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Archive for the ‘Home Improvement’ Category

Black out

Posted in Home Improvement, Inspiration, Outdoors, tagged , , , on March 28, 2012 | 5 Comments »

Since the kitchen renovation is not going as planned, we decided last weekend to conquer smaller projects to make us feel better. We’re way behind on letting you know what’s going on in the kitchen due to a mixture of me being on the road more than usual, this being The Mister’s busy season at work and depression/upset/disappointment.

Here is our quick kitchen summary: We made our custom cabinet guy fix some of his issues. For example, he thought it was acceptable to rip off our window molding without asking and wanted to cut it around the kitchen cabinet he didn’t properly measure. This is just the tip of the crazy train that we’ve been riding for six weeks. Plus, we had to kick one of his “workers” out of our house and I had to tell him to stop cutting me off and not be rude. It’s gotten out of control. It’s a million little things. It makes me feel especially stabby. We’re now working with someone else to fix the kitchen - correct the stain, get us some doors, molding, etc.

So, lets change the subject. I’d like to paint our front door black. Here are inspiration photos as my Pinterest is full of photos of homes with black doors:

here

 

here

here

here

 

here

Would you leave the back of the front door white, as usual? Or would you paint the front and back black?

here

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Inspiration: Tiled kitchen walls

Posted in Home Improvement, Inspiration, Kitchen, tagged , , , , , on February 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Our kitchen cabinets will be installed on Thursday and Friday of this week. We have a lot of posts to write to let you know how we decided on what and what we did. One of the last things for us will be the backsplash. Since Monday was a holiday, I gave you a post on Saturday containing marble backsplash inspiration. We’re still doing a marble backsplash, but we haven’t finalized what size of tile or when we’ll do it. Of course, I’m using this time to try to convince The Mister that we should install tile all round the window of our kitchen. This is after I was already turned down for my idea of tiling all the walls.

Does that sound crazy to you? It sounded odd to me too, in the beginning. Then, I kept finding photos to support my additional tile work. Here are some of them.

here

here

here

Now, the image that is most like what I’m trying to convince The Mister of now.

here

What do you think?

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DIY: Wrap it up

Posted in Decor, DIY, Holidays, Home Improvement, tagged , , , on January 4, 2012 | 4 Comments »

A common suggestion is to paint the backs of your bookshelves. This creates a “pop of color” or simply adds interest. Some people have upped that by adding wallpaper or attaching fabric to the backs of their shelves.

via Eddie Ross

from Domino

All of these are good suggestions, yet I think wrapping paper may be a better solution. It’s cheaper, readily available and comes in all sorts of colors and patterns.  I found three rolls at Target that were half off and all the rolls shown below are less than $3.00. Here are my TJMaxx and Target suggestions:

Red trellis… do it.

I bought three rolls of this. Then, I went to Fabric House and found the fabric below for $23.99 a yard.
 

TJMaxx had the best options, including this teal leopard print.

Colorful Vera Bradley paisley

faux python…pow!

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Peg Me

Posted in DIY, Home Improvement, Our House, The Mister on December 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »

As is the case with many homes and the couples that reside in them, I have a fairly lengthy backlog of projects to do. Two weekends ago I tackled one of those projects: putting pegboard on the closet doors.

The Mrs. has a good sized collection of jewelry, and she had been storing it on the back of her closet door. It was adequate at first, but grew to where it was just an amalgamation of necklaces, bracelets, and other shiny and colorful things. She had been wanting pegboard put on the back of closet doors for a while, and relatively speaking it’s a simple project. So we emptied her current storage apparatus, made some measurements, and headed to Lowes.

Oh ye of little pegs.

That which must be organized.

The material list is pretty short:

Furring strips 1x2x8

4 x 8 Section of pegboard

Box(es) of drywall screws

Box of assorted pegboard hooks

Tools needed:

Saw

Drill

Square

Tape measure

The materials were easy to pick out. Of course, the thing to make sure when by any lumber is to make sure you’re buying straight without any bowing or the like. The screws were just picked them off the shelf. We bought the pegboard with a white front to make it look more finished.

Straight enough.

Once home, made exact measurements of the area of the door the pegboard would cover, making sure to make room to allow the door to close and to still be able to use the door knob. Looking back, I should have been as concerned as making sure the furring strips were square in the corners as I was with making sure they didn’t get in the way of the door shutting.

I made measurements for and cut the furring strips, whose purpose is to be a spacer between the door and the pegboard so the hooks have room to go behind the pegboard. I attached the furring strips to the door with deep drywall screws since they serve as the anchoring material for the pegboard, but I didn’t use too many screws as I didn’t want to damage the doors too much since they are original to the house. Also, after I drilled the first few screws in, I realized I should be drilling pilot holes for the screws, otherwise the wood splits. This is good advice for any size screw.

Once the furring strips were attached, it was time to attach the big piece: the pegboard. Oftentimes when I’m doing projects, I like doing the ones where it’s unlikely my work will be seen as I’m not the best at having a good, clean finish to my projects. With this project, I had to cut a six foot piece of pegboard all at once, which provides ample area to have my saw go askew. The furring strips didn’t have to be perfect as they were going to be covered by the pegboard. I measured precisely the area to be cut, down the the sixteenth of an inch. I measured the height and the width, allowing room for the door handle. I used my square to make sure my lines were straight as you can trust a tape measure or much of anything else to mark a straight line.

A man has to make his mark.

I cut the pegboard according to the measurements. I took the cut pegboard and attached it to the furring strips, putting the screws through pegboard holes to make it look better.

The pegboard will hopefully help the Mrs. out with her growing stable of jewelry items. For functionality it should do great, but I wish it looked a little more finished. I still need a steadier hand when I do woodworking. I perhaps should have used a circular saw instead of a jigsaw so it is easier to cut in a straight line. Also, in making sure the furring strips wouldn’t be in the way of the door closing, I should also have made sure they were precisely square. They look good and should be very beneficial, but they could look more polished.

All done.

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Take me out to the front yard

Posted in Home Improvement, Outdoors, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 2, 2011 | 5 Comments »

Everyone seems to be thinking of spring. This makes me think of working outside. We haven’t done much (hardly anything) to the outside. Here is our curb appeal to do list.

Hello, I’m Rachael Anne and The Mister’s house. I’m not so cute right now.

A:  Our old chain link fence needs to be replaced. It has been “patched” in a few places but it cannot be trusted. We’re thinking of putting chain link back as the posts already exist. All of our neighbors have their fences backed up to our fence. What do you think of us asking them to pitch in? What is the etiquette here?

B:  We need to camouflage the ugliness that is our air conditioner. Fence? Hedge?

C:  We plan to paint our house this spring. As you can see, our house is made of brick and stone. We’re thinking gray.

D:  This tree is the only landscaping we’ve done since we bought our house. We found this evergreen tree at COSTCO and quickly purchased it. Now, I want another when we finally landscape (N).

E:  Our house had shutters, but they were taken down before we purchased the home. We will replace them when we hang the window boxes (F).

F:  I bought copper window boxes when they were on clearance at Target last year. We are waiting to paint (C) before we hang them.

G:  We’re unsure how to replace the metal supports across the top of the porch. We’d like to find out so we can replace the posts. Suggestions?

H:  The metal posts are leaves with acorns. They are so modern. Riiiiight. I thought about growing ivy all over the posts, but I haven’t had any luck with the ivy I’ve planted. Ivy or replace posts? Why am I killing ivy? I thought this was impossible.

I:  We plan to hang a Tennessee flag on this post. However, we are having a difficult time finding a flag without gromments but a sleeve to attach it to the pole.

J:  I would like our sidewalk to land here, the front of the porch, instead of the side of the porch.

K:  We need to replace the tile on the porch.

L:  We hung the American flag last summer.

M:  This is where our current concrete sidewalk is. I’d like to rip it up and move it to the front of our porch (see J), instead of the side.

N:  We need to landscape something awful. It’s embarrassing. Let me rephrase, someone should landscape. We probably don’t want it to be me.

O:  I’m thinking about planting hostas under our massive tree. They are supposed to like shade but I’m fearful of trying to keep them alive. The other to do items are more important.

P:  The Mister hates this tree. It produces “monkey brains” which are his nemesis when it becomes time to mow.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress. Wish us luck!

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Keep warm

Posted in Home Improvement, Living, Living Room on January 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Lovelies, it’s cold outside and The Colonel Hoof Hearted is no fool. He figured out where our new extended vent is located.

Now, onto the extended vent review. We heard mixed reviews but I was determined to move the couch in front of our bay window. However, the vent was in front of the bay window and became the hiccup of my plan. Therefore, I ordered this ”heat register extender” from Improvements.

The Mister used true duct tape to tape off the open vent that the extender did not cover. Additionally, he used the duct tape to secure the extender to the vent and floor.

We’ve walked into the extender a few times particularly when getting off the couch. Therefore, we are going to check its classy duct tape situation and move the couch over the extender an inch or so. Yet, we’re happily surprised with it. We’d heard it wasn’t worth it but we disagree. Plus, just moving the couch allowed our living room to look much more open. The Mister liked the couch change and said the difference was surprising multiple times.

Yay, point for me!

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