A Couple of Tiny Projects

My parents came up this weekend which meant it was project time.  My dad and husband replaced the back door to our garage.  It's so nice to have a door that's solid and not completely scary looking on the inside.

And they did a couple of other little inside projects.  Remember when we installed our new bathroom sink and we found an outlet behind the mirror.  That beautiful little outlet has been sitting naked for over a year because the outlet was recessed too far into the wall.  I bought an outlet cover and it's just been hanging out on a shelf.  So, my dad did a little tweaking and now....

    

So I need to touch up the paint from where I sanded the wall down.  But, so much better.  It had been driving my mom crazy ever since I got the wall painted.  So, now it's fixed.

Then there was another bathroom project.  When we first moved in, I installed a towel bar above the toilet.  It looked like this.

 

Cute, right?  Well, we never used the towels.  Like ever.  And they were always dusty.  We hang the towels we actually use on hooks in our master bathroom.  So I had a plan cooking in my head...  My dad was done with everything else I had on my list, I mentioned my idea to my mom and she went out and told my dad what I wanted done....

 

Notice something missing?  The towel bar is gone!  Now I'm left with a big empty space.  Oh, and that clock is gone.  It hadn't worked right for.... um, months.  The time on it was never right so it's gone too.  You can't see it, but there are 12 holes drilled with hollow wall anchors in them, just waiting....

 

For these bad boys to be finished.  I'm going to install three shelves up the wall with L brackets.  They just need to get painted.  You may be thinking, L brackets?  If you've ever priced the fancy decorative shelf brackets, they're crazy expensive.  Or I think they are, especially for what they are.  So, I used some small L brackets on our laundry room shelves and it has worked great so we went the same route.  I didn't make the hardware store trip, but I saw the amount online when I checked my bank account, around $15 for six brackets and a 6 foot long 1x8 board.  Not too shabby!  And I already have paint on hand.

So, these are getting painted this week and will go up by next weekend hopefully.  I can't wait!  And if I can find something reasonably priced, I'm going to put three towel hooks on the back of the bathroom door so we can quit carrying our towels around.

What were you guys up to over the weekend?  Anybody else tackling those tiny things on their to do list that have been lingering?

DIY Mirror Frame

It's been a crazy week.  I've been coordinating tests at work this week which is always tons of work.  That means not much energy for projects when I get home.  But, today we got a snow day.  Right now I'm looking at out at about eight inches of snow.  Have I mentioned I hate snow?  I do.  It's okay today because both my husband and I got to stay home from work.  If I have to be out in it, I could totally do without it.

Anyway.  So, with a snow day, I've finally gotten a two month long project done.  Hot dog!  Yup, it's been two months in the making.  The hall bathroom is finally basically done.  I mean I guess technically we started it when we moved in, but that was just a coat of paint.  

In case you forgot, this is what we started out with.  Pretty gross, right.

In December my Dad came and helped us install a new sink.  And we got rid of the crazy extra mirrors.

We got the walls painted.  And then it was just at a stalemate.   I tried to frame the mirror and it was a colossal failure.  I left the pieces of trim we'd cut in the hallway and just hoped it would work out eventually.  Well, today was the day.

A while back I got some balsa wood at JoAnn's and painted it to match the trim.  Today I finally cut it down to size and used my staple gun to attach it to the back of the trim.  That allowed the trim to stand out a little more and have a better surface to stick to the mirror.  I'd tried to use some construction adhesive to put the trim up before.  I am a huge failure with a caulking gun so this time I went a different route.  3M strips and hot glue.  Yup, that's what the best home improvements are made of.  Craft supplies.

Well, guess what?!  It actually worked.  The mirror has trim.  The bathroom is put back together.  And I love it.  Maybe not in the most traditional way, but it's done.  

So, what have you guys been up to?  Anybody else finish a project they've been working on for months?  Or have a love/hate relationship with a caulking gun?  No?  Just me?  Okay.  If it's snowy at your house, I hope you're keeping safe and warm.

A Bathroom Update

Don't you love it when you imagine a project going super smoothly and then you hit a ridiculous snag.  So, we've been working on the bathroom.  Back in December we installed a new sink and got rid of those ridiculous extra mirrors.  It was magical.  I was in love.  Even without paint, it was a thousand times better.

So I had plans of framing the remaining mirror.  We measured twice, cut once.  We grabbed some trim at Sutherlands and painted in a pretty silver.  Headed to the bathroom, all ready to install the trim.  And it didn't fit.  We of course realized this after we'd already glued up two pieces.  The two pieces that didn't match up.  Ug.  Massive fail.  And then I cracked the mirror.  Even bigger fail.  But the walls are painted.  So I'll still call it progress.

That picture is terrible.  I don't know why.  The green tape is around the outlet to mark off where the cover goes, I need to sand the wall a bit.

Where are we now?  Um, the trim is leaning against the wall and I'm pouting.  I need to trim the offending piece and then the trim is going up.  And I'm going to pretend the mirror isn't cracked.  It'll be fine, right?  I think I can make this work.  I'm going to figure out a way to make it work.  And you'll never see the crack behind the trim.

There is a success story though.  Remember back in November when I organized under the vanity?  Well, it's better now.  Even better than before.  In November it looked like this:

What you may not know though, is that I painted the inside of the cabinet before the big sink install.  Come to find out, the under sink was even grosser than I originally thought it was.  I ended up having to get my little broom and dust pan and sweep it out.  There was that much grossness hanging out under there.  Gravel.  Seriously.  Gravel.  So, after sweeping, it got two coats of white paint.  Amazing.

So at least my organization has stayed in tact.  And most of our projects have gone as planned.  So I guess it's not the worst that the trim didn't turn out perfectly.  We'll get it straightened out eventually and it'll be great.

Non-related.  Since I've quit taking birth control, my face is a disaster.  An absolute disaster.  I have had, at all times, at least four zits on my chin.  It's like I've gone back to my adolescence.  Ug.  I shouldn't complain, I've always been lucky to have very clear skin.  But now the zits are on full blast.  Not cool face, not cool.

Anyway.  Any great projects over the weekend?  Anybody else have a massive failure with trim?

And We're Sunk

This is the story of a sink.  A very ugly sink.

Okay, when we bought our house, I loved our bathroom with the green bath tub.  I still do.  It's quirky.  I've just embraced the green and we have what I think is a very cute green and grey bathroom.  However, there were a few things I didn't like.  We had this crazy three way mirror thing going on.  It was ridiculous.  My sister and I tried to take the mirrors down when we were painting.  It didn't work.  So I just pretended I was okay with them.

 We tried prying it off with a table knife, it didn't work.  We gave up.

The other problem was the worn out sink and tarnished faucet.  Apparently my dad had been worrying about the sink.  The finish in the bottom was in pretty bad shape.  You're probably thinking it couldn't be that bad, right?

Okay, maybe it doesn't look super bad from a distance.  But it was.  And if you're paying attention, my flat iron cord is running up to an outlet in the light fixture.  A light fixture I had specially installed for that purpose, there was no outlet in the bathroom.

The sink up close.  Ug.  That is so horrible looking.  And I had just cleaned it.  So, basically it never looked clean.

And that faucet.  Let's be honest, do you really want any part of that?

So, we've established that the sink area was in bad shape.  Holy Moses.  Now, my dad to the rescue.  He loves Craigslist.  And he found us a brand new white counter top/sink for like $50.  Deal!  I measured our old sink and it was the right size so he bought it.  This was probably in October.  I've anxiously been awaiting the phone call telling me they wanted to come and install it.  Well, Merry Christmas to me, they came today and I have a brand new sink.  Woo hoo!

I have no tutorial.  I don't know any of the details.  My mom and I went on a pizza run, stopped at Lowe's for a last minute supply, and watched a Lifetime movie while my dad and husband did all the heavy lifting.  At one point I walked in to check on their progress.  Mary, we broke one of your side mirrors, we're going to have to take it down.  Thank goodness!  So, that meant they took the other mirror down too.  So, now we just have one bathroom mirror like normal people.  

I was happy enough that the mirrors were down.  That was plenty to make me happy.  My dad sent us to buy joint compound so he could texturize the walls where the mirrors had been.  He and my husband neither one realized what they had uncovered behind the mirror on the other side.  An outlet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A working outlet!!!!!  Who in the world puts up a mirror over an outlet?  I don't know but now I'm absolutely thrilled to have a working wall outlet in my bathroom.  So, now as soon as the texturzing stuff dries, I can paint the walls and put up an outlet cover.  It's so amazing, I can't believe it.  I just keep walking into the bathroom to check out my new counter top and walls.  I may be a little in love with the bathroom.

 Hello pretty new sink.  We're going to be friends, I just know it.

Walls, drying, waiting for grey paint.  

Hello outlet, I'm so glad you were hiding back there

All in all, a great weekend.  I can't wait to get those walls painted.  And I love that new faucet.  So pretty and shiny.  Like some sink jewelry.  

What projects did you tackle this weekend?  Anybody else discover a missing outlet?  No, just me?

No-Clutter-November: Bathroom, Part 1

Okay, today is the first official day of No-Clutter-November.  I'm so excited!  I was off work a little early today so that meant extra time for a trip to Walmart and Sutherlands to pick up some de-clutterizing supplies.  I decided my first project to tackle was the hall bathroom because it was honestly the easiest and I knew it wouldn't take long.  So, let's get to the before picture.  Oh yes, I am being totally honest and showing you my horrifying bathroom cabinet.

Okay, let's talk about this bad boy.  There are shelves built in that are not super useful.  I tried to rip them out, but I'm going to need a bigger hammer I think.  So, for now they stayed.  On the shelves on the right, a set of shampoo and conditioner, Windex, a make-up bag, and a trimmer.  On the shelves on the left, Nair, another make up bag, hair color developer, and sunscreen.  On the bottom we have a bottle of homemade shower cleaner, a big bin full of tampons and the like, another set of shampoo and conditioner, my big travel bathroom bag, some empty shopping bags for trashcan liners, blow dryer, and Cottonelle wipes.  Talk about a disorganized mess!  Every time I had to get anything out, I had to dig through a bunch of stuff to find what I needed/wanted.  That big blue bin ended up being a catchall.  If I didn't know what to do with something, it got chucked in there.  Ug.  

So, I pulled everything out.  I couldn't really take a picture of everything pulled out because our bathroom is tiny and I was sitting in my massive pile of junk.  But, everything came out so I could start with a nice empty cabinet.

I know, this looks really gross.  I need to get the shop vac after it.  And have my husband get rid of the (empty) mouse trap.  And then I need to paint it.  But, today was not the day for painting.  This was just a basic get organized day.  Maybe I'll get it painted when we replace the sink.  It would definitely be easier to paint the inside without the sink, the light would be much better.  Okay, even though it's ugly we have a clean slate.  Yippee!

I worked with what I had and I bought a couple of things.  Like I said, I left the existing shelves because I couldn't really figure out how to rip them out.  I have dreams of them being gone though.  Anyway.  I reused a white plastic drawer I already had.  I bought a plastic coated metal shelf, a plastic basket for toilet paper, and a metal basket to hang on one of the cabinet drawers to put my blow dryer and flat iron in.

Oh, it's so much better.  I may have to just go hang out and stare.  So, let's see what we have now.  On the left shelf we have all of the bottles together: shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, hair color developer, body wash, and Cottonelle wipes.  On the right shelf we have cleaning supplies:  homemade shower cleaner, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, and Windex.  Tampons and all that sort of thing go in the plastic drawer with the trimmer and a Ped Egg stacked on top.  A bin of toilet paper goes under the white shelf.  And on top, my travel bathroom bag and flat iron case.  All the little make up bags are stored inside the bigger bag.

And here's a view of the whole thing.  The metal bin holds my flat iron and blow dryer perfectly.  I may need to add something for the bottom so the cords don't fall through.  And my hand mirror (gotta check the back of the hair to make sure it's not crazy looking) hangs on the back of the other door.

Oh boy!  I am seriously so excited about this cabinet being organized.   I have been fighting bathroom cabinets since my first apartment.  The storage is never quite right.  In our house, we also have the battle of no drawers.  Not one of our three bathrooms has a drawer.  It's so frustrating.  We end up with lots of stuff on the counter.  

Someday I'll be back with an update once I've painted the inside.  What color do you think?  My upper cabinet is grey inside to match the walls.  I'm thinking white since it's so dark down there.  Anything's got to be better than the nasty wood.

Turn It On

Our bathroom sink sucks.  I mean it's super bad.  When we first looked at our house, I thought I loved the sink.  It matched our tub.  Our tube is green and the sink is cream with the same green marbled through it.  But the finish in the bottom of the sink is absolutely destroyed.  It looks terrible.  And the faucet is gold and white and is super tarnished.  So basically, this sink is super ugly. 

The other day my dad calls me and says "I found you guys a new sink."  What?  Okay, my dad looooves Craigslist.  He buys and sells stuff on there all the time.  A while back I picked up a post hole digger for the tractor that he found on Craigslist.  Random.  Anyway, he found us a brand new white marble sink.  And now it's sitting in my parents garage, waiting to come to our house and replace the old ugly sink.

So now I'm faucet shopping.  My dad implied that I ought to buy a new faucet before he comes with the new sink.  So I'm trying to find one that I like.  It's hard to pick them out online.  I got a new shower head a while back that's brushed nickel so I'm trying to find one that goes with it.  I'm thinking about one of these.....

I really like the second one and the last one.  No decisions yet. 

Old dogs, new tricks

Well, the dog isn't really that old.  He's.... oh, about 7 months old now.  And living up to the name of Rowdy.  Anyway, Rowdy has been slowly destroying our basement.  Specifically our couch.  So we decided it was time for Rowdy to get a new bed that he might hopefully want to lay on.  He has a really cheap bed that stays in his kennel.  He doesn't sleep on it.  Ever.  All I can really tell that he does with the old bed is hump it.

To prevent humping and to save our couch in the basement I sewed him a new bed.  My first On My Own Sewing Project.  I had great ideas of how this dog bed would work.  We had an old egg shell mattress on one of our spare beds.  I decided it could be turned into a dog bed.  It was off a full size bed so I cut it in quarters.  I put two of the quarters together bumpy side together.  When I had two stacks of foam I put two cheapo pillows between the two layers.  So that was the fluffy part of the bed.  Then I sewed an envelope pillow case out of a plastic table cloth to cover the fluff with to make it waterproof-ish.  Once the bed had the plastic cover I started on the actually cloth cover.  I used two of those $6 fleece blankets from Walmart. (the fall print blankets were kind of ugly).  I made a second envelope pillow case out of the fleece.  It turned out reasonably well.  It's not super attractive because a) the fabric was not very cute and b) it's hard to sew furry fabric.  It got the job done though.

Rowdy still isn't too sure about the bed.  Hopefully he figures out its his place so I didn't waste all my time making that crazy dog bed.

In other news, I really need to get my bathrooms more organized.  I have no drawers and no good space to store all of my stuff.  I accidentally (maybe when I was sort of looking up bullying stuff on pinterest) came across this amazing hair tool holder.  And now I want one.  Remember that post this morning about being obsessed with cool things I find....  Now I desperately want one of these caddies for my hair dryer and flat iron.

pb teen

I think if I asked my dad he could build me one.  I think I'm going to ask for one for Christmas.  And then I wouldn't have to rummage around under my bathroom sink every time I wanted my hair dryer or flat iron.  

And it's possible this is the second thing from Pottery Barn Teen that I'm in love with.  I may have problems. Sheesh.  They just have such cute stuff.