Tag Archives: home improvement

Quick Project

Today our church hosted a community garage sale. We all went out this morning to hit it first thing. We spent less than $20 and came home with some comic books, kids books, a movie, cute tins, and these awesome wooden boxes.

I originally wanted to use the boxes for storing a few small toys and books in the boys’ room, but the wood was too rough. In fact, I got a sliver while I was working with them! My second idea was to use one to store my magazines, then figured I could put the second one in the same spot to hold other stuff!

This is the place I am talking about:

And here it is, after prying the ends of the boxes:

All sides of the boxes were closed, and I kept the end pieces, just in case I change their use and want to open the top or side.

While I was prying the pieces off, Calvin got jealous of my tools, so I pulled out his wooden hammer. It isn’t an any time toy. He doesn’t quite understand what can and cannot be hammered.

And as for the other purchases, some became drums!

The Boys’ Room

I finally painted a second room in our yellow house! The first was the bathroom. And now I am done the boys’ room! I found a can of grey-blue on Kijiji for $20 (seriously, if you aren’t picky about the specific colour, this is a super great way to go; or also the ReStore), and I love the colour a lot!

The room itself used to be the guest room. It is the larger of the two bedrooms (other than the master), so when it came time for the boys to share, it made sense that they would get the larger room and the smaller room that Calvin used to occupy would be the new guest room.

Here is what it used to look like:

Blah.

And here it is now:

That’s better!

I still have to finish painting the trim. It would have been done, except the white paint that was left behind by the previous owner had gone bad since I painted the bathroom. Maybe I didn’t close it properly. Oh well.

I realize it may look a little girly with all the white furniture, but I’m sure they don’t mind. And look…a dinosaur on the wall!

I love the room, and it has worked out well so far. You can read about how the adjustment has gone for the boys so far here, if you are interested.

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Desk Nook Plans

Our kitchen has a little nook in it that is a perfect desk area. In fact, the previous owner left behind a desk that fits in it. But I don’t like it all that much, so I have come up with big plans for the space!

It’s become a catch all area for junk to pile up, and it just doesn’t use the space efficiently. Also, the left side of it blocks the electrical outlet so it has to be pulled out a handful of inches to make it usable.

Here are my plans:

It’s nice and simple with ample storage. I want to stain the desk part then paint the shelves white. There is a half depth shelf above the desk to hold pens and pencils and stuff, with cork board on the wall behind it. I can use the top shelves to store my pretty dishes. The wall colour won’t be what you see. That’s just the best colour I found in my Crayloas.

I have no clue when I will be able to do it, but for now it makes me happy thinking about it. I am very excited!

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The Finished Bathroom

5 days later and the bathroom is done!

The priming and painting were spread over three days during naptime. The walls all got painted the green colour and the mouldings were painted white. Hooray! Here is the view of the other direction.

A couple other changes include:
– a new double towel bar (the existing one was far too small to be used by both us and guests which we have fairly often)
– a new shower bar (this wasn’t planned, and it was also a downgrade. The existing one, which was one of those nice curved ones, fell down in the middle of the night a few nights ago. It was stuck up with thick double sided tape so we got more of that and tried again. It didn’t last two showers. We then decided it needed to be screwed in, and drilling into tile wasn’t something we wanted to attempt quite yet, so we replaced it with a simple straight pressure mount one)
– a diaper sprayer (Calvin’s messes normally just fall right out of his diapers, but once in a while they require a little help, so I purchased this used diaper sprayer. No more bathroom spatula! Can I also say I am excited to have it for use post delivery?)

Here is a little before and after so you can see the difference. You may notice we also changed out the lightbulbs. Not only to be more energy efficient, but also so I wouldn’t sweat while I brushed my teeth. Seriously.

I am so glad it is done, and it makes me excited to change the rest of the colours in this house! Not sure when it will happen, though, since I am a month away from being a mom of two and probably the same distance away from winter. But if you want to come visit and help me knock out a room or two in a weekend, I pay in meals and Calvin snuggles!

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The Bathroom

This is our bathroom:It’s pretty nice, with nice new tile in the bath, and fresh paint on the walls, a nice vanity and new fixtures. However, it is not to my taste. The colour on the walls is the same colour that is on every single wall in this house. And it is the same as the tile, so it’s all just kind of bland. This week’s project is to get it painted!

When it comes to colour, I am a little limited by the accent tile. Here’s a close up:

Fairly neutral colours, but there aren’t too many colours I would want my bathroom to be that would match that green glass. Good thing this isn’t our forever home, right?

As luck would have it, the previous owner had left behind a can of paint that matches really well!

And it just happens to be for kitchens and baths. The place it is used currently is the back entrance, and it’s a nice colour. Again, not my ideal choice, but it matches, and it is better colour than the yellow!

And for some reason this guy decided to get fancy and paint one of the walls the same dark, flat brown that is on the majority of the trim in the house. You may notice there is also no hand towel rack on the wall. Who doesn’t put in a hand towel rack? Don’t worry, we’re on it.

Blah.

So it’s a good thing he also left behind a big can of primer!

I’m excited to get a different colour into this house of ours! And I’m extra excited that I didn’t have to pay for this one! One day soon maybe I will make a trip to pick up some paint chips for the rest of the house.

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Laundry Room Fix

One of my pet peeves is doors that open the wrong direction. I’ve found that this is a very common occurrence in laundry rooms, on the dryer.

This is our laundry room:

The dryer actually used to be in the space behind the wall to the left of were it is now, so it was sitting perpendicular to the washer , with a space in between. While it was like that, the door opening to the right made complete sense. But I preferred to have the dryer right next to the washer because they are buddies, and I think it looks better that way, so last weekend we moved it. So then of course, having the door open to the right didn’t make too much sense. It would have been worse if the washer was front loading, but thankfully it’s not.

I was just going to deal with it, when I had the thought that the door must be reversible! And sure enough, I saw these guys on the opposite side of the opening of where the hinges were.

So I got out the drill and went to work. And now it looks like this!

Except what you can’t see is that the door actually doesn’t close. I think the drill was too wide so the screws went in crooked and couldn’t go in all the way. So I am going to wait for Tim to come home and give me a hand because it was hard to hold the door in place and drill at the same time. With an extra pair of hands I’m sure the screws will go in as they should.

But I am glad I no longer have the dryer door in the way while I am transferring the clean things. Next up is the fridge door.

You can see it opens away from the kitchen area, with a peninsula in the way. Having to step outside of the kitchen to get something out of the fridge is not ideal.

What kind of pet peeves around the home do you have?

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New Light Fixture

There are many things about this house that I want to change, aesthetically, over time. Everything is freshly painted, but the colours they chose make the house feel dingy. Yellow brown walls with flat brown trim? No thanks!

The first thing to go was the light fixture above the kitchen table. It was not helping the house feel bright and fresh at all.

Out with the “that is so not my style”…

In with the “ah, that’s more like it!”

I won’t mention how long it took us to get it hooked up. We are rookie home owners, people!

And hopefully I can make some money by selling the old one for more than what I bought the new one for on Kijiji!

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