you’ll want to just replace, is the back door hardware:

Especially if your back door is like mine and you have blinds that clank against the door knob every time someone goes in or out. I found a back door hardware package in the right finish for only $53. But. Again. I’m not a big spender. So ….. I’ll wait on it. Because: I just. don’t. care. (I did, however, also replace the little door catch/latch on this one too … because it was a buck. Sometimes I go crazy. ;)

So. Moral of the story?

Don’t paint these:

Just replace them with these:

But, do paint the entire rest of the door knob/hardware set.
DO paint your shower trim, faucet handles, cabinets, light fixtures, outdoor light fixtures, chandeliers, light switch plates, outlet covers … yadda yadda. For added emphasis, I’ll say it again … There are only 3 things I wouldn’t recommend painting (because they don’t look 100% a couple months down the road) and those are: front door, back door, all door latches.

There.

I’m done.

I said my peace.

So glad I got all of that off my chest.

Now, go spray paint something, y’all!!

Twitter

2013-03-13T19:12:00.000-05:00

At the request of reader Buffy ……..

I invested the time and figured out Twitter.

Y’all be patient.

I’m like a 93 year old.

Trapped in a 32 year old body.

So.

If you don’t do Facebook.

Or Pinterest.

Or Google Reader (which I hear is sick and dying … thanks to Buffy – I heard that thanks to Buffy; Buffy didn’t poison Google Reader).

Now you can follow me on Twitter.

Just what we all needed … me to join another time waster.

You’re welcome. :D

Come follow me. 16 other people are doing it … you know you want to. ;)

www.twitter.com/LoisLaneJanette

Building a Raised Garden Bed

2013-03-01T15:39:00.001-06:00

Okay. Here’s the deal. I’m not a gardener. I couldn’t keep a plant alive if my life depended on it … but … surprise, surprise, Superman has a green thumb. Add it to the list of EVERYTHING he can do.
So. He’s been wanting a garden for quite a while. And, I’ve put it on the back burner for quite some time because I didn’t want to deal with the preschoolers getting into it. And our kids have been little forever, it seems. But … a week ago, Dude decided he was gonna go for it.
And that’s where the ghetto in this post begins. :D (There’s always a little ghetto in everything I post, isn’t there?)

Our shared fence with our neighbors was ghetto rigged about 6 years ago by our neighbor. (See? We aren’t the only ghetto people in the world!) In an attempt to create an 8 foot fence on a budget, he used these 12”x2”x8’ boards along the bottom of the fence. Not along the entire length of the fence … just along a 30 foot section. We are ghetto people. And because we aren’t the confrontational type, we let it slide. Even after other neighbors we met at the grocery store asked us what was going on with our weird fence. True story.

ANYWAY … Those neighbors, sadly, have since moved out. Their home sits vacant right now … and Gary decided while the other lot was vacant, he would rob the ghetto out of the fence and use those bottom boards to build his garden box. Because if he’s anything at all: he’s resourceful!

And that is where our process begins. If you want to build one like ours, here’s what you’re going to need:

12”x2”x8’ boards
metal corner brackets (pictured below)
old fence pickets for trim and brace support

And … here we go …

Superman started by placing a corner bracket at every corner of each board. If you are doing a garden box that is two boards high, you’ll need 2 corner brackets per board, like this:

Once he had secured all of the corner brackets, he took some old fence pickets (these happen to be cedar), cut them into braces supports, and put a brace for support every 18” or so on the inside of the box. Our garden box is actually two boxes, put together, sharing a middle divider board. Hope that makes sense. Here. Look (at not the next picture, but 2 pictures down):

After he had done all the corner brackets and fence picket supports, he decided to line the inside of the garden box with some heavy duty plastic. We happened to have some in the garage from back in the day when Superman worked in construction. Y’all could use some heavy duty garbage bags. Or painters plastic/drop cloth. Or something like that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or look nice. It’s all getting covered anyway.

He had to line each side separately, and took advantage of the middle dividing board so he could wrap it around the sides and staple it to the top of the boards. Like this (sorry for the blurry picture):

*** Make sure to line the entire inside of the garden box … it will make a difference in how much water you ultimately end up using.

After both sides were lined with plastic, he decided to trim out the outside of the box. This served two purposes: First and most importantly, it made it look nice. :D And second, it added additional support to the outside of the box. (Sorry for another blurry picture … I’m no photographer, people)

Having brace supports on the inside and outside of the garden box means that the 2,000 lbs of compost and dirt that is about to be dumped into the box won’t warp the box with its weight. He also took the time to trim out the top of the box, which was equally as simple as the brace supports. But, most importantly … it made it look nice. ;)

When he finished the construction, it looked like this:

But. You know my perfectionist Superman can’t leave it like THAT.

All those old fence pickets with worn out stain showing all over? NEVER. Icky. Can’t have that.

So he dug out the extra fence stain (that we ghetto rigged up for cheap) and sprayed it on with his air compressor. And … bingo:

He successfully satisfied both of us: the box is tall enough to keep out bunnies, our silly puppy, most of the preschoolers … and, it makes weeding it much easier on the back. Okay. Those were my requirements. He satisfied all of MY requirements … the poor dude just wanted a garden. He wasn’t picky about how it came to fruition.

Superman is such a rock star. I swear there isn’t anything he can’t do.

And now it’s time for the dirt. We were able to score an awesome deal on compost at our local transfer station (that would be the dump, people). They were selling compost for $18 per cubic yard. A little ghetto rigging of Superman’s truck and he was able to pick up all the compost he needed in 1 trip.

And a whopping $36 later, our giant garden box was filled with dirt. (The ‘whopping’ was a joke, y’all. What a steal!!)

Now, from what we’ve read, we just need to mix in some peat moss and vermiculite and we will be ready to start gardening.

What garden style are we following? Most likely the square foot gardening idea. I like the idea of being told exactly how many of what to plant where. To me, square foot gardening is gardening for dummies. :D

Happy Spring, y’all!! What are you going to plant?!

The jury is still out on exactly what is going in our garden … but, that will be determined VERY soon. Like. Tomorrow.

UPDATE: If you'd like to see what we've planted and check out our progress, go here.

Restoring a Rusty Fire Pit

2013-01-24T19:26:00.001-06:00

I realize I should probably be embarrassed by the condition of my backyard ‘property’ … but … sadly, I’m really not.

I’ve come to realize that it’s just sort of ‘life’. If you own a home, chances are you have rusty eye sores sitting in your backyard.

The more fortunate homeowners either replace their ‘backyard property’ on a somewhat regular basis, or they spend top dollar for things that don’t rust.

Since our budge doesn’t really allow for replacements or top dollar anything … we restore things when they start looking like dumpster diamonds.

Here is our fire pit:

We like to roast marshmallows for s’mores … or roast weenies on a weekend when I’m feeling too lazy to make dinner. Over time … little by little … it rusted away until it became this:

Yikes. It never really bothered me that the pit had gotten rusty … because we just fill it with charcoal and light the thing on fire anyway. But, since Superman was already restoring the grill/smoker, I figured I’d have him do this at the same time.

So, he hit it with a little of our favorite thing (spray paint) in the Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint form …

… Boom. Good as new! (He didn’t spray paint the rack … *** never use spray paint on something that you might cook directly on)

Totally worth every penny of the maybe 50 cents it cost to ‘restore’ this. Y’all go get some Rustoleum. You hear me?

Restoring an ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING BBQ Grill or Smoker

2013-01-24T18:47:00.001-06:00

I know you love the title to this post. ;) I tried hard to come up with a better name. But any other title would not suffice.

So.

Here we go, people.

It’s almost spring time … which means it’s almost summer time … which means it’s almost backyard barbeque time … which means … it’s almost time for you to hang your head in embarrassment because your bbq grill or smoker is “shot”, but raise you hand if you want to fork out ANOTHER $150, $250, $350+ to buy yet ANOTHER bbq grill.

I know, right?

I swear.

Owning a home means … owning a disgusting bbq grill. It’s our rite of passage. And when you own a bbq grill, it DOES become disgusting. And you DO have to replace it. Regularly.

It’s a vicious cycle.

Well. Not anymore, my friends. Not. Any. More.

I’m going to show you how to make ANY disgusting bbq grill or smoker look brand new, like this:

Would you believe we found that pristine BRAND NEW smoker on Craigslist for just $20?!
Yeah.

Me either.

We did, however, find this disgusting looking smoker on Craigslist for just $20:

Straight up.

I think poor Superman thought he was being punk’d when I sent him to pick it up after his shift one morning. Either that, or he thought I was in.sane.

Anyway.

You know what happens when you set a bonfire inside a bbq grill/smoker? No?

I’ll tell you: all of the paint (and disgusting greasy goo) melts off leaving clean steel behind. I tell no lies. Here, take a look:

Check. That. Out.

Bare buck naked steel.

**** DISCLAIMER: Remove anything from the grill/smoker that is rubber, plastic, electrical, etc. Otherwise, those components will also burn up in the high heat inferno. Superman removed the handles, thermometer, temperature control panel, and heat element from inside the smoker before lighting it on fire. PLEASE don’t just set fire to your smoker without removing those key pieces that make it work. K, thanks. :D

Setting a bonfire doesn’t make it shine like that … Superman is a serious over achiever, so he got out his random orbital [electric] sander and lightly sanded all the edges.

So … he sanded … lightly … and sanded some more … lightly. Then he sprayed them with the hose and dried them off.

And then he set all the pieces out on buckets and broomsticks so that he could get to work … wait for it …

… SPRAY PAINTING THEM …

… with Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint.

This. stuff. is. awesome. It withstands heat up to 1,200 degrees. Fan.flipping.tastic.

And, it dries in 2 hours. That, my friends, is what you call: WINNING.

So, he SPRAY PAINTED all the pieces. Y’all try not to fall over dead from shock that we spray painted something, okay? Thanks.

And.

Here it is now:

I'm not gonna lie, I thought it should have been free … but the previous owners were getting ready to have a baby and I wasn’t gonna cheat them out of $20 worth of diapers. Plus, the guy was articulate. And seemed to have achieved an education well beyond 8th grade, which was worth every penny of that $20. (Have you ever dealt through Craigslist? Nothing like Craigslist to make you realize just how, um, ‘educationally challenged’ the general public is.)

Do you SEE that thermometer?! Do you?! That is the same original thermometer, people. It used to look like this:

But with just a little bon fire … and a lot of TLC … it came back to us. :D

Superman even sanded the steel on the handles … and restained the wood dowels using some of the stain from when he refinished our kitchen table.

Seriously.

Isn’t is A-MAZ-ING what you can do with a little spray paint?

Amazing. Rustoleum should be paying me for this stuff. Don’t you think? ;)

PS – It only took 1 can of Rust-Oleum High Heat Spray Paint! (Well, not even a whole can. Maybe half.)

Best. Rain Gutter. Bookshelves. Ever.

2013-01-13T21:49:00.001-06:00

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So.

If you are one of the three people who read this regularly, then you already know about my rain gutter bookshelves.

Dude.

Ugh.

Sigh.

Whhhhhhhhhhhy do I do this to myself? I must loooooooooooooooove nonsense.

I have an affinity for nonsense.

Clearly.

Because, I just had to go back and paint them white. I couldn’t handle the brown any longer. And I know some of y’all might be thinking that I just randomly painted some bookshelves brown to stick out like sore thumbs.

Um.

No.

I painted the bookshelves brown … and then forced my poor Superman to paint my white preschool tables brown … and I bought BROWN framed chairs …. brown, brown, and brown.

I don’t know. I just don’t. So don’t ask.

Like, 2.3876 seconds after finishing the bookshelves AND tables I thought to myself, “I think I liked them better white”.

For real.

FOR REAL.

My poooooooor husband. Now he gets to repaint the tables white this week to match THIS:

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Admit it. Those shelves just sang to you. I know they did.

I’m telling you: the only thing worse than painting those shelves after installing them … is REPAINTING them after botching the first paint color. Learn from my mistake: only WHITE rain gutter bookshelves from here on out.

Amen.

For those of you who are new … here’s how we made them.

Giddy up.

Cause it was fun.

You will need:

* 4” crown moulding in whatever length your shelf will be (this will be the front/decorative portion of the shelf)

* 2” x .50” board in whatever length your shelf will be (this will be the actual shelf that the books sit on)

* 1.25” x .75” trim board, cut into 2” blocks (these are the brackets that will brace the rail across the wall – you will need 15 of them)

* 1.25” x .25” trim board in whatever length your shelf will be (this is the rail that will go above each shelf)

* 3” or 4” screws

* Nail gun

Okey dokey. Here we go.

First of all: do yourself an enormous favor and paint all of the wood to whatever color you want it to be when finished … that way you just have to do minor touch ups when you are finished. Trust me, you do not want to skip this step. We skipped it. Learn from us.

Second, you are going to construct each ‘shelf’ of the wall separately, and then install it onto the wall. There is the shelf and there is a rail. At least, that’s what I am going to call them.

To construct the shelf: Simply measure the 2” board to match the length of the 4” crown moulding; both of which need to be the entire length of the wall, whatever wall you are using. I think Home Depot sells crown moulding in lengths up to 16 feet. That could be fun to get home … but, they sell them. Our wall is just over 10’ long.

Once you’ve got the 2” board cut to the same length as your 4” crown moulding, brace the two together using a nail gun. You want the shelf to sit at the top of the crown moulding as shown in these pictures. Just use your nail gun to shoot some invisible (is that the word?) nails into the front of the mouding, securing it to the shelf portion. Man, I hope this makes sense.

Now that you essentially have the shelf portion put together, you just have to put it on your wall. This also requires your nail gun. Just shoot nails across the bottom of the crown moulding, which will be sitting against the wall. You also want to shoot a few diagonal nails into the back of the top shelf, against the back of the wall. Putty over any tiny nail holes … and then touch up paint when you are finished.

Now, for the top railing above each shelf: Cut each railing piece to the same length as your shelf piece.

Cut 15 – 2” blocks (5 for each railing, unless your shelf is 5 feet or less in length, then you only need 3 per shelf) using 1.25” x .75” trim board. So, your blocks will measure 2” x 1.25” x .75”.

Next, find the studs in your wall. Use a block as a brace bracket on each end, in the center, and then one in each stud on either side of the center. Hope that makes sense. Superman used a nail gut to place each bracket onto the rail before screwing the whole railing, including brackets, into the wall.

Use a 3” piece of scrap wood at each bracket setting to make sure the railing is installed straight and perfectly level. Also, use 3-4” screws to screw all the way through the rail and bracket and into the wall.

Once you have installed all the shelves and all the railings, just caulk or putty over each screw/nail hole and then touch up paint the area.

Then you don’t have to tape off every nook and cranny and then re-tape and repaint the wall when you finish painting the brown shelves. Painting these while they were on the wall was a nightmare. Trust me. So, you’re gonna learn from me and not do that, right? ;)

And, you’re gonna learn from me and not paint them anything but white the first time, RIGHT?! ;)

This is a surprisingly simple and super fast project (maybe 3 hours, start to finish) … Because there isn’t tons of cutting involved. I highly recommend using a spot where you can do wall to wall shelving, like I have done. Then, there aren’t any weird intricate angling cuts trying to finish off the sides of shelving.

I can cram about 200 picture books on these three shelves. Not even joking. Because, with the railing there to keep the books on the shelf, I can stack the books 3-4 books deep, one behind the other.

These shelves are worth every second of tender loving care you put into them.

One last close up of the brackets … you don’t even really notice them at all. These ARE essential. You do have to brace that big long railing several times in between the ends of the shelf. Otherwise, some punk kid is going to put too much weight against the railing and snap the wood. That would just break my heart for you.

And.

For the newbies. Here’s a before and after:

BEFORE

AFTER

For real.

What was I thinking with the brown? Shaking my head in shame now.

How to revamp your old patio furniture … for PENNIES!

2012-12-06T16:18:00.001-06:00

Okay.

Let’s have a little test to see just how ghetto I am (and you are):

Raise your hand if you have rusty old patio furniture in your back yard???

Now. Raise your hand if you have been thinking for months (possibly YEARS), “Dude. That rusty old patio furniture is GHETTO! I need to drag it off to the dump!” ??? (or, in our case, haul it to the street for bulk trash pick up)

Yeah. We are THOSE people.

Behold.

I give you … our rusty old porch swing:

This little gem is 10 years old, people … give or take. We bought it shortly after getting married. And, it’s been a rusty mess since about 2 years after we bought it.

How rusty, you ask? Well. If rusty could rank in belts, like karate, this swing would be sporting a black belt. No lie. It was so rusty that the rust ate the old rust for breakfast … and then the pole thingys holding up the swing broke … and the swing was just dangling there. True story.

This thing was HOPELESS. And every month … about 30 minutes after bulk trash came to pick up, Superman and I would look at each other and say “Crap! We forgot to haul out that piece of junk swing, AGAIN!” We played that game for about … 4 years. At least. (We are THAT ghetto)

See all that rust around the bolts in the picture above? Yeah. You do not want to sit on that swing.

So.

One day … I was outside, admiring my glorious view of this rusty old piece of junk and I thought, “Hot dang! I’m gonna make Superman fix that swing, spray paint it, and save myself a quick $150 on buying a new one!”

Poor. Superman.

But, as always … he obeyed.

*** Y’all. Please do not let Superman know that there are prettier, skinnier, taller, and less demanding wives out there. I don’t think he knows that. Shhh.

So. Off he went. To Home Depot. To buy some steel rods … to replace the rust rods. He bought some steel pipe and some nuts and bolts and screws. I have no idea which ones. But, I don’t think it matters because the chance of you having the EXACT same porch swing as us is slim. If you decide to do this to your patio furniture, just measure your nuts, bolts, screws and go buy new ones in the same sizes. Easy peasy.

So, he brought the steel pipe home, cut it to the exact right size, then hammered the ends so that they were flat, the way he needed them … and then he reconstructed the swing.

See? That steel pipe in the picture above is just plain old galvanized steel pipe that he cut and hammered on the ends to make things fit right. The nuts and bolts are new as well. (Ignore the blurry spot in the middle of the picture on these next few pictures … one of my babies apparently got a hold of my camera, and I didn’t realize the fingerprint until today, when I uploaded the pictures. Fail.)

After he got everything reconstructed, he took his sander and sanded off as much of the rust as he could. Obviously, it would be impossible to get all of it, but the dude tried hard. Because he is Superman.

Then, he put it up on some fence posts, took the seat apart (it all unscrews fairly easily) …

And, then … he sprayed the whole thing with a good coat of Rust-Oleum Primer Spray Paint … that stops the rust. And THEN, he spray painted the whole thing with Rust-Oleum Textured Spray Paint in Desert Beige.

And when he was done … and it was all put back together … and my patio was swept off and the 1,546,893 chalk drawings were washed away … the porch swing actually sang to me.

Dude. Seriously. I can’t even believe what you can accomplish with spray paint. For real. If I ever meet the makers of Rustoleum, I just might kiss them.

I am soooo looking forward to reading the news on my phone while sitting on that swing listening to my kids bicker and argue on the swing set. ;)

And, I know that we are missing a few bolt covers here and there. And it might not be 100% perfect … but, dude. I don’t even care. For about $30 in materials, Superman literally transformed a wasteland into a beautiful oasis.

I love the color and texture. It doesn’t appear to be any different from the original color (which was the point), but the texture is awesome. And, BONUS, Rustoleum guarantee’s their products to be RUST FREE for 2 years! BAM!!

I can’t decide what I love more: the ‘new’ swing … or my clean back porch. Sidewalk chalk can junk up everything in no time flat.

And he finished it just in time to celebrate this chilly weather with a s’mores roasting party with our kiddos this weekend.

I can’t wait!

As always, here’s one last side by side comparison:

Man. I love Superman. The guy just plain rocks my socks off with EVERY renovation he does. This project makes me want to go hunting/dumpster diving for old patio furniture … that we can hit with a little Rustoleum and turn into a treasure. I’m doing it!!! (Meanwhile, Superman shakes his head … poor guy!!)

Homemade Toys That Last–Hot Wheels Track

2012-11-10T11:56:00.001-06:00

Y’all try not to fall over dead from shock and awe that I’m finally posting another project. It’s been a rough 2 months.

That surgery was a total beating. And it compounded a problem that was caused by another doctor’s error. Still broken. Still trying to figure out how to be fixed. So, in the meantime, our projects have taken a MAJOR stand still. But, I’ll still try to post the little things we manage to get done. Sigh.

Well. Christmas is coming. And … four years later … here we sit. Still in a deep recession. And, four years later, here we sit … with life marching on. And kids getting older. And things still needing to get done.

So, I offer you the first (of a few more to come) idea for inexpensive homemade Christmas gifts:

A Race Car Track

(Think: Disney’s Cars … or Hot Wheels … pick your poison)

I’ll be honest. I actually made this 3 years ago. And it’s been through a total beating of my two kids plus multitudes of other preschoolers. And it has held up unbelievably well. And, it’s still the favorite ‘center’ during preschool: CARS.

Here’s all you’ll need:

1/2 sheet (or whatever size you want) of Masonite in 1/4 inch thickness

Some acrylic paint (black, white, green … yellow, if you’d rather draw a double yellow line or yellow dashed line)

And that’s it! We’re talking … $10, all in. MAX. And this track never has to be put together. It never breaks apart. And it seriously stands the test of time. Trust me.

I designed this simple little layout. Used a ruler and a sample curved edge (just cut one out of poster board to trace around so all your curves are uniform).

Simply draw whatever layout you want for your track onto the Masonite using a pencil. I suggest painting the black road first … then the grassy area surrounding (if you want yours to be dirt road-like, just use some brown instead of green).

Once you’ve got the black road painted, get to work on the green … and leave the white stripes for last.

All in, $10 … and maybe a couple hours of time, depending on how meticulous your are with your track drawing/painting.

In these pictures, I have the track set up on the table, which is how my kids prefer it.

However, when I designed it three years ago, I planned on it being on the floor all the time … look at how little they were!!! And, because I didn’t know how to store it when it wasn’t being used, I just had Superman cut the Masonite to exact measurements so that it could slide right underneath that red couch in the picture below.

It is by far the best $10 I’ve ever spent on the kids. As I type this, the two of them are in the other room play Lightning and Sally … 3 years later. Age almost 4 and 6 yrs … and they’re still playing with it DAILY.

I’ve since sold that red couch … so now, I just slide the track behind the entertainment center in the preschool room (you can see it in the background of the first picture above) whenever it’s not in use.

Happy Christmas present making, y’all!! Wishing times were better and we all had a little more to go around … but … instead, we’ll just have to make the best with what we’ve got!

PS- You should be able to buy those little Hot Wheels cars for pretty cheap. The Disney Cars brand cars are a serious investment. Sigh.

Upgraded Rain Gutter Bookshelves

2012-09-08T10:22:00.001-05:00

I did something really crazy.

I, I mean Superman, beefed up my, I mean the kids’ bookshelf wall so it’s even MORE awesome.
Feast your eyes:

And, in case you can’t remember what it used to look like, here’s the ‘before’:

First of all, I haven’t decided if the Turkish Coffee color is here to stay or not, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the railing above the books. Wanna know why? My punk kids can now put books away without them falling right back off the wall.

There was a flaw in these adorable shelves that we noticed after the ‘new’ wore off them: there was no way to insure that the books on the wall STAYED on the wall.

I complained to Superman. Told him how much I loved the bookshelf. Didn’t want it to go. But WISHED there was a way to keep the books on the wall.

I had clearly forgotten that I had married a genius.

He instantly recommended that we simply put a rail just above each shelf.

D.U.H.

So, here we go. Another attempt at some sort of a tutorial. Yay me! :D

You will need:

* 4” crown moulding in whatever length your shelf will be (this will be the front/decorative portion of the shelf)

* 2” x .50” board in whatever length your shelf will be (this will be the actual shelf that the books sit on)

* 1.25” x .75” trim board, cut into 2” blocks (these are the brackets that will brace the rail across the wall – you will need 15 of them)

* 1.25” x .25” trim board in whatever length your shelf will be (this is the rail that will go above each shelf)

* 3” or 4” screws

* Nail gun

Okey dokey. Here we go.

First of all: do yourself an enormous favor and paint all of the wood to whatever color you want it to be when finished … that way you just have to do minor touch ups when you are finished. Trust me, you do not want to skip this step. We skipped it. Learn from us.

Second, you are going to construct each ‘shelf’ of the wall separately, and then install it onto the wall. There is the shelf and there is a rail. At least, that’s what I am going to call them.

To construct the shelf: Simply measure the 2” board to match the length of the 4” crown moulding; both of which need to be the entire length of the wall, whatever wall you are using. I think Home Depot sells crown moulding in lengths up to 16 feet. That could be fun to get home … but, they sell them. Our wall is just over 10’ long.

Once you’ve got the 2” board cut to the same length as your 4” crown moulding, brace the two together using a nail gun. You want the shelf to sit at the top of the crown moulding as shown in these pictures. Just use your nail gun to shoot some invisible (is that the word?) nails into the front of the mouding, securing it to the shelf portion. Man, I hope this makes sense.

Now that you essentially have the shelf portion put together, you just have to put it on your wall. This also requires your nail gun. Just shoot nails across the bottom of the crown moulding, which will be sitting against the wall. You also want to shoot a few diagonal nails into the back of the top shelf, against the back of the wall. Putty over any tiny nail holes … and then touch up paint when you are finished.

Now, for the top railing above each shelf: Cut each railing piece to the same length as your shelf piece.

Cut 15 – 2” blocks (5 for each railing, unless your shelf is 5 feet or less in length, then you only need 3 per shelf) using 1.25” x .75” trim board. So, your blocks will measure 2” x 1.25” x .75”.

Next, find the studs in your wall. Use a block as a brace bracket on each end, in the center, and then one in each stud on either side of the center. Hope that makes sense. Superman used a nail gut to place each bracket onto the rail before screwing the whole railing, including brackets, into the wall.

Use a 3” piece of scrap wood at each bracket setting to make sure the railing is installed straight and perfectly level. Also, use 3-4” screws to screw all the way through the rail and bracket and into the wall.

Once you have installed all the shelves and all the railings, just caulk or putty over each screw/nail hole and then touch up paint the area.

Then you don’t have to tape off every nook and cranny and then re-tape and repaint the wall when you finish painting the brown shelves. Painting these while they were on the wall was a nightmare. Trust me. So, you’re gonna learn from me and not do that, right? ;)

This is a surprisingly simple and super fast project (maybe 3 hours, start to finish) … Because there isn’t tons of cutting involved. I highly recommend using a spot where you can do wall to wall shelving, like I have done. Then, there aren’t any weird intricate angling cuts trying to finish off the sides of shelving.

I can cram about 200 picture books on these three shelves. Not even joking. Because, with the railing there to keep the books on the shelf, I can stack the books 3-4 books deep, one behind the other.

These shelves are worth every second of tender loving care you put into them.

One last close up of the brackets … you don’t even really notice them at all. These ARE essential. You do have to brace that big long railing several times in between the ends of the shelf. Otherwise, some punk kid is going to put too much weight against the railing and snap the wood. That would just break my heart for you.

So, what do you think? Should I keep them brown? Or paint them back to white?

(I’m leaning towards brown, mostly because they were so frustrating to paint in the first place)

Pottery Barn Kid’s Knock-off Table/Train Table–$40!!

2012-09-05T18:40:00.001-05:00

Okay. This is a tutorial. Wherein I will attempt to tell you how to create something that I did not in fact create myself. This could be interesting. (New here? Well, I don’t do much … I boss my husband around and he does all the hard work … this makes tutorials sorta tricky)

Here it is … a 4 foot x 6 foot adorable train table that even Pottery Barn would be proud of. :D

Here’s what you need:

* 1/2 sheet of 5/8” MDF (1/2 sheet is 4’x6’, full sheet is 8’x6’) ($10)
* 30' feet of 1.5” x .75” trim board ($15)
* 1 8 foot 3.5” x 3.5” square fence post (you’d think they’d be 4” x 4”, but they aren’t) ($10)
* About 1/2 quart of white oil based ENAMEL paint ($5, give or take)
* A bunch of screws and a few dowels … you may or may not have these lying around. We did.

So, go to Home Depot. Find a full sheet of 5/8” MDF. Haul it over to the saw and ask an employee to cut the thing in half, so you have 2 4’x6’ sheets.

Grab the fence post and take that to the saw too, unless you just like cutting stuff yourself. Have them cut the post into 4 – 20” pieces for the legs of the table.

Next, grab your trim (Superman used 1.5” x .75” trim) and have them cut 2 – 6’ and 2 – 4’ pieces for you. This will be the edges under the top of the table (you’ll cut/trim them down farther when you get home).

Finally, take home about another 10 feet of the trim, to use for the pieces under the table (as shown in the picture below).

When you get home:
Lay the MDF (top of table) on the floor. Measure in 1 1/4” from each outer edge. Trim the 4’ and 6’ pieces to fit. If you are confident in Home Depot’s trimming skills, you can just have them cut those pieces to be 2.5” shorter (so, 5’ 9.5” and 3’ 9.5”).

After you have cut out those trim pieces, get the drill … it’s time for dowels. Place a dowel in the center of the trim piece and then one on either side of that, centered, on all 4 sides. So, 12 dowels total. Once you’ve drilled the dowel holes, take your table legs and measure pieces off of the remaining 10 feet of trim you brought home. You’ll need 8 – 3.5” pieces, cut with a miter saw at a 45 degree angle, shown in the picture below. You’ll also need 4 – 10” pieces to brace the table leg, as shown. Once you have all those pieces cut out (and make several mistakes and waste a bunch of trim trying to get them all right), you can start assembling.

Make sure to run some wood glue under the trim piece and inside each dowel. This will give extra support to the table. You are going to screw the legs on as shown in the picture above and below.

Make sure to putty over the screws that show on the trim on the outside of the table.

Once you’ve constructed it, sand and round the top edges of the table … and sand the putty areas and any rough spots through out the whole table.

Wipe it down clean removing any dust.

Then, Paint it.

Superman used an air compressor and paint canister to spray the enamel on. You can use a fine sponge roller to roller it on if you don’t have an air compressor/paint canister.

I think, start to finish, it took Superman about 3-4 hours to construct this. It’s really not a bad project at all; especially when you consider how much Pottery Barn wants for a table that looks almost identical.

Here, see for yourself:

This is Pottery Barn Kid’s Carolina Play Table, the ‘large’ one (which is still only 45” x 30” x 22”h) and it runs $179.00 before tax. O.U.C.H.

The table Superman made is more than TWICE the size for less than 1/4th the price.

That’s what you call WINNING, my friends. :D

And, I know I’m partial, but I like mine better. The sturdiness of the thick post legs just helps anchor the table, in my opinion.

Wondering what to do with the other half sheet of MDF? Well, you could make a second table, or you could go here (http://stylewithcents.blogspot.com/2012/01/creating-inexpensive-playroom.html) and make a corner shelf for the TV in your playroom:

Happy table making, y’all! :D

Refinishing a Kitchen Table

2012-08-03T22:11:00.001-05:00

Howdy y’all.

I bet you were starting to think that we weren’t really still over here workin’ our booties off, huh?

Yeah.

Well. You were wrong. ;)

And, I know that this blog is sort of annoying because I just show before and after pictures … but … that’s all I’ve got for you today too. See, here’s the deal: the whole step by step tutorial thing isn’t really me because – truth be known – I have no earthly clue how to do this stuff. Pretty much I tell my husband my idea and then he spends days and weeks executing my idea in one way or another.
And … to be honest … I’m afraid of manual labor. I’m not a snob. And I’m not spoiled or pampered or anything. I don’t go to salons. I’ve never heard of most designer brands.

However.

Please hear me when I say this: manual. labor. is. not. my. thing.

Like, at all.

So, in order for me to give you instructions, I have to ask Superman for step by step details and then type them out here. Because there’s no way I’m showing my face in a 110 degree garage unless I absolutely have to; otherwise, I know I’d get roped into my horrible ideas ALL the time.

So, having said that … please no hate mail about how I don’t show you how to do stuff. You hear me, Rebecca? ;)

By now, you’ve all seen my sad, sad, sad kitchen table. If not, feast your eyes:

What these pictures don’t show is all the thousands of nicks. Scrapes. Fork marks. Teeth marks. Rubber cement marks. Sharpe scribbles. And, white rings from eating hot pizza on paper plates (don’t you hate that?!). This table was in BAD shape. (Somehow these pictures hide that nightmarish problem)

Lucky for us, we bought this bonafide Pottery Barn gem off my sister when she moved to a smaller house and couldn’t fit it. That was 7 years ago … and 2 kids ago. And many many preschool students ago. And, lucky for us, Pottery Barn used solid wood on this kitchen table and benches.

So, Superman sanded the entire thing down to the bones. And when I say he sanded, I mean he SANDED. This isn’t a project where you can just lightly rough up the lacquer. He was re-staining and refinishing the table.

And, since he is Superman, he took the entire table and both benches completely apart, sanded them to raw wood, stained them, and then lacquered everything.

He used a Minwax Wood Finish in a Dark Walnut color to stain the table. Then, he sanded all the fine wood hairs until the table was smooth again. Then, he applied one coat of Minwax Tung Oil with GLOSS finish. When it was dry, he sanded everything down with steel wool and applied a second coat. When that was dry, he sanded it all down with steel wool again and went for a third coat. He repeated the process until the table had 6 coats of Tung Oil. No, I’m not joking. The thing shines like glass and looks amazing.

Here, have a looksie:

And how much more awesome does my little shelf/bar/munchkin table look with that bangin’ new kitchen table next to it? Way more awesome.

Wanna know how much it cost us to get a new kitchen table and benches? $40. + a lot of dedication, sweat, patience, sweat … sweat … and sweat.

For.Ty. Dollars, y’all. Boom. (Ignore the toy dinosaur taking a break on the back bench … I gave him permission)

Now kids … what have we learned today? Buy. Good. Furniture. Because your kids are going to beat it to hell … and when they do … you can sand it all down and refinish it for pennies; instead of forking out more money to buy another table for them to trash.

As always, he did a great job! Sorry, my non-tutorials suck. But, y’all can TOTALLY do this. Refinishing a table doesn’t require a ton of skill or finesse or brains or brawns. Like the rest of our projects, you’ve just gotta be patient. Slow and steady wins the race. :D

Here’s the before and after:

Staining your worn out fence for dirt cheap …

2012-03-27T22:54:00.001-05:00

Okay. So this project is no where near as fun to look at as a kitchen or bathroom remodel … but nevertheless, it was on our list and we found a way to save a boat load of money … so here we are.

As I’ve said before, we bought this house 6 1/2 years ago. What I haven’t said is WHY we bought this house. I grew up in a much more urban area than I live in now … and my husband grew up in the country. We compromised … and moved slightly farther out, but I didn’t cave and buy a barn chock full of barn animals either. However, we did buy a home with a decent sized yard. The tax documents say that our home lot is 1/2 an acre. For those of you living on farms … stop laughing. For my more urban self, 1/2 acre is about a 1/2 acre more than I was looking for. So, in a nutshell, we bought the house for the yard. Not the brass. Not the white Formica. Not the builder grade carpet. It was the yard. We bought it for the yard. And never looked back. ;)

Said 1/2 acre also comes with a LOT of wood fence. So much wood fence, that it required 25 gallons of paint/stain to cover it. Fence stain isn’t cheap, in case you haven’t priced it out yet. So … after pricing it out 6 1/2 years ago … we promptly gave up on the idea of spending $900 on fence stain. Yes, folks. I said $900. On. Fence stain.

So, fast forward 6 1/2 years … and our fence was looking nice and … nasty. Ugly. Gray. Worn. Weathered. We knew we were going to have to replace the whole thing soon … because we never did splurge on the $900 for fence stain.

Then, about 6 months ago, a big storm knocked down the entire back side of our fence. We were exposed. Luckily, Superman has salvaged a bunch of steel fence posts from the neighborhood (HOA) fence that was being replaced prematurely (because there wasn’t a thing wrong with these steel fence posts). So, he set the steel fence posts in concrete and bought new cross panels. Then, he took off each and every picket, pulled all the nails out … and screwed each one back up. (He’s only done this along the back side so far, but we have steel posts for the entire perimeter … another day … another project)

Then, he bleached the fence, to wash out all the old gray. And then. THEN, Superman got one of his best ideas yet. He noticed during a routine Home Depot visit that they were selling several 5 gallon buckets of fence stain for $20 (they are usually $180/each). Home Depot calls these particular buckets … ‘Oops’ paint. It’s paint that people have purchased but didn’t like, so they took the paint back for whatever reason. Only problem? Every color is completely and totally horrid. Like, so ugly that you have NO idea why anyone would have thought to purchase it in the first place.

However … If you buy 5 different colors and dump them all together … and then add a little tint … you end up with a decent color. And, you also end up with 25 gallons of said decent color. So … that is just what Superman did. He bought 5 separate 5 gallon buckets and dumped them all into a big trash can (probably a 35 gallon can). Then, he stirred and mixed and mixed and stirred. And finally … for the grand total of $100 … we had the perfect color and enough stain to make our ugly old fence look new again. Take a look for yourself. :D
Here is the fence before (we did have to replace about 40 pickets because there were about 40 overall that just weren’t worth salvaging) the stain, but after the bleach process:

And here it is after the stain:

See. There are still a few wobbly looking fence posts, but those will soon be replaced with steel ones anyway. For now … it did the trick and fixed a HUGE eye sore … for very little money, considering how big our fence actually is. I am only showing you a tiny little corner of this great big old fence. :D

So, y’all … run, run, run. Find yourself some ‘Oops’ paint. And fix your old worn out fence. You won’t regret it!

Total cost: $100. For about 1,000 linear feet. Give or take a couple hundred. Brilliant.

The $750 Complete Kitchen Remodel

2012-03-27T18:35:00.001-05:00

Finally. Here it is.

It took a total of 5 weeks, start to finish. Minus 2 days. 2 days shy of 5 weeks … not bad, considering that this was a one man project. I’m telling you. He. Is. Superman.

Without further chatter, here are the before pictures:

Typical builder grade, pre-fab wood cabinets … complete with bright white wood trimmed formica. And uber boring backsplash.

Lots of fake/faux wood veneer on every side panel of the cabinets. Builder penny pinching at its finest.

I would like to say that there wasn’t anything wrong with our kitchen. If your kitchen looks like mine, it’s a lovely fully functioning kitchen … it’s just boring. That’s all. ;)

And the desk. Oh man. The desk. Two tiny cabinets that didn’t hold much at all. That desk was a continual struggle for my OCD self.

Paper hanging lanterns … cause I used to think they looked ‘cool’. I don’t know. I really just don’t know. So, don’t ask.

This 7” white porcelain sink might have been my absolute least favorite thing about this very plain kitchen. It was the ‘armpit’ of the kitchen, if you will.

And finally, my el cheapo IKEA chair … purchased many years ago out of desperation when I just couldn’t find a desk chair (within my budget) that I liked.

Combine all those boring builder grade (or worse) aspects … wait 6 1/2 years … and you’ll be where I was at. I was just plain tired of that kitchen. Tired of keeping it clean. Tired of cooking in it. Entertaining in it. Doing dishes in it. I needed change.

And … here we are:

Superman ripped out the crown moulding on the cabinets and replaced it with thicker moulding, added trim on the bottom side of the cabinets, installed under cabinet lighting, replaced the veneer side panels with trimmed bead board, painted the inside and outside of the cabinets, replaced the counters with marble, replaced the sink, replaced the backsplash with split faced travertine, replaced light fixtures … and then, called it quits. :D

There really are no words for the finished product. That backsplash consists of 1,700 tiles … each placed one at a time.

The marble tiles used for the countertops were painstakingly cut to be installed with a zero grout line.

We found unfinished cabinets at Home Depot for roughly $200 … and Superman finished them out with paint, crown moulding, bead board, and under trim to match the rest. He’s going to install under cabinet lighting here as well … and clearly, we have a cord situation that we need to take care of; but, overall, I am very pleased with the desk area.

I kissed all of the IKEA mirrors and clutter goodbye … and hung a homemade-by-Superman triple mirror in its place.

Superman even refinished my kitchen table … read about that here.

We also replaced the paper lantern with an identical ceiling fan … this is Dallas, people. You cannot have too many ceiling fans … and this new addition makes ceiling fan #9 for this house. :D

The lights above the sink and desk are original to the home … we dug them back out of the attic and spray painted the brass bases with the oil rubbed bronze paint.

He did such a beautiful job … I am truly one spoiled girl.

One of my favorite parts is the new stainless 9” deep sink and goose neck faucet, with built in soap dispenser. :D I know I sound silly. It’s the little things.

To give the chair a face lift, he sprayed the base with oil rubbed bronze spray paint … and then painted the seat and back to match the cabinets. I love it!

So, here are the before and after pictures … side by side.

Here is the break down of cost, for those interested in duplicating something similar:

Marble tiles (Crema Fedora): $200 (about 100 feet at $2/ft)

Paint (Sherwin Williams Turkish Coffee in an oil based glossy enamel): $50

Sink and faucet (sold together as a set at Home Depot): $250

Pre-fab unfinished cabinets: $200

Under cabinet lighting: $50

We spent a total of about $750 … but that backsplash was free for us. Superman brought it home about 5 years ago when he was working in home building. Another homeowner didn’t like the backsplash, so it was ripped off the wall. We cut the tiles off the fiberglass backing and scraped all the glue off and then installed them one at a time. It was a labor of love … but that same backsplash would have been $15/ft otherwise.

I’m currently pricing new appliances … I’ve found several appliance packages for all 4 of our built in appliances that sell for around $800 for all 4 total, through Craigslist. I’m just trying to sell a few things to pay for them, so I don’t feel guilty going out of pocket for an unnecessary purchase. The bulk of this kitchen remodel was funded by Christmas money we received from my parents, Gary’s parents, and family. Gotta love that. ;)

What do you think? Worth $750?? ;)

PS- I do not know why all of my pictures are blurry when I upload them. They aren’t blurry on my computer. Sorry.

How To: Hang Train Tracks

2012-01-16T14:49:00.001-06:00

Y’all are really going to love this one!!!

To begin this project, you need to put together your train tracks and measure to see how big your sheet of masonite board needs to be.

We measured both train sets and cut the masonite boards accordingly. Since we were hanging these on our walls, I wanted them framed … just to add a little bit more of a “finished” touch. (You totally don’t have to do this, if you want to skip a step … and not worry about miter cuts.) We used baseboard for the frames. This project uses 1 sheet of masonite and about 20 feet of baseboard. And then, of course a couple cans of white enamel spray paint (unless you really feel like brushing all that paint on with a brush). Total cost is: just under $30. (Give or take, depending on the glues, adhesives, and paints you have on hand already)

We used a combination of both hot glue and Gorilla glue to attach the frames/baseboard to the boards, then caulked around the inside of the frame to give it the finishing touch.

Once you finish your boards and the paint is dry, lay them flat and once again, put your train tracks together on top of them. Then remove the track, one piece at a time …

… and DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use liquid nails to adhere them to the board. If you try this method, you will find that the glue is no where near as flexible as it needs to be … you will have kiddos crawling across these boards and those tracks will pop right off. Trust me. I speak from experience.

Instead, grab some industrial strength velcro. It’s stronger than liquid nails. Not even joking.

So, remove one piece of track at a time and place a strip of double sided sticky backed velcro on the underside and place the piece of track back in its place. It’s a tedious task … just keep reminding yourself that it is the last time you’ll ever have to put those tricky train sets together!! :D

Once you get the tracks good and stuck on with the velcro (our new favorite adhesive), you can begin brain storming the myriad of options you have for hanging them on your wall. Or, you can learn from all our trial and error and go with the option we chose:

Superman used some solid wood scraps to build little bottom braces to set the trains on. These are mounted to the wall with 3” screws, drilled into studs. (We’ll paint the front of those screws someday … right now … they don’t bother me too much.)

Then, he used some more solid wood scraps to build some top braces that swivel up and down to lock and unlock the boards in place. Seriously. This was pure genius. It makes it super easy to put them away and take them back down again. I’m in love with his problem solving. And, it’s super easy and inexpensive to make these braces.

The end result is pure genius and adorable and functional all at the same time.

The storage space in the toy closet was dramatically cut back … because now I just have two small plastic shoe box size bins with all the trains and controls and props in them.

And now, when my kids say, “Mom, can we play trains?” … I don’t cringe at the thought of having to spend a solid 20 minutes trying to figure out exactly how those trains go together.

And, because the trains are stuck to the board, there is no more crying over one of them messing up or breaking the train track.

Which means that there is that much less fussing and whining and crying in our house on a daily basis.

So, do it! It’s cheaper than buying a train table, takes up hardly any room in storage, saves on time, and makes for a happier playing environment.

You’re welcome! ;)

Creating an Inexpensive Playroom

2012-01-16T14:04:00.001-06:00

(**Here is the tutorial for Hanging Train Tracks on the Wall. )

As I’ve said before in previous posts, my Grandma lived with us for nearly three years. She recently moved elsewhere, which meant that we had an extra room upstairs. This is the room we lived in while she was with us. (Hence the paint color – something that we don’t feel like changing right now.)

We had two choices: create a guest room (with the furniture we already had), or sell said furniture (and giant king size bed) and create a playroom for the little guys upstairs.

We went with the second option. Who really NEEDS a guest room that gets used once or twice a year? Not us.
Our only problem?

We had ZERO playroom furniture. No entertainment center. No bookcase. No wall hangings. Nothing.
So, we budgeted a very small amount of money towards creating a playroom out of nothing.

And, here is what we came up with:

I’m in LOVE with this cute little room. We had several problems to solve along the way. First problem: Where to put the giant TV (this is an old school TV … that weighs 250 lbs. Not exaggerating or making a joke – it really weighs that much!). We decided it would take up the least amount of room if it was in the corner of the room.

So, I brain stormed and told Superman my idea for a corner-double-shelf-slash-built-in-thingy. I drew out a simple sketch of what I was talking about and he said, “You go get the materials and I’ll build it.” Superman HATES going to Home Depot. Isn’t that hysterical?! I think so.

Anyway, I went to Home Depot and figured out that I could buy one sheet of MDF (they come 4’x8’) and cut that in half … and then cut both halves into half again, but diagonally, and that would give me the 4 perfect sized pieces that I needed for the top and bottom of each shelf. Then, I grabbed 3 pre-cut shelves (the kind they install in your laundry room and pantry – also made of MDF), and that would be enough for the sides and center support. Total price? $13 for the sheet of MDF and $27 for the shelves, so $40 for the pseudo entertainment center … plus a couple cans of white enamel spray paint (Rustoleum, of course ;). Superman knocked that out in one afternoon. (He drilled big 2” holes in the back of the top shelf so that the cords to the DVD and Xbox could hang down behind the TV, instead of hanging all over in front.)
The best part about this corner shelf idea: ALL THE ROOM TO STORE STUFFED ANIMALS! Seriously. By far, my most favorite part. My kids LOVE stuffed animals. It’s always baffled me. I have zero use, need, or value for stuffed animals, so it takes everything in me to not chuck all of them in the Salvation Army bucket.

(There was a trick to setting them all up, and I’m short, so this isn’t the best view, but I put a couple old boxes in the back, covered those up with a blanket, and then topped them with the animals. It made the ones in the back sit high enough to be seen. Silly idea, but it made a big difference in the display.)

And now for another one of the problems we came across: This is a VERY small room … and my kids have a TON of toys. I blame Santa and popularity (large birthday parties). LOL!! Y’all know I’m joking, right? Anyway.

So, I told Gary that it would be awesome if we adhered their train sets to boards so that we didn’t need to take up a ton of room (which we didn’t have) with a train table. (I’ll do a separate post with a tutorial on how to do this. Because, believe me, there was PLENTY of trial and error that went into this.)

So, that solved the no-room-for-a-train-table dilemma. And, it also solved a few other dilemmas: 1. We never have to set up these train sets again!!!! These aren’t easy to set up train sets, or like the IKEA trains that you put together in a number of ways. These train sets have specific directions on how they go together. It’s a nightmare for small kiddos. 2. We didn’t have to come up with any “playroom friendly” wall décor on either of those walls. This was a huge bonus because it totally saved us money (and, I can never find kid type art/wall décor that I like enough to buy and hang).

(I would like to throw a super random plug in here to the parents who picked traditional names for their children … go to eBay and type “Pottery Barn Kids your child’s name” into the search engine. You will be amazed at all the cute and inexpensive things you can find. I found these chair covers for $4.99/each WITH THE MONOGRAM! It’s been years since I bought them, but at the time, there was a knock off manufacturer who made the insert for the chairs and sold them for $20 (they might still be selling on eBay – you never know!). So, I paid $25/each for these chairs, when PBK sells them for close to $100, including monogram. So … check out eBay. I go on from time to time just to see what cute monogrammed things are for sale.)

Problem number three … a smaller part of our original problem … no bookcase. My 3 year old is an avid reader. Stop laughing. I’m dead serious. We were blessed with a child prodigy who is smart beyond her years and has a voracious appetite for reading and books. (No, she doesn’t ACTUALLY read … but she can recite books, word for word, after we’ve read them to her.)

So, we needed somewhere for all of the upstairs books. (I teach preschool and have a classroom downstairs full of books … but we’ve always had a ton of “special” books upstairs that she reads in her room, etc.) I went to IKEA and found similar shelves … but they were $14.99/each. So, once again, I told/showed Superman what I wanted for bookshelves. He sent me to Home Depot … and when I got home, I sent him to the garage. The finished product is perfect!

They are deep enough to hold several books on each. These three little shelves house 78 books! SCORE! (We used crown molding and strips of MDF for the shelf. Total cost for all three shelves: $12. Take that, IKEA.)

I don’t know why the paint color in this room is photographing so unevenly. In case you want the name of this color, it is Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. Pretty much the most beautiful color ever. Not lying.

These two little shelves used to be in our upstairs bathroom before we did the makeover in there. When we took them down, I knew exactly where I wanted to use them next. Since I have such an extreme love for stuffed animals (dripping with sarcasm), I thought they would make for cute decoration if displayed on these little shelves. Note: I hung them high enough that my kids can’t reach them. Because they seriously really are just for decoration. I’m mean like that.

For those wondering … yes, Superman did make this play kitchen. He made it during Thanksgiving Break a couple years ago while we were at his parent’s house. His Dad is Superman, Sr. and the two of them spent quite some time in his Dad’s shop putting this together WITHOUT A PATTERN/PLAN. They just made their own dimensions and went with it. They. Are. Amazing. (The sink is a stainless steel bowl and the oven window is complete with a sheet of plexiglass. Adorable.)

So, back to the second problem of having very little room in the room … I solved that by dedicating every inch of the walk-in closet to shelving for toys … and by removing all ‘toys’ from the room and organizing them onto the shelves in the closet.

Oh. And the ceiling fan in their playroom used to be … drum roll please … BRASS. Superman took that down, removed the fan blades, and sprayed all the brass with oil rubbed bronze spray paint instead. It looks SO much better.

When he got done, he said: “I actually kind of like that fan now.” My sentiments exactly. We’re giving all those builder grade fixtures ‘the finger’ and it feels great! :D

So … go ahead … lay out your plan of attack for your playroom.

I promise … it will be worth it and your kiddos will LOVE you for it!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I don’t miss hearing, “MOM!!! Ashley broke the train track AGAIN!!!!!” It’s like sweet {non} music to my ears.

Here is the tutorial for Hanging Train Tracks on the Wall.

Re-Using an old, discarded chandelier

2012-01-13T18:32:00.001-06:00

We are the original owners of our house. When we moved in, there was a dated BRASS chandelier in the “formal” dining room.

A carpeted formal dining room.

Seriously? Who eats on carpet?

Well, we quickly replaced the chandelier with a ceiling fan … because we live in Dallas … and we were never using the carpeted room for a formal dining room anyway.

To my complete shock (and almost horror), Superman found the chandelier in our attic recently. I don’t know why we hung on to it because there is NO way I would hang it in our house. You’ve seen it before. You might even HAVE this exact chandelier in your home. If you do and you love it, my apologies.

Here is the most recent victim of our Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint goodness:

I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture … you know … before we declared war on all that brass.

After we sprayed it with oil rubbed bronze, I was so excited that I had hung on to that ugly brass chandelier because I knew exactly where it needed to go …

… in our entry way. To replace … yet again … more brass. I almost didn’t get a ‘before’ picture of that dusty hanging light. I had to snap a quick pic while Superman was on the ladder taking it down.

We used the same long chain from the original hanging light and just spray painted that too … we needed it … the other chain just wasn’t long enough.

It took Superman a couple hours to take the old one down, remove the chain/wiring, spray paint it, and then re-wire the chain and wires to the newly spray painted chandelier. Then, he hung it up … and holy moly …

… it looks so much better than the dated brass hunk of glass and junk that used to hang in its place.

Seriously. For the whole $2 worth of paint that it took to change out the two fixtures, it was WELL worth it. Because at this point in time, the game is: trying to change everything out while spending the least amount of money possible.

Mission. Accomplished.