Anyway, in between doing school projects, studying for finals, and grading a bajillion biology quizzes, I’ve developed a new talent/obsession with spray painting. Everything.

It all started with this Better Homes and Gardens post from Nicole at Making It Lovely. I’ve seen the photo below on multiple other sites (I think I first ran across it on Pinterest), but this looks like it’s the original source. Look how bright and cheery a black metal Ikea shelving unit could become with a little paint:

The idea was perfect; we needed some additional storage/display space for all our crap to live. And when I say additional, I mean more than the 2 square feet of display space afforded by our new glass and chrome console table. So I went out and bought myself a $70 metal shelf and a few cans of spray paint. I loved the look of the bright yellow in that BHG photo so much I chose an equally happy hue called Sun Yellow.

This first project was a real lesson for me. The folks at Ace suggested I go for the name brand Rustoleum Painter’s Touch, which is supposed to cover two times as well as other spray paints, meaning you supposedly don’t need primer – although I have to say that now in my infinite spray painting wisdom, that was just a dumb idea. Spoiler alert: this shelf ended up taking eight total cans of paint to get an even coat with no splotches. And at $3 or so each, we would have saved ourselves money in addition to hassle by just buying a can of primer and being done with one or two coats of paint. But I digress – bottom line: always use primer. Just do it.

Anyway, with all my supplies lined up, I started by assembling the shelf in the backyard, which at the time was already full of lots of recyclables/trash from a weekend of DIY-ing, so just ignore that mess.

I ended up taking the little bottom nubbies off so I could paint them too.

Then I lightly sanded the powder coated steel with some medium-grit sandpaper:

Looking back, I definitely could have skipped this step too, if only I’d just bought some damn primer. But I lived and learned…

Then I applied the first coat, following the advice of Sherry, the Yoda of spray painting. Her on-point tips in a nutshell: go slow and go for tons of light coats instead of one or two heavy coats (which will almost always result in drips), keep your spray nozzle a solid distance (at least eight inches) away from whatever you’re spraying, and – the golden rule – KEEP THAT CAN MOVING, or as Sherry likes to say, “if you’re a-sprayin’ your arm better be a-swayin’”. Smart lady.

After about 15 minutes of drying, the first coat was followed by the second…and then third, fourth, and fifth coats. At that point I ran out of paint again (I’d already made four trips back to Ace for more) and was developing some serious carpal tunnel-like symptoms from squeezing the paint trigger all day. So I gave up for the night, determined to get the whole thing done first thing the next day.

An early morning wake-up call and three more cans of paint later, I finally had a beautiful, if empty, finished product:

I love that the color is bright and cheery, but since the shelving unit itself is made of relatively thin metal bars, it’s not too overwhelming. And the glass shelves are functional but keep the visual weight of the unit to a minimum, which is exactly what we need in this tiny space.

Next step (and the hardest part): getting through all the boxes of stuff siting in our basement to find what we want to display…

What have you all been up to as spring turns into summer? Is everyone as excited as I am to reach the end of the academic year??

Much to my surprise, Katie asked me (read: told me) that we were going to the shelter to look at some dogs. I love dogs, despite my poor past experiences with them—bit by one on a run, chased by one stray—so I was certainly willing to give up a Friday night for a night at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS). Side note: the place is great and is always full of ready-to-be-loved pets, so give them a shout if you’re interested in fostering/adopting/volunteering.

There were so many dogs there we were overwhelmed. Most were some kind of “pit bull-like” breeds, due of course to the Maryland Court of Appeals’ controversial ruling deeming the “breed” to be “inherently dangerous”; the ruling has since drawn lots of criticism from animal welfare and public health groups and individuals for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that “put bulls” are not a single breed of animals, and instead are generally considered to include three breeds: American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers or Staffordshire bull terriers. Since the initial ruling, the Court of Appeals has restricted the strict liability standards imposed on pit bull owners in case of animal aggression to “pure bred” pit bulls – creating a whole other set of potential problems with the legislation, mostly to do with the fact that identifying a “pure bred” pit bull is almost impossible in the first place. Not to mention the fact that the “scientific” evidence suggesting that pit bulls and other specific breeds of dogs are more dangerous than other dogs is unreliable and problematic, at best. At worst – well, as a scientist, Katie can tell you the “evidence” is really a bunch of crap. There’s a reason the pharmaceuticals and other medical therapies we all rely on have to go through  a rigorous, methodical research and development process before they can come to market – getting to the scientific truth of things is hard and takes a lot of sophisticated, well-funded, and carefully designed research; none of the research we’ve read about breed-specific dog aggression fits that description.

Basically, the whole ordeal is a whole bunch of nonsense that we’re hoping can be straightened out so that dog owners are held responsible for their dogs’ welfare and behavior, regardless of the breed.

Anyway, since our state legislature failed to address the pit bull ruling in a sensible and timely manner during its most recent legislative session, shelters all across Maryland still have hundreds of “pit bull-like” dogs, which we saw firsthand at BARCS, where there’s an abundance of dogs who look like one of the three pit bull breeds in addition to lots of other pups.

As we strolled along the lanes and lanes of dogs all of them were barking at the edge of their cages, hoping we would pick them to take home. There was pee all over the place, biscuits half eaten strewn about (in various forms, we will say), but we trudged on in the quest to find a new puppy. We tried Mermaid, we looked at Judge, we baby-voice talked to Dolla, each with their own unique personality. In the last room, as cliché as this sounds, there he was! Patrick! He ambled over to us as we squatted near his door, and cautiously sniffed our hands. He was calm and actually NOT barking, just quietly wagging his tail in a sweet greeting and enthusiastically sniffing/licking our hands. A quick read of the slip of paper attached to his cage—loves to snuggle, great jogging partner, housebroken. Too good to be true, we thought.

To find out, we took the little pup outside with us and he fit the bill. He didn’t try and tug the leash, just patiently waited and followed where he was led. He licked our faces and sat when we asked him to. And all the time he was wagging his tail, telling us he was as happy as we were to be outside and enjoying each other’s company. What a perfect little guy.

We immediately filled out the necessary paperwork that day but had to wait until the next day to finish up the process; he also had to have a little bit of surgery (as my friend Tim puts it, “snip snip”), so we ended up having to wait a few days before he could be scheduled for his “alteration”.

The rest is just red tape stuff so I will zip through it fast—signed papers, paid money, took adoption class, blah blah blah, and now WE HAVE A DOG!

Patrick, being just a made up name to give him some shelter identity, didn’t quite fit. I liked Morris (think Zach, Saved By the Bell), Katie liked Pete (The Adventures of Pete and Pete, throwback) and so we compromised and settled on Ralph (wait, what?). Ralph it is—our puppy:

After his surgery the first night we brought him home, he was still substantially groggy. In fact, he was so drugged up that, while trying to stay awake, did that thing people do when they are falling asleep on the bus: Head drop, air passage close, snap head back up, repeat.

Yup, in the middle of the carpet in our newly furnished front living room (his bed was one foot away), Ralph couldn’t help but fall asleep and we couldn’t help but fall even more in love. Eventually we even convinced him to relax in his new bed – well, sort of:

Our first night asleep, Ralph snuggled with us in the bed—waking up every once in a while to adjust his position. Sometime in the middle of the night, he found his way to his own bed and slept there until 5:45 AM. With the drugs worn off, our faces were prime for licking—perfect way to wake up!

Since that first night, we’ve gotten to know Ralph more and more, and love him for what we find out. First thing we learned: he LOVES peanut butter. It can be used to convince him to do pretty much anything:

He’s also a hard core tug-of-war player. Does NOT mess around – will not give up until he has that rope toy from you. Even if it means dragging you two feet across the grass when you refuse to let it go, too.

He even plays nice with other dogs, which we’ve seen time and time again during some long walks in the park. Although I have to say, he’s a little bit clumsy; I’m worried he’s going to squash one of his littler friends one of these days! Anyone have any suggestions for how to get him to pay attention to where he’s stepping??

For the most part though, his favorite past time seems to be doing things like this:

He still has a bit of a kennel cough, and even had to get his ears treated for a mild infection. So he’s still recuperating, and LOVES lazy days snuggled up with his Mom and Dad.

And that’s our pup, Ralph. We’ve only known him for a week now, but we love him!

There’s a lot going on in this house this week – we’ll keep you all posted, but it means I don’t have much time to stop by a million stores to bring home a bunch of crap this week. So I’m keeping it simple, which is good every once in a while, don’t you think?

As always, you can review some coupon basics, The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Couponing, and my favorite stores’ policies to learn how to get started at each store.  Happy couponing!

CVS:

• Crest 3D White Toothpaste, 4 oz: $2.99 (x2)
• Use $1/1 Crest Toothpaste (P&G 3/31, exp. 4/30)
• Buy 1, earn $2 Extrabucks, limit 2
• Final Price: FREE

SAFEWAY:

• Arnold Breads, select varieties: $1.99 (x4)
• Use $1/2 Arnold Breads (SS 4/21)
• Final Price: $1.49 each
• Keebler Town House Crackers: $3 (x2)
• Use $2.29 Just for U e-coupon
• Stack with $1/2 Keebler Crackers (RP 3/24)
• Final Price: $1.79 each on 2
• Angel Soft Bath Tissue, 4 pack: $0.99 (x4)
• Use 4 $0.25/1 (dbl) Angel Soft Bath Tissue printable
• Final Price: $0.49 each ($0.12 per roll)

TARGET:

• Kraft Fresh Take: $1.86 (x4)
• Use 4 $1/1 SmartSource peelie (found in my Weis store) or printable
• Final Price: $0.86 each – going to try and freeze these and see how it goes!
• Bounce Dryer Sheets, 34 count: $2.09 (x12)
• Use $3/3 Bounce Dryer Sheets Target Coupon (RP 4/14)
• Stack with $3/3 Tide, Boost, Downy or Bounce Products Target Coupon (P&G 3/31)
• Final Price: $0.09 each
• Women’s Flip Flops: $2.50 (x2)
• Use $2/1 Women’s Flat Sandal or Flip Flops Target printable
• Final Price: $0.50 each
• Fresh Express Spinach: $2.99 (x1)
• Use $1 off Fresh Vegetable Purchase Target coupon from Spring Coupon booklet (got it in the mail)
• Final Price: $1.99 each
• Green Grapes, 1 lb package: $2.49 (x1)
• Use $1 off Fresh Fruit Purchase Target coupon from Spring Coupon Booklet
• Final Price: $1.49
• Schick Hydro Silk Disposable Razors, 3 count: $8.06 (x2)
• Use $4.00/1 Schick Hydro Silk Disposables Pack (SS 3/24 or 4/21, exp. 5/5 or 6/2)
• Stack with $3/1 Schick Hydro Disposable 3 count Target printable
• Final Price: $1.06 each

TOTALS FOR WEEK OF 4/21:

Thankfully, none of the friends we know who live or were there for the festivities were hurt, but our hearts go out to those injured and the families of those killed. We’re sending love northward towards those healing – physically and emotionally.

To get a little practical on you all: as a former public health researcher and volunteer, the thing I’m most concerned about now are the mounting healthcare bills for those injured. I’m sure that a significant portion were either un- or under-insured, and even for those with decent plans, the current laws in effect allow insurers to limit annual coverage (that is, they can set a dollar amount for insured care, after which the patient must pay ALL his/her medical costs). Most annual limits for 2013 plans are restricted to no less than $2 million thanks to the Affordable Care Act (which also prohibits ANY annual limits after 2014). But the days and weeks of intensive care, multiple surgeries, rehabilitation, and in many cases expensive prosthetics that victims will need will exceed that limit very quickly. So I’m nervous.

I encourage anyone who’s interested in helping out to donate to a reputable, responsible cause. If you’re as concerned as I am about the cost of trauma care for victims, you can donate directly to the hospitals doing a bang up job of treating the wounded (you might try Mass Gen or Boston Children’s Hospital, for example). Or you can donate to the One Fund, set up by the governor of MA and intended to directly aid victims and their families. Edit from Chris: You can also buy this Limited Edition Boston Marathon Tribute T-Shirt from Adidas and 100% of your proceeds go to the One Fund.

Whatever you do, let’s keep Boston in our hearts and remember what one very wise dude once told us:

That’s right, Steven. “These maniacs may have tried to make life bad for the people of Boston, but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are.”

It’s the middle one, called “Celebration Blue”. Allow Kool and the Gang to show you how, appropriately, we feel about it:

Before we show you the complete after, let’s revisit where we started:

Super just-moved-in status, complete with two very attractive wall decorations, where we kept track of our ever-growing house to-do list.

And then we added the wall trim, which we told you all about last week, which we followed up on by sinking our nail heads and then caulking/sanding over them and any large gaps between the wall and trim, so everything would be paint-ready:

And then we picked out or celebratory blue color, got a nice little deal on a gallon of it, and started slapping some up (P.S. – is that really what my hair looks like from the back??):

We (ok, it was just me) also toyed with the idea of painting the banister stair railings the same blue, since they’re not original to the house – they’re just crappy builder-grade ones that about a million other people have. No charm, no uniqueness – TOTALLY not our style. Eventually I won Chris over, so he ran out to grab some liquid deglosser, which basically just breaks down the glossy finish on painted/polyurethaned things like cabinets, furniture, etc. It’s totally amazing and worked great, and is SO much easier than sanding each and every one of those rungs – you just schmear it liberally on whatever glossy surface you need to paint and then let it dry:

We finished the whole thing by ordering a fabulous, cheap, and perfectly sized console table and styling it with some odds and ends we were tremendously happy to remove from the boxes they’ve been living in for months and months.

And…drumroll please…here it is now:

Ahhhh – I’m totally in love with it. Like, love, love LOVE. Like if I had to choose between painting over the wall in another color and punching Chris in the face, let’s just say Chris would probably have to stock up on some concealer to cover up his black eye for the next two weeks.

Ok, I’m just kidding. Sort of.

Since we’re YouTubing already, here’s an accurate portrayal of how I feel about it:

Here’s one more shot of our new blue wall (doesn’t the contrast between the rough, red bricks and the smooth, glossy blue trim make your heart swell??), and a complete cost breakdown:

Total Cost Breakdown:

• 1 lb finish nails: $3.50
• 1×3.5 molding (x4): $8
• Nail set: $4
• Caulk: $3
• Paint: $28 (after $5 rebate)

Total Spent: $70.50

How did you all spend your weekend – any fun, easy, and/or beautiful projects going on?

Ok, I know I’ve been saying this a lot recently, but I REALLY am sorry that I haven’t been keeping up with my lists for you all. I will say that now that the academic year is beginning to wind down, I’m really hoping to be better.  So let’s see how that goes!

Since we moved, I’ve been scouting out the local grocery stores. We have a few options in the city, but I’ve been having the most luck with the Safeway in Canton. But I have to give a shout out to Santoni’s, which is just around the corner from us and is a great little family-owned business with great prices. I’m not planning on stopping in there this week, but we’ve had good luck the times we have shopped there.

As always, you can review some coupon basics, The Lazy Girl’s Guide to Couponing, and my favorite stores’ policies to learn how to get started at each store.  Happy couponing!

CVS:

• P&G Best in Beauty Spend $50 get $15 rebate
• Spend $30 on Gilette Shaving Products, earn $10 Extrabucks, limit 1
• Venus Simply Disposable Razors, 4 count: $7.89 (x4)
• Use 2 BOGO Free up to $11.99 Venus or Daisy Disposable Razor (RP 4/14, exp. 5/31)
• Pantene Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styler: $3.00 (x4)
• Use 2 $3/2 Pantene Product P&G 3/31, exp. 4/30)
• Spend $30 on Select P$G Products, earn $10 Extrabucks
• Charmin Ultra Soft, 9 count: $5.77 (x2)
• Use 2 $.25/1 Charmin Product (P&G 3/31, exp. 4/30)
• Puffs Plus, 48-68 count: $.99 (x7)
• Use 2 $1/3 Puffs Singles (P&G 3/31, exp. 4/30)
• Tide or Gain liquid, 48-64 loads: $11.94 (x1)
• Use $0.40/1 Tide Detergent (P&G 3/31, exp 4/30)
• Final price: $6.09 for all 18 items, or $0.34 each
• Almay Get up and Grow Mascara: $8.49, BOGO 50% off (x2)
• Use 2 $4/1 Almay Cosmetic Product (SS 4/4, exp. 4/28)
• Final Price: $2.37 each on 2
• Buy 2 Select Nivea Products, earn $5 Extrabucks, limit 1
• Nivea For Men Soothing Shaving Balm, 3.3 oz: $6.99 (x1)
• Use $3/1 Nivea For Men Face Care Product Facebook printable
• Nivea for Men Sensitive Shaving Gel, : $3.79 (x2)
• Use FREE Nivea For Men Shave Gel or Foam up to $2.99 When You Buy one Nivea For Men Face Care Product Facebook printable
• Final Price: $0.21 Moneymaker on 2, if full BOGO amount applied
• GUM Soft Picks, 40 count: $3.49, BOGO Free (x2)
• Use 2 $0.55/1 GUM Softpicks (SS 2/24, exp. 4/30)
• Final Price: $1.20 each on 2

SAFEWAY:

• Select General Mills and Kelloggs Cereals, Buy 4 Save $4 Instantly:
• Lucky Charms (x1), Cheerios (x2), Honey Nut Cheerios (x1), assorted sizes: $1.49 
• Use $1/2 Any GM cereals (SS 3/24)
• Use 2 $0.60/1 (dbl) Plain Cheerios
• Save $4 instantly
• Final Price: $1.44 Moneymaker on 4
• Frosted Flakes, 10.5 oz: $1.99 (x4)
• Use $1/3 Kelloggs Cereals (RP 3/3 or 4/7)
• Save $4 instantly
• Final Price: $0.74 each
• Duncan Hines Brownie Mix, 18 oz: $2.09 (x2)
• Use $0.35/1 (dbl) Duncan Hines Product printable
• Stack with $1.10/1 Just 4 U or in-ad coupon, limit 2
• Final Price: 0.29 each
• Ken’s Salad Dressing, 16 oz: $3.49, BOGO Free (x6)
• Use 3 $1/2 Ken’s 16 oz Salad Dressing (SS 3/10)
• Final Price: $1.25 each on 6
• Milk Bone Treats, assorted sizes: $4.49, BOGO Free (x4)
• Use 2 $1/2 Milk Bone Treats (RP 3/10)
• Final Price: $1.75 each
• Seattle’s Best Coffee, 12 oz: $7.98 (x4)
• Use $4.88 each Just for U or in-ad coupon
• Stack with $1.50/1 Seattle’s Best Coffee (SS 2/24 or 3/24)
• Final Price: $3.38 each

WEIS:

• Broccoli Crowns: $0.79/lb (x1 lb)
• Mann’s Romaine Hearts, 3 count: $3.99 (x1)
• Use $0.55/1 Mann’s Fresh Cut Vegetables printable
• Final Price: $2.89
• Ore-Ida Frozen Potatoes: $3 (x2)
• Use $1/2 Ore-Ida Potato Products (SS 3/17, exp. 4/30)
• Stack with $5 when you spend $20 Savingstar e-coupon (already purchased other quantities)
• Final Price: $1.85 each
• Pompeian Olive Oil, 16 oz: $2.99 (x2)
• Use $1/1 Pompeian Olive Oil printable
• Final Price: $1.99 each

TOTALS FOR WEEK OF 4/14:

It’s not that we’re ignoring the rest of the house on purpose – it’s more that we’re totally overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, so we’re just taking baby steps and deluding ourselves by ignoring the big stuff. You know, the right way to deal with life…

And that means, for now, ignoring things like this:

And this:

Oh and my favorite:

Yup, in addition to the severe water damage on our back door and the fact that the entire first floor’s original pine flooring being badly damaged and poorly replaced/repaired by the previous owners, our kitchen floor is over an inch off-level. Due to an improperly replaced floor joist that probably shouldn’t be holding the weight of the floor, let alone our fridge. But we’ll get to that…eventually. No rush, right?

Because instead of doing big-time repairs, we’re tacking projects that take relatively little skill/time/experience. We’re new to this, remember? And so our first big project involved tackling this space:

For the first few weeks we lived here, we were using that wall as our “Command Center”:

We stuck up a few cheapo whiteboards that I got at Staples on clearance for 50 cents each, and kept track of all the important to-dos that were on our plate as we moved in. It was great, since as soon as we finished a project we had the immense satisfaction of erasing it from our whiteboard.  And then of course adding another ten things to the list!

One of the items on our list happened to be doing a quick makeover on the wall where the whiteboards were attached, so our command center had to be relocated. Not to worry though, it’s hanging out up in our bedrooom so we can now look at our long list of stuff to do every night before we go to bed, and first thing when we wake up. Lovely.

Anyway, the opposite side of the stair wall (on the dining room side) had some trim molding on the bottom half:

We wanted to re-create the same pattern on the living room side, and also add a little color to the room since ALL of our walls are still the bright white we inherited when we moved in. And by “bright white” I mean scuffed and marred white, obviously.

We started by doing a ton of research on the general process of adding wall trim, and found about a hundred blog/video/website resources. Some of the most helpful were from Amanda and Ben over at Our Humble Abode, the ever-awesome John and Sherry at Young House Love, and a really great YouTube tutorial by Rachael at The Lash Chronicles.

With a good understanding of the whole process, our first step was coming up with a plan of attack based on the pattern on the opposite wall and this wall’s dimensions. Here’s the general idea:

To keep things symmetrical, we used 1 x 3.5″ boards from Home Depot; to keep things easy, we went for the pre-primed MDF versions, which were $8 each for an 8 foot length (we used four total). The only other supplies we needed were some 3″ finish nails (we sprung for the full 1lb box, even though we knew we wouldn’t need all of them for this particular project – we’re sure we’ll use them eventually), some indoor paintable caulk, and a nail sink. We decided to forgo the liquid nails/construction adhesive that some folks used on the back of their boards to firmly attach them to the wall, since we knew we had studs in ideal places and we didn’t expect to have any issues with the boards not being secure enough with some nails/caulk.

Then we got down to business. Because the whole house has base molding, we first had to remove two lengths of it before we could begin nailing in our trim. This might not make sense, but look closely at the dining room wall, which we wanted to emulate:

See how the base molding sits OVER the wall trim? We could have done with some others have done and cut out the top portion of the base molding so that the wall trim fits neatly inside (see Amanda and Ben’s house, for example). Either way seems feasible and looks great, but we just wanted to be consistent on both sides of the stairs.

To remove the baseboard, we just carefully scored along the line where the wall met the trim with a utility knife (the trim had been painted over a couple of times, so we wanted to make sure we didn’t have any paint acting as glue between the two). Then we gently pried the base molding away using a small crowbar:

We had to remove the long stretch of molding on the obvious section of the wall, but also from a shorter section that formed a corner with that length of molding, since the new wall molding would add 3/4″ to the thickness of the wall, and therefore subtract 3/4″ from the length of that section. It sounds confusing, but here’s a photo:

Once we had all the base molding removed, we also had to make room for the right-most vertical board, which we wanted flush with the edge of the wall itself. But since the molding on the little ledge of the stairs down to the basement overhangs the wall a bit, we needed to do some cutting.  Again, doesn’t make sense when I type it, so here’s a few photos:

Once that ledge molding was out of the way, we could finally get down to cutting and nailing in the MDF. And here’s where we got a little dumb. What can we say? It’s just our thing.

We SHOULD have started with the bottom length, which runs parallel to the floor. It just makes the most sense and is consistent with all of the other tutorials we watched and also with the opposite wall. It’s also what our DRAWN OUT PLAN told us what to do. And yet, it’s not what we did at first. I really can’t explain it, except to say that maybe we were still stuck on the vertical boards since we had just cut out that ledge molding.

Whatever the reason, we started by cutting and nailing that vertical board that would sit flush with the edge of the wall. This mean cutting the top portion of the board at an angle to match the staircase, which first required us to figure out which angle. And that’s where Chris’ mad skills as a math teacher came in to play. To figure out the angle (which we knew was about 45 degrees, but not exactly), we first used a piece of paper to create a right triangle with the angle we were looking for, using the stair trim as the hypotenuse:

Then, Chris measured his paper triangle to figure out the angles adjacent to the hypotenuse, which were the angles we’d need to cut our trim (turns out that our angle was actually 47.5 degrees, if you’re curious). Pythagorean theorem wut wut!

So once we had our vertical board perfectly cut, we nailed it in and moved on to the bottom horizontal board. We actually cut two of this length, since we needed something that would go underneath the base molding when we re-nailed it to the wall, as well as the length that would actually be visible above the base molding after we re-installed it. So these needed to be nailed one above the other on the wall, like so:

We left about an inch gap between the floor and the bottom of the first strip of molding, since we plan on covering our poor old floors with some new bamboo flooring, so we’ll need some clearance for that.

When our bottom horizontal strips were securely nailed in (we made sure we were nailing straight through to studs where possible), we continued with the middle vertical board, then all of the remaining horizontal ones:

We even went so far as to re-install the base boards:

It was at this point that we took a step back and looked at our project.  And realized how dumb that one vertical board on the right side really looks – not to mention that it didn’t match our plans.  Oops. So, off came the base board, and that vertical board got a quick trim. Which meant that the bottom two horizontal boards also needed replacing. It took a few extra minutes, but by that point we had the whole measuring/cutting things down to a science, so it really wasn’t too big of a deal.

We think the end results was definitely worth that extra time and effort! Now we just have to pick a color and get it on the wall – Lowe’s has a great $5 rebate for their Valspar paint/primer, so we’re planning on getting LOTS of paint this weekend!

What are your plans for the weekend?

First up was our hot water heater, which we’d known about since our home inspection, when we found out that the unit didn’t even fire when turned on. Apparently it’s pretty common for these particular kinds of heaters if they sit unused for too long – direct vent, they’re called, meaning that the gasses created when natural gas is burned to heat the water are pumped directly outside (in our case directly out the rear wall of the house, through some PVC pipes), rather than vented without a pump, which is the case with conventional heaters (the gasses just escape straight up through a flue). Since we were replacing the unit anyway, we also took the opportunity to move it to a more space-efficient place in the back corner of the basement. We didn’t actually do the work ourselves, since it’s a big project that can take a few days and we were in the midst of busy semesters at the time. But we both think the $2,500 or so was well-spent to have a brand new, efficient water heater in a better location.

And then there was the garbage disposal, which I told you all about.

And then there was the dishwasher. Ohhhh the dishwasher.

There’s actually a big connection between the disposal and the dishwasher, but I’ll get to that later. Lets start with the old dishwasher:

Yup, there she is in all her glory. We ran her a few time before we replaced the garbage disposal and noticed that although she ran fine, the dishes weren’t as clean as we’d hoped.  We figured we could just live with it for a while, though, and just pre-clean our dishes really well.

Until we replaced the garbage disposal and ran the dishwasher again, resulting in the puddly mess you see above.

Obviously our first thought was that something was up with that particular cycle, so we just ran it again to see if the same thing happened.  Which it did.

Stumped, we moved on to fixing a few other things and hand-washing our dishes for a week or so.  We tried running the dish washer a few more times, and every time it didn’t drain properly.

In the meantime, while slowly collecting our things from Katie’s parents’ house, we came across this baby:

Yes, that’s right.  It’s a BRAND NEW DISHWASHER, that just happened to be collecting dust in Katie’s parents’ basement.

There’s obviously a backstory here; you see, when we were under contract for one of the 10+ houses we’d put offers on before this place became our home sweet home, Katie had been in the as-is section of our other home (otherwise known as Ikea). The store was re-doing all of its kitchen setups in the showroom, so there were all sorts of cabinets/sinks/appliances from the old setups available at deep discounts. Including this dishwasher, which usually sells for $300 but was marked down to just $60! The place we were supposed to be buying at the time had no dishwasher, so Katie thought it was a no-brainer and brought it home with her that day. And then that contract fell through, along with a few others.

But I guess fate had our back, because although the dishwasher had been sitting forgotten for six months, it turns out that we could use it in the end. Win. We brought it over from the in-laws, and got to work.

First, though, we had to remove the old dishwasher. Which involved somehow removing a few gallons of water that were still sitting at the bottom of it.

Which brings us to the Best Purchase We’ve Ever Made: a drill pump. What’s a drill pump, you ask? Well, it’s the best invention ever, which you can purchase from Home Depot for $8, and it looks like this:

Here’s how it works: you attach two hoses to the two threaded ends of the pump (you can sort of see the “in” and “out” labels on each end if you look closely). In our case we could just stick the “in” end in the puddle of water, so we really didn’t even need a second hose. Then, you attach a power drill to the center knobby part (looks like a little metal circle in the photo above, but it’s actually a drill-bit shaped metal piece that sticks out towards the viewer). If you can’t picture it, here it is in action, sucking out those gallons of water with ease:

We spend most of our time here, relaxing, doing work, and even eating – since our dining room table is usually covered in house project stuff like this:

We’ve been slowly bringing in furniture and a few decor items. First up was an important functional item: we needed a sturdy but tiny table to put between the two chairs.  There was no other surface in the room yet and after a few spills that were dangerously close to my new rug we were desperate for something a little safer to set our cups down on. But everything we found in stores and online was either way too big or way too expensive – our chairs need to be no more than a foot or so apart in order for you to be able to walk around them to go towards the back of the house.

So after a lot of man hours spent on the hunt, we ventured to the North Point flea market, which is an experience in and of itself. Just Google “Dundalk” if you’re confused.

Anyway, after we walked in and Chris picked his jaw up off the floor, he got the hang of things pretty quickly.  And we successfully snagged this little guy for just $18:

As you can see, it was a little beat up and dusty, so I gave it a quick wipe down with some warm water and Simple Green. We’re thinking about painting it something bright and colorful, like a nice pumpkin-y orange, but I have to say that the natural wood is growing on me – so we might stick with some strategic “refinishing”. We’ll let you know how it goes, but for now here’s a good shot of our table in its hew home:

One of the reasons the natural wood is growing on me is the fact that we added another similar wood tone in a few frames we hung over the chairs:

The smaller pieces on top are some sentimental lacquer-on-paper paintings I got when I was in Kenya a few years ago. I got them at an open-air market; they’re signed by someone named John Gitonga, although I’ve never quite been able to track him down.

These paintings are some of my most treasured possessions for so many reasons: they were the first pieces of art I ever bought, they remind me of the time I spent that summer in an amazing place, and to top it all off, I really just think they’re fabulous. I just love a good moody, abstract painting, don’t you?

The bottom pieces are some really expensive prints that we won at a fancy art auction.

Just kidding, they’re just empty Ikea Ribba frames I got a few months ago in the as-is section for $8 each. I’m not really sure what was wrong with them to make them so cheap, because they’re working just fine for us. I have some ideas for what to put inside them, but I haven’t felt ready to pull the trigger quite yet – we’ll see how things end up in this little arrangement.

The final big win in this room was adding a lamp that was big enough to be functional task lighting but not too big as to take up too much of that valuable tabletop real estate. Luckily, I had one from college that fits the bill quite nicely:

I’m not sold on the white lampshade – I’m thinking of dying/painting it somehow, since I do like the shape/size, just not the color. We’ll see.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying having a semi-respectable-looking living room:

Unfortunately, technology caught up with me and I had to replace my old (like our house) phone with a newer one (like our current dishwasher, sump pump and garbage disposal…but more on those other projects later) so I lost a few of the pictures I had of the project; but regardless, here’s how we did it:

First of all, I’d just like to say that if you ever want to replace a garbage disposal, buy some gloves, a mask, and a hazmat suit. Ours was seized up with God knows what stuck inside; when we flipped the switch to run it, it just made a whining sound (which in garbage disposal speak translates to something like “Help me, I’m stuckkkk!”).

Taking it apart was easy; we just unscrewed the three screws that tightened the metal ring that sits under the sink, holding the disposal unit in place; we also had to unscrew the connection between output tube on the disposal and the larger waste pipe that eventually leads to the main sewer line (and then down to the Ninja Turtles, of course) – both of these steps involved simply unscrewing things. Ya know, righty tighy, lefty loosey? Sorry for the poor quality photo, but I marked where the screws/connections are located for ya…

This same metal attachment ring that held the disposer up to the underside of the sink can be used again with a new disposal, which in our case was the quizzically but entertainingly named Badger 500 – which we picked up for about $100 from our local Home Depot. It’s the middle of the line model; nothing like the super expensive, practically silent, two horsepower beasts that were our other options. We figured that we generally don’t plan on disposing of big solid things in our disposal, so a monster like that isn’t really necessary for the extra few Benjamins it would have cost.

There was only one other fitting to remove, which went between the dishwasher waste line and the disposal itself (so that dirty dishwasher water eventually makes it way through the disposal and down the waste line); we just removed the hose clamp that secured this junction and it came right apart, allowing us to actually tug the disposal out from under the sink and making things a bit easier to manage.

The other removal piece is the wiring, which we just disconnected by loosening the screws that secure the wires in their respective places, AFTER making sure none of said wires are live by turning off the corresponding circuit breaker in our electrical panel. Sorry, no photo.

After disconnecting and physically removing the old disposal, the replacement was simple. First came the wiring of the system. We used the same wiring that was already in place, under the sink, so re-wiring was as simple as matching colors (white goes with white, black with black, and in our case a bare copper ground with the corresponding copper – but sometimes ground wires are insulated and green, or so I’m told).

We also learned the hard way that you have to pop the cap out of the side of the disposal where the dishwasher input tube comes in; we initially forgot this step and wondered for a week or so why the washer was having such a hard time draining completely after we ran it. Yeah, duh.

Like I said , we used the same attachment hardware that was already there to reattach the new Badger.

There’s also a pressure sealed ring around the drain in the sink, which we decided to leave since it seems to be perfectly sealed and as fun as it is to say the Badger’s name, we really don’t have any sort of brand loyalty to it. The new disposal screws back in the same way the old one came out and with a quick tightening of the bolts, it was held in place. Then we just arranged the disposal unit so that its discharge tube lined up with the waste pipe and then re-attached the plumbing connections between to the disposal/waste pipe and disposal/dishwasher.

Just to be sure all our connections were water tight (and with buckets in hand), we ran the water for a few seconds and waited to see if there were any leaks. Which there weren’t – score. We also tested the disposal itself after we turned the power supply back on, and it was a glorious sound just to hear that engine purr.

For a few hours of work, we’re pretty darn excited to be able to rinse dishes in our sink without worrying that we’ll end up with a gross, backed-up mess of a puddle hanging out there indefinitely. So it’s a success in my book.