Tray-chic

I love butler trays, and the more home magazines and blogs I read the more I love them. They just make everything that you put in them look more organized, and we love us some organization around here. However, I am too much of a cheapskate to buy them since the ones I typically like run about $15...until now. I found this great little butler tray at Target for only, wait for it, $2.50!

I was in love as soon as I saw it, well, in love with it's potential anyway, Easter-y colors aren't exactly my style, but I knew that with a little spray paint I could spruce this baby right up.

I got right to work with my spray paint on the first clear and warm day that I could (it really was a little anxious of me because it was super windy that day, not the best conditions for spray painting).

It took four coats to get all those stripes to finally and completely disappear, it probably would have been fewer if I had primed, but it was totally worth the wait (and the little dots of spray paint that showed up on my pants, seriously it was windy). I love our new little butler tray, and I think it looks so cute holding our spring colored magazines.

 And the whole project only cost the $2.50 because I already had the spray paint on hand. I still haven't found a permanent home for it, although I'm thinking it might end up somewhere in the back room whenever we get everything finished back there.

Anyone else out a spray paint fanatic? Or found anything in the dollar section that is just brimming with potential? Please feel free to share, we love a good redo around here.

It's a Jungle Out There

It was a jungle out there anyway. In the last few weeks our yard went from looking like this

to this

Since from the above picture you can't really get the full effect of how out of hand things were, allow me to show you a close up.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids flashbacks anyone? The grass wasn't the only thing that was out of hand either. We didn't really rake up the leaves last fall like we probably should have, so our fence row had quite the pile of leaves blown up against it. So, while Jake picked up trash that had drifted into our yard and started trimming the bushes, I raked all the leaves away from the fence so that we could mow over them and create a natural mulch-like effect.

In one corner of the yard the leaves had actually built up about 2 feet high, and in a flower bed no less, so it wasn't the easiest trying to remove the leaves without mangling the daffodils and irises. There were a few casualties, but no flower massacre or anything like that.

While I was working on the leaf raking, Jake was busy trimming the bushes in the front and back. The bushes actually create a border above the retaining wall in front of our house, and they were getting pretty unruly. But Jake got out there and told them what was up, and they are looking pretty good now. You can see the difference in this picture between the right side of the bushes that Jake had trimmed and the left side that was in the process of getting its buzz cut.

Since we like to get the bulk of our yard work taken care of in one day so that there's only maintenance to take care of the rest of the summer, we also cleaned out the flower beds, planted some seeds, mulched, mowed, and burned all the bush trimmings, as well as the rest of our burn pile (including our Christmas tree that has been out there since January). In all it was a pretty productive day, and we can't help but smile every time we've looked at the yard today because of the major improvement.

And here's a parting look at the front of the house with the newly trimmed bushes and nice, short grass.

Whew, now that that's taken care of we can get back to working on the back room renovation. It's getting closer to being finished, but there's still a lot to do before the final before and after reveal.

Roll on, Roll off.

While I'm not a student of Mr. Miyagi's, and there may not be a karate lesson to be learned from using a paint roller, it doesn't stop me from making 80's movie references. Recently we posted on mudding and taping, now we will finish the ceiling by texturing and and painting. Here's a picture after the mudding is complete.

Some may wonder about why it's good to texture ceilings and walls. The main reasons are to cut down on glare and to hide any imperfections. Smooth surfaces reflect light a lot easier than rough surfaces and I personally like the look of a lightly textured ceiling over a smooth one.

Texturing is not as difficult as it may seem. Here's a list of what you'll need: a roller handle with a course roller on it, a bucket of mud, a roller grate for a bucket and some water. Here's a picture of the bucket and grate so you can see what I'm talking about.

 When you water down the mud you want the consistency about half way between mud and paint. A little runny but still clinging to the roller pretty well. After that you just paint it on.

The secret is imperfection. Make sure you get the roller lines out, but other than that you aren't going for perfectly spaced lumps or a pattern. Just let the texture do it's thing and when it's dry it will look great.

Though you can't see it very well in this picture, the shading of where the tape is still show through a little bit. So you still need to throw a coat or two of ceiling paint up. Then you have a complete ceiling.

Caulk It to Me

Remember all those nails that we removed from the walls of the back room and showed you here? Well, all those nails left quite a few holes in the walls, holes that when painted over would show up, especially since we're painting the walls a light color, light colors show imperfections easier than darker colors. So, to take care of the holey problem I got my caulk on one night.

 For anyone who's never done it before, caulking is a very simple process. You simply take the bottle of caulk, load it into the caulking gun, and get going. You put your caulk wherever you need to repair a hole, crack, etc. and then wipe away any excess so that you have a nice, smooth surface to work with. You don't have to try to be clean when caulking, any excess wipes away easily with a damp cloth, and you can even use your fingers to apply it if that's your style. The "hands on" approach works best for me, but Jake prefers to use the gun. By the time I was done with the walls in the back room they were looking a little like a kid with chicken pox being treated with calamine lotion, anyone else remember that experience as a child?

We've since wiped the walls down and they are ready to prime. There were a couple of larger holes in a few of the knots that we probably should have used wood putty for, and would recommend that to anyone else who may be taking on this kind of a project, but we didn't have any on hand, so we just made due with what we had. Anyone else been getting their caulk on recently? or Preparing to paint wood paneling? 

Mud and Rock

Mud and sheet rock that is. We got the ceiling put up in the back room this weekend! It was a fairly long process, but it looks so great now, it was totally worth it (says the wife that mostly just watched as her husband and father-in-law did most of the work). If you've never put up sheet rock before, I'm not sure I would suggest starting with a ceiling, it is one of the most challenging sheet rock projects since you have to hold it up while trying to get it secured to the ceiling. To demonstrate what I mean, why don't we look at some pictures?

The above picture was taken after some of the grunt work had already happened; it wasn't the easiest to get the sheet rock off the ground and up to the ceiling, then you have to make sure it's butted up against the wall and previous piece of sheet rock so that everything goes up nice and straight and you don't have to do a ton of mud work later on down the road. We used ten foot wide sheet rock so that we would have fewer seams since our room is only about nine and a half feet wide and we cut the sheet rock to fit. After the sheet rock is in place you screw it to the rafters with sheet rock screws, starting around the edges and then working inward. To ensure that you are putting the screws into rafters you have to use a straight edge and draw lines on the sheet rock for a guide of where to put the screws.

You also need to measure out exactly where the lights are, because you will cover them up with sheet rock and then cut holes in it for them to shine through.

Another thing you need to be careful of when putting up sheet rock is how deep you set the screws. If they go too far in they won't hold, you want to have them as flush with the sheet rock as possible. The screw on the right is too deep and would probably not hold very well, so we had to put in another screw to the left of it to be sure it would hold. The one on the left is pretty much what you want your screws to look like.

You can put the screws up with just a simple drill (cordless would definitely be the preferred type), or if you're like my father-in-law and have friends with fancy tools, you might be able to borrow a cool dry wall specific tool that helps you put the screws in quickly and efficiently. You can kind of see what it looked like in this picture.

By mid afternoon the sheet rock was all up and the room was looking good, but we still had all the mudding and taping to do.


To mud and tape you first put a nice layer of mud (mud that you buy at the hardware store that is, don't just go make some mud with dirt out of your back yard) down the seam where the two pieces of sheet rock meet.

Then immediately afterward you apply the tape (also from the hardware store and specifically for dry walling) down the seam.

You then go down the seam with your mudding knife to get the tape good and tight and to remove any excess mud, then you follow that up with another layer of mud, and then go down with the mudding knife removing any excess again. It's all a very monotonous job, but it's what makes your ceiling look smooth and seamless in the end.

You also need to mud over the screws, but that is a much easier project, you just need a small, smooth layer of mud over each of them. At the end of the day, your sheet rock should look something like this.

You still have to mud two more times to get a nice, even coat, but you have to wait a day or so between muddings. You also sand any rough parts down at the very end of the process. We had a nice sander with an extension to do the job. As you can see the ceiling is looking nice and smooth here.

 Later this week we'll show how to texture the ceiling too, but for now we're enjoying our newly sheet rocked back room. Oh, and having a white ceiling up makes the room seem so much brighter! Things are really starting to move along.

Brrrr...It's cold in here

It's cold in here now that is...We got a new refrigerator/freezer! When Jake bought the house five years ago the appliances were included, and they lasted for us pretty well, but slowly and surely they are starting to not work quite as well. We had to replace the stove last May because the oven stopped working, and recently the fridge gave us a little scare. Even though it started working again and has stayed very cold since, we decided it was time to move on. So, we went shopping. We did a little online research before leaving the house, but we're pretty tactile, so the best way for us to find something we like was to just go out and look. We checked most of the major retailers in the area, and after coming home to do some more research and look at the reviews of the ones we liked, we ended up with this guy:

Isn't he a beaut?! It's the Kenmore 18.2 cubit foot top freezer refrigerator.When we replaced the stove we got a black one, because the dishwasher that we are planning to install is also black, so now the fridge matches too! I know, I get excited easily, but I love that all of our appliances match now. Since Sears was in the middle of inventory we did have to wait about a week and a half before it came in, but it was worth the wait. And it looks so nice in it's new home.

Here's a look at the inside. I still haven't figured out how to organize everything in the door, but it's coming along.

The new freezer is slightly smaller than the old one, so that took a little maneuvering, but we got it worked out now.

We also got a great deal on our fridge. It was on sale for $384.99, $165 off of the regular price of $549.00. And if we are able to sell our old fridge on Craigslist for about $100 or so then that means we only spent $284.99! Not too shabby for one that was pretty much comparable to our old one size-wise, and we really love that the shelves and drawers are clear so that we can see everything we have easily and won't accidentally buy something that we already have and waste food.

I feel kind of sorry for the old fridge though since it's still living in the house for now, it kind of reminds me of the swiffer mop commercials.

Our old fridge is looking sadly upon the new one and singing "baby come back". Can't you just see it? No? Maybe it's just me. 

Happily, the old fridge will be getting a new home soon. We listed it on Craigslist earlier this morning, so hopefully it will be helping others keep their food cold again soon.

So that was the frigid excitement happening in our house recently, but we'll be back to working on the backroom soon. We'll do a progress update a little later in the week.

Let There Be LIGHT!

Lighting in a room is key. Especially when entertaining company. The lighting in a room sets the mood and if it's too dim people may feel uncomfortable at the intimacy of the setting. On the other hand if it's too bright it can hurt the eyes and feel overly harsh. I tend to err of the side of bright because you can always buy smaller wattage bulbs to soften the lighting. If you don't put enough lighting in a room you have to resort to lamps, which are good for decoration and mood lighting, but are not good if you have to rely on them to light a room.

To the room at hand! Here is a before picture of the lighting in our back room.

As you can see we rely on a lamp to help light the room. Even with the lamp it is a poorly lit room. This is especially bad because this is our "dining room" and sufficient overhead lighting is very important to promote conversation at the dinner table.

Now here is a picture of the room with the new lighting!

It's so much brighter, but not just brighter, it's evenly lit. No more dark patches in the room. To get this effect we used six (two more above where I'm standing taking the picture) recessed can lights. The reason we used can lights is our low ceiling. Most ceilings are at least 8 feet, but our back room is hair grazing 7 ft. 3 inches. Sorry Shaq I know you wanted to come hang out but you are too tall for our back room. Audra wasn't excited about can lights but once I showed her how short our ceiling really was she consented to them and has grown to like them.

Something you need to watch for when using can lights is height above the ceiling.

As you can see we had less than 6 inches to work with. Most can lights are at least 8 inches tall, but we found some shallow ones for a few bucks more. Another thing we had to make sure of was that the can lights were rated for insulation contact. Can lights can get very hot and if insulation is touching them and they aren't rated for it, it can start a fire.

Along with getting wire pulled for new outlets and other circuits in the house(stuff that I would not recommend doing yourself unless you are a licensed electrician) the can lights needed to be put in before we sheet rocked the ceiling. Now that all that is done, we are ready to put the ceiling up!