Living the Dream

A year or so ago I came across a website that really got me excited. It was a website begun by a fellow stay-at-home-mom and DIY'er named Ana White. Long story short, she began building and drawing up building plans of expensive furniture pieces she had admired in popular home decorating catalogs and started a blog on which to share them with fellow DIY'ers like me! In reviewing her site, I found SO MANY projects that I would love to try and build one day—bookcases, headboards, night stands, etc.

Well Sis and her handy husband have been looking around for a nice headboard for one of their guest beds. I told them about one of my favorite finds on the site (Ana's Farmhouse Bed) and he decided to make it for their guest room (I am so jealous!)!

Here sits the pile of lumber that will become the Farmhouse Bed.

I was too busy painting the master bedroom to get pics of Handy Hubs building the headboard and footboard, but here Sis is sanding away on the assembled pieces. I think they turned out pretty good!

That headboard is SO HEAVY!

I caulked some of the gaps where the boards came together.

Time to get the pieces painted up! Big Goonie wanted in on some of the action too, so we let her do some priming.

And... VOILA! Here they are with finish coat painted on them!

Sis will put on a second coat of finish paint before the pieces get moved to the bedroom.

I had to head back home across the mountain before they were moved into the room and can't wait to see them in place! Will post a pic of the finale when it comes!

Passion for Purple

Yesterday's order of business was to bring some passion into the bedroom... PASSIONATE PURPLE, that is!

Sis bought some new bedding to go with her new bed and wanted to change up the colors in the bedroom. The new bedding is white with silver and dark grey accents, so we'll bring in a splash of color by putting some purple on the walls!

We'll paint purple on these two walls, so we taped off the baseboards so we'll have a nice crisp line between the purple wall and the white trim. 

This hallway in the master suite leads to some closets and the bathroom. We'll paint it a light silvery grey so it won't be like a dark tunnel.

Here's the happy homeowner rolling away! Doing good, Sis!

WHOOPS! Not doing so great over here! I managed to drip on the carpet! Egads!

The happy homeowner did a good job cutting in close to the ceiling!

A new large black headboard is currently on order. Can't wait to see it all put together! 

And... VOILA!! A master suite with purple and grey walls!

Comic Relief

I picked up a package of play fingernail tips from a $1 bin for my kid. Best dollar I've spent in a while! She played with them non-stop for days! They cracked me up, so I thought I'd share with you here...

Big Goonie models her manicure.

Feeling Blue

As you may recall my sister's fondness for gold from my previous post, it wasn't long before she decided she wanted to have her living repainted. I was recruited to come and help!

Big Goonie and her furry cousin model color choices under review. We chose the middle shade of blue.

My supervisors checked the equipment before I got started. Looks like the ladder is good and solid!

First I hit the walls with some Kilz to seal up that gold paint. Normally I'd carefully cut in with my brush along the sides of the moldings, but since we were going to have a darker color up against white, I wanted to have a nice crisp line, so we taped those parts off.

 Finally time for some blue!

 And... VOILA!! A beautiful new living room!

Home Sweet Home

Despite having not posted lately, I have actually been quite busy!! My sister and her husband bought a new house, so with my kiddo in tow, we left daddy at home and went to visit for a few days to help them get settled in their new place.

My sister immediately put me to work. First thing on my task master's list? Change hardware. You see, my sister is not a fan of brass hardware—doorknobs, cabinet pulls, hinges, etc. Her attitude towards brass hardware is very reminiscent of the scene from Mommie Dearest where Faye Dunaway's character yells, "NO WIRE HANGERS!", only with my sister, it's "NO BRASS HARDWARE!!" (This could be an exaggeration—or not—but it's funny to imagine nonetheless.)

So, just as they did in their last house, the first thing to go was all of the brass hardware. Now it is nickel, and admittedly, quite nice.

Later while my sister and I had some downtime, we ventured out into the front yard and delved into yard work. Her husband had just purchased some electric hedge trimmers and I was demonstrating to her how to use the tool. Like a masterful Jedi warrior I wielded the trimmers easily like a light saber, shaping the overgrown boxwood bush into a perfect globe.

She was so impressed with my technique that she implored me to trim all of the boxwoods for fear that she might not trim them with such expertise (did I just get scammed into trimming all of her bushes?!). Unsurprisingly they looked terrific when I was done. It was agreed that I could probably get on at Disney shaping their bushes—a second career, perhaps?

Another project we conquered during my visit was painting the garage floor. My BIL picked up one of those cool garage floor epoxy kits that are available at the home improvement stores.

I cut in with my paint brush around the edge of the room and he rolled paint/epoxy. Then before the floor dried we sprinkled teeny colored paint flakes that we dubbed as "Man Glitter" onto it. It turned out really nice. Now I wish I had a garage so I could do mine too—it's that nice.

I've been up to a lot more since I drafted this entry... will close abruptly for now to move on to another post!

"You Rock!!"

At least that's what someone passing by told me today as I was happily setting stones! I finally got the portion of the wall that faces the yard pretty well wrapped up. I might do some additional tuck-pointing to this area again later, but overall am pretty satisfied with how things are turning out.

Now that I have the side facing the yard done, I can focus on the side of the wall facing the street. Just a few more stones to set! I ran out of mortar and had to call it a day.

My back is ready for this project to be done. It doesn't think we should be mixing 180 lbs. of mortar. I couldn't agree more!

So much tuck-pointing to do in other parts of the wall! This should keep me busy all summer! Imagining how much money I am saving by doing it myself is so satisfying!

Today I am a Mason

Our home's property sits on a corner of two streets that join at a "T" intersection. The yard is sunken and a lovely stone wall runs adjacent to one of the streets. Earlier this week a vehicle made contact with the wall and damaged it.

This part of the wall has been reduced to crumbles. (shot from the street looking down into the yard)

It may be hard to tell in this shot, but the damaged portion of the wall is now slightly bulging near the rust-colored horizontal and the white triangle stones. (shot from the yard looking toward the adjacent street)

I think this might be a project I can handle... first—clean the area and stones of old mortar.

I moved a small chunk of old mortar and the whole section collapsed! Thankfully the stones missed my feet when they fell!

Thankfully I took pics before it collapsed. Hopefully that will help me figure out where all of the pieces go when I go to reassemble it!

Another section of the wall has some loose stones too. I decided to start down there so I could get my bearings and work out the technique before tackling the larger problem.

A car hit the corner of this wall a couple of years ago and loosened up some stones at the end.

Another "before" shot.

 And... VOILA!  This is what 60 lbs. of mortar looks like (my back is not happy about this project)!

Only the top layer of stones has been reset here.

Not too bad for my first time at masonry! I'm feeling pretty good about the process and am looking forward to getting the other section of the wall started.

The rocks behind the iris are for decoration and not part of my construction project.

Check back in a couple of days to see my progress!