Mar15
Today I wanted to show you how I turned the new chalkboard wall in the kitchen into a gallery wall to hold the Bub's artwork.
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Feb15
After all the excitement of the holidays are over the DIY
season hits in my house! We live in a
snow state so winter is a great time to tackle indoor projects. This year, with a new house, we have a LOT to
do. But one of the simplest projects
that can make a HUGE impact is cabinet hardware!!!! I'm so excited to show you the new hardware I
picked up at True Value Hardware. I've
been drooling over it for years and this new kitchen was perfect for it.
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Jan15
Remember when we painted our sunroom, Cloud Nine? Well, as of today, the room is coated in Gray Lake.
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Dec13
How I refinished the apartment hardwood floors... When we started the apartment renovation, I knew the hardwood floors would need to be refinished. Previous tenants had some sort of mishap and the finish was ruined...
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Nov12
You thought I was being funny when I mentioned I'd always dreamed of having a picnic table. But it's true. I grew up eating on picnic tables in my grandparent's back yard and just like having a tire swing, it's a shining beacon of home.
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Nov12
As part of our membership in this year's True Value Blog squad, I was asked to try out the Master Mechanic Swift Driver, a dual drive ratcheting screw driver. Now, I've had my share of gadgety, gimmicky screwdrivers, and ratcheting ones almost always fall into the category of 'chintzy'. Usually they're shoddy and not fit for a real toolbox. WAIT! Before I keep talking, did you know we're running a $100 True Value gift card giveaway right-ahora-now!? Truth! Go enter to win, please!?
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Oct11
I absolutely love
fall. I am so excited that the cool
weather is hitting. But what I don't
love is winter. Not only are Wisconsin
winters hard on me, but they are hard on my driveway! We recently purchased a home with a driveway
that really needed some attention.?
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Oct11
We are currently part of the True Value Blog Squad and
wanted to show you our first project that we decided to take on in our new
home? A new bathroom faucet! YAY! Changing out the faucet in a bathroom is a great
way to update the look and function of your bathroom without a lot of work.?
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Sept13
Well it's been the weirdest summer,
weather-wise, that I can remember in a long time. It started out absolutely
GORGEOUS, with lower temps and humidity - it was fantastic. And then Mother
Nature went into fits and mid-summer was full of intense drought and wicked hot
temps.
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Sept13
It's the hottest month of the year and my lawn is brown and yucky! Or at least it was until I decided to do something about it.
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Aug30
Remember those window treatments I blogged about the other day?
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Aug30
With all the commotion this move has made in my life... I haven't told you some exciting news. I am on the True Value Blog Squad this year! YAY!
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Aug30
This weekend, I decided to tackle one of the 2012 Home Goals I set a few months ago, one of which is to pull together a conversation area on our balcony that overlooks the yard. Sadly, it's sat there empty and neglected for too many years and I'm finally in the process of creating a conversation zone up there. Instead of a new purchase, I decided to be cheap and spruce up a set of old furniture that I already have to work with what I got!
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Aug30
At last at last at last, I finally have a potting bench to call my own! Last weekend, my mister agreed to spend a day building this for the corner of our yard since I've been nudging him for a few years now. On Saturday, we built ourselves a 6 foot long potting bench that now sits in a shady spot in our side yard. Finally, a place for me to do all my gardening ? I'm so crazy excited about this new handmade bench!
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Aug30
Last month I wrote a post about our complete lack of A/C Unit maintenance knowledge. Hopefully our stupidity will be your gain.
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Aug30
Well hello! I'm so excited to share this little DIY project with you all (y'all? Can I be southern for a moment?) Because it turned out JUST how I envisioned.
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Aug30
I recently came across Christina's chalkboard paint post from Designing by Numbers in the DIY Project Parade (thanks for the inspiration, Christina) and remembered that I had bookmarked Martha Stewart's chalkboard recipe with grand plans that kept getting pushed back. So, the next day I headed to True Value for supplies. (The True Value in Sarver, PA has a 'mascot'...the sweetest dog who greets customers at the door, with a roll of duct tape in his mouth. Adorable.)
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Aug30
This past week (actually past couple of weeks), I've been working on transforming bi-fold closet doors.
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Aug30
We went with a color called November Rain on the walls in the dining room. We used it in one of our previous homes, and thought it would be a nice, fresh choice for the dining room here at TLC, too. It's a pale green/gray, and it's really neat because depending upon what time of day it is, and what the sun is doing, sometimes it looks more green...
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Aug30
The bottom half of the dining room currently looks like a bomb went off in it because of what's going on in the kitchen, but we finally finished working on the top half of the room last week- so I thought I'd document that big ol' project, start to finish-style, here on our blog today. It's been a bit of a work in progress over the past four years, so we're excited to finally be able to check that sucker off our list, once and for all!
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Aug30
After much patching, one coat of Satin True Value Easy Care in Owl Gray mixed at half strength on the walls and one coat of water borne semi-gloss Impervo paint in bright white on the trim, here is what it looks like...
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Aug30
?My little sis pesters me about furniture because she's always looking for great finds and she knows if she gets me talking about old furniture I'll ramble on for days. Sis has been looking for a small sideboard or buffet, so when I stumbled upon this antique at a thrift store last week for $75, I quickly snatched it up for her. I liked the size and solid structure with its dovetail joints, plus it had no major damage. But it was a little sad looking and definitely in need of new stain, or perhaps even paint. I was on the fence about whether to paint it, but thought I'd try to restore the wood first. I had heard about a product from several antique dealers that breathes new life into tired old antiques and doesn't require the typical strip/stain/poly steps that are required to fully refurbish wood furniture. The product is Howard's Restor-A-Finish and I thought this latest vintage piece was the perfect candidate to give it a try.??
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Aug30
I'm so excited to finally review the results of my deck re-do with True Value Hardware! We started out with a plan, picked out paint- then painted, we fixed the screen door, made a light fixture, encountered a swarm of bees (YUCK!) and now we are finally finished!?
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Aug30
Before I get into my counters, I must share that progress was finally made in my half bathroom. Remember? The one that was a disaster and True Value came to the rescue? They've done their part, but it seems like life and my work keep stalling things on our end. It seems like there are always more pressing things to work on than a half bath in a house with two other toilets. Last night, those two functioning toilets fell to just one. The pipe that drains all of the plumbing from the upstairs was clogged and it was beyond our ability to repair, so we needed to bring out a plumber. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to get something done and suggested we have him install our toilet in the half bath while he was there. (It was complicated because of the new height added by the tile.) Surprisingly, my husband agreed and now we are back to three working toilets.
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Aug30
So I talked about choosing paint colors for the deck...then preparing the space or paint...and now it's time to actually share the finished paint job! Our deck is half wood and half concrete. It's important that you choose the appropriate paint for the surface your painting. Don't forget about choosing exterior paint when painting things that are outdoors.
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Aug30
Hello there! How was your weekend? We had a great one - guess WHAT? Stink Eye Sis got engaged!! :) So excited! So now we have a wedding to plan - how fun is that? We also continued to get some stuff done outside. Make that ME - hubby was out of town and I sweated out a third of my body weight (I WISH) and worked on some outdoor projects. Funny that the temps have "dropped" into the 80's and are a bit more bearable, but that coincided with humidity out the wazoo.
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Aug30
My friends, I've been keeping a secret from you. It took me over five years to finish my dining room, and when I say 'finish' I mean install a much needed countertop, a backsplash, and some hardware on the built in cabinets. Truth be told, there was just a piece of plywood as a countertop sitting in this little nook for many years that I would cover up when company came. Seasons passed, I procrastinated and procrastinated until just a few weeks ago. The time had finally come to finish the job.
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Aug30
Well, it's the end of July and I've just finished up my summer vignette in the foyer - welcome to my world. ;)I've had most of it done for umm...weeks. Since May? There was one small detail I've been putting off all that time that I FINALLY just finished up. More on that in a smidge. I don't think I've ever really decorated with anything beach-inspired in our house...like, ever. Until now! It must have been the summer Pottery Barn catalog this year, because all of the sudden I thought that look was just lovely.
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Aug30
Since the Square Foot Gardening approach was such a great fit for organizing my space, I decided to rely on another trick from that method, the conduit trellis. First, I love that it's a long-term structure that beats the pants off bendy, rusty tomato cages. Secondly, I was able to pick up at my local hardware store, and, let's be honest, going to the hardware store never gets old, and it's way more fun to make stuff.
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Aug30
I think even the most blackest of thumbs can recognize that nothing's gonna grow in that soil. But, that's not okay with me. I want a garden. I want to be able to just walk out of my door, and grab fresh herbs, greens, and produce when I'm preparing meals. I want to participate in my food. I wanna weed, water, and scare away all those dang chipmunks that nibble at my plants.
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July17
Hello there! How was your weekend? We had a great one - guess WHAT? Stink Eye Sis got engaged!! :) So excited! So now we have a wedding to plan - how fun is that?
We also continued to get some stuff done outside. Make that ME - hubby was out of town and I sweated out a third of my body weight (I WISH) and worked on some outdoor projects. Funny that the temps have "dropped" into the 80's and are a bit more bearable, but that coincided with humidity out the wazoo.
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