Paper Floors???

Okay, so I hate the flooring in our basement…let me rephrase that…I LOATH the flooring in our basement.  It’s nasty carpet the previous, or possibly previous to the previous owner, put down.  Frankly, it’s toast.  It was toast when we moved in five years ago.  The carpet is still there even after our furry buddies accidents, Stevo and I dropping stuff on it, and a flooded basement.  This stuff is gross.  But being a new teacher, and definitely not making the money to replace it with anything fancy, we have been looking into cheap options.

So we’ve been thinking of painting or staining the floor.  Then I pulled up the carpet in one of the bedrooms and…wah wah wah…it’s got a lot of paint stains and going to take a ton of scraping.  I also wasn’t over joyed with the idea of having to cover everything with plastic to acid etch the floors.  Staining started looking very messy.

We were seriously thinking about asking my folks to help us out with new flooring, because I can’t live with the carpets much longer.  Then I came across a post where someone used brown craft paper on the floors.  At first I thought these people were crazy.  But the more I saw the more I loved it.  There are a few things I love about this project.  It’s cheap, like dirt cheap.  We’re talking about between $0.30 and $0.50 a square foot.  It’s also something I can do with out Steve’s help.  Not that Steve isn’t handy, because he is.  He’s way handier than I am on every level, but it means I can work on a long weekend while Steve is at work.    The last part I love is that it looks like a cross between leather and stained concrete.  It actually is gorgeous.  We’ve got a little bit of prep work to do, like painting walls, moving furniture, ripping out carpet, all the fun stuff.  But I’m thinking we could have new floors before the end of the year.  I’ll keep you all posted.

Basement Blues

If you’ve been following my blogs, you should know I hate my basement.  I’m not a big fan of basements in general, they are dark and dank, creepy crawlies tend to gather in them, they give me the willies.  But for practical reasons our bedroom is in the basement.  It’s cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter, and with the washer and dryer down in the basement there is less hauling laundry up and down stairs.  Plus, that frees up the one bedroom upstairs to be our dinning room.  More living space upstairs, means less hanging out in the basement.  And because of this, our basement has become the place where all things go to be forgotten about.  So our basement is a mess, especially the second bedroom.  Originally this summer I planned to get rid of a ton of furniture, rip out all the old carpet and completely redo the whole thing.  Steve put the kibosh on that plan.  All ways the voice of reason, he was right, we don’t have the time or money to completely redo the whole thing.  So I’ve set my sights on the back bedroom, the biggest eye sore in the basement.

Yesterday I pulled the full size mattress and boxsprings out to the curb, all by myself!  Remember when you were in your twenties, and you could abuse your body, dragging furniture all over the place, and the next morning you rolled out of bed to do it all over again…yeah, I miss that.  I’m sore today, but feeling pretty good about what’s left.  Since we never have guests stay over, and we really want a workshop/art studio, this bedroom is going to fit the bill.  Here is the problem, Steve wants a place to set up a scroll saw, and have a nice area to do wood working projects, and I want a place where I can do my crazy DIY things, as well as have a place to do some art.  So, I need a room that is versatile, easy to clean, and very organized…we’ll see if I can pull this off.

My overall budget is small.  I’ve got $100 in gift cards for various home improvement stores, and another $100 from birthday money.  In addition I’m hoping to sell some furniture on Craigslist and pick up an additional $100-150.  So this will be a brand new room on a shoestring budget of $350.  If it was just a paint and some furniture, I’d say it was totally do able.  However, if we are going to be painting, woodwork, and what ever else we need to do, carpet isn’t the ideal flooring.  I kind of already Towanda-ed (yep that would be a Fried Green Tomatoes reference) the carpet out.  Now I need a cheap flooring solution for the bare concrete floor…and it all needs to be done in just over a month (oh and did I mention I was going away for a week in July, so three weeks…hum).  So here is today’s to do list…

1.  Research flooring options

2.  Post furniture on Craigslist

3.  Measure the room and come up with a solid plan

4.  Convince Steve the plan is do-able…

Think I’ve lost my mind, well probably, but help me out anyway…tell me what you think about my plan, or about your own DIY woes and wins…comment below.

Get ‘ere Done: DIY Pot Rack

This weeks been kind of crazy.  It started off with a stomach bug, and ended with baby sitting my nephew.  Which by the way, was one of my best Friday night dates ever!  I had a great time watching the little guy.  Today was a crazy mad dash to deal with work issues, ugh.  So not much got done in the way of home improvement.  I’m going to start working on the basement, the next cess pit in my house.  I do have to say my hubby worked over time getting the house in order.  He totally cleaned up and got the dinning room into usable order.

I know I’ve complained before about the size of my kitchen before, it’s pretty small on storage.  When we moved in we figured that out…I know things a first time home buyers don’t actually think about (like where the hell am I going to put my crap).  It took us all of a few days to figure out we needed extra storage space in the kitchen.  We created this little jewel.  We also added an extra storage with a hanging basket.  The thing on the right side is our antenna.  It just worked out that we get the best reception right there.  The best part is stove is right next to the rack, so you just have to reach up for the pot you need.

And with no more ado the DIY Pot Rack:

Cost:  About $40.00  (this was a few years ago, when copper wasn’t quite as expensive, but I think this is a good approximation for today)

Difficulty:  Easy (If you can glue and put in a few screws, you’re good to go)

Time:  about an hour or two plus drying time

Here’s what you need to DIY this one on your own.

Copper pipe (we used a 3/4 inch pipe and bought a five foot piece)

90 Degree Copper elbow (make sure its the same size as the pipe)

2 solder joint pressure fittings (the pipe slides into one end and there’s threading on the other, again make sure it fits your pipe)

A Galvanized Iron Floor Flange (If you want it to be all copper, you can sand and spray paint if you want, we left it as is)

Copper Epoxy

Rings and S-hooks in the number of pots you have (we used some copper-colored curtain rings, and crimped the S-hook around the ring)

Tools you’ll need are a pipe cutter (a hack saw would do, but not as clean of a cut), screw driver, and a pair of pliers.

***If you want to paint the non-copper pieces you’ll need a can of copper-colored spray paint, and some sand paper to rough the pieces up a bit before you spray them.

We didn’t really have a specific size we were trying to fit, we just wanted it shorter than the half wall we were putting it over.  If you have a specific space, remember that the pressure fitting, floor flange and elbow pipe will add to the size of the final product.  Measure twice, cut once…or in my case, measure three times and cut it bigger than you think, or you’ll be sorry.  You’ll need two pieces, one about three to four inches, and the other the length you want the pot rack.

It’s all down hill after that.  Dry fit the pips with the elbow joint, and pressure fittings.  Once you know everything fits in place, pull it apart and line the inside of the fittings with copper epoxy.  Follow the directions on the epoxy, and let it dry completely before you start the next process.  If you want to spray paint any of the galvanized pieces, S-hooks or rings, this is the time to do it.  Lightly sand each piece and spray paint.

Take the rings and put an S-hook on each.  Use your pliers to crimp the end on the hook closed.  This will keep the hooks from falling off.  Slide on the rings next.  Screw on the floor flanges, make sure they are far enough in to be secure, but don’t over screw them or they won’t be flat against the wall.  It’s better to screw the pot rack into studs, especially if you have heavy pots your going to hang.  That’s it.  It takes a while for the epoxy to dry, otherwise it takes almost not time.  If you want it to stay nice and shiny then you’ll also need to seal it, some polyurethane or other clear coat should work.  We didn’t mind if it oxidized or discolored, I think it just gives it a bit more of an industrial look.

Get ‘ere Done: Cheap Backsplash

So when we bought our house it didn’t have a backsplash, and it’s always something we’ve been meaning to get to.  Well, I got sick of it finally and decided to do something about it.  I love the look of old tin tiles, but they are a little expensive.  I was thinking of doing the PVC versions, but I didn’t have the cash on hand to go that direction.  I came up with a different solution.  I had some paintable wallpaper that had a square pattern that reminded me of old tin tiles, I got some paint, and voila…new backsplash.  While this didn’t work out as great as I’d envisioned.  It looks much better then the torn up wall for now.

Here’s the before picture. Pretty blah.

Here’s the deal with this DIY Backsplash:

Cost:  About $40.00  (we had all the basic tools we needed, if you don’t, it will get more expensive)

Difficulty:  Medium (if you can hang wallpaper like a pro this will be easy, I suck at it)

Time:  about 24 hours or so (it’s taken a little while longer to dry)

Here’s what you need to DIY this one on your own.

Roll of paintable wallpaper (if you get the pre-pasted kind you don’t need past, if not plan on buying that as well)

Paintable Caulk (I got some that dried in 2 hours)

The wall was pretty banged up.

Paint of your choice.  If you want it to look metallic like mine, you’ll need a base coat color and metallic glaze.  You’ll also need polyurethane for the top coat.  The other paint is acrylic and will wash off if you scrub it to hard, the polyurethane protects the paint job.

And you’ll also need basic painting supplies, brushes, rollers, a sponge, utility blade the usual stuff for a wallpaper/paint job.  I used a disposable foam brush for the polyurethane rather than have to deal with mineral spirits.  

The original counter top was pretty ugly tile that went halfway up the wall.  When we replaced the counter it damaged the wall.  While I love the new counter top, I don’t care for the damage to the wall.

The first trick to doing a DIY project is prepping the space.  This means clearing everything out of the work space, and finding all the tools you need.  I assembled all the tools in a single area to keep things simple.  The wall had some embedded grease that I couldn’t get off.  So I used some Kilz primer and painted the wall, just to prep

Here’s the base coat of interior paint.

the space.  The paper was pre-pasted so I measured and cut what I needed then filled up the bathtub.  A quick soak and then I bookended it (you flip the two end, paste side to paste side into the middle and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.  I don’t know why you do this, I think it has something to do with the paste reconstituting).  Then Steve and I started papering away.  Don’t forget to wet the surface, it helps.  This part was the biggest pain in the ass, ever.  It kept sliding around, falling off, it was like a circus.  Finally we got it fitted into place, cut and stuck to the wall.   Or so I thought…

We left the paper to dry over night.  At about 6 this morning my husband came in the bedroom yelling, “if you want to save what’s left of that paper you better get up and fix it.”  He went to work, I went to Wal-Mart.  The adhesive wasn’t sticking and it was bubbling up in areas.  I read somewhere that someone used caulk to seal the seems, and decided to try some caulk to glue it down.  Actually it worked pretty well.  There were still some bubbling, but it wasn’t too bad.  So I started painting.

I know the picture doesn’t do it justice.  It looks just like copper.

Never trust the Home Depot guy when he tells you need a ton more paint than you think.  I got talked into buying four times as much paint as I needed.  I was just going to get a little sample jar, that’s about 8 oz.  And he talked me into a pint.  Then I was talking to him about the glaze and he told me I needed at least four jars.  I bought two just in case, and I only used about half a jar.  I used Martha Stewart brand glaze in copper penny.  Glaze is transparent so I literally took the jar of glaze and matched it to regular none metallic interior paint.

One base coat, one coat of the glaze and one coat of polyurethane.  The effect is incredible.

The final product looks pretty good, in spite of some issues.  I think I might add some molding around the edges, but it looks beautiful.  The paint actually tightened up some of the loose spots.  So it looks a lot better than I thought it would half way through.  We also got an Ikea Grundtal bar and hooks for about $13.00 that’s not added into the project cost.  It was sort of an after thought.  We just happened to go to Ikea and looked around at all the cool toys there.  It works great for hanging the lids of our pots, and pot-holders.  Before I just had a few cuphooks above the sink for some of that stuff.  Well, I think I’m almost done fussing with the kitchen in this house.  I’d like to install the dishwasher, fix the top of the half wall, and maybe do some art projects on another wall, but that’s it.  It feels so much cozier in there with some color behind the cabinets.  Hope you enjoyed this episode of Get ‘ere Done, come on back next week to see what else I will try to rip apart in my house…

Get ‘ere Done: Have a Plan

So my closet case type A personality has immersed today…yikes.  Most of the time I’m totally go with the flow, then I get streaks of control freak type A that come out in waves.  Today I had a moment, and I put it to good use.  I came up with a plan for dealing with one of the biggest contributors to the chaos in my house.  Now I would love to just go out and do all the things in my plan, but cash is tight after my pantry redo, so this may have to be a baby step plan, or wait for another month.  Either way I wanted to share the process I came up with today.  I also have to give a shout out to a youtuber AtHomeWithNikki.  We never work in a vacuum, as I always tell my students about writing, and after seeing her video on her home project binder I really got inspired to start planning my own project binder and here’s where I started.  Here’s the link if your interested…she does some fabulous things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffKMB594RvY

I guess it really  all started when I was making my weekend to do list…yes I’m a lister.  If I don’t list, I don’t do.  I really need to do some laundry.  Then I saw the laundry mess.  I have dirty laundry in three distinct places in my house.  A pile on the floor of the bathroom, a pile in the bedroom next to the bed and another pile in the living room.  Yes I said the living room, Steve and I work such different hours that most of the time I get dressed in the living room so I don’t disturb him.  Then I thought about the two loads of laundry I have waiting to be folded down stairs…needless to say I’m sort of dreading doing laundry.  So I went and meet one of my co-teachers to work on lesson plan and we started talking about processes, and figuring out what we needed to teach before our students are able to write an essay.  When I got home I started to apply some of the same techniques to my laundry problem and this is what I came up with…

I started with a four column table.  I asked myself a guiding question…What is the process for doing laundry?  After I figured out the steps for doing laundry, I wrote down all the problems associated with each step in the next column.  The last column I thought of specific solutions to the problems listed.

Guiding Question	Processes	Problems	Solution
What is the process for doing laundry?	Gather laundry Put it in the machine Put in soap Wash Put it in the dryer Put in dryer sheet Dry Pull it out of the dryer Fold Put away	Laundry is scattered through the house, usually on the floor or scattered through a room.  I have to put it into a bag or basket, and there are multiple trips up and down the stairs.  I miss laundry, because I keep finding stuff in different places.  No place to store laundry waiting to be washed. Empty soap bottles don’t get thrown away.  No place to store supplies. Junk in pockets gets tossed around washer. No place to put stuff coming out of the dryer. No place to store supplies, place to put trash is not easy to find. No issue No place to put stuff out of dryer, waiting to be folded. Folding doesn’t get done right away, so I get confused as to what is clean, what is dirty and things get wrinkly. No system to get things upstairs and put away.  They build up, get knocked off onto the floor and get dirty again.  There is not enough storage for our stuff.	2 centralized places for laundry collection.  One upstairs and one down stairs.  Carts with pull out bins/bags that can be taken out and put back.  Schedule a specific time so Steve can help me.  A cart for things in process.  Changeable labels for things to be washed and things to be folded.  Something mobile that I can move from washer and dryer to a folding area. Specific Trash and storage solution for supplies.  These could be simple cheap cubbies, maybe those Closetmaid shelving units. Central place to empty out pockets.  Hooks to hang clothing that can be worn again, like Steve’s work pants. See number 2 See number 3 N/A See number 2 Setup a specific schedule for washing.  So I have folding time planned. Setting up a specific area as an upstairs and downstairs landing pad.  Look at the landing pad before I go up or down stairs and take what I need to take.  Enlist Steve’s help with this project to make it a household habit.   Household purge needs to take place.  Clothing that is damaged, stained, not worn, or don’t fit need to be purged. Enlist Steve to purge his own clothes.

I, know pretty concise list, and it only took me about twenty minutes to identify and address all our laundry concerns.  Then I needed an Action Plan.  It’s all well and dandy to write down problems and solutions, but if you don’t take action, it all stays theoretical.

So I created another table and this time I labeled it each column:  Buy, Create, Schedule/Plan, and Habits…I did a bit of research and found what I wanted and just figured out a rough price range and voila, I’m ready to start assembling stuff when I have the cash flow at hand.

Buy	Create	Schedule/Plan	Habits
2 laundry sorter with removable bins, bags, baskets that can be taken   up and down stairs.Wal-Mart and Target have some cool ones with removable bags starting   at $25.00 eachStorage for soap, dryer sheets and whatever… Closetmaid cubby   starting at $15.00Hooks to hang up work pants.    Starting around $5.00	Some sort of tag for designating clean vs. dirty clothes.  Maybe something with clothes pins????Space to drop off stuff in pockets.	One or two days a week to do laundry.Tuesday?Thursday?Clear out space for sorter, cubby, put up hooks. Purging “Drop station” for things to go up or down stairs.	Putting   clothes in the same place every day. Taking   stuff out of pockets before it goes into the laundry sorter. Regular   wash and folding schedule. Checking   up and down stairs drop station before you go up or down stairs.
Total Cost:Low end: $70.00High end:  $150.00

Cheap and Easy Dog Treats

Here’s Steve helping me make some dog treats. Thank you Honey.

So I like to bake, I don’t always get a lot of time to do this.  I don’t really need the extra calories either.  So for Christmas I made dog biscuits to give away to people we know with dogs.  This is probably one of the simplest recipes I’ve found online.

Sweet Potato Dog biscuits

2 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Sweet Potato

1/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce

2 Eggs

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Prick the Sweet Potato with a fork and microwave it on high for 6-10 minutes, or until tender.  Scrap out the cooked sweet potato and dispose of skin.  In a bowl combine 1 cup of cooked sweet potato, and the remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Flour your counter and roll the dough out until it is a 1/4 inch thick.  Use cookie cutters or simply cut dough into bite size pieces.  Place on a greased backing sheet, and cook for 15-25 minutes, or until browned and hardened to biscuit consistency.

I know you’re looking at the baking time and thinking WTF…the baking time depends on how large you make the biscuits.  I usually do small inch long bones and they only take about 15 minutes.  However, I made some big ones I made took 25 minutes.  They do puff up a little bit

So far most of the dogs have loved these biscuits.  They are very cheap to make, and are healthier than most doggie treats.  Now this doesn’t mean you can feel Fido a ton of treats, but every now and then isn’t bad for them.  They don’t have preservatives in them, so don’t expect them to last for ever.

Here’s the link to the original recipe, the only change is the timing:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/super-simple-sweet-potato-dog-treats/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=sweet%20potatoe%20dog%20biscuit&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

P.S. If you haven’t checked out allrecipes.com, you need to get into gear.  This is one of the best recipe databases I’ve encountered.  There’s no need to buy another cookbook, you can probably find a great recipe online.

Think Outside the Curtain: Cool Window Treatments

Curtains help make a room feel finished off, and give it a bit of warmth, and color.  They can also pull the colors together in a room, or become a focal art piece, if you think outside the box.  Curtains can be expensive, even buying basic panels can get pricey.  At most regular stores you can spend around $40.00 for a single panel (or $80.00 per window).  What happens if you have an enormous picture window?  Get ready to pay through the nose.

I’ve already talked about one of my favorite fixes, the fabulous shower curtain.  They are cheap, and with a little work they can look just like their expensive counter parts.  Too short?  Add a few inches of fabric to the bottom.  Want it to open in the center like a regular curtain.  Get out the scissors and some stitch witch.  Just be sure to put the nicely sewn edges in the middle, or it will look a bit weird.

So we have two fairly large picture windows in our house.  One in the living room, which is nice it looks out into our yard.  The other is in our kitchen, and it looks at the twelve-foot retaining wall that keeps my neighbor’s house from crashing into ours.  Now If you like looking at your neighbor’s car and a giant wall of concrete (and I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t) you may want to leave the window open.  We don’t really care for it.

Originally we had some cheap cafe curtains, which looked pretty good, but I got this idea and thought it would look amazing in the kitchen.  What do you think?

Think Outside the Curtain

I love maps, I think I got this from my dad.  He had this enormous Atlas that we used to drag out, and flip through when I was a kid.  So when I was trying to figure out a cool window treatment that didn’t cost an arm and a leg, I started looking outside the box.  This is an old school pull down map I found on Ebay.  The map and shipping cost about $40.00.  What I forgot about was how the map was mounted on the wall.  I had to find a rail online (another $30.00, I tried to find some used ones, but no good), and finally we got it up today.  So I originally thought this would be a crazy cheap alternative, well it wasn’t.  It is, however probably one of the coolest window treatments I’ve ever seen.  So we went Green, because we helped keep this awesome find out of a landfill, and we have a great conversational piece right in our own kitchen.  Art with a function, I love it.  And if we get bored with looking at the world, we can open it up to the US or Alaska, sorry no Hawaii.  I think the map was made before Hawaii became a state. Let me know what you think…comment below or take this handy dandy-poll.

Easy Blu-Ray, DVD, and Software Organization…

What do you do with all those movie cases?  Line them up on the shelf, and if your just a little bit anal retentive, they are organized alphabetically, maybe by genre…what else can you do with them?  As our collection grew and got totally out of hand, but I found this solution in an organization magazine…

We put most of our media into notebooks. So you can use any three-ring notebook for this project. We chose a simple black fabric scrapbook from Walmart. They were a little on the pricy side being $10 each, but I liked the look better than a plastic binder. We also got special sheets specifically for binders that hold up to four discs per side, I think these were $15 a pack, and I used two packages. The last thing I purchased was a set of stick on letters from the scrapbook section of a hobby story, they cost about $5. If you use a standard notebook with a cover sleeves you can actually just print out a label and slip it in. I made a template out of a piece of cardstock I had lying around to cut down the cover art. I cut it to fit into one of the disc sleeves.

So we organized our media by type (Blu-Ray vs DVD) and then alphabetized them.  You could also sort by genre, it would be really neat for small children to have their own movie book so they can easily pick what they want, and you know your child is watching something you’d approve of.  I separated the cover art from the Media cases and used my template to cut out the title.  I tried to line it up so I got the best view of the title and cover art, on some it was easy, others not so much.  I slide the title into one of the Disc sleeves and next to it the movie.

For all the little extra bits we didn’t want to get rid of we just put a page protector in the back and slide them in, we had a few booklets we wanted to save, and a set of old school 3D glasses.

Software I organized differently. I used dividers in this binder for each computer we have, then I organized the restore, back up and driver discs and manuals behind that divider. At the end is all the software that can be loaded to any computer, things like games, software. This makes it some much easier if you have a computer problem, you go to one spot for all your software needs.

While we didn’t put every disc in the binders, we have a few box sets and collector’s additions we wanted to keep intact, it certainly cleared off additional space for books and other things.

DIY Dressing Room

Originally I had a wonder full idea of building a walk-in closet.  I was sure Steve and I could just bust down a few walls, build up another and it wouldn’t take more than a day or two…for some strange reason Steve wasn’t really excited about letting me go at the drywall with a hammer…I can’t imagine why.  So we scrapped that idea for one that didn’t involve building or tearing down walls.  I think it worked great…what do you think?

Outside…

This is the view from the outside.  We used a weird little alcove area off the basement living room to create a walk-in closet.  We hung  curtains to hide the closet.  We got everything from Ikea.  The curtain wire was $12.99, and we had to get an additional support for another $4.99.  The clips that the hang the curtains were $2.99.  Instead of using actual curtains that would need to be hemmed, we went for two shower curtains each costing $12.99.  We also got a special bar that makes pulling them open and closed easier for $2.00. So that brings the price up to $48.95 plus tax.

Inside…

Inside we chose a Rubbermaid closet kit that cost $129.00.  It was pretty easy to customize exactly how we wanted the closet to look by just rearranging the pieces.  It was kind of fun trying to figure out what we wanted.

I was kind of disappointed when I opened the box and found some broken bits, of course by the time I realized they were damaged we already had half the closet put up.  I was able to go online and send Rubbermaid the part number and explain what had happened.  They sent us new parts in a week.

Lighting was the last hurdle we had to cross.  Ikea helped us out there.  With no outlets in the closet area we had to improvise, so we got a cheap hanging lamp cord, the ones that are a socket for the bulb and a power cord for $5.00.  To make a switch we purchased a dimmer for $7.99, and a cheap shade for $9.99.  We already had the bulb.

So skill level on a scale of 1-10 in DIY terms, (1 being able to put a nail in the wall, 10 building your own house) I’d say it was a 3.  You need to know how to locate studs, drill holes, measure things pretty precisely, use a level to make sure things are hung straight.  Nothing too complicated, but if you can’t do those things…this may not be the project for you.

Total cost (minus tax):  $200.93

Total time (including a trip to Lowes, and Homedepot, and Ikea, and Homedepot again): about 8 hours

Total Mileage:  Don’t ask…

But it was cheaper, easier, and less time-consuming than building a real walk-in closet.