650 square feet

Ran Out of Space!!!! Not Talking About Outer Space!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Since I recently, as in last night, ran out of space on my blogger blog (this blog, the one right here, the one that you're reading now) I am MOVING MY BLOG. OH NO!!!!

It's not a big deal. However, I am moving to Wordpress because they offer 3 GB of space versus Blogger's 1 GB of space. That's three times the space for those of you un-fond of math! Really, really basic math!

The catch is that some stinker at wordpress already has my blog's name. And technically my place isn't even 650 square feet, it's actually like 645 square feet. WHOOPS. So anyway. I'm changing the name. For now it is going to be FRULOU. So my site is frulou.wordpress.com. This will be until I think of a better name, or until I get so used to that one that I decide to keep it! Kind of like how my parents feel about me! HA HA!

Rug Painting Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:53:00 +0000

Remember ~~100 years ago~~ two months ago when I posted about painting a rug I bought at Ikea? I've made progress.

Taping is the lame part of the project for sure. I taped. I painted. I taped. I painted.

And then I finished! Well, I'm thisclose. I just have to go back and fill in any pesky little white spots where they're supposed to be coral.

Next I get to do the fun part, rip off the tape! Woo hoo! I'll be back tomorrow with the full tutorial and final reveal.

My Favorite Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:24:00 +0000

I read blogs a lot. As in, every day, multiple times per day, all day long. I use Google Reader to keep up with my subscriptions. Here are a few of my favorites.

Comic - Hyperbole and a Half. She hasn't posted regularly (or at all) in ages, but her work is the epitome of funny to me. Her archives are worth a read for sure.

Cute - My Milk Toof. Follow the adventures of two clay teeth. For some reason that actually sounds kind of scary...but it's quite cute.

Corporate - A Bullseye View. Target's blog is the cream of the crop as far as corporate blogs go. Learn about Target's history, culture, and product design process.

Crafty Contractor - DIY Diva. Kit is my number one role model. This woman can do everything I dream of doing: re-roof a house, sand hardwood floors, build her own furniture, and more. She's amazing. She's also a licensed contractor in her state.

Cooking - ?

I'm still looking out for my favorite Cooking blog. I'm so picky with recipes I usually just come up with my own. I'd love to find a great cooking/baking blog to follow though (with a health conscious/sugar-alternative/vegan angle - see why I can't find one??). What are your favorite blogs?

Pumpkin Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:37:00 +0000

At this point I haven't put much on the walls in my place, except three mirrors, my degree, and a cubby/organizer thing above my desk. But the weekend before last I went to my favorite vintage store, Feathers & Twigs. I found this awesome original painting of a little girl and her orange cat. It made me think of my kitty Pumpkin, that I lost almost exactly a year ago. Of course I took it home (for $6).

I wasn't crazy about the frame; it just wasn't chunky enough. Here's the painting with the original frame behind it:

And the Virserum frame I picked up from Ikea (it also comes in dark brown and costs $10.99).

Of course, since it's from Ikea, there is some assembly required. All you have to do is install two little clips on the back and wrap the included wire around them. Then you can hang the picture from the wire. Easy.

Viserum Frame from Ikea

Here's the painting on the wall. Of course the mat in the frame covers up some of the painting. But I still like the way it looks.

Oh yeah, and I put in the hallway. In case you couldn't tell! Every time I see it I think of Pumpkin, which is very nice.

Now I only have, like, a billion other spaces on the wall to fill. Yay!

Dad's Kitchen, Part...Whatever I Lost Count

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:31:00 +0000

This is the end of the kitchen updates on my dad's house! Since I'm basically out of vacation time at work, there won't be anymore updates this year. Unless my dad transforms overnight into a DIYer. Not gonna happen.

So first off, I want to mention the challenges of doing home improvement in Fairbanks, Alaska. It's not super challenging - don't get me wrong. There's a Home Depot and a Lowe's after all. But I am spoiled. I'm used to having over 10 convenient home improvement stores within a 10-15 mile radius of my condo in Atlanta. So, if I see something online and I want it for a project, I can pick it up somewhere and be back home in half an hour. Not so in Alaska. If they don't have something you need in stock it takes weeks (sometimes months) for them to order it and get it there. And this is even the case if you're willing to pay extra for expedited shipping. The piece I needed for this project was not available to be shipped to Alaska at all (even slowly). Which brings me to the specific challenge of this project. I had to leave it a TEENSY bit unfinished (sorry, dad), because the store was short one piece of backsplash. Whoops, I gave it away. I installed a kitchen backsplash! Anyway, I'll finish it up next time I'm in town.

I decided to install a kitchen backsplash because the wall was damaged a little behind my dad's stove. You can see what I mean in the picture below. I also mentioned it in this post about installing the lights in his kitchen earlier this year in March.

I didn't want to go with tile because it takes too long to install. I had a lot of work to do at the Comic Shop, and I was only there for a week. So I chose to install thermoplastic backsplash pieces with liquid nails. Here's what they look like. They're about $20 a piece at Lowe's. Liquid nails is only about $3.50 a tube and I used less than one tube.

Fasade 24-1/2-in Oil Rubbed Bronze Thermoplastic Multipurpose Backsplash

My first step was to measure the area I wanted to cover - behind the stove up to the cabinets and underneath the cabinets along the wall, ending at the wall with the kitchen sink. Then I cut the pieces (one by one) and placed them up on the wall before I used the liquid nails, just to make sure I measured accurately. I didn't make any mistakes (besides being one sheet short!).

Adding Liquid Nails (I returned the extra tube for a refund when I was finished!)

I made sure to cover each piece in an adequate amount of glue - but not too much. I just went back and forth with the tube until there were multiple lines of glue covering the back about 2 inches apart.

Sticking up the first piece of backsplash!

I kept gluing and gluing. Cutting and cutting. Oh, and by the way, I used regular kitchen shears to do the job. Any scissors one step above simple paper cutting scissors would do the trick.

Cutting the backsplash

Liquid nails on the backsplash

Making progress!

And now for the final before & after pictures. With knobs and pulls included!

Before...

And After!

With the new light fixture!

Now my dad definitely needs a new microwave to match his awesome kitchen. Don't you think?!

I want to mention that I think this transformation will be a bit controversial. It was difficult to work with the state of the cabinets as they are. I couldn't do anything that would take more than a few hours, which obviously left me unable to work on the cabinets' finish or the countertops. My hope was to work off of the new oil-rubbed-bronze finishes in the kitchen and the deep red of the tile countertops. I hope you like it! I think it was a leap of faith, but in the end it works.

Dad's Kitchen: Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Back in March when I visited my dad (before my last trip, which was at the beginning of July), I was on an oil-rubbed-bronze kick. And guess what? I'm not done yet. On my last visit in July I tackled even more parts of the kitchen. Last time, if you recall, I finished up new light fixtures, a new dishwasher, and a new kitchen sink faucet. However, there was one fairly sizable project that I didn't get around to doing. It might have been a lack of time, it also might have been my dad's credit card waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats screaming, "Don't take me back to Lowe's!"

Here's the kitchen as I left it in March. Notice anything missing? I sure did...

Here's another shot of the kitchen that shows the new light fixture along with a white knob on the cabinet in the background. Did you figure it out yet?

I wanted to install kitchen knobs for the cabinets and pulls for the drawers! I would say "replace," but only two of the cabinets actually had knobs (the white kind pictured above). I headed to Lowe's to check out what I had to choose from.

Because I was already on my oil rubbed bronze kick (you can't stop me!) I went for the same color knobs and pulls. That way they would match the faucet and light fixtures. While at Lowe's, I first looked for the right color. Next I looked for an acceptable price. For knobs and pulls, $2 a piece is GREAT; five dollars is pushing it. Seven dollars is no-way-jose. I went with a simple bronze round knob, 1". At $2.47 a piece, they were right in budget.

Brainerd 1" Bronze Round Cabinet Knob from Lowe's

So let's survey the kitchen pre-knobs. Here we have Hemingway investigating my supplies.

And my bags of hardware on the middle island.

Couldn't forget about the little cabinet hiding way up above the fridge!

Of course right when I began I made a mistake. Luckily I didn't get too far with it.

See how I made the knobs too low? Whoops! In the picture below, I'm holding the knob where it should be. So I pulled the knobs down, filled in the holes, and started over. The good thing about my dad being, how should I put this, much less DIY-inclined than I am, is that he doesn't care if I mess up. Whew.

After that setback, I started to make some progress. In the picture below you can see a comparison - one old white knob and one new bronze knob. (Along with the pretty new light fixture and faucet! Ahem.)

Here's an even better side-by-side comparison. Old. New.

The white knobs really looked odd in the kitchen. The bronze knobs help to tie in the deep red countertops.

And magically fast-forward to finished (at least with knobs)!

With all of the knobs in place, I was ready to move on to the more complicated part - drawers.

As you know from this post, I'm a huge fan of cup pulls for drawers. I have them in my own kitchen. They cost the same amount ($3-$5 each) as knobs, but they lend a lot more character to a space. They're more tricky to install though because you have to make sure the holes you drill are perfectly spaced. For a novice like me, it's a pain in the butt.

I picked out these Gatehouse 64mm Aged Bronze Arched Cabinet Pulls from Lowe's. They were only about $3.50 a piece, which is a great price for pulls.

Gatehouse 64mm Aged Bronze Arched Cabinet Pulls from Lowe's

I take full responsibility for the mess on the counter. And don't worry - I didn't liquid nails any of the pulls on out of frustration (you can see some on the counter in the picture below). Ha ha. That's for the next part of part II of the kitchen upgrades. Make sense?

I was seriously happy to be done with the pulls. Sooooooo happy.

And there you have it. All done with pulls & knobs. Now the drawers and cabinets are easier to open, and they look much better! Believe it or not, I have another kitchen update to share with you before I show you the true "After" pictures of the kitchen. Stay tuned!

P.S. In case you're wondering, that was 22 knobs and 14 cup pulls total. Whew.

Little Johnstone

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:30:00 +0000

This past weekend I was going through some old pictures that I found under my bed (during the big organization project I wrote about briefly here and that I will write about in detail later) and I found one that I particularly love. I picked up this black frame at Target to put it in.

Target Black Frame 5x7 - $9.99

I decided to put it next to the TV on the new media console.

Can you see who is in the photograph yet?

The photo is of me, my Grammie, Uncle Don, and my brother in the foreground being very pouty. I love this picture. He was probably a little upset because the mosquitoes were so bad. I vaguely remember this day. Notice I have a mosquito hat on, so I'm all smiles. We were trekking around Little Johnstone Bay in Alaska where my Uncle Don has a cabin. I don't remember who took this photo, but I'm sure someone in my family knows.

Birthdays, Kittens, & Ponies

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:12:00 +0000

Been busy with finals at school. I know, I know. You're like, again?! But yes. Finals come but ~~once~~ three times a year. Blah! I love my classes though. Economics and a seminar in advanced accounting.

I have lots of stuff to share with you. I have more art on the walls, some kitchen updates, a HUGE storage/organization project, plus I have to cover all of the projects I completed at my dad's house over the fourth of July. Oh, and my dad got his home movies back on DVD! Shh, it's a secret. He's going to send him to his brother and sister-in-law as a surprise (please don't tell). He's just going to mail them the DVDs without any explanation. Cool, right? Here's a sneak peak, but sorry - no videos yet!

Driving the Car

Birthday Party!

When I get the digital copies I'm going to edit them and add music. It's about 90 minutes worth and almost exactly half are in color - the others in black and white. I never met my grandma on my dad's side, so it's so surreal to see her walking around in a video. It's amazing.

iPhone 4S Wide-Angle (Fisheye) Lens Review

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:43:00 +0000

When the airbnb professional photographer stopped by a few months ago to take pictures of my place, he brought a fancy camera that took wide-angle shots. It made the condo look a lot more inviting. The only camera I use anymore is my iPhone 4S camera, so I decided to try out a mini fisheye lens from Amazon, just to see how it would work. I picked the Detachable 0.67X Wide Angle Macro Lens for Apple iPhone, iPod Nano 5, Camera Phones (Camera Lens Smaller than 9.5mm).

It's tiny and comes with a wide angle lens and a macro lens that are connected. It also comes with a few little sticky-backed rings that attach to the lens magnetically. The rings don't stick to the phone very well - that's my only complaint about the product, actually. You could fix that by using some superglue. I didn't because I don't want the ring on my phone permanently.

The lens comes with a detachable cover and cord (I guess so you could use it as a cell phone charm if you wanted to). I've also heard of people hanging the lens on necklaces so they have it with them all of the time.

Check out this picture of the kitchen:

Without Lens

Next I stood in the exact same place (with my back up against the windows behind the dining table) and took a picture with the lens.

With Lens

As you can see, there's a lot more in the frame. Here's another example, using my homework sitting on the dining room table:

Without Lens

With Lens

And again, with the "without lens" picture on top and the "with lens" picture on the bottom:

You can really see the difference, right? And my final example, the bathroom:

Without Lens

With Lens Just Outside Bathroom Door

With Lens Just Inside Bathroom Door

Pretty cool, huh? Notice that in the "With Lens" bathroom pictures you can see the light fixture and all the way up to the ceiling! You can really fit a TON more space in the frame.

At only $5 I think it's a pretty remarkable little doodad and I'm glad I purchased it. The inconvenience of having to take my phone out of its case and affix the little lens to the back is annoying, but when I want a wide-angle photo, totally worth it. I'll definitely be using this lens to take any future airbnb pictures I need.

I haven't tried out the macro (Macro is for taking clear pictures of close-up details.) part of the lens yet, but when I do I'll post a review of that too.

Schoolhouse Style Light Fixtures

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:55:00 +0000

Ever since I fell in love with Schoolhouse Electric's lights, I've been convinced that I MUST put a schoolhouse style semi flush mount fixture in the kitchen. And I'm still convinced. I found quite a few cute and more affordable knockoffs on the internet. Wayfair ~~has this guy for a little over $80.~~ Apparently Wayfair HAD a schoolhouse fixture, but it appears to be gone. Sooo never mind that.

Many sites have options that are closer to Schoolhouse's prices - $120 to $200.

Restoration Hardware $199

Rejuvenation $124

I also found this one from Home Depot for a bit over $50:

Home Depot $52.20

I figured that would be my best choice. Although it's not as cute as the Wayfair option (which I couldn't show you because it's GONE!), it's a bit bigger which may fit better in the space, it's $30 cheaper, and it's sold by Home Depot which has a brick and mortar presence in my area - that means easy returns if it doesn't work out. I don't want to have to return ship something that is breakable.

Since I have been storing the enamel paint (that I'm planning to use to mimic the stripes on the fixture below) in my closet for awhile, I decided to order the Home Depot fixture and get started on this project.

Schoolhouse Electric $185

It's taken me months to make a decision on this. Ha. I've been considering attempting to copy the globe with the gray stripes below instead of the multi-colored stripes.

Schoolhouse Electric Gray Stripes

Another thought is that I could paint light green stripes in the same style as the gray globe (thicker stripes). What do you think? Here's a photoshop mock up of what I'm thinking:

Photoshopped by Me

But now that I see the green, I don't really like it. So maybe blue will work:

Photoshopped by Me

I like the blue better. Here are some photos of the current kitchen light so you can see what I'm replacing:

Current Kitchen Light

Current Kitchen Light Fixture

Here's a terrrrible photoshop job of what it might sort of look like (ha ha!):

Poorly Photoshopped Kitchen Light

After seeing that I'm thinking it's going to be very smart indeed to buy a light fixture that I could return to Home Depot. Because I have no clue how this is going to turn out!

Maple Syrup Banana Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:28:00 +0000

I've loved banana bread for as long as I can remember. When I was little my mom and I would make it and I would eat it with butter or cream cheese. My tastebuds have come a long way from those days. I no longer gleefully pour white sugar on my corn flakes (that used to make my brother soooo mad, "Doesn't she know they're already sweetened?!") or eat brown sugar by the spoonful (or handful, whatever works). But I am still baking banana bread every time a spotted brown banana appears on my countertop. Here is what, to date, is my favorite banana bread recipe ever. Also, it's vegan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix dry ingredients:
2 cups unbleached organic white flour (in the future I'll try out wheat, but for now I've only tried white)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Mix wet ingredients:
2 mashed medium-small bananas
1/2 cup original unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup vegan stick butter (I've also used cow butter, both work fine)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine wet & dry ingredients. Butter loaf pan. Add dough to pan. Spread out dough to level it a bit. Bake for 45 minutes. (Check often.)

You could definitely add walnuts to this recipe. In fact, I recommend it. But I didn't list them in the ingredients because personally I never have them in the kitchen!

I really like this recipe because it doesn't use applesauce like most vegan baking recipes; I usually don't have it on hand. It also doesn't use eggs - I never have those! It uses maple syrup instead of refined sugar. I don't like to bake or cook with regular sugar. That's just a personal preference. I really want to explore baking with fruit juice as a sweetener. That would be fun.

Feel free to de-veganize or do whatever you want to this recipe! This is just what has worked for me. Let me know how it turns out (and what you substituted/added/removed) in the comments.

On the braces front, I can eat banana bread just fine although it does tend to get stuck. I've also been eating most everything else, even really crunchy pita chips. The only foods I have been avoiding are sticky things. But that's not even an issue because there aren't any super sticky foods that I eat regularly. So far no broken brackets!

Super 8

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:55:00 +0000

I realized a few days ago that I forgot to mention one of the projects I tackled on my last Alaska trip earlier this month. My dad has been storing a set of 30 film reels from the 1950s-1960s for decades. I got them out, dusted them off, labeled them carefully, and shipped them off to homemoviedepot.com to be converted to a digital format. I can't speak to how good that service is yet, because it takes them up to three weeks to finish. I ordered DVDs for my dad and a Mac compatible flash drive with digital copies so I can burn him additional copies easily.

Organizing the tapes was difficult because the only really reliable source of information on what they contained was from handwriting on the film reel boxes - and some of the boxes were blank with no notes. So I tries to go off of the development dates and the style of the boxes. You can see how Kodak evolved its box style over the years in the picture below!

8mm Film Collection

I am really excited to see all of the home movies, but a few reels really caught my eye. Some of them feature one of my dad's family cabins out in the woods of Arkansas, and my dad has so many stories of how magical it was that I can't wait to see it myself! It sounds like an awesome summer camp. Another reel was labeled "Six Flags" which just sounds too cool. Six Flags 40+ years ago?! Awesome.

When my dad gets the movies back I will let you know how it all turns out.

Living Room Rug

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:52:00 +0000

I found a rug I like at Home Goods! Assuming it's still there, I might buy it next week. I've attached a picture that shows the rug on top and a picture of the living room floor on bottom. What do you think? According to Anthony's reading of Walden, Thoreau would tell me to go back and visit the rug to see if it makes me happier each time. If I had enough time to go willy nilly rug gazing you bet I would!

Lists are Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Today is my last day in Alaska, and I've gotten a ton of stuff done for my dad. Here are some lists of what I've accomplished over the past week:

House Stuff (although some of it is work stuff too):

Installed Apple TV with login to Netflix for streaming movies and TV shows
Signed up for faster internet speed
Signed up for an Apple iTunes account for buying apps on iPhone
Resolved voicemail password issue
Organized contacts and account information in iPhone
Created online banking accounts
Setup a mint.com financial account
Installed cup pulls and knobs in the kitchen (22 drawers and 15 doors)
Installed a kitchen backsplash
Refinanced mortgage
Purchased new stainless steel garbage can for kitchen/moved old garbage can to laundry room
Organized part of the garage/threw away three car loads of boxes/garbage
Vacuumed
Moved books to upstairs library
Sewed patches onto three pairs of pants and new buttons onto one shirt
Ordered three new shirts from J. Crew and bought some clothes in town (for dad)
Hung up house numbers on tree at the beginning of the driveway
Covered up "Keep Out" sign with a much nicer sign (also at the beginning of the driveway)

Work Stuff:

Setup new point of sale computer
Setup point of sale area with backup battery surge protector and cord cover (no tripping!)
Put together desk in new office
Setup computer in new office
Assembled shelving
Cleaned and organized
Organized gift and card for an employee leaving the state

Now I am super tired and I hope I can sleep on the plane. I get back home tomorrow morning and then I have work on Monday. School on Wednesday. Back to it.

House Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 04:30:00 +0000

I'm back in Alaska this week helping out at my dad's house and his store.

I braved the swarms of mosquitoes to put up new house numbers at the beginning of his driveway. There was a tiny, little sign with numbers, but it was difficult to see. The numbers are from Lowe's and were about $3.50 a piece.

First I found a good tree that was visible from the road.

I gathered all of my supplies.

And I nailed up each number with two nails a piece.

Here's what they look like from the road, as if I were in a car.

Now package deliverers and other visitors will find the house more easily. Mission accomplished.

Brace Face

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:32:00 +0000

One of my impromptu goals this year is to fix my teeth issues. So last month I had my wisdom teeth removed (I only had 3 - lucky me). That left only the crookedness of my leftover teeth. I've never hard braces, but I've always wanted straight teeth, particularly on the bottom of my mouth. The crowding on my lower teeth feels uncomfortable most of the time.
A few years ago I went to the dentist because I had been grinding my teeth at night. I knew it because when I woke up, my jaw would hurt, and sometimes I would wake myself up with the motion in my mouth. Waking up grinding your teeth is not fun. Teeth grinding is offically known as bruxism. So sometimes I say to myself that I brux my teeth. That is not offical. That is inside my head. I say it like Brucks. He he. Anyway.

The dentist told me that I could be fitted for a mouth guard that I could wear at night. I trusted her, but the price she quoted me was not feasible at the time. I think it was between $500-$600. I was inbetween my undergraduate college and my first Real job, taking a few graduate courses in a small town. I decided to go with her next best choice, a mouth guard from Walmart (joy).

Doctor'S Nightguard Advanced Comfort, 1 Box

I got the one above for about $20. You heat it up in a pot of water on the stove and then squish it into your mouth to form it to the shape of your teeth. Heating up plastic in water = not my favorite thing, but being able to sleep without grinding my teeth was worth it. I slept fine, and eventually I forgot about using the mouth guard and I lost it. I tried to figure out why I might be grinding my teeth anyway (you know, solve the real problem and not the dummy problem). My dentist told me that it could be one of two things, or a combination of the two: stress and the way the top of my jaw sits on my lower jaw. She said that braces (with the use of rubber bands) could reposition my jaw a bit so that I was less likely to grind my teeth based on how my teeth sit in my mouth. Made sense, but if I couldn't afford a professional mouth guard, I sure as heck wasn't going to go for braces. So I worked on stress instead.

I determined that most of my stress was from uncertainty in my life, particularly in regard to my work. I decided that if I could let go of being afraid of failure, I wouldn't be stressed. That really worked well, and now that I have a Real job, it's still working. I go through periods where I am afraid of being fired, really for no good reason. I'm just afraid because I know that even if I work as hard as I possibly can, someone can still fire me. There's just no Job Guarantee. So I decided to be OK with that. Sure, I could be fired tomorrow. (Well, technically I probably couldn't be because I'm on vacation. But they could fire me on Monday!) BUT, it's OK. Because I can't control everything, and being fired would not be the end of the world. Some of the best advice I've ever heard is the idea that everything is what you consider it to be. If you have something ahead of you that seems awful, it's going to be just that. The magical part of this is that just because something SEEMS awful, doesn't mean that is one of its inherent characteristics. You ASSIGNED it that description! So rewrite the adjectives. Suddenly an inconvenience is an ADVENTURE. (I'm pulling this from G.K. Chesterton. He wrote an incredible book that I love called Orthodoxy, and it's great whether or not you're religious, so don't be influenced too much by the name one way or another.)

I wholeheartedly believe that working on problems from a mental standpoint FIRST is going to help you out the most in the long run. After that part is done, you can choose to move on to getting professional help. That's where my new orthodontist comes in! All of this is to say that I have BRACES! And I am very excited.

Braces are definitely going to help me with the pressure in my bottom teeth, because I can't think my way out of that discomfort. Braces really don't hurt all that much, and it's way less painful than having wisdom teeth removed. I'll keep you up to date on how it goes. I'm going to have them for two years!

Gym Lockers

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:54:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I added an Ikea PS Cabinet to the condo. I had been considering adding a piece of furniture to put against the wall with the front door to the condo.

Ikea PS Cabinet

I decided on this guy because he's oh-so-charming with his resemblance to school lockers, and he's only $99. Plus he locks up nicely, which is great for when I rent my condo to airbnbers. Not that I would expect anyone to steal, but it's just nice to have everything stored safely away.

Assembly wasn't too bad. Typical Ikea situation. The only tricky part is making sure the doors fit on just-so in order to allow them to close properly. At first I was thinking of spray painting him, but so far I like him in his nice, bright white clothes.

I thought the cold, white metal might be too much for my more vintage-style place, but I like the look of it. My other furnitures are excited to have their new friend!

Thanks to Ant for the extra special cord/electronics organizing!

Speaking of Painting Rugs...

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I love beautiful curtains. The problem is, like many awesome and inspiring home decor items, they are expensive. I was really inspired by these curtains from Anthropologie (where else?! I am so predictable):

Anthropologie Quarter Color Curtain

They're a sort of ombre/dip-dyed style. The tops of the curtains are the same color as my $30 Ikea curtains in my living room:

So last week I bought some Rit Dye in Navy Blue to try it out myself. Here's a side-by-side comparison of what I currently have and what I want to DIY:

I'm going to try this project out sometime in July. I figure, what's the worst that could happen? I ruin my $30 Ikea curtains and I wasted $1.50 on some dye. Bottom line is that it will be fun to try it out even if it fails!

Paint a Rug...Why Not?

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 17:17:00 +0000

Now that I've been in the condo for what feels like quite a long time, I'm really ready to have some rugs on the floor! Rugs are expensive, so I decided I would try to paint one myself. I went to Hobby Lobby in search of fabric paint. I could only find black (see the picture below) in spray paint format, but I wanted something more colorful.

Black Fabric Spraypaint

Instead, I used a free can of paint (with coupon) from Ace Hardware with fabric medium. Fabric medium is this gloopy liquid that you mix in with regular wall paint. It allows the paint to adhere to the fabric better, and it also prevents the fabric from becoming really crunchy. I grabbed this stuff from Hobby Lobby for about $3 (after coupon):

Textile Medium

The paint color I picked was Sun Dried Tomato Red by Clark + Kensington. It's more of a coral than a red. I picked it to match some of the colors in the room such as the desk & chair and large bed pillow. I grabbed a $60 rug from Ikea, which is the cheapest low-pile white rug I could find in a large size. It's the Erslev rug and it's about 6 x 8 feet.

Ikea Erslev Rug

I laid the rug out on the floor to see if it was about the right size.

It's pretty much a perfect fit. It goes under the bed a little, which is fine.

Next I decided what pattern I wanted to paint. I decided to go with easy stripes since this is my first rug-painting experience. The stripes will also match the large pillow I keep on my bed - you can see it on my chair in the top right corner of the picture above. After deciding on the pattern, I measured out how big my stripes would have to be in order to evenly space them out along the rug - about 6" wide. I left any extra on the edges of the rug, since at least one edge will be under the bed. After mixing the textile medium into the paint can, I stuck down some painter's tape to mark where I wanted to paint, and then I got to painting!

So far so good. I've actually FINISHED this one stripe at this point, but I don't have a picture. Yep, only one stripe so far. The most difficult part is definitely the putting down the tape part.

Painting a rug is actually really fun. It definitely feels like something you shouldn't be doing!

Wisdom Teeth & Mirrors

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Well, a mirror is something I definitely don't want to look at right now. Considering as how I have a chipmunk cheek. Yes, only one cheek has swelled up. I'm half chipmunk. This is day four after my wisdom teeth removal, and I feel OK. There's not much to say except that it sucks, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And there wasn't any blood on my clothes (for some reason I thought there would be...gross, I know.) Also the doctor did not have me count down from 10 like you see in movies while I was being put under. He was just talking about how his friend was a miner in Alaska, and then he started laughing, which made me laugh. That's kind of creepy now that I think about it.

Anyway, last week I worked on a mirror. Ant's mom gave me an old mirror that I found in her storage room. When we saw it, we both thought "Beauty and the Beast!"

Large amounts of GOLD GOLD GOLD aren't really my thing though, but I knew just what to do.

SPRAY PAINT! I used Valspar's Indigo Satin Spray Paint. They had some colors in the glossy sheen, but I didn't want it to be too shiny. Satin worked well. I've used Valspar spray paint before in Deep Sea Diving for the Licorice Chair, which is another shade of blue. It's more Bluey Blue though, while Indigo has an extremely, extremely faint hint of purple. But you wouldn't know it.

Here's the mirror after one coat. I used many light coats to get the job done, as usual.

Here's a close-up. My coats aren't very even, but that's OK. It evens out on its own in the end.

And after coat two.

It took a little extra work to get all of the nooks and crannies.

And about five coats later...ta da!

I decided to hang the mirror in the living room right next to the front door.

My Perfectly Imperfect Home book says that there should be a mirror near the door for guests to look at their appearance when they arrive and before they leave.

The color of the mirror matches the blue in the lampshade next to it. I love it.

Spray paint wins again! But like I said, I'm not going to be using it anytime soon.

Source

Goodbye, Wisdom Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having my wisdom teeth pulled out. First of all, ouch, second of all, goodbye crunchy foods. I have stockpiled the following items in my kitchen that meet wisdom tooth extraction dietary requirements (liquid enough such that no chewing is required, no small pieces of food that can be stuck in the tooth holes):

Cinnamon applesauce
Mashed potatoes
Miso soup
Tomato soup
Vegetable broth
Chocolate coconut milk ice cream
Hummus
Guacamole

Essentially what you're trying to avoid is moving blood clots that fill the holes where the wisdom teeth previously sat. So you're to avoid sucking (water bottles, straws) and spitting.

As it turns out, I only have 3 wisdom teeth. So I think that the procedure will probably not hurt as badly as if I had all 4. I hope.

One of my goals for this year (that I've only recently decided on) is to take care of some teeth related issues. My wisdom teeth have caused me discomfort on and off since I was about 21 years old, so it's time for them to come out. Thanks to dental insurance through my work I am finally getting it done.

I will report back tomorrow on how the procedure goes.

More Bathroom Excitement! (Um.)

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:00:00 +0000

This weekend Ant and I got back to working on the condo (a little bit)!

Ant fixed the bathroom faucet and installed the new handle trim in the bathroom. If you recall, the trim I originally ordered didn't fit because it was the wrong brand. So I ordered a new handle and tub spout for $38 from Amazon. It was listed as "refurbished" but so far I don't see anything wrong with it.

Here's the old tub trim (notice the purplish picture due to the fact that the bathroom used to be totally purple!):

And here's the new handle! I know it looks weird because the new tub spout isn't on yet. That's because it's a bit big for the space - the spout is really close to the tub. So Ant and I are going to do something magical to it, like grind it down or something? I don't know, but Ant does. So we will do that sometime in the near future. Then things won't look as nickel versus chrome mis-matchy.

I also changed out the way towels hang out in the bathroom. I used to use an over-the-door hanger like this, but the towels were always in my way:

So I bought two towel racks at Home Goods for $10/each, and now things look like this:

And overall it's just much less annoying. Plus Martha Stewart did it, so it must be right!

Only with home decorating though. As far as anything else, particularly in regard to the interests of the American shareholder, do not listen to Martha. Thank you.

Splish Splash I Was Takin' a Bath

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:59:00 +0000

Over memorial day weekend I rode horses, saw a beautiful sunset on a mountain, and I made some upgrades to the bathroom. Ha-ha!

To be accurate, my boyfriend (I think I've decided to just call him Ant from here on out, because calling him my boyfriend takes more typing.) installed a bathroom sink faucet and I installed the new showerhead. The faucet was the first thing done, so I'll start there.

I picked up this faucet from Overstock a few weeks back for about $50 shipped (no tax). (Remember the Bathroom Plan?)

Overstock Satin Nickel Classic Two Handle Bathroom Faucet

Pretty! Perfect to replace the yucky faucet that was there when I moved in, complete with plastic handles...

Bathroom with Old Faucet (and old medicine cabinet!)

I considered a few other types of faucets before landing on my favorite one including the cross-handle kind and the kind with porcelain handles. While that would have been a vintage-look that would fit with the age of the condo, I thought it looked cheesy. Many of the features in the condo are very cheap, take the basic square white tile in the bathroom for example. So I have to be careful to not make those features stand out - I want them to sort of blend into the background.

So anyway, back to installation! Ant did it all, and he was awesome. He had one set back when he stuck his finger down the drain and something bit him. Luckily I had pickle band-aids so he felt better quickly. Ha-ha!

Seriously I have no idea what happened. I guess sharp things live in drains? Who knew. But I knew that as I watched his finger go down the drain, I thought, "Hm. I would not do that." But I am not a smart-ass, so I didn't say anything! Just kidding, I am a smart ass. But I still didn't say anything.

With the old faucet off, it was time to clean. Not surprisingly that was my job. Ha-ha!

Dirty Sink & Old Faucet

Clean-ish Sink!

It was so gross. The before and after is kind of remarkable. All of that nasty gunk came off! This makes me think that this is why you caulk around fixtures...so I guess I should caulk around the new one? I haven't yet. I am sure it will take me five months like the kitchen sink did.

Sink with Drain Removed

Here is where you insert all of the energy Ant had to put into unscrewing the old pipes/water tube thingys because they hadn't been touched in what appeared to be many years. And then you end up with the lovely finished product!

Finished Product! Look at that fancy new drain, too.

Not only does this new faucet look better, it also works better. The old one would sort of turn off unexpectedly if you didn't turn the handle far enough around.

Next was the new showerhead. I actually had an entire set for the shower/tub area, but I realized that the installed brand was a Moen and I had bought Price Pfister (my choice for the kitchen sink faucet as well). The set actually came with a new valve thingy, but I (and Ant) did not want to attempt that nonsense. I know my limits...SORT OF. So we decided to just use the showerhead which seemed pretty universal and send back the other parts. The Moen handle/tub spout is arriving from Amazon sometime next week.

Pfister Marielle Shower Trim

Here's the Moen handle/spout that are on their way...

Moen Brantford

The showerhead was a PAIN to install. A total freaking nightmare. For some reason the pipe in the wall would not meet the pipe at the end of the showerhead to screw in. It took literally hours of trying. I worked on it for over three hours after Ant went back home at the end of the weekend. When I got it to screw in finally I was cross eyed and my arms hurt from holding up the pipe that probably only weighs less than a pound. It had just been such a long time holding it up. I ended up putting a ladder in the bathtub so I could get myself closer to the pipe in the wall, and because I was tired of standing on the edges of the tub.

But it was worth it. The new showerhead looks awesome and works great! I can't get the little metal "O" piece to get flush with the tile wall because of the way that the pipe bends. I have to think about that. Suggestions?

It Worrrrrks!

The showerhead is raincan style, which is supposed to mimic an old fashioned outdoor shower (I think). I really like it. (And I even checked inside the wall for leaks...you bet I did, ha-ha! I ain't no plumber.)

With the new medicine cabinet and "trim" (I learned that new plumbing fixtures in the bathroom are called trim...) I think the plain old white tiles take a backseat in this room, in a very good way.

Next up I've got to install the new tub/shower handle and tub faucet, when they arrive. That should be a quick pop off/pop on kind of deal. After that...a new toilet! I am very afraid to install a new toilet. I mean, let's face it, that involves poop. Should I even try it?

Tufty Ready to Go

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:54:00 +0000

As I mentioned in this post, Tufty (the button tufted upholstered ottoman) arrived with a broken leg. I called the number listed on the informational booklet in the box, and the company who made Tufty promptly sent me four new legs.

So now I have seven Tufty legs. But I only need four. After popping them on the bottom of the ottoman, Tufty was ready to go. Ta-da!

So far so good.

My Happiness Project

noreply@blogger.com (Lou) — Sat, 19 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Over my school break I read Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. It was very inspiring. Everyday I find myself thinking over some her thoughts on how to be happier, and I find myself a little overwhelmed trying to remember them all. I decided to make my own Happiness Resolutions in order to make it easier to remember (and apply) what I learned from her book. Gretchen gives you her own happiness resolutions, so I used hers as a jumping off point. Some of them match hers exactly and others I made up for myself. I thought 10 would be a good number:

1. Eat real food
2. Avoid talking about money
3. Be generous
4. Give energy to my interests
5. Exercise everyday
6. Curate a simple life
7. Listen
8. Say thanks
9. Uplift others
10. Be Lou

I'm keeping a copy of these resolutions in my email inbox so that I can refer to them easily. So far the most difficult resolution is to "Be Lou." The idea behind that one is to be yourself. It sounds easy, but it's really not! I often want to do things because I think that's what I'm Supposed to do, or it's something that I would want to do if I was some perfect idea of myself. But I'm not...I'm just Lou. Do I want to be the kind of person that can bungee jump and ride roller coasters? Yes. Yes! I want to be brave and awesome and do those daring things. BUT, do I want to do those things? No. They terrify me and just thinking about them makes me sick. So why can't I just Be Lou? That's the idea. It's not to say that I shouldn't push myself or try new things, but to understand that what I just plain old don't like is OK. I want to accept myself and accept the idea that I just don't want to ride a roller coaster. And then not worry about it anymore or make myself feel guilty for it.

Get the idea? I'm going to explore some more of my resolutions as I try to follow them in my life.