Archive for May, 2009
Burning Question: Oh The Horror Story?
Let’s be honest. Not every home improvement project goes the way you planned (take our botched twine mobile attempt for example). And sometimes they can even go horribly wrong. After reading an article in last weekend’s New York Times about DIY disaster stories (including a simple toilet leak that snowballed into a $3000 three-day renovation) we got to wondering: do you have any home repair/do-it-yourself horror stories to share?
Maybe there’s that time when your body came crashing through the attic floor into the room below? Or that simple electrical project that suddenly blacked out the whole neighborhood? There have gotta be a few Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor moments among us…
And even if those examples are a bit on the dramatic side, we’d love to hear if you have any project-gone-awry tales (big or small). Especially if you’re able to look back and laugh now. After all, nobody’s perfect and perhaps we can learn from (or at least laugh along with) each others’ unfortunate but oh so entertaining DIY missteps. So spill it people.
The Dish
Remember when I posted one short week ago about these amazing white ceramic leaf platters that we came across on our window-shopping-spree of Savannah? At $40 the big round one on the bottom right felt like a bit of a splurge, but the next morning when we hit the road I was still thinking about it…
Enter the Target clearance section stage right, where I happened across this adorable little white ceramic leafy dish for a mere 74 cents.
Sure it’s smaller and a bet less palm-ish, but the inspiration is definitely there- and for less than a dollar I was wholeheartedly and unequivocally sold. I actually like the smaller size as it fits perfectly on my little bedroom ottoman and serves as a place for me to drop some of my most-worn jewelry (instead of tucking it away in my egg crate with all of my other baubles).
I think I’m in love. What do you guys think? Is it (as the Target lady in the SNL skits says) a match? And on another note, have any of you stumbled across something that reminds you of a higher-ticket item and snatched it up like a hot cake? Dish the dirt (and yes, the dish pun is intended).
Addicted To Silk Freebie Winner!
Since you all so bravely came clean about your various addictions when entering to win a Home Addict silk wall hanging, I figured that we should reveal some of our guilty pleasures (besides the obvious home improvement obsession). I have an insatiable addiction to reading Cake Wrecks, eating Breyer’s mint chocolate chip ice cream, and watching The Biggest Loser (sometimes simultaneously). Sherry’s addiction list includes chugging chocolate soymilk, constantly applying lip balm and watching Dexter with rapt attention. Yes, we are a classy pair.
But you know who’s truly classy? The person who’s about to win one of these beautiful, handmade wall hangings from Home Addict, designers of fair trade pure silk fabric for your home.
And that lucky, randomly-selected person is… Rebecca! Since I know there are sometimes a few false alarms with the common names around here, we’re talking about the Rebecca who commented at 10:30pm on Monday night (you can always click the winner’s name to see the winning comment and therefore determine if it’s yours while you cross your fingers and toes). Congrats, Rebecca! We’re flattered that you’re addicted to our website, though we should note that it had no bearing on your name finding its way to the top (unless random.org has developed the ability to read comments). And a big thanks to the rest of you who also listed Young House Love amongst your addictions. We’re tickled. And not at all fattening or dangerous like some other addictions (well I guess enthusiastic hammer weilding or nail gunning can be dangerous…).
Oh, and come to think of it, there’s another addiction that Sherry and I share: giveaways. So of course we have another one lined up for Monday. Stay tuned…
Get the full scoop on our freebies in our Giveaway FAQs. Images courtesy of Home Addict.
Paint Switch
Some of you e-mailed us recently noting that things were a bit different in the Home Depot paint department lately. And apparently some of our favorite Glidden paint colors (like Sand White in our living room and Wishes in our den) were nowhere to be found. We figured Glidden was subtly updating their colors…. no biggie. But when we popped in this weekend we saw their extremely not minor overhaul with our own eyes.
The big difference: Glidden has “refined” their palette to only the most “classic and contemporary colors with timeless appeal.” Translation – they reduced their line from almost 900 colors to just over 250 (by our count, at least). Casting off nearly 650 choices seems drastic, but one could argue it makes the paint selection process a lot less overwhelming. But what’s up with ditching some of our favorite colors? Well, we also heard from the paint specialist that they changed some of the names, so maybe our favorites are still around after all… just going by a different alias.
We do like that by limiting their colors, Glidden is able to provide more info about each option for a customized experience with every color they offer. For instance, now each paint swatch features an inspiration photo and a coordinating color guide on the back. Very handy indeed.
And now you can even grab a pre-mixed 2 oz. tester bottle right at the paint chip display. One of the coolest things is that each bottle has a built-in brush. Genius.
All-in-all, we thought the whole Glidden revamp was pretty cool if not extremely unexpected. Talk about a major makeover. The only drawback was that we couldn’t find the swatch we’d gone to Home Depot for (we’re hunting for a color to coordinate with Wishes, secret project to come…) but Wishes didn’t make the cut- unless it’s now going by a different moniker. But the good news is that Home Depot still has every single one of the old colors in their system, so you can still get the booted colors mixed while you wait, you just won’t have the benefit of taking home the swatch first.
Have any of you guys spotted this paint switcheroo in your neck of the woods? What’s your take on the new Glidden? And while you’re at it, what’s your favorite paint brand in general? We’ve always loved the range of colors by Glidden but the quality of Benjamin Moore and Behr- and we actually like some of Valspar’s colors as well as Freshaire’s no VOC line. But we’d love to hear your preference when it comes to paint.
What If…
By now everyone’s probably aware that there’s a $5,000 bonus up for grabs for the person who earns the most votes on their project over on BHG.com (remember we did this to our porch?). And although we’re holding steady at second place, a bunch of people have commented and emailed us to ask what we would do with BHG’s $5,000 bonus if we were lucky enough to take it home. Of course our initial reaction is always “well, we hate to count our chickens… especially since the competition is so fierce and we definitely have some ground to make up…” but since you guys are very (very) persistent we figured we’d indulge you (and ourselves) and let our home-improvement-loving imaginations wander.
After all, $5,000 is ten times the amount of money that we had for the challenge (!) and although we would donate some of it to one of our favorite housing charity here in Richmond, we’d definitely put the rest right back into the house (no shopping sprees at Bloomies or fabulous vacations for us). Of course your votes would help that become a bit closer to a reality (if everyone who read this post voted once a day until June 12th we’d definitely be contenders). So without further ado, here’s what we’d do:
#1. Retile the hearth of the living room fireplace (it’s actually just old red terra cotta tile that we painted white and then sealed with about a hundred coats of water-based polyurethane). We’d love to do something with white river rocks, glass mosaic tile or even white marble so here’s hoping…
#2. Replace the boring builder light fixtures in both of our guest bedrooms. But they both won’t just be something off the shelf. That would be too easy. We’re thinking we’d love to DIY a large drum shade with little cascading tabs of white felt, or even something woven or rattan (perhaps made from a repurposed runner or a few woven placemats).
#3. Completely overhaul the 50-year-old master bathroom. We’re talking tile work, maybe some wainscotting, a new vanity/sink, etc. We did our best to salvage our vintage tile, but there are cracks and discolorations everywhere we look, so one day we’d love a complete redo. And that day would certainly come sooner with a little extra cash in our wallets (and you know John’s itching to pick up the sledgehammer, right?)…
#4. Add a lounging area to the patio. We’d bring in some planters, some posh West Elm-ish lounge chairs, a few accent tables and even an all-weather rug to make our little table-only patio into a bona fide outdoor room. Maybe even build a stone fire pit. That would be cool, right?
#5. Introduce a bit of layered, textural interest in the half bathroom. This one’s gonna be a surprise so that’s all you get.
#6. Transform our secret room. Yeah, we actually have a separate entry basement under the sunroom that currently looks like this. Pretty nasty, eh? But we’ve dealt with some pretty bad befores and we actually have a plan for this mindnumbingly terrible cinder block prison.
You may be asking yourself if we’re confused and think that the BHG bonus is $50,000 and not $5,000, but we’re cheap little buggers and a few of these projects would only run us around $100 which would leave a lot more bank for a few of the more major tasks on our dream to-do list.
And of course we have to say that we’re extremely thankful just to have been included in the challenge and to be among such fabulous fellow bloggers! And if the extra moolah isn’t in the cards we still have big plans here at Casa Petersik. This is just what happens when we let our imaginations wander… we get all hyper and sweaty. Thanks for the fun!
