The ongoing remodel Part III - The floors!

We have floors!!!!

I've been happy dancing for the last two weeks.

There are still mornings I wake up and walk out into the living room and can't believe I'm not stepping on bare concrete anymore. I still want to grab my flip flops when I leave the bedroom to protect my feet. I still dread the soles of my feet getting covered in a fine white powder every time I sneak out.

Basically, I'm still getting used to my gorgeous new floors!

So, to be honest, this was my first laminate floor install. I was a little nervous, but mostly excited. And I also had NO idea what to expect. Again, my dad had done the whole laminate install thing more times than he could count, so he readily volunteered to come over and help/teach us what to do. (whew!)

Mostly, he and my husband did the actual installing. Which consisted of snapping the boards together, measuring how short to cut the one on the end, cutting it and then going back to the snapping part.

My job was to lay down the black sheeting/barrier stuff (basically big black trash bags with a line of sticky glue to hold them together) and make sure the boxes of flooring were easy to get to (moving them from the back room into the actual living room as needed).

I didn't take detailed pics of the process because it is pretty self explanatory.

This was the only "in progress" photo I took. I snapped it while the boys were outside cutting a board and I was supposed to be laying out the next row of plastic barrier.

And here is the final product. I'm absolutely in love with the way the dark wood, the bookshelf and the grey walls come together. It is everything I hoped it would be!

Even though we're not done with the room, we decided to go ahead and move in our furniture. We still have to add the trim and crown molding (I plan to post updates as we do the installs) but overall the room is much more done. Really, it feels like a room now instead of a blast zone in the heart of my home.

Home.

That is definitely how it is starting to feel. :)

Look for updates as we move forward with the room. 

Things left to do:

Buy, paint and install trim

Buy, paint and install crown molding

Paint interior doors white/buy new white doors (Mike swears they are super cheap...we'll see)

Paint door frames white

Build inset shelf (this will be a cool project when we finally get around to it!)

Paint exterior door to sunroom white

Replace ceiling fan with one that has a light

Buy/Build entertainment center

Finally put up all of my art/decor pieces I've been collecting!

Finish installing the surround sound (we inherited it when we bought the house. The little packets hanging down over the couch are the wires that are still bundled up from when the drywall guy came).

I'm pretty sure that is an incomplete list.....and it's only the list for one room! I'm starting to realize why a homeowner's work is never finished.

The ongoing remodel Part Two - the book shelf

So, if you've been following along with The ongoing remodel part one - the fireplace, then you know this is now an outdated photo of my living room from before the walls, floor, and fireplace were removed!

I chose to add this original photo because it is the only one I have that shows the bookshelf before we started working on it. As you can see, this is also a reminder of what the living room looked like before we started the remodel.

Once the walls were painted grey, the brown wood bookshelf looked heinous (and the wood paneling that had originally graced the room was used as the backing for the built in.

I was determined to make it match the room.

In my dreams it was a beautiful white that popped against what my dad (not-so-lovingly) calls our battleship grey living room.

I figured easy peasy. I'll just sand it and paint it. Welllllll, let me tell you what a pain this turned out to be.

I borrowed and electric hand sander, which was a life saver, and got to work. In an afternoon I finished the right side of the bookcase and was feeling good...

...until the next day when I took a look at it. My house was now covered in dust (and let me tell you, you don't know dust until you demo a fireplace and chimney in the middle of your house) from the sanding. It was yellow and stuck to everything, but I looked at it with pride as a sign of all my hard work. That is until I looked closely at the shelves. The wood had an uneven look, and I was worried that I had sanded too deeply in some places.

Nope! In spite of the fact that it took me an entire afternoon balancing on a ladder, I had barely made it through that varnish! So, I picked up the sander and got back to work. This time, I spend a TON of time on each shelf, pressing firmly on the sander.

And at the end of the day, I had only finished two shelves. Exhausted, I tucked in for the night. I wasn't able to get back at it until the next weekend...

...when I discovered I STILL hadn't made it all the way through the varnish in some places! This stuff was as thick as lacquer! I was peeved!

So I walked away for a few weeks, let my frustration cool, and came back to it.

I gave it one more sanding and was able to finally get most of the varnish off.....the right side.

Looking at the half of the bookshelf I still had left, I got a little bummed out.

Again, I walked away for a few weeks.

Which was okay. We had wanted to get the living room finished before we moved in, but during the remodel we discovered we had termites, and the money we had saved to replace the floors and trim went into treating pests. So, while we saved up to put in the floors, I had plenty of time to get the shelves done.

I talked to my dad about the situation and he recommended I try a product called the gripper.

It is made for priming varnished wood, or so I was told.

Excited, I pulled the doors off the cabinets below the shelves. One I sanded and painted with 2 coats of my paint. The other I primed with the gripper and painted.

The gripper took about 5 minutes to dry completely and once covered with the paint actually looked better than the sanded + 2 coats!

I was sooooo excited and ready to get to work.

But... The life of a new homeowner is apparently never easy. We went out and bought more gripper (and other things we needed around the house, like a new ceiling fan, etc). We came home and decided we would tackle the bookshelf the next day. As we sat in bed filled with excitement and hope, there was a gurgling sound that floated in from our bathroom.

The septic had backed up. Both bathrooms had sewage flowing up into them. I will spare you the details, but let me just say it was not an experience I wish to repeat.

So once again the plans to work on the bookshelves were put on the back burner.

After having a technician come out, we learned that our septic field lines were crushed, meaning that the sewage couldn't flow out from the tank, which caused it to back up into our house.

The septic is still an ongoing issue. 

However, there's not much I can do to help. My husband and father-in-law have been working on digging up the field lines to find the crushed pieces, and so this weekend I was finally able to get back to work on the shelves.

This is them right before I started priming (actually, you can see a little line of white on the top right where I started priming and remembered I wanted to take a picture first. :)

And here we are halfway finished with the first coat. The entire thing has been primed with the gripper, and the right side and cabinets have been treated to 1 coat of paint. I think I'm going to add a second coat of paint to the whole thing before I'm finished.

Yay! Painting finished. I did end up adding two coats all around. 

I've also finished the doors. All that is left to do is attach them and install the new knobs (which I have yet to buy, lol).

More pics to come.

Oh. And on the plus side, we've finally saved up enough money for the floors! We ordered them in and they just arrived this weekend. We're planning on installing them starting this weekend. Hopefully pics to come. Look for an update in Part 3!!

The ongoing remodel

And here you have it, the reason why I haven't been as crafty lately as I want to be.

My husband and I bought our first house in November. We're totally in love. But, it was built in the 70s, and I don't think it has been updated since.

It's a cutie on a dead end street in a quiet neighborhood. We've got half an acre of land, and I think it couldn't be more perfect...

...except for one major flaw.

You see that fireplace? Well the light glowing behind it is the front door. When you walked in the front door, it cleared the back of the fireplace by about 1.5 inches. It was miserable!

Well, and do you see that wood paneling? And carpet!?

Mostly, we both just hated the living room. So, we decided there was only one thing to do...

Little did we know what a project this would be! My dad is an experienced DIYer, so we figured we had this handled. We expected to be able to bring the fireplace and chimney down in an afternoon. So, we (my husband and I, my dad, my sister and her husband) got some sledgehammers and got to work!

What we weren't expecting was the fireplace to be 4 layers of brick thick with mortar poured down in between each layer. Clearly, someone did not want this thing coming down.

By the end of day one, we weren't even close to finished.

And the worst part was that the brick had to be hauled out one bucket at a time. Our yard was wet from recent rain, and we couldn't back the truck and trailer to the door. Each load had to be carried across the yard and to the driveway. It was not a fun experience.

By the end of day two, we'd made considerably more progress. We had all of the wood paneling down, the carpet up, the wall paper ripped out of the entry way, and only a couple of feet of brick to go.

At the end of day three, we had the entire thing down (including the bricks that were about 1 and a half deep set into the foundation. We were left with a pile of rubble, a hole in the floor and a hole in the ceiling that ran all the way out of the roof.

With rain coming, we tacked down a tarp on the roof and let mother nature come!

Then, we hired a drywall specialist to come in and give us walls (and repair the hole in the ceiling....which almost meant scraping off all the "popcorn" on the ceiling and replacing it with an "orange peel" so it matched)!

In the mean time, my dad and husband repaired the roof.

The drywall guy did a fantastic job!

This is before he added the texturing. You can see the hole in the floor and the patch in the ceiling in the above picture. 

Next we painted (this is while the paint is still drying, thus the uneven spots).

All that work and we're still not finished!!!!! Be on the look out for Part 2 when we paint the book shelf!

Recycled Bubble Quilt

For those of you who have been following me, you know that every year my work hosts a big bash for Earth Day. We have green vendors come, we do an art auction of items made from recyclables, and we do a style show with outfits made from recycled materials, as well.

It is always a fun event, and I love participating.

Last year I made several paintings using magazine pages.

This year I decided to push myself. My mom sent me the link to something I'd never seen before, a bubble quilt (also known as a biscuit quilt). The tutorial was fantastic, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The key was, though, that I had to find a way to make it out of recycled materials and still have people want to curl up under it.

My husband and sister had both recently junked some jeans that I was saving (woot woot for losing weight!) so I thought I could start with those. My husband and I used to work at the same place, and so we both had old uniform shirts tucked away in a drawer (painting shirts mostly...wait until my next post!).

The combination of green work shirt and multicolored denim hit me perfectly and I decided to go with it.

If you're looking for detailed instructions, check out this pattern from Awaiting Ada. She has a couple of different versions and does a fantastic job explaining step by step how to put this sucker together.

First thing was to cut out the "bubble" pieces for the quilt top.

I cut around the seams and grabbed all the useful denim I could. Then I grabbed my trust rotary tool and a self-healing mat and started cutting them down into 6"x 6" squares. This took me about 5 eight hour days....did I fail to mention that even though this was a recycled quilt and only cost me about $30, it was extremely labor intensive?

Once all of the top pieces were cut, I had to cut the backing pieces for the quilt top (to make each piece a "bubble." Don't worry about picking a good fabric for these. They will not be seen on the actual quilt. I had several work shirts left over, so that's what I used. These were cut 4.5" x 4.5". Then they needed a small slit down the middle for stuffing later (you'll see). My exacto knife made quick work of those slits.

Next came the pinning. This took me about 2 days to finish. One big piece is pinned to one small piece, wrong sides facing. First you pin the corners (which will have a tendency to roll inward, as in the pic below. This is NOT a big deal!) then you pin a pleat in the middle of each side.Just let them pleat wherever they want to - it is not important that the pleats be even or anything, just that the top piece lays flat against the bottom piece.

Then run a seam around the edge of each piece. It doesn't have to be pretty, just try to get it as close to the edge as possible. That is one mistake I made. Here, I ran the seam with the fabric at the edge of the foot.

Next you're going to start stringing them together in a line. My blanket was 11 squares by 15. So, I sewed the 11 squares together to make each strip. 

Then start sewing the strips together.

Sorry, but I didn't take and photos of this next part. After you have the whole quilt top finished, flip it over and start stuffing. Grab about a handful of poly-fill and stuff each bubble through the slit you cut into each bubble back. You do not want to over stuff them because it will make them harder to sew later.

Next is the fun part. You're going to have to hand sew each slit closed. I used yarn and a large needle because the wide strokes made it go faster. Even with that, it took me about two days (and eventually an extra pair of hands) to knock it out.

Finally! Sew your backing fabric on, with right sides facing. Leave a several inch hole in the middle of one side and flip the blanket inside out. Then hand sew the opening shut.

AAAAAAND you're done. So there you have it, my first bubble quilt. All said and done, I think the green and blue were too close together in color to clearly show the chevron pattern, but I was still pretty happy with the outcome.

Prom Corsage!

Howdy howdy blog folk!

It's been a busy spring!

I've been working on a ton of projects. No telling how many I'll actually get posted up here for y'all, but I'm going to try and get a few knocked out today. This first one is the easiest.

My 16 year old cousin went to her first prom this year. I wanted to get her a wrist corsage, just as something small to let her know I was thinking of her. But holy cow are they expensive! I get it, real flowers cost money. But, as a young woman early in her career, those kinds of funds ($30-50 for a wristlet she is going to wear once for 3 hours? Not so sure on that one) are a little out of reach for me.

So I decided I could make her one and it look just as nice...I hoped.

I went to hobby lobby and picked up some wedding picks when they were on sale. You know, this kind of stuff...

I ended up spending about $15 and having a TON of stuff left over. Next time I think I could get away with spending about $5...seriously.

Her dress was black with orange flowers on it, and I heard she was worried her nails would look to halloween-y if she matched, so I tried to be careful but still match her colors. What I ended up with were black and white flowers and orange ribbon.

I grabbed a paper backing for a small mum and a wristlet with a velcro adjustable strap. Then I just starting placing.

I laid everything out on the backing and when I was happy with it, I got to work with my hot glue gun.

I used iridescent white leaves, gem picks for some sparkle, black bead/gem picks (as seen in first photo) and the burnt orange ribbon cut in loops.

I went through several versions until I was happy, but all in all the entire thing took less than half an hour to put together. I think it came out pretty nice!

And of course she looked model gorgeous, as usual. :) Love this girl.

Stormtrooper Blanket

This was a gift for my brother-in-law for Christmas. We’re kind of a nerd family, so this seemed like the right gift for him. J

It was a simple enough to make, it was just granny squares. All that matters is getting the pattern right, which I have attached for your viewing pleasure, hehe.

All in all, it took me about 6 weeks to make. I finished about 10 squares a day. I could have finished in 4-5 weeks, but I wasn’t consistent. As far as size, the picture below of the full blanket is on my king sized bed. I made each granny square 5 rows and worked with a size H hook. So, all 224 squares put together came out to approximately 6 x 6.5 feet. Make each square as big as you'd like and connect each one attachment style to the next one.

Peace Sign Blanket

This peace sign blanket was a Christmas gift for my 12-year-old niece. She’s very into the whole peace sign thing right now (I guess it’s big with the tweens and teens) so I thought it would be a nice gift for her.

It is a modification to the circles-to-squares style of blanket. I found the pattern here (http://sofar-sogood.blogspot.com/2008/06/peace-granny.html).

The first few rounds can be a little rough, but once you get through them, this is a very simple pattern. That being said, I was not a fan of the original work entirely. If you take a look at the link, you’ll see that around the edge of the peace sign, there is a row of strange chain stitching. I’m more of a fan of solid work, so I decided to modify this pattern to be solid blocks without the granny-reminiscent holes.

Below is my modified pattern for each square:

With A: Ch 4 and join to form a ring (or use a Magic Ring). I used the magic ring.

Rnd 1) ch 1, work 12 sc in ring, join with slst in FL of beg sc.

Rnd 2) ch 3, dc in nxt st, dc in FL of next st. With B: dc in back loop (BL) of same st, 2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt st, dc in BL of same st. With A: dc in FL of same st, dc in nxt st, dc in FL of nxt st. With B: dc in BL of same st. With A: dc in FL of same st, dc in nxt st, dc in FL of nxt st. With B: dc in BL of same st. With A: dc in FL of same st, dc in nxt st, dc in FL of nxt st. With B: dc in BL of same st, dc in same st (both loops), 2 dc in nxt st, dc in BL of same st as beg ch3, join with slst to beg ch3. = 24 dc

Rnd 3) With A: Ch 3, (dc in nxt st) x 2. With B: (2 dc in nxt st) x 5. *With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: (2 dc in nxt st). Rpt from * once. With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: (2 dc in nxt st) x 5, join with slst to beg ch3. = 36 dc

Rnd 4) With A: Ch 3, (dc in nxt st) x 2. With B: (2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 2 st) x 3, 2 dc in nxt st. *With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: (2 dc in nxt st) x 2. Rpt from * once. With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: (2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 2 st) x 3, 2 dc in nxt st, join with slst to beg ch3. = 48 dc

Rnd 5) With A: Ch 3, (dc in nxt st) x 2. With B: (2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 3 st) x 3, 2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt st. *With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: 2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 2 st, 2 dc in nxt st. Rpt from * once. With A: (dc in nxt st) x 3. With B: (2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 3 st) x 3, 2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt st, join with slst to beg ch3. = 60 dc

Rnd 6) With A: ch 3, dc in nxt 3 st, (2 dc in nxt st, dc in nxt 4 st) x 11, 2 dc in nxt st, join with slst to beg ch3. Finish off A or your preferred color change to color B.

Rnd 7: sc around entire work to create a hard edge

Rnd 8: (you should be in the middle of the top bar of the peace sign. Ch 1. Sc in each of next 3 sts. HDC in each of next 2 sts. DC in each of next 2 sts. Treble crochet in next st. 5 treble crochet in next st to form corner. [Treble crochet in next st. DC in each of next 2 sts. HDC in each of next 2 sts. SC in next 7 sts. HDC in each of next 2 sts. DC in each of next 2 sts. Treble crochet in next st 5 treble crochet in next st to form corner.] Repeat inside of brackets for 3 remaining sides. For original side, Treble crochet in next st. DC in each of next 2 sts. HDC in each of next 2 sts. SC in next 3 sts. Sl st to chain to join.

Rnd 9: DC sround, working 3 in each corner.

After this I switched to black and did a row of SC around.

As I made each piece, I connected them attachment style during this black round. It created a beautiful, solid piece of work. I’m very happy with it.