Laundry Room Make-Over (Part 1)

A very important room it is. If it isn't organized I can become a little frustrated. You need room to iron, hang wet laundry, fold, store various items (from light bulbs to cleaning supplies)... You need to feel happy in this room.

And ours needs a serious make over. I didn't even want my new washer and dryer to be sitting under the dirty (and seriously sticky) metal racks that were originally hung. So I pulled down those nasty metal shelves, allowed the Love to fix the fittings, and then moved in.

TSP - check

Mud Patchwork - check

Primer - check

Paint - check

And that most beautiful Thursday rolled around, to bring me my new, HE Whirlpool washer dryer with steam technology... *girlie sigh* 

Come on! I know you are laughing at me... But seriously, after living in an apartment where the washer barely holds four pairs of yours and your Love's jeans combined! Then the basket would go bouncing all over the place no matter how many times you went out to get the balance right... I probably wasted about 1/5 of my laundry days just adjusting the clothes so it wouldn't bang around so much. A total nuisance!

Oh man, and what a Cadillac this pair is! I barely even have enough laundry to allow for a load sometimes! And the drum is so big!!! I'm in heaven when I have to go running around the house to find more laundry!

*Another satisfied sigh*

*Cough Cough* So moving on... 

Now that the washer and dryer are settled, I need to find something to do with all the items that should be in the laundry room, which are currently piling up in the dining room.

I spent a couple days thinking. We hardly have any money set aside (or even planned) for the laundry area. It was a room that we were just going to put together as we went along. But the idea that we have all these rooms started, and not one finished, on top of the pile in the dining room, and constantly having to search for light bulbs (because the Love puts them in places I have no idea to look), I decided this room needs to be finished.

I allowed my scavenging mind to wander, with my creative side following suit. And what do you know, I can finish the laundry free of charge! :) Everything is at home... Well almost everything. I will need a mouse sander, but no materials will need to be purchased! 

MUHAHAHA!

Since we are not using and will soon be removing the cabinets in the master bath I pulled the doors off and am sanding them down to the bare wood. Those will be used in the center for the three in the sketch above. The cabinet in the hallway will be opened to the guest bath for storage, an a cozy bench seat, so I also pulled the doors off. The large one I cut into two 30" tall doors which will be the farthest doors on the left and right.

I will put a second shelf, and maybe a third in the right cabinet, for additional storage. Why not after all, look at all that space that isn't being used. 

The orange lines around the washer and dryer are additional shelves. The one behind will hold laundry soaps and dryer supplies. The space between the washer/dryer will be additional counter space as well as storage below for laundry baskets and the cat litter box on the floor. 

I am eager to go pick up a mouse sander so I don't have to spend hours on just one door. I look forward to finishing, so I can share how to refinish cabinets (which can also be translated into furniture) and how my new laundry room will look!

Cheers~

Fun Little Helpers

Hello everyone! Happy Sunday! 

I was reading a blog post from one of my favorite bloggers, Centsational Girl, when she gave me a grand idea!

The author, Kate, explains in her post how she chooses colors, which is a fabulous directional point, and I was forced to think, how am I choosing mine?

I have this odd knack of remembering people by colors, a personality trait, a type of bead, or even a fashion style. I take that small ability and I aim it at the rooms. Who will be in this room? What do I want the mood of the room to be like? How do I want to style the room? 


When my Love and I were selecting the color for the guest bedroom, my first thought was "who will be staying in this room?" Friends, Family... But it's going to be mix genders, so it had to be gender neutral. 

Stepping back, I looked at the room itself. It's 10' x 10' with a closet and a wonderfully sized window. Since the room is small, I didn't want a color that would make the walls feel like they were pressing in on you. This room needed a color that made you feel free to stretch your arms far out and wide, in either natural sunlight or lamp light. 


Then I imagine what kind of mood would feel best. I know that I wanted a happy feel with an edge of relaxation. I needed something that made you feel good inside. For me a blue is always a great way to go, but I didn't want to go with a generic tone. Maybe with a hint of turquoise?
 
When I finally selected "winter surf" from Behr, my Love agreed with me. A perfect good mood color that remained gender neutral with the edge of relaxation.


But not every time is like this...

I am a total bargain hunter (Thanks Mom!) and that just about runs my creative side too... Hmmm... That explains why its so random and sporadic! So whenever we are in the vicinity of a Home Depot, Lowes or paint shop, we have to go in. There is always a section called "oops" paints. These are usually colors that were made wrong, not picked up, or shunned. Don't let those titles stop you though, I've found some amazing colors in that section. 


Our laundry room and garage, for example, are painted in solely oops paints. My studio will be as well. We are hoping to paint about 70% of our home using these rejected colors. 


Oh and just to give you an idea on how much you are really saving... We purchased the guest bedroom color at full price, $26.97 (I just saw a sign the other day that priced Behr 1 gallons at $29.98). Every 1 gallon of oops paint that I have seen and purchased is priced at $7.00. Not bad, huh?


Here are some other websites (linked from Centsational Girl) that can help you in your color selections:

Design Seed - I love their selection of color palates based off images! A great way to get into the mood of a room.


My Colortopia - I love their blog! It's full of tips and tricks that come with thriving in the painting, home decorating, and design realms.


Thank you Kate! And Happy Decorating Everyone!


Cheers~

Fixing the Fittings

So, remember that leaky spicket in the back yard? Or those nasty fittings in the laundry room? Well, we won! Muahahahaha!! No more leaks! 

The Love decided to crack down on them the weekend of the 14th. Took both days to complete. 

Has anyone ever heard of "shark bite" fittings? Well the Love had. Went mad raving about them while I remained skeptical. 

For those of you who do not know, they are a "push-fit" connection system. After cutting the pipe and de-burring, you just push the fitting on and its secure! They are "certified for underground and behind the wall applications and as a manufactured joint without access panels." No glue or soldering necessary.

Click here to see their brochure. (Because I love them now)

My Love said they've been using these connectors on semi trucks and large equipment for years. Mainly for their air lines which push 300 psi constantly. So I gave in and let him do his thing.

We were to be receiving the washer and dryer on Thursday the 19th, which required us to fix the fittings. We had gone to Home Depot and were able to talk to a 25-year plumber vet who gave us all the necessities for the job (for the spicket and water heater as well). But one thing none of us thought to check, the types of threading on the shark bites and the valve fixtures. We ended up having to run back and purchase a box set (the plastic box with the valves) because they didn't have individual washing machine valves that were non-compression threads... Grr... The box didn't even fit our setup! So we had to purchase another box! 

Well those nasty fittings and box went bye-bye. Helloooo clean, fancy, new fittings and shark bites! 

I wish I had a better picture of the shark bites but the brochure that I have linked above has quite a few.

~

I guess it's only natural to assume that every spicket is a thread on. But then again, someone once told me, "Assuming only gets you into trouble." And it did!

As you can see in the picture, the spicket in the backyard was stuccoed to the wall, leaving the joint to be inaccessible. We didn't want to have a hole in the wall for days on end, so we assumed the spicket was a thread on and purchased what we needed to replace the old booger. 

Much to our frustration, the spicket was soldered on. We attempted to melt the solder off, but to no avail. I believe that this fitting was glued by calcium build-up as well as soldered.

So it was back to Home Depot... 

The Love ended up having to make a larger hole in the wall to cut the pipe farther back, only to attach a 90° shark bite to a small piece of copper tubing to another shark bite that then threaded to a shinny, new spicket. 

I unfortunately wasn't able to get pictures of what happened there. But the last picture is the beautiful new spicket sitting outside the wall. 

~

And so it was on to the next project, the hot water heater.

The year that is stamped on the side of the tank is 1992, so we are going to have to replace it eventually, but we just wanted to focus on the fittings, being as we were on a roll...

The person who put this together was kind enough to use a 1/4 turn valve on the in-coming cold water, but unfortunately for us, it didn't budge. Plus, the copper flex pipe had been soldered to the copper piping coming out of the walls.

The Love whipped out the cutter and began work before I could even get the camera ready. Sorry! I've been slacking! But these are the pictures that I was able to take of the old pieces. If you look at the fourth picture of the pipes in the orange bucket, you can see the calcium build-up on and around the valve.

The black water that is coming out of the old fitting is burned piping tape. Our water heater was so hot that it actually burned the teflon away... Don't worry though, we've turned it down.

The Love used the shark bites here as well. And I am truly amazed by them!

After all this mess, the Love went into the master bathroom to replace the valves under the sink (before we realized we should wait until we remodel...Duh!). Once they were all replaced, he went around the house and found every single fitting leaking!!! All except the washer fittings. The funny thing, they weren't leaking from the shark bite, they were leaking from the threading! The Love removed the fitting, replaced the teflon tape, with many more passes, and they still leaked! The problem wasn't that they weren't torqued down enough. My Love is a diesel mechanic by trade and works on Caterpillar machines. He knows how to torque. 

We ended up running into the manager of the plumbing department at Home Depot and he gave us liquid teflon to use instead of the teflon tape... Sure enough, none of them have leaked since! 

So here comes the cheers, singing, and happy dancing! 

NO MORE LEAKS!!!

Cheers~

Guest Bedroom: The Makeover

So it finally happened! PAINTING! Muhahahahaha!!! 

And it all began in the guest bedroom. Neither the Love nor I could bear to look at the lilac color for long. So we went to Home Depot and found the perfect color for this 10 x 10 room.   


Winter Surf from Behr


Thanks to the Love's littlest sister, the walls were cleaned quite thoroughly. TSP (Trisodium phosphate) is now my new best friend! It not only removes the dirt, grease, and grime, but removes the glossy layer on the top of the old paint in order for the new paint to adhere better. And it WORKS! Took those footprints off the wall like it was brushing a fly away.


Just before we started painting, I stepped back and noticed something... The closet.

The finishing idea is to have the closet open to the room with a mirrored dresser deep stained and placed inside. Very rarely do you actually need a full closet for guests, so we figured it would open the room more to give it that little extra space. So we ended up spending a couple hours removing the tracks, shelf, and "tabs" (because I don't know what else to call them). 


I got a little too carried away and accidentally popped a hole in the wall with my pry-bar. Thank goodness we had mud and mesh on hand! We finished off by painting the rest of the room.

The following day I went and added some more mud by texturing. This was difficult and I'm sure I didn't do it the right way, but it was fun. And this is what I came up with:

The texture on the right side of both images is mine.... Did I do good or what?


I had to wait yet another day before I could primer the closet, then the day after, I did the final painting. What a satisfying feeling! 


Before : 

After :

We still aren't finished. The carpet needs to be changed; crown molding & base board installed; the blinds put back up with some tapestry; the mirrored dresser needs to be brought in, stained, and placed in the closet; the bed needs to be purchased; and all the other little decor needs to be brought in. 


Until then...




Cheers~

This Is It

On January 11, the papers were signed, marking the beginning of the long story to come. A story full of elbow grease, sweat, and pictures! And who isn't excited?! 

Many projects have been begun since that wonderful day! And today is the day where I get to begin sharing all these amazing pictures and experiences with you.

But before I get ahead of myself, I would like to share with you all the "before" pictures. I must apologize though, the only camera I had at the time was my "Big Kahuna" and it is very difficult with the lens I have to take pictures of small rooms.

So first we are looking at the exterior of the house, in all this current "glory."

 We are practically starting with no landscaping what so ever and the sprinkler system is completely broken and buried, which makes our jobs much easier. :)

~

So after walking through the front door, we come to the foyer, which is a dark little corner of the house.

We also get a wonderful entry into the kitchen.

And a nice guiding view of the great room.

For those of you who are curious, getting that fridge into the house was a pain! I didn't help because the Love and his Dad were muscling it, but watching them argue was so entertaining... *Sorry my Love*

~

The kitchen is definitely a unique design. I feel like a dull bumble bee upon walking in. With the roof coming down upon me, the fan is conveniently place so it can knock our heads off!

There is a comfortable area for a breakfast table but not quite enough room for an island.

*As a side note ~ the new little camera I got has this wonderful setting for panorama pictures. I attempted it in the kitchen...*

The black cabinets, by the way, look great in the photos, but up close, they were painted with a paint brush and there are some strong brush lines in them. Making them look cheap.

 Now moving to the great room. I am in love with this room for so many reasons... The vaulted ceilings, fireplace, dust collecting shelf, and the space. There is something so grand about having the gathering rooms open to each other I just wish the kitchen wasn't so closed off.

 The guest bedroom is the fun color of lilac with a closet full of footprints.

 The guest bathroom is uniquely decorated like the kitchen... With what looks like the original shower head, toilet, and tub.

The second bedroom, which will be my studio, has a collection of painted layers on the walls with a cave like feel. The one thing about this room that I absolutely love is the switch plate! That will be staying. :)

Skipping back across the great room, you come to another small hallway, where you are greeted by a simple and ultimately outdated master suite. In this room, you can find the smallest, and very much used, doorway. With the span of 24 inches, my Love cannot walk from the bedroom into the master bath in a forward motion.

Upon leaving the master bedroom, you will find a laundry room, or more appropriately the water closet. Although this room is small, there are big plans.

In the last picture, I know you cannot see it very well, but the fixtures are the original. They are leaking quite well and we have to replace them. But being 26 years old, and the water hard, they have been "glued" to the box by the calcium build-up... A fun project to say the least.

~

And for the last room in the house... The garage! Soon to be the "man cave" as my Love calls it. But it is mainly the hobby shop.

 Now for the last part of the house. The back yard. Again, there isn't much landscaping (bad sprinkler system). The top best things about the backyard: the citrus trees, the fenced off side yard, and the child's trike!

The tilted image of the two windows are the two in the master suite. I found out the other day, the dogs love walking underneath the window and scratching their backs on the stucco... What goofballs.
The last picture is of the spicket that was broken. The original 26 year old piece of plumbing wouldn't shut off. We had to attach the hose with the nozzle on the end to keep from having our backyard turned into a pool. The thing still leaked and was so steady, I was putting buckets underneath to keep from having large puddles of water against the house.

So that is the complete tour of our humble abode. I cannot wait to share with you all the updates and B&A's!


Cheers~