Patio Chair Updo

 I love many things about our move back to Houston from Phoenix five years ago. I love being close enough to my in-law family for a morning brunch or surprise birthday dinner instead of being a plane ride away. I love seeing armadillos, gators and possums in my neighborhood. I love Mexican food, Tex-Mex food and everything that is bigger just because it's Texas. 

I hate mosquitoes, the lack of mountains in my daily view and the humidity that destroys everything from my hair to my patio chairs. 

Humidity+ Salt= Ugly Chairs

Not only do we have the humidity, but the house we moved into also has a saltwater pool. Great for the skin, eyes and hair. Horrible for patio chairs. The gorgeous rocker chairs we bought from Cabela's years ago (That lasted through many an Arizona summer) look like a junkyard find. My clearance IKEA table purchased the same time, though? Still hanging in like a champ!

I didn't want to spend a ton on replacement chairs. Whatever I bought was sure to get destroyed by both our weather and pool. That's when I spotted these beauties on my local VarageSale site. 

My VarageSale beauties

You don't see the beauty in these? You sure?! But they swivel AND rock! And, best of all, they were $30 for all four. (Only two shown here. Obvs.)

After borrowing a friends truck (and her husband to lift heavy things), I brought those chairs home to find that they fit perfectly around my crappy-will-not-die-but-thats-okay-who-needs-west-elm-anyways IKEA table. It's like they were meant to be there. 

But they were a little ugly. After washing them down with Dawn and drying in the sun, I went over all the cracked pieces with a sanding block and gently sanded most of the arms and legs. A few pieces broke off larger than I expected, but I was able to sand the edges down enough that I was satisfied no more would come off. 

Yikes! Look at the chunk out of that one!

Then I began prepping. 

Prepping suuuucccckkks. It takes so much time, and it's not fun at all. I used newspaper and painters tape to tape off the fabric seat of the chair. It worked....at first. After a few minutes, the painters tape didn't stick too well and I found that there were gaps between the newspaper and the arm of the chair. Honestly, I didn't care. If I was using a distinctly obvious color like blue or green, maybe, but Dark Walnut wasn't going to make much of difference, I don't think. 

Probably should have spend more time making sure the tape and paper stayed down.

So I prepped. And I spray painted. Prepped again. Painted some more. All four chairs together took 4 full cans of spray paint. And almost a month. Because I will do nothing for two weeks and then two chairs in a day and then....nothing, for another two weeks. 

Why yes, I did take the lazy way out and painted on my grass. It will grow out eventually! 

I don't strive for perfection. Good enough is good enough for me!

I also was able to use my fancy spray paint gun, a gift many years ago from my awesome BIL. It keeps the paint off my trigger finger, and keeps my old hands from cramping up while painting.

Bring it on summer, I'm ready now!

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle: A Trophy Wife

A few months ago my parents came to visit with two extra suitcases. But that wasn't because they were staying for a month. It was because they had cleaned out their garage. Straight into mine, apparently.

Out of the suitcases came my old letter jacket, porcelain dolls that were gifts from family friends and my old softball trophies.

The letter jacket went back into garage storage (for my 20th HS reunion?!) and the porcelain dolls were set aside for Peanut. But what should I do with my trophies? I felt guilty for throwing them out, but I didn't want to put them back into storage. We definitely weren't going to display them on our mantle.

After perusing a few websites, I decided to make Peanut a hat/hoodie/purse rack from them.

Last month I made a hat rack for Bjorn using an old skateboard and it was a huge hit. This was Peanut's turn.

As I gathered all the materials and started the project, I found that it was actually pretty easy to unscrew the tops off the trophies. Off came all the little softball girls (and one or two soccer players). I spray painted them Peanut's color of choice and set them aside.

I had an old hat rack I found at a garage sale for .25 - boring old wood with boring old hooks on it.  But I knew that piece of wood was going to be perfect for something some day. And here was someday, just staring me in the face!

I unscrewed the boring "drunk Octopus" hooks and gave Peanut a gallon of mint-colored paint and a paintbrush. Presto chango, we had a pretty piece of wood with holes already properly spaced.

The screws on the trophy heads were larger than the pre-made holes, so I used a drill bit to widen them. Then all I had to do was twist them into the holes!

I love the way it turned out and I love that I was able to reuse my childhood trophies. Since I still have some left, I am looking to make a purse rack for me, too!

This is what the rack looked like 5 minutes after I hung it. So neat and pretty. 

This is what it looks like now. This is real life!

Happiness is taking a long, warm bath

There are two types of people in the world; those who walk into a flooring store, pick out the tile they want and are happy and those who walk into a flooring store, pick out a tile they like and then go to 47 other flooring stores to see if there is anything there they like better.

I am the first person. The Hubs is the second.

After going to all 48 stores, we went back to the first store and bought the tile I originally liked.

That is when I decided that the hardest part about renovation is not demo-ing, or choosing a contractor but it is making a final decision (every little minute decision) with the person you chose to share your life with.

I didn't realize there were going to be so many decisions. But after (painstakingly, agonizingly) hashing and rehashing each decision, we have the bathroom of my dreams.

Seriously, y'all. It is amazeballs.

If you check back here, you can see what we did before the real pros got their hands on it.

Now, it looks like this.

It's a bathroom paradise!

Oh that tile. It's so pretty, so simple, but took so much time to actually get it. Since it covered the entire area, from bath to closet, we needed a tile that completed our "look".  But what was our look? We went back and forth between something soft and calming and something fun and retro. We even bought an amazing floor tile from Home Depot that mimicked encaustic tile, a fun print I adored. Unfortunately, when we tried to match our shower tile to it (you know, the very first one I picked all the way back in May), it gave the encaustic tile a greenish hue, so we returned it.

The floor tile is called Prisma Gris from Floor & Decor.

This tile caught my eye waaay back. And was a bear to install. But worth it!

The shower tile is called Stone Silver from Floor and Decor. 

There were certain things in the bathroom that were important to either The Hubs or I. Things that made picking out accessories both easy and difficult.

I wanted oil-rubbed bronze hardware.

He wanted cross hatch hardware.

He wanted electrical outlets on both sides of the sink.

That is a monster HUGE mirror from Kirkland's. Lights are from Globe Electric, a Vintage Flush Mount Ceiling Light. They were bought at a liquidator and on amazon.

I wanted a built in toilet paper caddy that could hold an extra roll and other bathroom necessities.

Storage space for a small area. No more extra rolls on the back of the toilet 

The wall color is a match to Sherwin Williams Cold Morning

 We both wanted a five stack shelf and new hardware in the closet.

The pros built the five stack. The Hubs built all the other shelving and rods

A pocket door to separate toilet from sink area.

The frosted glass allows light through but still has complete privacy

A sliding barn door for between the sink and bedroom. Which my amazing husband made from scratch. It's the exact door I wanted for a small fraction of the price!

Isn't it gorgeous?! Definitely my favorite part of the bathroom.

By buying accessories on amazon, checking out liquidators around the area and doing part of the work ourselves (demo, painting, some building) we were able to get everything we wanted - and more! - for a budget price we were happy with. And now it's time to take a long, warm bath and enjoy it!

It's All Small Stuff

I'm trying not to sweat the small stuff, but when it comes to home repair/maintenance/remodel, it all seems to be small stuff!  There are a million small decisions and small issues that have to be made and taken care of everyday.

Change the air filter. Which smoke alarm is beeping? Sweep. Mop. Spackle the holes from sibling Monday Night wrestling match. Paint the baseboards. Sweep again. Can that plumbing be moved two inches? Screw this in, nail that in.

Ahhhhh, the beauty of home ownership!

While we wait for some of the big stuff to be done, I decided to tackle some small, but not insignificant items on the list.

First off were the ugly bulb overhead lights in all three bedroom closets. When I found the most amazing chandelier light for Peanut's room, I knew this was getting crossed off the list.

Goodbye ugly bulb

Hello gorgeous!

She just sparkles

Now I noticed we need to paint the ceiling. (Just another small thing!)

We found a not-so-amazing, but still better than before light for our closet, and poor Bjorn still has his bulb light. (His is the top picture; Peanut's was changed out before I could take a 'Before' picture.) I'm still looking for the perfect one for Bjorn.

Then, I wanted to change the handles on the kitchen cabinets. But since we are not doing a full kitchen remodel until we win the lottery or something major breaks, I didn't want to invest a lot of time or money in that change.

So, in the spirit of lazy DIYers everywhere, I took my $8 can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and went to town.

Presto Change-o!

Both of these fixes took less time and money that it takes to make dinner. Why did I wait so long?!

Welcome!

It's been a much slower process changing things around the house than I had anticipated. Between jobs, the kids school and activities, there doesn't seem to be the time - or money! - to fix and upgrade and work on the house.

But we are trying.

Little by little, brick by brick, it will happen.

First up for this year? A new front door.

Nothing was really wrong with our front door, if you like a flimsy door with peeling paint, no natural light and a gap between the frame and the door. Or if you like a steel framed security door with mesh that the dogs kept sticking their paws and noses through.  So we REALLY didn't like our front door.

Boring.

After much debate, we finally settled on a door from Lowe's with 1/2 frosted glass on the top. Instead of a security door, we chose a storm door with a sliding screen. No mesh on the bottom means no doggies powering their way through it. (On that note, our screen door on the back door was ran into no less than FOUR times this weekend. Two kids, one adult and one dog ran through it. We need to work on that door next!)

Before and After

Before and After

With the front door open.

But we didn't stop there! I still thought it was the teensy-bit boring still and wanted to jazz it up a little bit. So now we have:

I LOVE it!  With the change this fun, bright door brought to the house, I am motivated to do all sorts of things I have been putting off. Updo the bathroom? Let's do it! Change and paint the siding? You got it! Rip out a bathtub? No problem!!!  

Don't mind the grass. We are saving on our water bill for a few months :)

Double Project: One for me and One for him

It all started with Jack Daniels.

Well, a Jack Daniels barrel, really.

For Father's Day last year I wanted to get The Hubs the perfect gift - something he wanted but he wouldn't buy for himself. I finally decided on a Jack Daniels barrel for his man cave. He could fix it up into whatever he wanted, and according to Pinterest, there were a lot of options.

He chose to turn it into a pub table. All he needed to finish the project would be a base to raise it to pub table height, and a glass top. After searching online, he finally decided to fashion a base together using piping, to create an industrial feel.

I would go into detail about he fashioned this base, but I have no idea. Oops.

The glass top took a little longer to find, but a few weeks later he finally found one at Pier 1 for $100.

Hours before he left to buy it, I searched online and found the exact size he needed on OfferUp for $10. Score!

It may not look like much, but I have a vision!

Even better? The perfect sized glass top was actually a coffee table and was attached to a steel framed bottom that I wanted to use for my own project. Double score!

All he had to do was drive halfway across town (Okay, so I might have thought it was in a closer city than it was and he might have driven almost 45 minutes to get it, but....whatever!) and load it up. The glass came off from the bottom part easily, and all he had to do to finish his pub table was place the glass on top and buy some bar stools. Easy and looks spectacular in his man cave!

My project was next.  I had seen how to make a pallet coffee table online and decided to tweak the picture to better fit my style. I had at first wanted to ask my neighbor to weld me the legs for the table, but it turned out that he frame on the OfferUp coffee table was exactly what I needed!

First up, I grabbed one of our pallets that I keep around just for projects like this. I looked for the one that was in the best shape. Unlike most of my other pallet projects, I wouldn't be using just the pallet wood, but the actual pallet itself. I needed the whole thing to be pretty.

I had The Hubs saw the pallet down about 3/4 of the way. This happened to be where on the underside there was a curve, and this made it even on both sides. That left me with five boards on top and gaps in between.

We took a few boards off the remaining 1/4 of the pallet, and combined with a few others we had lying around, we were able to fill in the gaps to make a complete table top.

Whoa. Talk about uneven!

You can tell from the picture, it was pretty uneven, which is not what you want when you're putting your drink on it! The Hubs grabbed his planer and began planing it down. A few minutes later and we had a relatively even top.

I grabbed the sander and went to work. I've worked with many a pallet and the worst part for me are the splinters. Since this was going to be an outdoor table, used by kids and adults alike, I wanted there to be no splinters whatsoever. If you had been around for the Great Camping Splinter Incident of 2015, you would understand. I still have trauma from the screams.

It was at this point that I decided to tried to push my luck with the frame.  On the legs was an awful particle board/fake wood veneer piece.

UG-LEE!

The first time I pressed on it, it wouldn't move, and I thought maybe I would have to texture and chalk paint it. But today I was feeling lucky and I went at it with a hammer.

Success!

After a few minutes of solid hammering, I had popped out all four ugly fake wood pieces and transformed the frame even more.

I was content to leave it as is, but The Hubs the perfectionist convinced me to add two larger wood pieces on either open end to cap off the table. In my pallets, there were two different sized slats. One size fit on the top of the table, the other fit perfectly to finish off the side ends. Don't tell The Hubs I said this, but it did look better his way. He also convinced me to stain it. Multiple times. Ugh.

I hate staining because I hate waiting the required time between coats.

The first three layers worked great with a stain that deepened the pallet wood and allowed the different colors shine through. I was actually getting into this staining, waiting and re-staining process. The fourth layer was a minor setback, though, as I grabbed the the wrong stain and turned my beautiful pallet top a shade of brownish-orange. Oops.

I wound up not being able to completely get rid of the orange top, even with repeated sandings, so I followed up with a deeper stain. It took away some of the color variety I had loved, but seeing as the orange had seeped into the grayer pieces, darker was what needed to be done.

After I was satisfied with the stain, I followed up with a few layers of tung oil to provide an extra layer of protection to the wood from spills and sun.

I was ready to finally have a finished piece and frankly, was tired of doing things the right way, so I fully intended to zip-tie the leg frames to the bottom side of the pallet piece. The Hubs knows my reputation for getting bored with projects though, so he grabbed the coffee table and secured it properly to the bottom with screws.

Here is a view of the finished coffee table in my patio sitting area. Love!!!

A table big enough for everyone to use!

I thought about cleaning up for this pic, and then thought....Nah....

Home Sweet Home!