Pillow Project

Okay, so this is nothing new; in fact I've been meaning to get around to this project for - I don't know - a year.  Well today I checked it off of my "To Do" list.  Okay, so it's a mental list.  I'm too lazy to write it down; hence the need for a blog to make me document stuff.

Step 1 - Make friends with someone who buys a lot of rice - in bulk, and persuade them to store the rice in another container.  This is part of the reason it took me so long to get around to this project.  When one buys rice in bulk one does not buy it often.  I guess you could buy your own rice, but not us.  We went on south beach about a year ago.  I miss rice, but I digress.

Step 2 - Go buy a pillow form or some filler.  My bag was an odd size, so I used filler.

Step 3 - Stuff the bag with filler.  Better yet, put the filler on an old pillowcase or t-shirt and make your own pillow form.

Step 4 - Zip the bag closed.  Yeah, my bag had a zipper because I'm cool like that.





It took me a year- for that!  Now that it is finished I'm trying to decide where it should live, and if I should remove the handles.  I want to leave the handles, but I think The Boy might turn it into a weapon.  It would be like a giant Homie sock, because The Boy don't play that!

Marmalade - Update

When passing by my parents house the other day I noticed that their citrus trees were loaded with ripe fruit.  What does one do with an overabundance of grapefruit and oranges?  Give them to your daughter of course.  And what does the daughter do with them?  Marmalade!  I've made lots of different types of jams and jellies, but this was my first foray into the world of marmalade.  That night I made a batch of grapefruit marmalade.  I'm a little worried that it cooked too long.  Hopefully it sets properly, and if it does I'll post a recipe so that I can remember next season. 

UPDATE:  The marmalade set...boy did it ever set.  I'm pretty sure it could break a tooth (might have cooked it a wee bit past the gel stage).  EPIC FAIL!

The Boy's Room - Before

The Boy's Room required minimal work to whip it into shape.  Once the new electrical was run, the necessary patches were made, the ceiling patch job was fixed, and the closet was framed for new doors. 

It started out like this.

We inherited that terrible patch job; it is not our handiwork. 

The picture quality and composition are terrible.  We don't have very decent before pics.

This room really wasn't too bad.  It was almost livable - except for the whole wires hanging out of the wall thing.

I know everyone is lovin that ceiling fan and hoping that we kept it.  You'll just have to wait a bit longer to find out...

Marmalade

When passing by my parents house the other day I noticed that their citrus trees were loaded with ripe fruit.  What does one do with an overabundance of grapefruit and oranges?  Give them to your daughter of course.  And what does the daughter do with them?  Marmalade!  I've made lots of different types of jams and jellies, but this was my first foray into the world of marmalade.  That night I made a batch of grapefruit marmalade.  I'm a little worried that it cooked too long.  Hopefully it sets properly, and if it does I'll post a recipe so that I can remember next season. 

Look What I Can Do...

Finding and sorting pictures for remodel posts of each room is going to take some time. In the interim I thought I'd post a write up of a project the I did after the remodel was complete. 

When the den was finished we decided to use a small media shelf as a temporary console table.  The plan was to find a piece of furniture that we both loved which would fit the space.  After about a year of looking I'd had enough.  I figured I'd just build one myself; nevermind the fact that I had no experience building furniture.  Not really knowing where to begin I turned to my most trusted advisor.

I came across Ana White's blog Knock-off Wood, and based my console table loosely upon her plans for the Tao media cabinet.  Ana's plans were easy to follow and adapt; building the piece went quickly.  I think that it was assembled, with help for The Boy and his Daddy, in two evenings after work.  Finishing it was another story. It took almost a week to finish.  After sanding everything smooth, two coats of Lamp Black Milk Paint were applied, followed by a coat of PolyAcrylic and two coats of Brick Red Milk Paint.  Once the second coat of red paint was dry it was time to get out more sandpaper.  Since the console table was going to live in our den, my husband and I decided that we wanted it to look very distressed to help hide any damage that The Boy was sure to inflict.  Once we'd achieved the level of distressing we wanted we clear coated the console table again (and again, and again) with PolyAcrylic.  We figured that three coats should help keep The Boy from destroying the finish too quickly.

Overall we're pretty happy with how it turned out.  We're able to hide DVDs, a Wii and the plethora of Wii accessories that The Boy and his Daddy need as well as an abundance of other TV/Internet related junk.  This was also our first experience with milk paint, and I have to say I've been extremely impressed. Even with an incredibly active little boy running around, the paint hasn't gouged or scrapped.  There has been virtually no wear and the finish had not needed any touch-ups.  (You'd be impressed if you could see the way The Boy treats furniture!) 

Here is the completed console table/media cabinet...

Ignore my horrible photography skills.  Maybe I'll work on them once I finish grad school.

The Plan

Once we were mostly aware of the scope of the project we were undertaking we decided it was time to devise a plan.  Here is what we came up with:

• The windows would all be replaced.
• The original hardwoods would be refinished.
• All wiring would be replaced as well as the sub-panel, receptacles, switches and light fixtures.
• Plumbing issues would be dealt with as they arose.
• The interior hollow core doors would be replaced with interior wood doors.
• The main bathroom would be gutted.
• The bedrooms would all be patched up and painted.
• The master bath would be made slightly bigger and a custom shower would be built.
• The kitchen would be gutted.
• The wall dividing the den would be removed to enlarge the space.
• The laundry room would be reconfigured to support the addition of a mop sink.
• The half bath off the den would be reconfigured.

It looks like a short list, but it took a very long time to complete!

Making the House Livable

As we prepared to launch Operation Paint the House the tenants finished moving the rest of their things.  Once we got the chance to do a thorough walk through we realized that Operation Paint the House needed to be postponed.  Before we could make the house pretty we needed to make it livable. 

The kitchen had to be gutted. 

(You can't tell by looking at this picture, but the tenant fixed the leaking sink with duct tape - bad move!)

The hole in the living room floor needed patched.

The tile and wall situation in the den needed to be addressed.  (Apparently tile should stay secured to the floor when you walk on it, and grout should be between all of the joints.)

The tenant re-tiled the floor.  The couch must have been on the back wall; they didn't grout under it.  The bottom half of the walls was paneling.  They decided to sheetrock, but they didn't take down the paneling first.  Yes that does mean that the walls had a noticeable change in thickness.

I also had a hang-up about being scared of my own shower.

What else?  Oh yeah, coax cable is not an adequate substitute for romex.  A/C ducts should not have holes in them.  Speaker wire should not leave scorch marks on your pants if you accidentally touch it in the attic.  And since we are just so picky, we decided it would be nice for the garage door to actually open (amongst other things).  


Painting would have to wait.

What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into?

I guess a little bit of background info would be nice.  A few years ago, after The Boy was born, it became very apparent that the starter home we bought before getting married was just too small.  My parents were selling a rental property and offered us a great deal. We knew that we'd want to make a few cosmetic changes before moving, but we were unaware of the scope of the project.  We thought we'd do some mud work, paint some walls and maybe replace some light fixtures.  The renters had been in the house for ten years; it had been a while since either of my parents had been inside.  It turns out my parents were slumlords!

In all fairness some of the issues were from when the renters decided to do a little remodeling, and they never mentioned any of the other damage.  Renters - tell your landlord when something needs to be fixed!  I guess they were trying not to rock the boat; in the ten years they lived in the house the rent was never increased.

Away we go!

Let's see, what is there to know about me?  I'm terrible at documenting things, so this blog will (hopefully) help me document things and moments that I don't want to forget.  My husband and I are avid remodelers who can't seem to leave well enough alone.  I am super cheap and hate to pay people to do something I can do myself; I think I can do everything myself.