I did it again....

So a month or so back I posted about how I had redone a bathroom in our house and had painted it orange....well more like fleshy brain matter...but I digress...I had painted one of the walls in a checker pattern with white. Below are a few pictures for you to remind yourself.

Well after about a month I decided it had too much of a brain matter color to it and the lines in the checker board weren't even. Every time I went in there it looked worse and worse to me. The straw that broke the camels back was the fact that neither Andy, myself or Nathania....liked it. It was ugly. I tried to like it. I really did...mostly cause I went through the hassle of painting it and it took FOREVER!

So, whats a girl to do when she hates the color of her bathroom and she has guests arriving in 2 days?

Mix up some paint of course!

We have this really pretty dark blue, but it was gonna be too dark for the small space. So I added some of the fresh green that I had painted our other bathroom with and voila! I had the color I wanted and didn't spend a dime. WOOHOO for being cheap!

 I then spent the next two days painting it, and putting up the towel rods again. I even put up a mirror, but that's a story for a whole different post.

Here is the result. What do you think? Improvement or not? I think its a vast improvement.

The color is truer in the bottom two pictures. We need to work on the light...think we're gonna add a light in with a new fan.

I haven't put the shelf back up yet, cause I'm not sure I like it. We'll see.

What have you been working on? Did you ever re-paint a room within two months?

Sarah

its not easy being green

We've been slowly re-painting our house...well actually, I've been painting...but anyhow recently I decided to tackle the bathroom in our bedroom. It was nothing special or fancy...

White walls, beige floors

ugly mirror and stage lights....pretty typical for these here parts.

I had recently come across a can o' paint at Home Depot in the mistints area that I REALLY liked. It was this fantastic spring green. So I bought it and painted our bathroom with it.

The difference is amazing! I had the shower curtain already and it matched perfectly. The bathroom looks way more modern now!

The next step is to replace the lights....which I have but need Storman to come and help me!

What do you think?

Sarah

shelf life

I've tride to continue to complete the bathroom...it's taken a while, but I think the more time I take the more I'll like it. Anywhoo, I was originally going to put simple shelves with brackets on this wall above the bathroom. My fantastical friend Krista said that she was going to use boxes instead of shelves in her bathroom. I immediately thought it would be great in my bathroom as well--imitate the boxes I painted on the walls already-- and she didn't mind me stealing her idea:)

So that same day I decided to make boxes out of some wood that we had gotten free on craigslist. It was really nice pine except for the screw marks. Wah wah wah...but is that going to stop this frugal girl? Nope...I got the caulk gun out and filled the holes right up. I let it dry and then caulked again, then sanded it down for a smoother look.  I then painted, let dry and painted again. For this impatient girl, the drying time was soooo not cool. But I did it. Patience is a virtue right?

So last night I decided to put the box up. It took some finagaling, and I think I may need to go to the hardward store tomorrow for a safer solution, my nails are holding, but I think a safer option is needed. But I so desperately wanted to get it up to see if I liked it. And guess what? I do!

What do you think? The picture hanging is one of Andy's favorites...I think it reminds him of where he grew up. He really likes the dark frame...me not so much, so there may be some negotiating/painting it white. I also would love to have some funky orange towels to go in the bathroom, but we have plenty of towels...so my green ones will have to suffice. I also have some dark blue...we'll see.

This is my poor box that didn't make it up. I originally was going to put two up...one on top being smaller, but I just thought it was too much. I'm sure I'll find a use for it though:)

So I've been able to cross some things off the bathroom list...and I would say it's very near being finished...at least until I tackle the ugly flooring.

What are you working on?

Sarah

lights up!

The other day I posted about the renovations I'm doing in one of our bathrooms. On my list of things to do was to replace the ugly stage lights that seem to be in every household in Anchorage. No joke...when the housing boom went through they used some classy items to put together a house!

This is our other bathroom but I forgot to take a picture of the stage lights in the renovating/orange bathroom. But they are EXACTLY the same. I personally dislike these silly lights a lot and I happened to find a nice new light set at Home Depot for $10 dollars. Yup that's right $10...it was a floor model but it looks brand new still!

My awesome brother-in-law...Nathania's husband offered to come and help me put the light up. He's super handy around the house and helped with my sink fiasco as well. It may have taken a trip to the store by Storman, but we got it up. I'm positive that the projects I've asked him to help with always end up taking longer...

What I discovered under the light was that the original color for my bathroom was orange. So it's come full circle.The color is just a bit lighter than mine!

I obviously still have to do some things in there but the light is crossed off my list. Here's what still needs to be done:

~Take toilet out and paint behind it, and possibly tile the floor…

~Put up some shelves…painted white

~Put up the mirror with a white frame

~Change out the lovely stage lights.

 

~ Touch up the paint

 

I love the way the new lights look...much better don't you think?

 

Sarah

Orange you gonna check it out?

So guess what? Anchorage officially broke the record for snow…yup we have had over 134.5 inches of snow this year. Slightly ridiculous no?

Well since Saturday we had snow…all day long…I got to work on the bathroom on our main floor.  The bathroom was white when we bought it. But the previous owners…who were hoarders, no joke….did a really crappy job, plus I’m not one for white paint. Now don’t get me wrong it has it’s place, but it is not what I wanted and it made the bathroom boring. Oh, I can’t forget the loverly mirror that was in there. It had a pretty shell motif. Ohh la la! NOT. So I took the mirror down…but that’s another post entirely.

Sorry for the messy before pictures...but it's all I got

So what color did I paint it? Orange. I really like the color orange….and the tile that is in the shower had an orangey pattern. I first painted it a more fleshy color that turned into looking like brain matter. Not cool. SO I added more orange and went with it. It’s a quite bright orange that you can't really tell in the pictures. But I likes it.

I also decided that a pattern was needed on a wall. I had grand plans of using a stencil and putting a pattern on similar to the tiles. This did not work…why? Because we have stupid-silly-on-every-wall texture. I’m not sure there is anybody in the whole state that doesn’t have textured walls. Boo Hiss is what I said to them. So I used painters tape to come up with the squares. This worked, but only to a degree…my lines aren’t super clean…the tape said something about edge lock. Yah not so much. It didn’t take those lovely textured walls into account. But I like the look well enough.

We still have quite a bit of work to do:

~Take toilet out and paint behind it, and possibly tile the floor…

~Put up some shelves…painted white

~Put up the mirror with a white frame

~Change out the lovely stage lights.

But for now it’s functional again. I will update again when there has been some progress.

Sarah 

just cause it made me laugh...

My dad is never one to send forwards...but he sent me this one...and I started belly laughing!

He said to compare it to my sink fiasco....which you can read about here.

Hope it made you smile!

Sarah

Make Do March Day 7...the bug has bitten

the organization bug that is...and if you know anything about me you know that organization rarely works its way into my world,(really...ask anyone and I mean anyone who knows me...) so I ran with it. And in the spirit of Make Do March...these were all things that I had planned to do..oh weeks ago. So I'm crossing them off the list.

Lets begin with my linen closet....oh my I can't believe I'm putting this out on the Internet...but here is my linen closet in the state it was in.....it was basically a catch all for anything and everything. Not good. It also wasn't organized very functionally. It had been on my mind for several weeks to get some bins...which I did, can you see them sitting in the closet? They have green lids, on the left...they've been living there for awhile now...oops!

I finally used them! I was able to organize the closet, make it more user friendly and just have a piece of mind that it's organized!

 

 The next organization project that I took on was that of my buttons....oh.my.word. I LOVE buttons. I would say it's near an obsession for me. We have this lovely thrift store that if they can't use the donated clothes, the cut the buttons off and sell them...for a $1 a bag. I've been cut off and told that I'm no longer allowed to buy buttons. Yeah right...who am I kidding? I look for them EVERY time I'm there:) But I digress, I had been storing all of these buttons in two organizers...but one broke and it wasn't as functional as I would have liked, and they were prone to spilling. So when I saw these at the thrift store I couldn't resist....but that was about 3 weeks ago...and they were taking up space on my living room floor.

I was able to organize them by color...don't they look great? And the best part is that there is sooo much more room for MORE BUTTONS!!!!

The third thing that I got my organization on with were my cookbooks...they were hanging around in my cupboard above my stove...the place my mom always kept them...logical right? Well, I have a nice vent going through my so they didn't fit very well, and I could never fit them in there the right way...plus I just ordered two more cookbooks...where were they going to fit:)?

 I have this lovely plant stand/bookshelf that I've been dumping extra stuff on...that was perfect for my cookbooks. It even fits my magazines that I like to keep with good recipes. With the cookbooks there, I get more space in my cupboards, no place to dump stuff that doesn't go there and more room for more cookbooks! Win, Win, Win,!

So have I over shared on a completely random topic? Yup...it's what I do. Also...I'm not done!

I've really decided to overhaul our bathrooms....you saw the first one completed and the sink installed in the next one. Well I'm trying to find a good color for the upstairs bathroom....I ended up mixing some paints to get this color:

It's kinda peachy....so my question is....

Is it too peachy? I'm wondering if I need to make it more orange...which is what I'm leaning too. As you can see I have a lovely tile to work with....so I'm trying to work around it.

I would love a vote from you all! Leave a comment and let me know what I should do!

Happy Organizing

Sarah

psst....our Linky is still open! Link up anything that goes along with Make Do March...doesn't have to be from today!

Make Do March Day 2: Drainage

Remember I mentioned that I had a lovely plumbing story to relate? Here goes...

As you all may know by now, Andy and I bought a house last May...that needed some work, but was definitely livable. Our first project was the downstairs bathroom which you can see here. Well keeping in the theme of re-doing our bathrooms, I tackled replacing the sink in our main floor bathroom...it was gross!

I think it was the original sink from 1978....and they tried to cover up the chips with some paint....and it just looked awful! And it drove me nuts I might add, I've been talking about replacing that silly sink since we moved in.

Recently motivation has visited my house...meaning I got really really motivated to replace the sink! Andy claimed he wanted nothing to do with it, so I was on my own and bound and determined to replace the darn thing. So, Nathania and I went to RE-Store...Habitat for Humanity resells good used household items like cupboards, sinks, etcs....and we both found sinks to replace in our respective homes.

I went home that day determined I was going to replace the dumb sink right then and there. I was able to get the water turned off, and the old sink taken out, and I took the old faucet off, thinking I could reuse it, but I couldn't get the drain portion out. So I decided to go get a new one....and this is what happened:

1. Went to Lowes,

2.  Forgot my wallet

3.  Drove back home, got the wallet 

4.  Went back to  Lowes and I bought a new faucet and drain portion

5.  Went home to install it! 

6.  Realize that I needed something called plumbers putty. 

7.  Called Nathania....and complained and moaned and vented....gave up for the night.

8.  Shut the door and ignored it.

I was super frustrated at this point, but not ready to completely give up putting the silly thing in. So I went to bed and got some plumbers putty the next day. I was able to attach the drain to the sink, faucet to the sink and put the sink in place! WOOHOO....

BUT!!!!

The drain was now to close to the wall pipe and it didn't fit....I closed the door again....

The next day I went to Lowes again...trip number 4....and got a new trap, some advice, and a little hacksaw thing to cut PVC pipe. When I got home I decided I was going to attach the drain...and I DID IT!!!! I attached the cold water to the faucet, and was trying my best to attach the hot water...but it wouldn't seal....so I closed the door again.

The next day I went to the hardware store and got the right washers...and tried attaching them, and BROKE the tube from the shut off valve to the faucet...I closed the door

Totally defeated I called Nathania and asked if she knew a good plumber...I was giving up, throwing in the towel and was so bummed! Nathania asked her husband Storman if he knew how to fix it...and he did! He said if I got the right pieces he would replace it for me...so off to Lowes I went!  He was able to replaces the pieces...I fed him his favorite dinner....and now I know how to do it:)

Here's the finished product:

I think it looks 849,903,004 better than the old one! Yay! What do you think? It only took 6 trips to the store, hours of aggravation, a knowledgeable brother in law....but it's super satisfying that I was able to accomplish as much as I did!

Moral of the story: 

1. Get EVERYTHING you could possibly need the first trip to the store...keep the receipt and return what you don't need (Moms give such good advice...)

2. Don't get defeated if it doesn't work the first time.

3. Call your friends...they may know how, or know someone who does

4. The people at Lowes will become your friends if you don't follow #1

Now, before I get in trouble about not following my rules( I know...6 trips is RIDICULOUS)...I'm including this story based on the fact that I was really trying to "make do" and fulfill a project I wanted done, with my own hands...and not call a plumber....

So...super long winded post...sorry....hope you found it humorous:)

So what are you MAKE DOING?

Sarah

check one off the list

YAY! I finished! I finally finished re-doing...well actually just re-painting one of our bathrooms...we have 3 full baths, which is slightly overkill in my opinion...but such is life. Our bathroom in the basement was this loverly brown when we moved in...and in my humble opinion it looked like poop, especially with the tile that is EVERYwhere. So I needed a change.

Halfway through last summer I got really crazy and tried painting one wall this really pale green...well it was too minty and I didn't tape/prepare/do a good job. This project was abandoned until about proximately 4ish weeks ago (I'm really good at starting things...but not a good finisher...ask my mom:p). I found some mistinted paint at Lowes that I thought would go with the tile...so I rallied the troops, aka Andy, and we taped and painted three walls.

Lovely before pictures....

The white is actually green....but not the right green...anyhoo we painted the 3 walls that are still brown in the before pictures with the champange-like color that I found at Lowes and really liked it, but we thought it really need some more color.

My friend Krista had painted her kitchen a color that I loved and I thought would go with the tile...and she had a whole bunch of samples, which she let me use! I found the right shade, called Window Shopping (Valspar). I had tried all the samples she gave me...and the one I thought looked awful, just so happened to be the one she used, and well vice versa she thought the Window Shopping looked like dog vomit...just goes to show you that paint looks so much different with different lighting! We both like what each of us used:) We painted the wall that I had attacked earlier in the summer that color. We think it gave the room just the bit of oomph it needed.

Can you see the difference in the wall color?

 

 We also had to remove all the caulking around the tile...it was old, painted over and done really badly. I got it all off and Andy re-caulked it. I wanted clear, but he accidentily used white...it looks fine, so I don't really care:)

I ended up using a brown shower curtain that I already had and we hung up a picture that we had sitting around for ages up to add some color.  I also used the same fixtures that were there...they all matched and were in good condition. Although gold is not my favorite, I'm too cheap to go out and get new stuff! I actually think it goes well with the tile.

Overall I'm super happy with the way it turned out. The only other change I may make is to get a wooden toilet seat cover. I think it would go better overall, but we weren't thinking about that when we replaced it...we just wanted the foamy cracked, nasty seat that was there gone!

This is some awsome wallpaper we found under the shower curtain attachment...I thought it was just under that part...but found out later that they never took the wall paper down, they just painted over it. Fantastic right?....NOT! But I just painted over it too. Oh well.

What do you think?

Happy Painting!

Sarah

misscellaneous

Its been a crazy couple of weeks here...and not a lot of big projects done, but some small happenings...

I scored on some new sweaters for our stash...gotta love the 50% off days at Value Village:) Lots of blues and stripes, yay!

I finished a small project for Aria's room...I've been seeing a a lot of these hoops at VV and thought would be a cute collage in her room...if you want pictures from when they are put up...harass Nathania:)  I made her initial out of white buttons and put her b-day underneath with embroidery floss.

I've also been working on painting this UGLY bathroom...it's almost done being painted...one more coat of an accent wall to paint, and the poop brown is gone. WooHoo! I will be posting more pictures of the before and after soon...so stay tuned:)

So hows that for a random post? What have you been working on?

Happy Day!

Sarah