Garden Boxes

Oops, I mean box. We built our garden box today. Loving how it turned out...now, we just need to fill it.

UPDATE: Here's how our garden looks in June. :)

Porch Railing!!!

Well, what can I say...we've got a porch railing. I love it!

We picked green....

The husband vetoed the red (for athletic-loyalty reasons) ----also, we thought perhaps it was a little too traditional for us, so we went with the green. I found some great black/white fabric and made a couple pillows. Now, I really want a porch railing.

The Powder Room is finished

I am pleased to share with you our new powder room.

Let me indulge in a few Before & Afters.

What we did:

Painted walls "Elephant Skin" Gray

Removed toilet, repaired leaks, re-installed toilet

Painted vanity cabinet, added new hardware to doors

Upgraded all chrome fixtures to brushed nickel

Replaced Vanity Light

Replaced faucet

Goodbye Globe Lights

I'm wanting to put something taller here on top of the toilet back to fill the space between it and the wire thing above it. Any ideas??

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I used the brushed nickel spray paint and sprayed over my old towel ring and toilet paper holders. This saved me about $25, and I can use the paint for all the chrome fixtures I want to change. (So that's anoth $50 saved in the other 2 bathrooms).

And this is my absolute favorite thing in the room. This faucet was my splurge....I had to have it.

Now on to what I learned..... (please forgive the self-indulgence....or just ignore it if you prefer)

How-to videos only show "best case scenario".

You can expect your project to be nothing like what they show you.

For instance, when they tell you to remove the bolts on the toilet to separate the tank from the bowl, they don't tell you that they will likely be rusted over, will not unscrew, and that you will need a hacksaw and lots of elbow grease to remove them. (They also don't tell you that there are 2 sets of nuts on the bolts, and thus 6 nuts that are likely too rusted to come off with just a wrench).

They also don't tell you that the water line connection to your faucet is likely over-tightened and that you should use 2 wrenches to remove them...and that if you don't, you will only torque the copper piping and snap it in two...and then have to call a plumber. (lesson learned for next time).

They don't tell you that nobody makes the same size cabinet hinges that you had and you will have to drill new holes for all your hinges.

They also don't tell you that sometimes builders decide not to center your light box on the wall, and that the cute vanity light you bought has too small of a backplate to be centered and also cover the outlet hole that is not centered...and so you will have to go and buy another light fixture with a larger backplate...(and that you don't quite love as much as the first one). Oh, and circular mounting bracket things are way better than crossbars.

Now that the project is over, and the frustration is gone, I feel very wise, indeed.

Chairs....

I'm trying to pick which chairs to buy for our front porch. Will you help?

It's between the green and the red.

My thoughts are that the red is traditional, and the green is a little edgier (funky)?? I like them both, but I'm not sure which I like best.

Which do you like better?

BTW, I'm thinking of added a black and white pillow to each chair, to bring back the black from the door and shutters.

Garage Door Insulation

Garage Door Insulation.....check!

I decided to add insulation to our garage door in hopes that it will help out with the temperature issue we are having in the room above the garage. All summer long it was miserably hot up there...so much so, that I hardly spent any time in that room (which is saying something, since it's my office and that is where my computer lives). Now that it's winter, we're having the opposite problem. It's 58 degrees in that room in the morning, while it is 70 degrees in the hallway just outside the room.

Easy project, only took about 1-1 1/2 hours (with a little help from Connor).

(fingers crossed that it helps)

Home Improvement Projects....

So here's the project: update the powder room. And by powder room, I mean that closet-sized bathroom just off the kitchen...you know, the one that all of our visitors use.

Because of its size, there's not a lot that can be done with it, except some color and fixture updates.

What I want to do is paint the walls, re-finish (paint) the vanity cabinet, and update all the fixtures (light, towel ring, faucet).



So here are some before pictures: