Learning Garage

Two people brought up my blog today and I had to confess I hadn't updated since June. So, here I am.

Back in June, the month when updating ceased, my dad came to town and helped straighten my garage. It was leaning and stressing me out every time I pulled my car in the garage. This project was handled just like every other project with my dad — I took pictures (and sent him this link); he did the dirty work.

After the garage was pulled back in place, Dave and my dad replaced some rotting boards, and a week later, Dave and I slapped a fresh coat of paint on it. Done.

Oh, also, there's this neat stuff called foam backer rod. Write that down. You can use it when you have extra wide gaps that need to be caulked.

Before

During

After

New color for the kitchen

After two years, the orange I'd painted my kitchen was just too...well, orange. The room glowed radioactively with its orange-ness. After I saw this kitchen's paint color, I knew mine couldn't stay orange for much longer. So, I painted it Behr's Mocha Accent. It's a pretty perfect brown-gray-green and my kitchen feels grown up now.

Does anyone else google paint colors to see how they look in other people's homes before taking the plunge? I do.

Before. Yes, there are bananas everywhere because I just re-used this pic from a previous post. Oh, and before before.

After. I know how it looks, but that "N" is not for Nebraska; it's for November.

Appraisal

I spent last Tuesday through Sunday doing repairs, deep cleaning my house and cleverly staging things to hide imperfections all in anticipation of an appraisal on Monday (I'm re-financing). And then the appraisal lasted less than five minutes. That's it. I suppose it wasn't all for naught, though. Who can complain about a clean house?

Now, here's one of the repairs I did. With the help of my brother and advice of my dad, I fixed an old water spot on my spare bedroom ceiling. NOTE: The entire ceiling is crappy and there's a poor patch job by the previous owners that looks extremely obvious in these photos. My patch is within that patch.

BEFORE. I scraped off the stained parts of the popcorn texture.

DURING. I secured parts of the sagging ceiling with drywall screws and fender washers.

AFTER.  I patched the ceiling with mesh tape and joint compound, applied new popcorn texture, and painted.

Deck railing

Now, the deck is really, really done. Railing is up and stair is attached.

Now, if only it would actually cool down and all mosquitoes would die, I could actually enjoy it.

 Here's Dave on the deck, along with a mysterious blob in the patio door.

 Ghost?

All decked out

It took just six hours for a new deck (minus the railing) to be put in place and that included allowing time for lunch. Speaking of which, figuring out what to prepare for lunch is often one of the most stressful parts about these projects because I need to perform (and it better be tasty).

Oh! And my dad removed that last stubborn floorboard by slicing through the nails with a recip saw.

Before. Well, just moments after before.

During. Drills up, gentlemen.

After. Yay to these guys and my dad.

Deck be gone

Replacing my deck seemed like one of those projects that would always be on my to-do list. And suddenly—POOF—the old deck is gone (thanks Brian and Dave!) and new wood is arriving today. Well, it isn't really gone; I still have a huge pile of wood to throw away.

Like with most of my projects, I sent pictures to my dad for some long-distance consulting. He could charge for this stuff (not me, of course :), but maybe my siblings...hehe).

This is one of the pics I sent my dad. The problem: How on earth do we get that last floor board out of there?

Crafty Carafe

My very own There, I Fixed It! I cracked the carafe to my coffee maker last night and needed some quick fix solution so that I could have coffee in the morning. Enter my tea kettle! Another option would have just been to buy coffee, but that would have a) been too easy and b) seriously conflicted with my miserly ways.

An excellent fix if I do say so myself. And, no, I didn't stage that flower.

I used the tea kettle's lid to depress the lever that allows the coffee to flow from the filter to the pot. Now, before you wonder why I just didn't turn the kettle the other way and use the spout to push the button, I tried that, and it didn't work.

Extreme close-up (ignore the griminess)!

Bedroom Overboard

As it turns out, I picked the perfect color for my bedroom. It's Frozen Pond from Behr's Premium Plus Ultra line of paints (paint and primer in one!).

The paint and primer in one saved time with painting the walls, but I'm far from finished in my room. While spackling nail holes in the wall, I just had to mess with some chipping plaster on the ceiling (natch.). Everything has spiraled dangerously out of control from there. Now, I'm scraping, sanding and painting the trim, caulking the windows, patching the ceiling and kicking myself for being so "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"-esque.

 This picture is simply proof the painting is done; the color is not really accurate at all.

Blue-green bedroom

I'm picking up paint tomorrow for my bedroom (Right now, it's speckled, remember?) and am currently agonizing over three particular shades of blue-green. I meant to spend tonight clearing out my room, but instead, I've been playing with paint colors online. Typical and dumb. Internet wins again.

The three contenders are all in the bottom row -- fourth from the right, second from the right and the first one on the right.

Pot O' Gold

For St. Patrick's Day, my work is holding a little bake-off. I hadn't planned on participating, but then I was struck with this idea while I was leaving Target last night. And I've been thinking (giddily) of nothing but little pots o' gold ever since.

I'll post the instructions later; I just turned my scotcheroos recipe inside out.

Bring it.

2010 Calendar

After failing to find any worthwhile free downloadable calendars, I decided to make my own for 2010. My fancy design software is just Microsoft Publisher (ha ha). The big letters are from the Daily Drop Cap project.

Three months down. Nine to go. The pages go on a clipboard in my kitchen.

Window pain

The frame on one of my basement windows is rotting. Oh, joy. My dad is coming over to help with the repair this weekend. It's been kind of a pain (probably more so for my dad than me...although, he's been very good-natured about the whole thing, so maybe it's just me.) figuring out just what exactly we should do to fix this bad boy since my window is not a standard size.

Isn't this scary looking? I totally have a Blair Witch Project corner of my basement, too. It's Halloween year round in these parts.

Painting furniture, part 2

These are the furniture pieces I want to paint like these bloggers did. The dresser and nightstand have been hanging out like that, stacked in my living room, for a good two months now. What can I say, I'm on a really tight deadline.

These should look just lovely in white with some new hardware, no? Based on my current rate of progress, they should be completed just in time for the next presidential election. whoopee!

Painting furniture

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, no? I am going to copy these bloggers and give some furniture a second lease on life with fresh paint and new hardware:

• Centsational Girl
• Life in the Fun Lane
• A Brooklyn Limestone
• Door Sixteen
• Young House Love

This is one from Life in the Fun Lane. Most excellent handiwork, no?

Before.

After. Must imitate soon.

Mulchy fresh

Who needs to spring for the little pine tree car air fresheners when you can have three hundred pounds of mulch freshening you car instead? My dad hooked me up with a bunch of free mulch, stuffing my car to the gills. I was low riding on my way back home.

All lined up in the back seat. There's two more bodies (ahem, bags) in the trunk.

Paint lesson learned

I'm learning a lot of home improvement lessons lately. Lesson #17: Do not assume that the cans of paint left in the basement by the previous owners actually matches any of the wall colors.

I thoughtfully deduced that the only can of light blue paint in the basement must be the very paint that was used in the only light blue room in the house... my bedroom. Mistake. I used the paint to touch up various nail holes and other patches and now my walls appear to have the measles.

Mismatched. I present exhibits A, B and C.

Pledge Complete

Done! A mere four months ago, I took my own oath to whip my house into shape. The goal was to have it ready for show and tell on Easter. While I didn't complete every single task on my to do list, I completed a lot of the really important ones. So, last Sunday, I was able to confidently open my doors to the extended family for a tour. I felt like such a proud mama of my little home. Huzzah! (See what's done - wins and fails)

Here's the to do list that's been hanging on the fridge and helping me whip my house into shape since December.

Kitchen Ceiling Fail

Upon closer inspection, my kitchen ceiling is kind of a fail. The paint looks good, it's just that I did not do as a good a job at sanding the patch as I initially thought I did. And by the time I realized it, it was too late.

So, I'm not going to post any pictures until I take a power sander to it and do kitchen patch 2.0. Here's a puppy instead.

Another painting weekend

Kitchen ceiling is getting a fresh paint job this weekend. I've assembled all the necessary tools. Ready to rock and roll.

One of these things is not like the others.

Dusty do

Nothing says hard work like a little dirt on your hands. Or in my case, a little dust in my hair. After patching the kitchen ceiling a couple weeks ago, I finally got around to sanding it tonight. I was very careful to lay down a drop cloth, but it didn't matter. Dust went everywhere(!) including in my eyes and in my hair and probably in my lungs, too.

Afterward, I took quite the liking to my dusty hairdo. It was like my own little badge of honor - proof, that I'm actually doing stuff around here.

Carefully-placed drop cloth.

[Insert psoriasis/dandruff jokes here]