Recycled Fence

My very favorite project to do is the free kind. We had a garden spot when we moved in and it had a few garden boxes in it. I am personally not a fan of garden boxes because I feel like they waste a lot of space between boxes, so out they came. We shoveled out the rock, tilled it all up and turned the whole spot into a garden.

The problem is that we also have a dog (Wilson) who likes to eat the food in our garden, and we also have small children who think it's fun to pick the food. We decided we needed to put a fence up ASAP if we were going to have any type of fresh garden food that year. Money is always tight and a fence wasn't on our list. But browsing the local classifieds is a true obsession of mine and one day I came across a jackpot. Someone had ripped out a crappy old fence and replaced it, and wanted to get rid of the wood slats. ME! I I immediately text on them and they told us to come get them. 

Many of the slats were cracked, broken, had nails in them, and were not in usable condition. But we found plenty that were perfect for what we needed and off we went building our own little fence. Travis got it all started and left me to nail on the boards. 

We always have kiddos helping us on our projects. 

When the fence was brown it still looked pretty ghetto. But we always have paint on hand and so painting was my next step. Once we got it painted it it looked (almost) like new. It was perfect. We even added a little gate for entry. Because of the position of our garden and the shape of our lot, we only had to fence the front off which made the project super quick and easy. 

Bathroom Remodel #2

Here's the before picture of our downstairs bathroom remodel in our old house. The floor was vinyl stick on squares, the shower seemed to be original, the sink was in the shape of a seashell, that was a lot to be desired. 

We added a bathtub to the bathroom by taking out the shower and building a stem wall to enclose the tub surround. We found the vanity on the local classfieids for a screamin deal, we framed in the existing mirror, painted the entire bathroom a new fresh coat of Alabaster white. We tiled the floor, and tiled the bathtub wall area. We also added several shelves behind the door for extra storage. There was shelving from top to bottom because it was an awkward space behind the door that otherwise wouldn't be used. 

It turned out fabulously! We were really pleased with the result. 

Painting Brick

Here is a reminder of what our home looked like when we bought it in December of 2015. It had great potential and needed some extra love. Once the weather was warm enough we set to work on the exterior. The house was already painted a light gray but it was hard to tell because the colors of the rest of the house overpowered it. I wanted to leave the gray but paint the brick. I told all of my neighbors about painting the brick and they were all terrified of what I was about to do. I did some research but mostly went out on a whim because I figured I couldn't mess it up THAT bad. 

I chose to paint it with Behr Exterior paint, matched to Alabaster White. I originally bought a different white color because I had used so much Alabaster inside, but I ended up only painting about a 3x3 area and hating it, so I went back to my trusty Alabaster color. 

We sprayed the brick all off with our power sprayer and let it dry so the surface was clean and ready to go. We didn't tape anything off, I just followed my husband with a cardboard box and put it up against the house to catch the overspray in the areas we didn't want painted. We used a cut up box to cover the windows too. 

We bought a paint sprayer when we bought the home, just a $100 Graco brand sprayer at Home Depot, and ended up using it to paint. The brick was extremely porous and there is no way we could've rolled or brushed it without destroying the brush or roller every 5 feet. We had to take a break with the sprayer every 15-20 minutes because it would start to get hot, but other than that it worked great.

We did a coat of primer on the exterior because the brick was red, and I do think it helped with coverage. Then we did an additional 2 coats of Alabaster and ta da! It looked FABULOUS. 

I had also given the door color a makeover because the previously blue wasn't my style. I went with a softer blue to tone everything down. I used an exterior paint from ACE (our only local hardware store) that is supposed to be guaranteed to never fade. I only bought a quart because I was only painting a front door so it was a cheap makeover. 

Our next step was to build up our pillars. They were these tiny weak little things and I hated the look of them. We added some fake pillars for looks, and built up the other ones, while also adding the trim at the top for a finished look. 

I built the shutters which is a really simple project, I didn't even use a tutorial I just winged the whole thing. I did measure my windows so I knew what size to make them, and then I stained them with an Espresso stain. I loved the way they turned out. 

I knew I wanted to put shakes on the peak of our house, and I spent some time researching costs but just didn't love anything I came across. Then one day while searching the classifieds I came across a FREE post for old shakes. Someone had torn them off their old roof and just wanted them gone. I sent my husband right over to gather old crappy shakes because they were perfect for what I wanted. 

My hubby put them up and it definitely finished the look of our house. I was in love. 

We paid for the wood for the pillars, the paint for the exterior, and the wood for the shutters. I estimate that the whole project cost us less than $200 and look at the change! 

Kitchen Cupboard Makeover

 This was our kitchen when we bought the house. I honestly didn't mind the color of the cabinets, and they were really nice cabinets. However, that wall on the right that you can only assume is there, we took that wall out. I wanted the same flooring throughout our entire upstairs so that it flowed really well, so therefore we had to take out the kitchen tile. I wanted a dark hardwood looking floor (Pergo) and obviously that wouldn't look great with dark wood cabinets. So the whole thing needed a makeover.
I searched Pinterest high and low and decided to go with slightly off colors instead of painting the whole kitchen one color. I decided to do Repose Gray on the bottom cabinets and Alabaster White on the upper. It is such a slight difference that you almost can't tell, so in retrospect I should have just painted them all one color. Oh well.
I took off all of the bottom cabinet doors, hinges, and drawer fronts. I sanded them all down with an orbital sander enough that the finish was off. I laid everything down on some plastic in my living room because we were pulling that carpet up and I wasn't too terribly concerned about drips.
Then I got my trusty Valspar cabinet paint (link below) that I had color matched previously, and off I went. I did a lot of reading about cabinet painting and decided to go with a foam roller. It covered quite well and looked a lot more professional than a brushed look. There were a few areas that I had to gently sand down because they had a bubble effect going on, so after gently sanding them off I brushed that area again.
The cabinet paint doesn't require a finish so once I got all of my coats on (it took three!) they were done and I was oh so glad. I ended up putting the same hardware back on because I didn't mind it, and they looked fabulous!


Kitchen Before (pictures from when we bought the house)

After I painted the bottom cupboards Repose Gray

The next day (or maybe it was a few days later) I tackled the upper cupboards. I took everything off and started the process all over. The white didn't cover as well as the gray so it took an additional coat. 

Yep that's my kitchen mess but at least you can see both of the colors of cabinets. It's the slightest difference. 

And here's the pro pics we took when we listed the house. I was in LOVE with those cupboards. 

After two years of heavy use the paint held up really well. I touched up a few areas before listing, but I honestly was pleased with how well it held up. I will be using it again. 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Valspar-Cabinet-Enamel-Semi-gloss-Latex-Interior-Paint-Actual-Net-Contents-124-fl-oz/999918096

The great thing about this paint is it's a bit more pricey ($50 a gallon) but it went a LONG way. I used it to paint our stair railing, two pianos, bathroom vanities, and more! 

Taking Out A Wall

When we walked through our house I had a vision of what I wanted to do to the house. It included taking out a wall and opening up the entire living area/kitchen. That was the first project we tackled once we moved in. We even let the kids help us with demo.

This is the main living area before we purchased the home.

We consulted with an engineering firm beforehand to make sure the wall wasn't load bearing, and it wasn't. So off we went. 

We gave them hammers and let them have at it. 

You can see that there was also a wall in the kitchen that went around the stairwell. We were taking all of this out, and replacing it with an actual banister. 

We also pulled up the carpet in preparation to lay down a new floor, and found hardwood floors underneath. However they weren't in fabulous shape and there wasn't any hardwood in the kitchen. After calculating costs we decided it would be cheaper to lay Pergo down over everything then try to refinish the existing wood and lay down new wood in the kitchen. Not to mention the pain of refinishing the wood floor. 

It was a long process and we were living in a dust zone for about two weeks while everything was finished up. 

Notice the kitchen table tipped over to block our staircase while we didn't have a railing up. Yep, ghetto right? 

I was over the moon excited when we were able to get working on the banister. My kiddos always want to help their dad work and he is so patient to let them. 

We ended up patching the ceiling where the wall had been, patching the wall where the wall connected in, and we had already planned on laying new floor down so that patched right over the floor where the wall had been. Overall it was DEFINITELY worth it. 

It turned out FABULOUS. We put matching ceiling fans in to make the space more cohesive. We lightened everything up with a good ole coat of paint. The paint I used throughout the entire house (almost) was Alabaster White from Sherwin Williams, although I matched it at Home Depot and used Behr paint because it was more cost effective. 

The railing was painted in Repose Gray as well, with the same cabinet paint from the bottom kitchen cabinets. Win win! 

Our flooring was Pergo flooring from Home Depot. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Pergo-XP-Coffee-Handscraped-Hickory-10-mm-Thick-x-5-1-4-in-Wide-x-47-1-4-in-Length-Laminate-Flooring-13-74-sq-ft-case-LF000739/204735351

I really REALLY loved the look of this flooring, when I could keep it clean. With five kids it wasn't always clean, but hey, I tried. 

Refinishing Pianos

I have refinished three pianos in my day, and while it is kind of a pain it is most certainly worth it. The first piano we had while renting a home and when we ended up moving into low income housing while in school, we had zero space to put our piano. I ended up selling it to my sweet friend but not before I snapped a pic of this beauty. 

It was a typical old brown piano. We took it apart in the garage so that we could more easily paint all of the pieces. We took off the top of the piano, and the front pieces that have hinges or open and close. We also removed keys so we could make sure we got a nice coat of paint down in the hard to reach areas without getting paint on our keys.  I painted it with Behr interior eggshell paint, and finished it with Minwax Polycrylic. It turned out beautifully. 

After my husbands Grandma passed away we were inheriting her piano. We had another piano, the exact same color, and sadly I can't find a picture of it anywhere! So the picture below is the piano we inherited from Grandma. I hope she didn't roll over in her grave when I painted her piano. It's painted Repose Gray from Sherwin Williams, but I matched the color in Valspar because I love their "cabinet paint." It's supposed to be extra durable and it doesn't require a finish. I got it at Lowes and have used it on SEVERAL projects including cupboards, bathroom, vanities, and pianos. 

link to Valspar cabinet paint: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Valspar-Cabinet-Enamel-Semi-gloss-Latex-Interior-Paint-Actual-Net-Contents-124-fl-oz/999918096