Sad little wall.

I thought I was done with interior design for a while. I like how everything looks and feels in the house. Eclectic, collected, sentimental, and MINE. But, recently two people poo-pooed my lion wall. This makes me think they don't know a thing. Or, is my lion wall not as great as I think?

The wall in question.

This wall is in the living room; a tiny, open, 15x20 room squished next to the kitchen that functions as family room, den, living room, and office. The left (in photo) side is flanked by the bar, with two stools. It has the world's frumpiest couch (but very, very comfy), and two chairs. On the right is a picture window. The couch faces the TV. I have struggled with this wall several times. Should it be an accent wall? House a large piece of art? If so, what? I've tried to make several montages of family photos, found things, and it always comes out mish-mashed.

Until I found the lion. She came from an antique store in Reno, and was living on the tallest part of the wall behind several crystal chandeliers. It was very fun to watch the store employees on their tippy toes trying to get her down with a ladder and an antique fishing pole. The picture reminds me of my dog, and I just like it. The lace framed thing on the top right is actually a doily made by my grandma, who passed away earlier this year. If that was not sentimental enough, she made it for my wedding present! I think it looks very avant-garde off-centered in it's gold frame. Apparently, two people think it's weird.

Living room, with Mo bottom right.

The mirror was $20 from Burlington coat factory and don't care about it one way or another, I just thought it all looked swell together. Ok, maybe it looks a little sparse, but I like to think of it as minimalist. I hate clutter and do-dads. The throw on the couch also belonged to my grandma, and the lampshade on the right was a hand me down from my mom. So all that stays.

Older living room incarnation

If someone has a better idea on how to arrange my living room wall, go for it. Open invite. Here is what it looked at at one point; orange walls and an older rug. TJ Maxx do-dads on the wall and super-old $75 couch lugged from Kentucky (why??!!?). Grr. Designing is only fun when it's easy.

New name?

I realized that I have had a Bloggy Renaissance lately, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I miss writing. Maybe I have stuff to write about these days with this house, rather than just bitching about the daily grind. I like to have a place to put all my pictures and stories too, like a proud mama. Maybe it's because the "transition" is finally coming to a close, and I have a real life back after traveling, living in four different states, school, marriage, house, career, etc.

This morning before it warmed up enough to paint, I spent a couple hours going back to 2006 and reading my bloggy. Woah. This blog was very different then, and I kind of liked it. In '06, I was struggling, and searching for something. Mostly money. I did a lot of philosophizing, and ranting. Man, those next couple years were stressful.

It's funny though... all the things I wished for have come true, and I have emerged a different person. My blog has changed too. I think is has become kind of sterile. I modeled the new blog after the DIY ones I read daily that are more instruction and witty banter than personal tales. But I don't enjoy reading my newer stuff as much as the old stuff. It's kind of like when a rock star quits using drugs, but still writes music; they are either way, way better, or they totally suck and disappear. Not that my blog is like a rock star... but in my head this analogy works. Misery and tumult make for great inspiration. Contentment, not so much.

A few months ago I actually tried to make a new blog called DIY Fortress, where I started to post all my house stuff, leaving behind Bloggy as my sad trail of self-exploration. But that ended up being too much work. So about a month ago, I merged them... and now you have "Bloggy... the DIY house blog with past ramblings of personal misery, and a gap of about two years."

Anyhoo I am not sure the title "Bloggy" really fits it anymore. It was a great generic name that I just slapped up there to fill space, and it somehow stuck. But this thing has actually lasted six years, and it's a great way to show off my projects to out-of-state friends and family, not to mention have a record of what I've done to the place. So begins the hunt for a new name, and maybe a new function for Bloggy. I guess I need to have an outlet for my meanderings as much as an outlet for my pride-and-joy projects. Suggestions appreciated.

Loggy Bench

When we first moved into this house, it was unbelievable the amount of shit that came out of nowhere; donated from friends, parents, family members etc. Somehow everyone thinks that new homeowners are in dire need of their old crap. At first I was welcoming of this stuff, our house was pretty empty. But after a year-and-a-half, most of these "donations" are on their way out. However, once in a while I come upon a use for something. Like these dry-rotted 20-year old redwood deck boards from my parents' house in California. Dad loaded up his car one day and dragged a couple dozen of these beauties almost 200 miles. They have been sleeping under the deck, until now. 

Gratuitous Dewalt sander placement...so pretty.

They actually came in pretty handy, and with my newly found chop-sawing talents, these benches were put together in under an hour! Sure, there are spots in the seat that can be poked through with a finger, but hey-- they're rustic. The spiders have been swiped off, and some of the holes patched with wood putty. Another coat or two of outdoor urethane, and they're sure to last another year. Yay for recycling. And now I have new furniture made from something that I ran around on as a kid at my parents house. I'm a sucker for sentiment!

This one looks onto the front of our house. Good for admiring paint jobs.

Firewood Rack

Man, I LOVE having 4 days off every week. It may just be the best schedule on earth. Sure, some sort of rich or famous person who gets every day off may think they have it better, but honestly, I get bored out of my mind after a few days and need to get back to work. Then, sure enough, the long weekend rolls around and I feel like I deserve it, every time. I am so lucky!

This month I am trying to save money to pay down credit cards with Burning Man stuff still on it, and ski season, etc. So, instead of going shopping on my long days off alone, I decided to stick around the house and make stuff. We have been needing a firewood rack for out front. Last year we just stacked firewood in front of the house, but I learned that that can introduce termites. Also, the front (and just the front) has a new paint job, so logs can't go near it!

Wheelbarrow firewood rack, with Mo the neighbor dog.

We need some wood to be dry, so under the patio roof thing in the front of the house is the perfect spot. I started off just using this wheelbarrow, which worked well, but I missed having a wheelbarrow. Plus, that's enough wood for maybe two nights. I perused some online racks, so nice. Brandon wanted a super modern half-circle steel one, and I had my eye on this cheap-o. But still, at $80, I knew I could do better.  

Rack for $$$

 
The cool thing is that now we've been here almost two years, and have stockpiled the garage with leftover wood from other projects, and the Dewalt chop saw from the farmhouse table project. I'd been too wimpy to use it before, but something moved me yesterday.

I started by googling DIY firewood racks, of course, and combined what I saw on Google Images with crap we have laying around the yard. I am not a perfectionist, and as with every project, there is a learning curve. I tend to just jump into things without much of a plan, and make it up as I go along. Fun! I think this turned out pretty good. My design is solid, but the sturdiness is a little lacking-- we'll see if it lasts until spring. I could use a couple L brackets from Home Depot or somewhere, but did not have them on hand. The chop saw-ing was EASY. It was the screwing and nailing that was hard. The darn screws kept getting stuck, and when I tried to drill pilot holes my drill bit would get stuck. Some worked, and the ones that didn't, I just chopped off their heads with this chopper thing we have, and bent them over. Ha!

I need to work on technique....

 Ugh. Don't look at that part! The rack as a whole looks much better than that. And it is sturdy enough to hold a bunch of logs. I covered it with a Minwax stain, something dark and leftover from I don't know what. The idea was to match the trim without using my precious paint.  

Frame

Awesomeness. Free. Looks pretty great too. So now, onto those chair cushions! Peach and red don't really go so well. What color should I make the cushions? 

Finished frame! 

Finished frame, with Mo.

Reno fire

Last week a raging wind storm ripped through town, starting a huge blaze that destroyed 20+ homes. The coolest thing that came from that storm was this photo, with the downtown casino lights. I would love to buy this photo, or print it out and blow it up--it's a once in a lifetime shot!! Amazing! But it's so puny...I think it was originally nabbed from Facebook. Oh well, now I can enjoy it here.

"Headboard"

Since the painting project has come to a halt thanks to snow, I'm posting about something else today! Meanwhile our house is literally half old paint, half new paint, and I don't really care. Actually, I am happier about it looking this way than I was before we tore into the project. So what if it stays this way until June.

We dragged this bed across the country with us from Louisville. It's a pretty basic queen, just standing in until we get an awesome king. I always kind of wanted a headboard so the pillows wouldn't get sucked off the head of the bed down to the dusty abyss. But, headboards are a stupid thing to spend money on, I decided, and it would be easy enough to make my own! I tried several methods. One was making a large wooden frame and screwing it on to the metal bed. That worked for about a night. Then I found some old shutters under the deck, cleaned them up and painted them green (sorry, no photo) and attached them to the wall. Very cottag-ey. For my last effort, I used one of these very handy, very clean closet doors that we removed from the third bedroom (now dining room). I painted it, turned it sideways, and screwed it into the wall. Voila! It is actually centered, even though my photo doesn't show it.

Bed with "headboard" and dogs.

Old closet doors

The dogs/models were put on the bed on purpose. Cute! The black one isn't even our dog, but the bed was so lumpy I gave up on making it nice for the picture. The models were happy to oblige and jumped right up there. You'd think they do that all the time.

In person, I think the headboard looks clean, and it can be painted or whatever. I was thinking that if I ever found a place that sold wood veneer, that would be a great project. Just slap on some wood veneer and make it match the cedar chest. Pretty! One of these days Brandon is going to help me build a gigantic king size bed, but there are many, many projects in line first.

More paint!

I have to say, living in the country has its benefits. Over the last month while I was out scraping paint off the house, two different neighbors stopped by to offer their paint sprayers and tools, and another offered a paint sprayer when he saw Brandon at 7-11. That's 3 paint sprayers. How awesome is that? We borrowed one this weekend, and exactly half the house done as of tonight. Tomorrow we'll get out there early and bust ass, and hopefully get most of it done before the next storm rolls in. It's such hard work, but such a great payoff! Our super sweet fort is totally coming along!

New color, big pain in the butt.

A project we've been dreading since we moved in is now underway... painting! The south wall of the house was peeling so bad we were afraid it wouldn't make it another winter without dry rotting all the way through. So at the beginning of October we started scraping. And it's November now, and we're still scraping in between snow storms! But, I have most of the front of the house painted, first coat anyway. See all the area on that wall that is white? That was all bare wood, scraped off by me, the hubby and my parents! It will eventually be red again.

The trim is all going to be brown instead of white... I love it! We really thought hard about changing the color. The red was ok, but was very barn-y, and since the former owner showed up a couple times, I've been all about changing the look of it as a reminder that this is MY house! Not yours! But after a few walks and drives around the neighborhood, we realized that 95% of the homes are some sort of brown, grey, beige... and ours really stands out and looks good red. It wants to be red. It has been red since 1970, so why change?

So we decided to change the trim. We tore off the shutters and painted the corners of the house red, instead of white. I think it looks much more modern, and less barn-y. Hopefully over Veteran's Day we'll get temps high enough to paint, and no rain. I want to get at least the south side and the trim in the front done!!!

Homemade Farmhouse table

It all started after sitting in this dining room, at this hand-me-down table and wishing I could see out the window. The dining room, I think, was once a bedroom. The bookshelf unit behind used to be an ugly closet,  (more on that later!) and the previous owner took out the doors and made curved doorways. It looks awesome, but is a smallish, dark kind of room. After 3 paint colors, I am loving the pumpkin. But we never spend any time in there, since it's dark and uncomfortable. I toyed with the idea of putting in a bigger window. But we're not ready for that yet.

I moved the furniture around and around, tried to make it a lounge/bar/library area...anything to get more use out of the room. Finally we decided that we'd buy a bigger table and more comfy chairs. After venturing out onto the shoppers abyss, we considered dropping $1,000 on a counter-height chair/table combo from a decent furniture store. Thing was, even at a grand the table top was cheapy-looking wood veneer. Ugh. Why isn't anything made out of good wood these days? We loved an Amish table we found, but it was about $3,000. So.... with that inspiration, we decided to make one to own specifications!

Brandon did the measuring and cutting (ugh! Details!) and I got to do the planning, staining and finishing. Also the chair-picking. This is the table in the garage before the polyurethane. We ended up staining it black because we were to cheap to get all matching, nice wood, so a lighter stain would have revealed the greenish tint of the poplar tabletop, and the reddish tint of the base. Oops. I know that now for next time. The legs are straight-up 4x4s, with 2x2 beams for support and random poplar timbers for the top. Brandon was very worried this would end up looking like a picnic table, but once we got the right chairs for it, it looks just fine!

If I had to do it again, I would make it a little bigger. We got the height right, but the chairs are a tad tight. Otherwise, I love the thing. I can stand on it, even dance on it! And now we have a great view out the window when we're eating, studying, reading, whatever. We've moved back into that room! Yay! 

We distressed the top with chains... fun!

Four chairs from Overstock.com, very comfy!

In all, we spent about $600 on the table. But... that was only because we bought a chop saw from Dewalt for $300! I think the chairs ran about $300 also. But now we have a table that will last forever, and if we can get sick of it, it will be right at home on the deck. We also scored a nice tool that we'd have probably been too cheap to buy otherwise!

Don't drink and dye

This was a bad idea...

Bad idea....tea-dyed blanket

White is not so good at my house. It doesn't stay clean for very long, and in the case of this nice white blanket, I'm just not into bleaching it weekly. So, since my debit card was recently hacked and I can't get to any money until my new card comes in the mail, I decided  to try this tea-dyed technique I read about on the internet.

I started by brewing several pots of black tea I had leftover from a random trip to Chinatown in Chicago 3 years ago. I also poured some coffee grounds into the mix, some hot water, salt, and maybe some vinegar. I kept it in the "bath" overnight, and expected greatness when I pulled it out and hung it on the deck rail the next day.

I thought it would be a lovely rust-batik, or something. Brandon saw it hanging there and laughed. He asked if I'd been drinking. I do remember having a couple glasses of wine before I started this project. Wine + home improvement = dirty coffee/tea/blanket. Next step: buy some real dye and do it right!

Tea bath

Retro chair re-do

Before, take II

Before, take I

Chairs, like all furnishings, are freakin' expensive. I needed a smallish chair, and instead of paying $600 at RC Willey, I found this $60 one at a thrift shop in California. I don't really know why I like it, maybe because it's curvy and has a lot of real wood, which is hard to find in new furniture these days. The foam was in good shape, but the wood had this 1960s opaque-looking finish on it. The color was all wrong, and the fabric was hideous.

I sanded it down which was a huge pain in the butt. All those curves, surfaces. Argh, it took forever. I stained it a darker color, and used satin polyurethane for the finish. I think it updated it at least ten years. Ha. The first incarnation was recovered with what I thought would be a very worldly use of fabric-- a hot pink hammock I've been dragging around with me from Ecuador. It turned out that the fabric was just too thin, and you could see it puckering around the foam. I'm sure I could have added it to a base fabric of some sort, but by the time I'd sewn it and put it on and taken it off several times, it had already started to wear out in places. I loved the hot-pinkness of it, but ended up going with something else. I will keep that fabric for pillows!!

After!

I found this very retro whitish-yellow circle print at the discount fabric store for yes, $5/yard. It is heavy, so hides the foam well. It was really easy to work with, and I think it goes well with the dark wood. I basically made two pillowcases for the cushions, and blammo, $70 chair! And my first upholstery project.

Brandon took one look at it and said I have "grandma style." Ha! He doesn't know. Now he always laughs and says I have grandma style about everything, which is OK because it counteracts his stupid, heavy metal, basic dude who-would-live-in-a-cardboard-box-if-he-had-no-woman-in-his-life-style!

DIY EASY Roman shades

This fabric started as homemade curtains in the living room, but they ended up being too busy for that small space. I reverted back to some basic curtains for that room, and cut this fabric up and turned them into roman shades. So simple! The bedroom was an issue-- it had these long curtains over the short windows and I never could get it looking right. I wanted nice, white cell blinds or roman shades, but a blinds.com quote was for over $250 for simple Roman shades for all 3 windows, and I didn't feel like spending that.

So I made these from the old curtains--which were a good deal in the first place, like $6 a yard! I cut them to the window size with a little extra on each side, about 5 inches longer in length. Then I made five small folds and ironed them in-- big enough to place wooden dowels in the back of the shade so they won't sag. The folds were about 5/8". Once those were sewn in place, I sewed by hand these little plastic rings I found at Lowes on the back of each fold--two per fold. These are to secure the opening device. I strung rope through them from the bottom up, and tied a knot at the bottom. At the top I strung the rope through screws with eyelets attached to a 1x2 wooden beam secured to the trim of the window. That allows me to move the shade up and down by pulling the rope. So easy.

I ended up not needing a securing device or a fancy opening device-- the combo of the heavy-ish fabric and the light plastic rings, and the rope actually makes it stay in place while up. Then I just gently pull at the bottom to bring them down. All in all, besides the fabric which I already had, these cost me $20! Yay!  I think they look so much better than my curtains, and better than the nasty, dirty blinds the previous owner had up.

Please excuse the cord coming from the window.... it was the air conditioner unit we had up this summer, which is now tucked away in the garage. Oh... country livin', no central air. 

The front door... where it all begins!

Old yucky door

Sweeet new door.

Welcome! Check out the entrance to our fabulous "new" abode! We lived in the house for nearly a year before attacking this project, even though the old door had cracks in the window, and a huge doggie door big enough for a man to crawl through. The reason we waited? Front doors are friggin' expensive!

We finally got the motivation for this project  after the junkie/ former owner showed up at our doorstep, twice, and asked when we changed the locks. After parking in our driveway and trying to open the door, he informed me that he used to be able to pick the lock with his thumbnail.

After that episode, we also got a dog. Anyway, I wanted a solid wood door--and they are not so budget friendly. I kept thinking I'd stumble upon a Craigslist beauty, but that just didn't happen. I decided against a steel door because it can dent, and a fiberglass one with a fancy glass insert just doesn't go with the rustic facade of the house. So I scoured Craigslist for weeks... not wanting to spend hundreds on what was basically a piece of wood. Besides, I could easily refinish an older wood door in good shape. But, being that we have an older house, the frame is not square. Buying a used door without a frame would be much harder to fit into the space, we decided we needed a door that came with a frame, so in this one case, new was the way to go.

Front door with icicles!

New wood doors on a frame can cost thousands! I had no idea. We opted for an unfinished big box store special order in alder. We paid $399, which was a bargain. Sanding, staining and finishing it was a super pain-in-the-ass. All the nooks and crannies hold stain and polyurethane, and it is super heavy. We still don't have sawhorses, so I did it all while it was lying on the floor of the garage. I used Minwax Early American, and an outdoor urethane.

The hardware is from handlesets.com. I tried two different sets at Home Depot and Lowes that didn't fit. I really really suggest NOT buying the "Smart Key" technology from Kwikset. After installing it, we proudly opened and closed our door for a day or so when it seized up and locked us out! Good old Google revealed that we were not the only ones with this problem. It is made for landlords I guess, who want to change the keys occasionally. It is faulty, and I boycotted Home Depot for at least a day for selling such crap.

After installing two sets of doorknobs, we had "extra" holes. My poor husband, expert driller of holes, was so ashamed. So much for DIY-- there is a very big learning curve to all this! We had to special order a handleset that has a big back plate to conceal our boo boos. In this case it definitely could have been done more cheaply, but we love how solid the iron looks and feels, and how beefy the door is. Finally we have a custom-looking door, a new lock, and peace of mind, all for around $600.

Trailer rehab

We picked up this Coachmen beauty from Craigslist in June for $850. Straight outta 1973, that 70's smell included. Had it rehabbed just in time for Burning Man. It was quite a project, but a fun one. I felt much more creative with the trailer than I could with the house; you can't just fix a hole in your bedroom with staples and duct tape, but it works magic in a trailer!

It went from a dank, wood-paneled dirt-covered fiasco to a light, tranquil, fresh-smelling oasis!

I started with new upholstery-- which could have been cheap. I found some awesome retro fabric from Home Fabric and Upholstery for $5/yard, but busted my sewing machine in the process. So, $200 later, got a used commercial strength Kenmore beauty to finish the job nicely. I learned how to make box cushions which will come in handy later. They are pretty simple, but some are really really odd-looking. Good thing this is "just" the B-Man trailer, and good experience for the sofa I hope to do in the next month or so.

The cabinets took a while... they are all wood, but the doors are particle board with wood-look vinyl on them. Ick. What to do? I tried painting them, even used primer but just ended up with a clumpy mess. So I had to strip them, which left them with a fake-wood whitewashed kind of look. It'll do. With the rest of the wood painted white, it actually looks great. The ceiling had some water damage, but instead of replacing it with melamine, I simply used staples to hold white duct tape together, then finished it with more duct tape. It matches really well, and looks just like a vinyl seal. Really, it does.

I found a beige berber carpet remnant for $40 at a carpet store and made a reverse template of the floor, then laid it out in my garage and did a pretty darn good job of cutting it up to fit. No more 70s brown and yellow!

There was some wallpaper in the bathroom and kitchen area that I painted over using oil-based primer. Also painted the wood paneling white after caulking every little hole. The foam I saved, but aired it out on the deck for a couple days after spraying with bleach, water, then febreeze. Also treated it with carpet powder and vacuumed it off. Don't know which one did it, but the 70s smell is totally gone!

Brandon revamped the water holding tank, refurbed the water pump, and made all the lights work. None of which was easy. But we finally had showers out there!! I painted the fake wood stripe on the outside to match the truck, and did flat black on everything else that wasn't white. We caulked all the edges and seams on the outside, and after 3 trips to the DMV that baby was ready to roll!! At Burning Man it performed beautifully!

We also got a solar charger for the battery, so actually had solar charging our battery, which we used only for the water pump and lights. The stove is propane, and unfortunately didn't have time to get to the fridge....which I hear is a major deal in RVs. Oh well, block ice worked fine, and we were able to sleep in till 11am some days!!

Burning Man 2011

This was the 4th Burning Man for me, and I have to say it made the top three! Something about how it all came together this year made every moment fly by and made me wish I was back out there again the very next week. We went with new people, were in charge of staking out a camp, and we came prepared with a trailer; I washed my hands for the first time at Burning Man this year!!

I was warned that as you attend more and more B-man's, the sparkle kind of wears away and it becomes something different each time. The first couple times you are SO overwhelmed by the art, the people and the things to do that your head just spins for the entire year after, and your memory is shinier than the actual event.

I'm kind of glad I'm over that phase... my mind has been blown, I've picked up the pieces, and can enjoy it for what it is. This year I camped with virgins-- and was somehow the expert on all things Burning Man! We made time to explore things during the day and through the night.

Next year I plan to volunteer, perhaps as a greeter, and then work in the medical tent for a shift. I feel like I can finally tear myself away from oogling everything to give back to the community. We volunteered for Camp Arctica a couple of times, which is the only cool place out there as it is an ice tent.

I can't wait to hear everyone's stories... I am laid up with a nasty cold and haven't made it back to work yet. I am sure it's from B-man, sharing cups, playing in the dirt, etc. Next year: One cup, one cup only!!

Did I forget to mention?

I got married to my hunney! Stopped blogging for a couple years it seems... missed some important details. Brandon ended up coming with me to Kentucky for nursing school. Of course he waited until the last possible minute to decide, but he came! He asked me to marry him during the second semester, right before the second huge Med/Surg test. I was a little distracted, and only got a B.

When we got to Nevada, we got hitched at the Justice of the Peace with both sets of parents there by our sides. We'd imagined eloping, but the parents wouldn't have it and drove in from out of state! Looking back I am so glad they did. If the situation were a little different, I'd have loved to throw a big party. But times were tough then. We were so broke, and lived in this ucky little apartment. We just wanted to be hitched, none of the fluffy stuff mattered. We had a cake from Trader Joes and BBQed burgers on a grill outside the apartment after the wedding. I had (stupidly) worked the night before, so got home at 7:30 and slept for 3 hours. I was a little goofy.

The next day all of us, including a brother from each side and their s/o's all met in San Francisco for a ride on the Adventure Cat in SF Bay. It's an awesome catamaran that is owned by family friends. They built the boat themselves, and have done such good business over the years that they have other people to run their charters from Pier 39. It was a gorgeous, sunny day in the bay, and no one got seasick! We picked the boat ride for a few reasons. I'm from the area, and have always been fascinated with the city. Brandon and I MET on a boat, over the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. (Well that was a ferry boat, but anyway, a boat seemed appropriate.) Also my dad and my friend Erin and I have all swam the Shark Fest, an annual 1.5 mile race from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. I always like being out on the bay and feeling its power. Nothing quite compares to swimming through it though!

Anyhoo, we had our 1 year anniversary in September! Oh, and the picture of us was taken in Louisville. We were playing Frisbee at the downtown park on a rare day off.