Archive for September, 2011
Labor Day
Just as we did over Memorial Day, we used the long Labor Day weekend to squeeze in a few days at my parents’ beach house near Bethany Beach, Delaware. It was another trip full of family, food, and fun-slash-weird finds. And you know we love a good vacation/what-we-saw/what-we-bought post. And we actually bought two pretty big items that we’ve been trying to find for a while.
Our weekend adventure actually began in Maryland. Specifically, here:
It’s the Ole Sale Barn in Denton, MD. We’ve passed it countless times on our treks to the beach and have always been fascinated by it. The stars finally aligned on this trip (i.e. weather, holiday schedules, baby nap schedule) to allow us to make the stop… at which point we were immediately greeted by Beyoncé. If you don’t understand the reference, you must read this (warning: there’s profanity, but it might be the funniest thing on the interweb).
The oddities didn’t stop at the over-sized metal chicken (which, we should note, was no longer there on our return trip – meaning someone probably bought the thing). Clara was weirdly fascinated by all of the lawn jockeys. Maybe she was just happy to be taller than them? Find Clara. It’s like Where’s Waldo.
There were actually some cool finds amongst the smorgasbord as well. We think these were patio table tops or some sort of grate cover, but we thought they could make really cool (albeit heavy) wall art.
I was obsessed – wait, correction – OBSESSED with these white and gold sign letters. The guy was selling them for $20 each and they were even wired to light up. Had any of the letters meant anything to us I would’ve taken them home without hesitation (I later realized an upside down L could’ve looked like a 7 – which is our favorite number – major bummer). Oh, and the owner told me that they were meant for a Dollar Tree store but “never made it to their destination.” Not sure what that meant (did they “fall off a truck?”) but I figured it was best not to pry.
Inside the barn was a bit more chaotic, but there was still plenty to dig through. The only thing that really caught our eyes (besides a giant metal Shrek and a carnival water pistol game) was this trio of overlapping mirrors. It looked less odd in person (we could picture it painted charcoal or soft gray) so the photo doesn’t really do it justice. Now we’re just mesmerized by the creepy plastic mermaid bust in the reflection. Totally didn’t see that when we snapped the pic. Maybe she’s a Mer-ghost.
In the end, we left the Ole Sale Barn without anything but an X next to “stop at that fun looking barn place” on our mental travel checklist. And of course now I live with deep regret that I didn’t buy one of those big letter L’s and flip it upside down to make it a 7. Sad clown.
One place that has its fair share of Xs on that same must-stop-by checklist is Beach Plum Antiques, one of our favorite stops in Bethany. It’s overflowing with cool, beach-y finds and we’ve mentioned it here and here among other places. Don’t let the “antiques” part of the name fool you, it’s a good old fashioned thrift store and we’ve snagged lots o’ deals there.
They had some of your usual beachy-cool objects, like these nautical glass buoys…
… and some more unique discoveries, like this crazy cool ship’s throttle. If only the darned thing weren’t $395. That put a pretty quick “stop” to our daydream about where it could live in our house. After poking around a while we (kind of surprisingly) left Beach Plum Antiques without any purchases either.
Shopping wasn’t the only way we got our home-y fix over the long weekend. On Sunday we took a quick detour to visit the nearby home of some of my parents’ friends, Pam and Neil (Pam was actually one of my bosses at my high school library job). They were putting the finishing touches on an above-garage addition that not only added two bedrooms and a bath, but also a second story. See the peak on the left side of the house with the double window?That’s all new as of just a few months ago.
A new second story meant they needed a set of stairs, which Pam and Neil had custom designed for a cool open & industrial feel. Since they greet you as soon as you open the door, they wanted to make them as visually unobtrusive as possible so your eye still continues through the hallway and into the living room behind it (hence the light colors and the thin wire sides). It’s hard to tell from the photos, but the light wood was very softly gray-washed, which looked really airy yet still warm because the wood tone and grain showed through.
To make way for the stairs they also had to bump out their front door about 3 feet (so the last step wasn’t right on the door frame). The only problem was that they didn’t have enough extra floor tile sitting around to fill the new space (they only had about 12 squares). So they made lemonade and designed this mosaic inset constructed entirely of new tiles, meaning the few large leftover ones could be used around the border so the whole thing looked intentional (as opposed to screaming “we ran out of tile”). It looked so much like an intentional choice, that we complimented their “tile welcome mat” even before hearing the story about the material-shortage dilemma.
They had another smart use of tile in the new bathroom upstairs, where Pam couldn’t find any small tiles that she liked for the shower floor. Since she had already fallen in love with the larger tiles used in the rest of the bathroom, she had her builder cut the large tiles into a bunch of smaller squares for the shower floor. Certainly a bit more work, but it definitely took the guess work out of “will this tile coordinate with that tile?” and looked really great (and not too over-done with different tiling choices everywhere). It definite had that easy beach-house feeling.
But the weekend wasn’t all just inspiration. We did come home with a little somethin-somethin, thanks to this yard sale sign that Sherry spotted on our way back from the playground one morning.
We did our usual drive-by to see if it was worth stopping, and these night stand beauties immediately caught our eye. They’re the real deal (from the 50s or 60s, made of solid wood, and even have awesome dovetailed joints). And you know we’re desperately in need of some not-too-short nightstands with drawers (instead of the squat stand-in old living room side tables that we’ve used for the last nine months).
It was meant to be. Especially when the seller was willing to hand ‘em over for just $11 each (he was asking $30 for both, but Sherry pulled the “all I have is $22 cash” thing, which was actually true). We worried they wouldn’t fit in our car (with a huge baby seat, pack & play, and dog crate to work around) but we somehow got one in the trunk and one in the back seat. And seriously, can you beat $11 a piece?
Had our car been bigger, we also would’ve taken this guy home. But my sister (who has a larger car and a similar design taste) took one look at our pictures and high tailed it back to the same yard sale. She came back $30 poorer with this in her trunk. We think it’s hilarious that we each own part of the same mid century bedroom set (we would have used the dresser as a cabinet/buffet in our dining room near the front door). My sister Emily’s not sure where she’s gonna put it yet, so we’re secretly hoping we’ll inherit it eventually. We’ll even pay $30 for it. Haha. Fingers crossed.
But if you think all of our antique hopping, addition touring, and yard sale scoping got in the way of a “normal” little weekend trip, have no fear. Clara’s a beach diva, so there was no denying her some sand and surf (notice the nightstand seat-belted in next to her?).
The water was a bit chilly and the beach (well, what was left of it after Irene) was on the crowded side, but Clara was none the wiser and we all had a great time.
She and her cousins partied with sand in their diapers and said a proper sayonara to summer (which some of you saw earlier this week over on Young House Life). And of course there was some sea gull watching (and the occasional “birdieeee!” scream).
Is there anything better than a sunny day with my girls on the beach? Maybe $11 night tables. Just kidding. Kind of.
What did you guys buy/do/travel to see this weekend? It certainly was nice to get out of the house (and stop staring at the half-completed desk) for a few days. I think those breaks keep us coming back for more DIY madness (that counter might have killed me pre-break, but two days on the beach + cheap nightstands = Refreshed John, who was ready to build). Do you have any other end-of-summer things on your agenda? We keep forgetting it’s not still August. So when my aunt mentioned that Christmas was around fifteen weeks away our brains almost exploded.
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winners. Click here to see if you’re one of them.
Attack Of The 13 Foot Counter
So our built-in wall-to-wall desk already made some good progress this week with the painting and making-taller of our cabinets. But something was missing…
Yes, we were devoid a counter (aka, the desk top). John and I were actually quite indecisive about what to do when it came to that part. And whatever we did, we needed about thirteen feet of it (a length that we learned most kitchen counter suppliers wouldn’t even deliver since 12 feet was usually the max before you ended up with a seam). At first we considered ordering a legit kitchen counter top (maybe butcher block, maybe silestone, maybe this from Ikea – although they would all have a seam). I think after having saved so much with our $6 cabinets we thought that maybe the top could be our splurge.
But, then again, we’re not very good splurgers. Also, I was leaning towards something white (to keep things light, and to tie into the top of the nearby built-ins in the dining room) but John was Mr. Hesitant about white overload (and worried that the white tone of the counter could clash with the white of the cabinet). I know, it’s shocking to hear a guy worry about clashing white tones (especially when he usually can’t tell one white paint chip from another) but he can own it. In short, we were stuck.
But after seeing this DIY-ed desk that Aubrey and Lindsay made, John won we both realized that wood was the way to go.
We’ve always loved the combo of white and deep wood (we did something similar but flipped when it came to refinishing Clara’s dresser), so why not? And rather than “matching” a white counter to the tops of the built-ins in the dining room, we thought referencing the rich wood tabletop in there could really look great.
So with the “rich wood finish” decision made, we tracked down our materials. We wanted something thicker than the 3/4″ console table top (just to stay proportionate with the four chunky cabinets below and the thirteen foot length), so we picked up some 2 x 10″ untreated framing lumber. It was as thick as one of those jumbo cutting boards and I walked around the store talking lovingly to it, which was completely embarrassing but I could. not. help. it.
While there we had the guy at Home Depot cut a bunch of eight foot pieces in half so we could fit them in the car (it would also make maneuvering them at home much easier). And this is the most exciting thing. Total cost: $27.30. Yup, it came to less than a dollar a square foot (which is a heckova lot cheaper than most other countertop options, even butcher block or laminate from Ikea).
So with everything home, we did a rough layout on the floor of our basement workshop to figure out which pieces had the nicest edges (for the front lip) and which ones should be hidden in the back. We didn’t have 13 feet of floor space to work with, hence the overlapped look.
Since I was going to do the staining, John helped me label the back of each piece with clear directions so I didn’t end up staining the wrong side. The X meant “don’t stain this side” and STAIN FRONT meant, well, “stain the front edge” since it would show on the outer boards if it was a front board.
John’s duty (besides cutting a few end pieces to size) was sanding (since I still had memories of my vibrating hand from sanding the cabinets in the priming step of the process). John used the same cheerful little mouse sander to go over each piece thoroughly with some coarse 60 grit sandpaper first (to smooth out any big imperfections) and then went over things again with some finer 150 grit paper afterwards – just to give it an even smoother finish.
One potential challenge with lumber like this is the prints and stamps that come on them. We ended up using only the sides without marks, but if that weren’t the case we could’ve just used some extra sanding elbow grease to buff out the ink. But thankfully the other sides were just fine.
With everything sanded, we brought the boards into the sealed-off sunroom so I could stain them. We decided to use stain we already had on hand (leftover from the console project, actually I think it was from another project before that one) and ultimately decided to use the dark walnut and not mix in any of the ebony this time. Although we had done a combo of the two for the console, we weren’t really going for that same weathered / distressed look. Instead, we were trying emulate the deep, rich finish of our dining table.
So as usual, I brushed on a coat of the stain with a paintbrush (and a mysterious gloved hand)…
…and then wiped it off with a rag after letting it soak in a for about a minute.
Once they dried overnight, we were left with these beauts (I did the staining at night and shot these after photos in the morning, hence the different look/undertones – you’ll see the actual finished look later in the post though).
John’s original plan for building the counter was to recreate his process for the console top, just on a larger scale. That meant using his beloved Kreg jig to screw the boards into one another side-by-side so they became larger sections that he could then piece together on top of the base cabinets. But after going to town with his jig on a few boards, he realized these heftier boards weren’t gonna jive with that plan – especially when he had a seam straddling two cabinets. You can’t tell from this picture, but this set up was a bit wobbly. And a wobbly desktop (or something uneven that made our laptops wobbly) wasn’t the goal.
So he adjusted his approach to focus on screwing the boards to the cabinets first, and then to each other wherever necessary (for added support). It wasn’t a bad alternative, it just meant a lot more cramming his body into the base cabinets to drill screws up into the bottom of the counter planks while I leaned on things to keep them in place from above.
True to form, wherever he could, John used his pre-drilled pocket holes to secure the pieces to one another for added strength (did I mention the man loves his jig?).
Perhaps our favorite discovery of the day was realizing that our camera tripod could double as a great jack-substitute to keep the boards level while John screwed them together (this was a lot more precise than me standing there and trying to hold them at a consistent height). They make a good counter-building team, John and his trusty tripod.
The brevity at which I’m recounting this process makes it seem like it was fast and easy. It wasn’t. You know we like to keep it real, so the counter install (not counting a few hours of sanding/staining) took us the better part of an evening – maybe around four hours? And it was relatively exhausting, especially to poor John who was doing the bulk of the lifting and contorting himself into the base cabinets to drill. The most frustrating part was realizing that our boards, like most, weren’t all perfectly straight. So we had to do our best to counteract/deal with the whole slightly warped thing (once we screwed them down/together in a few places they seemed to level out, but it took some finessing to make sure the tops stayed level as we went).
But eventually it got done. Though it did teach us a lesson in staining: be sure to stain about a centimeter over each edge, even if you don’t think it’ll be visible, since some of the tiny cracks between where the boards met revealed slivers of unstained wood. Luckily it was nothing a little stain touch-up with a small brush couldn’t fix (I dabbed it in there and then wiped the seam with a rag to blend it).
With the touch-ups dry, I later added three thin coats of our favorite non-toxic low-VOC poly alternative (Safecoat Acrlacq). This is the can that we originally bought for our bathroom vanity project over a year and a half ago and it’s still going strong (we use it for almost everything).
The Safecoat seal will not only protect the finish and add lots of long-tern durability, but it also gives the wood a richer glossy look – just like our nearby dining table.
Once we’d given the whole thing 24 hours to dry, it was time to take her for a spin. This is what our new desktop looked like empty…
…and here she is with some “styling” (come on, do you know me at all? I love to put a bunch of stuff on newly completed projects – just to help us get a sense of what it might look like when it’s in use). Of course everything was just shoved there in four minutes so it’s safe to say that nothing is permanent and I obviously want some larger art to actually hang on the wall (which we still have to paint, hence the swatches) and a bunch of other things will likely change/evolve as we actually get into using our new desk.
And yes, I borrowed the lamps from the console table in the living room and added some fun shades that I spotted at Target (they still have the wrapping on them, which is why they’re so shiny). But eventually we’ll have to grab two more lamp bases for in here (where we might keep the two-toned shades – we’ll see).
We’re so happy with how the office looks from the dining room. The wood top ties right into the wood table and doesn’t look weird with the white topped built-ins in the foreground. Whew.
And the chunky wood top is such a rich counterpart to the white cabinets, we really couldn’t be happier. Oh and see that vintage green library box (found for $4 at a thrift store a while back)? That’s our new drawer system for pens, pencils, tape, and scissors – so the file cabinets are full of larger things (like the shredder, some storage boxes, etc). So far it’s all really functional- so I owe you a photo of the insides of those cabinets once we’re more settled in.
Oh and as for writing things down atop a wood plank counter, there are a few seams, but they’re four feet apart and the boards are nice and thick. We also generally use notebooks and notepads anyway, so getting bumps and lines when we write isn’t an issue. In fact in the square foot of counter space to the right of each of our laptops there’s not a single seam cutting through – so any pad or piece of paper could be written on easily without any seam-conflicts. Which is a nice accident because we just laid the boards in a staggered zig-zag pattern and they happened to fall without any seams to the right of our computers. Holla.
Overall, the current setup (although the “styling” is ever so un-permanent)…
… is definitely an update from the old office setup (you can read more about the floor-planning process here). Only now do we realize how cramped that desk really was:
Of course we’re not 100% done with things. We still want to put some sort of molding around the bottom and sides of the cabs to give them a more built-in look. Plus we’re still not sure if we’re gonna stick with the shiny silver hardware finish that came with the cabinets (of course I’ve thought about ORB, but don’t know if that’ll look too matchy with the black glass pulls on the file cabinet nearby- I’ll keep you posted though). Even with those little things still on the to-do list, our budget’s looking pretty darn good for the ol’ wall to wall built-in desk project:
- Cabinets (from Habitat For Humanity ReStore): $6.30
- Kilz Clean Start No-VOC Primer$0 (leftover from painting the kitchen paneling, but it would be around $20 to buy for those wondering)
- Electric sander & sandpaper: $0 (already owned, but would be around $25 to buy)
- Benjamin Moore Advance paint (in Decorators White, satin): $40 (thanks to 10% off haggling/begging)
- Pre-primed & unprimed wood to build up cabinets (from Home Depot): $51
- Framing lumber for counter (from Home Depot): $27.30
- Stain & poly for top: $0 (already owned, but would be about $8 and $20 respectively if you didn’t have any)
- TOTAL: $124.60
We’re psyched, especially since a white laminate counter from Ikea that would span the 13′ length would be around $125 on its own (not counting any cabinetry, paint, etc). But of course just like any upgrade, our new desk is making the rest of the room look terrible. Haha. We need wall paint. And window treatments. And to actually update the chipped navy chairs that we grabbed for $35 a while back. And art. And a chair for the corner. And a lighting upgrade. And about a million other things. But thinking about everything at once gives me hives. One step at a time is the mantra these days.
Has anyone else out there gone with a wood topped something (be it a desk, dresser, kitchen counter, etc)? Do you do things backwards (like build a desk before you paint the walls)? Do you find it hard to resist stroking and talking lovingly to lumber at the home improvement center? I gotta get a handle on that.
Psst- To follow our desk makeove from the beginning, here’s the post about office floor planning, the post about finding our $6 cabinets, the one about other places we looked, the post about sanding and priming the cabinets, and the post about painting and building up the cabinets before adding the countertop.
Mini Makeover, Many Hiccups
It was alllllll the way back in January that we decided that this mirror on our master bathroom door could stay (unlike the one on our guest bathroom door, which got the heave-ho since the person on the toilet could see THEIR ENTIRE BODY in it). But we figured the bedroom mirror could stay (since it doesn’t force you to stare at your reflection while on the porcelain throne) on the condition that we’d create a thicker frame around it to give it more presence so it looked less like one of those big flimsy $5 mirrors that you bring to college. Not that there’s anything wrong with those (we were both very happy to cart them off to school), but we like to think we’ve since graduated from that look. But yeah, even though this plan was hatched in January, it has taken us until September to actually do it. Oops.
We’re glad we kept it, since it has been very functional (double-checking outfits, fixing hair, flexing – you know, the usual) but the basic plastic clips weren’t much to look at.
Having seen lots of other bloggers upgrade their mirrors with trim (like Layla & Kevin, for example) we were confident that it’d be a pretty easy task (FYI, this is what I like to call “foreshadowing”).
First I took the door of its hinges so I could work with it laying flat. The basic plan was: remove mirror, reattached with glue (so plastic clips wouldn’t be in the way of trim), cut molding with miter saw, and glue to door around mirror. Simple, right?
Before removing the mirror I traced the outline with a red pen so we would be sure to glue it back on in the right spot. I didn’t care about marking the door since this part would eventually be covered by trim.
With the clips unscrewed and removed, the mirror came off no problem (though part of me secretly hoped it had already been glued in place).
We picked up this Liquid Nails Mirror Adhesive at Lowe’s for about $5. It’s apparently designed not to damage the reflective coating on the back of the mirror (which is why we used it over other adhesives, which could cause visible-through-the-mirror marks over time). Oh but before we used it we sanded the back of the door where the mirror would be glued (since it recommended doing that to rough things up before gluing any painted surface).
Since it was kinda stinky, we moved our mirror-gluing operation into the sunroom where I happily got to squirting blobs of adhesive as I remembered the instructions suggested (hint: more foreshadowing).
With Sherry’s help, we put the mirror in place, pressed it down and left it alone to dry for 72 hours.
At Lowe’s we also picked up some trim that looked made for this job (though I think it’s actually meant for the top of beadboard). The groove in it was perfect for laying flat over the edge of the mirror.
Well, long story short, after measuring and cutting all of the pieces (and just moments before gluing it down) we stepped back and realized it really wasn’t much of an upgrade. At all. It just looked even more like one of those cheap $5 college mirrors. Oh, accidental regression – I love how you sneak up on us.
So with about $10 in trim down the drain, I went back to Lowe’s and found some heftier stuff that still sported enough of a lip to sit nicely over the edge of the mirror. Instead of about an inch and a quarter of width, this trim was nearly three inches wide. We landed on that size because anything thicker would potentially run into the doorknob, but it was almost twice as thick as the too-thin trim that we tried first.
We obviously wanted the mitered corners to match up with the beveled corner of the mirror. So to help me find my cut lines, I placed a piece of painter’s tape along the line of the bevel to effectively “extend” my corner. Then I marked where I wanted to make my 45-degree cuts using my miter saw.
With all of my cuts made, I double-checked to make sure everything lined up nicely…
…and then broke out some heavy duty Liquid Nails to glue all of the trim in place. Normally I prefer nails or screws over glue, but I went out of my comfort zone on this one since screwing or nailing next to a mirror made me nervous and everything on the Liquid Nails tube insinuated that it could handle the job.
I squirted out a thin line of adhesive on each piece of trim (on the side that would sit against the door, not the mirror) and carefully laid all four pieces in place.
Just to be sure nothing shifted during drying, I taped each piece down. Can’t be too careful, right?
Well apparently I could’ve been more careful. After letting the trim dry for a day (the mirror had set for 72 hours at this point), I eagerly reattached the door (keep in mind that we’d been living bathroom door-less for about four days thanks to the false start with the too-thin trim) and took a celebratory shower.
Maybe it was the steam from the shower? Maybe it was re-hanging the mirror too soon before things fully cured? Whatever it was, moments after I finished get dressed after my shower – the mirror slid off the door, busting off the bottom piece of trim in the process. The other three pieces stayed in place, which thankfully kept the mirror from toppling over onto the floor. So the only damage to the mirror was a chipped corner that would be covered by trim anyway. But Sherry and I did nearly hyperventilate when we heard a crash from the bedroom and ran in to see what happened.
I didn’t take many pics of the “aftermath” because I was kinda grumpy about the whole thing. Not only did I have to redo everything (including having to scrape off all of the old glue), but I wasn’t quite sure where I had gone wrong.
Well, re-reading the directions on the back of the mirror adhesive offered some clues. Like “Do not use this product without a permanent support system. ” Oops. Plus some parts about letting the glue set for a full week and applying it to the mirror back, not the door (though I doubt that second tip made much of a difference since it gets on both surfaces when you mash them together) might have come into play too.
So in doing this a second time, I was determined to follow the directions. This time the adhesive was applied to the mirror… generously but in less large globs (Sherry called the first ones “cookie sized” but I’d describe these more as golf-ball-sized (and not as thick, so it could cure more easily). In addition to the blobs described in the directions, I criss-crossed some lines too, just to be safe a crazed man who couldn’t handle another mirror failure.
As for a permanent support solution, I wasn’t about to re-install the clips since the point of this whole glue/framing method was to avoid them (and the trim wouldn’t look great with big lumpy clips under it). So I improvised and carefully added some small finishing nails around the edges of the mirror. They went into the door nice and solidly, and the head provides a nice little rest/stop for the mirror. They might not work as a support solution all on their own (if there weren’t trim and glue also coming into play) but I was banking on them being enough to keep it from sliding as easily as it did after just two days of setting without any other support going on.
So with the mirror re-glued and nailed in place, Sherry and I started to countdown SEVEN FULL DAYS of letting the glue set. Even though it meant a full week of a door-less master bathroom, it felt like a necessary sacrifice if I didn’t want to do this a third time. And that’s how Captain Careful rolls.
On the seventh night (I feel like I’m telling a bible story all of the sudden) I actually stood the door up in the sunroom to do an overnight test (before putting the trim on again). To be extra safe, we placed the door on a big pillow so the mirror would have a soft landing if it decided to detach itself and slide down towards the floor again. Luckily, it didn’t. It passed the seventh night test! So the next morning I reglued all of the trim in place, let that dry flat on the floor for about five nights (more than three recommended in the instructions because we were out of town) and FINALLY put the door back on its hinges… just in time for Clara to resume her favorite activity: gazing at herself and shouting things like “sah pretteh!” and “iss baby!”
After all of the trouble that went into the project, I’ll admit that it doesn’t feel like the biggest and most life-changing payoff, but it’s definitely an upgrade. The white trim on white door doesn’t really “pop” in photos, but in person it’s a nice layered architectural detail that ties into the big quatrefoil mirror that we hung in front of the nearby over-the-sink window. And the goal of this project was just to finish the raw mirror edges more nicely, not draw lots of attention to it or anything (so painting it a color would just make it compete with other things like the mirror over the sink which, no offense to our newly trimmed fella, is much more interesting). So we’re kinda glad this update is of the subtle variety.
More than anything, I’m just glad to have the project successfully completed, to have some privacy returned to our bathroom and to no longer have to stare at those clear plastic mirror clips. Yep, now we can stare at more important things… like the doorknob that needs updating (probably with a can of ORB since my wife is so smitten).
As for the total cost, the second batch of thicker trim was $12, so the entire cost of the project with mirror adhesive should be around $17 if you don’t mess up and buy ten bucks worth of too-thin trim (which we hope to repurpose someday in some capacity…). Update: we just learned that Lowe’s & Home Depot will take trim back (even if it has been cut, as long as it’s over 12″). So here’s hoping we can recoup the $10 that we spent on that too-thin trim.
Have you guys make any subtle changes lately? Or encountered an “easy” project that had more hiccups than you ever thought possible? I’m happy to report that as of this posting, the door has survived five nights without falling down (even with a handful of steamy showers). Success! At least for now. We’ll keep you posted if things take a turn for the “ahhhh, I just heard a loud crash in the bedroom.”
Outdoor Updates, Be They Ever So Slight
Perhaps this screenshot of our old header will give you a hint as to what we tackled in this outdoor update (which is most likely number 7 of 582, since we like to tackle outdoor stuff in bite-sized stages so we don’t get too sore/overwhelmed or blow the budget)…
Yup, that’s the Camellia tree that we first mentioned back in March (you guys actually helped us identify it). It’s a beautiful tree, but we’ve always bemoaned the fact that it was growing just inches (maybe even just one inch?) from our foundation… which made us tres nervous about permanent damage if we allowed it to stay.
After showing it to a few plant expert friends of ours, they all recommended removing it asap so the root systems didn’t cause any issues. And we had to admit it was kinda like a bushy, overgrown sideburn on our home’s pretty little face anyway. You know, the tree equivalent to a mutton chop? Or maybe one of those weird extra long “feeler” eyebrow hairs? Whatever the face-hair analogy you prefer, it wasn’t good.
Unless you enjoy the whole tree-tickling-the-gutters look.
Long story short, we finally decided to serve Miss Camellia an eviction notice.
Our first instinct was of course to transplant it. We generally liked the look of it and figured there was no reason not to at least try to save this gal. So I got out my shovel and went to town on her for about 30 minutes. This is as far as I got:
It may look like progress, but certainly didn’t feel like it. The roots were so tight that it was hard to maneuver around them… and I was in constant fear of knocking out a brick or two from the house as I dug into the earth with some pretty serious force (we have very dense hard soil here). So after about another hour of digging (where we discovered just how close some of the roots and the foundation really were) and some thoughtful discussion, we knew what we had to do. We apologized, told her we had done our best and that it was just the wrong time and (more importantly) the wrong place… and I got the saw. It was sad, but it was necessary. And we made a promise to plant another camellia somewhere in the backyard in memory of our gutter-tickling friend.
When it came to the removal process, first I took off the big limbs and then I spent the bulk of my time sawing through the trunk right at ground level. About another 30 minutes later, I was left with this little stump that (after snapping this pic) would be low enough to bury with level dirt so it wouldn’t be seen. I contemplated further cutting it out, but was still waaay too nervous to upset the ground more around the foundation, so I decided just to leave it be and cover it up with dirt so everything was nice and level.
I generally don’t like cutting down perfectly healthy trees. At all. So this bummed me and Sherry out more than we should probably admit. But we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had already planted six new trees since moving in (remember these) and reminded ourselves that removing this one poorly placed camellia meant that we were making room for new better-fitting plantings in that spot, that would, among other things, not lean on our house or threaten our home’s foundation.
The replacement plantings will definitely be smaller and more low-profile. It’s our general theory that short stout houses like ours need lower, airier landscaping to help them look taller (aka: not so darned squat). Our last house was so weighed down with a a heavy row of azalea bushes when we moved in that it practically made the thing seem half as high (see how we remedied that in this old post). So taking out this taller-than-the-house tree helped us earn back some much needed visual height (thanks to the fact that a tiny tree no longer towered over our house, making it appear even shorter).
Though when I stepped back I realized that one very overgrown bush was undoing all of my hard work. Sheesh. You know you’re in trouble when a bush is taller than your house.
So I gave him a little haircut with the ol’ clippers.
Not amazing at all. But better. That whole swarm of bushes is something that we’d love to transplant in order to open things up as we go. We’re actually really looking forward to revamping our front yard because the house still feels very closed off to us. Pretty much the only thing not blocked by greenery is the carport, which (though it has grown on me) is not exactly the part of our home that I want to highlight (we still very much look forward to turning that into a proper garage down the line).
Maybe now that it has cooled off a bit we’ll finally gain some momentum outside. Heck, late last week was so beautiful that Sherry did some weeding in the driveway to keep me company (and Clara and Burger “helped” – which means they pranced/toddled around and played with sticks/leaves). And yes, I did just say that Sherry did some driveway weeding. As much as we love our double-wide paver driveway, the fact that we’re one of the few folks who have to weed our driveway doesn’t escape us (as opposed to all the blissfully weed-free paved ones out there).
See, the driveway is very long. And, thanks to the weed-friendly paver-ness of all those cracks, it’s proving to be pretty impossible to keep free of super annoying green sprouts. We’re not down with those chemical spray-on weed killers since we have a bean and a pup who play outside (they’re not supposed to be great for the planet either), but we’ve done our fair share of research when it comes to more natural weed killing alternatives like these:
- Pouring boiling water on them
- Using course driveway salt
- Implementing a mixture involving vinegar
Sadly after a bit more research (like calling the paver manufacturer directly) we’ve learned that using salt or vinegar on our pavers can permanently damage them (leading to erosion, cracking, etc). So we’ve only tried the first method (using gallons of scalding water from the stove repeatedly dumped over various sections of the driveway). The result? Cue the sad trombone sound effect. It didn’t do nada. Even after waiting a few days (holding out hope that it might take a while to burn down to the root or something) those weeds were still sitting there smiling up at us. Grr.
So we decided to give up on the boiling-pots-and-pots-of-water technique and resort to good old fashioned hand-pulling every so often. Which isn’t exactly every day (yup, we’re those neighbors with the weedy driveway). So if you ever come over, forgive us if the front of our driveway looks like this (here’s hoping it’s at least partially weeded, which seems to be our pattern). And maybe someday we’ll get around to using polymeric sand which is supposed to cut down on weeds…
Okay, now someone make me feel better about having to take out the camellia. Has anyone else has had to move/remove a tree or other planting that wasn’t working for them? And if you’ve ever had success moving a tree with dense tight roots right near the foundation, what are your tips? I just couldn’t keep digging away without crippling don’t-break-the-house anxiety. We’d also love any and all driveway weeding tips. Especially the all natural ones that might be more paver-friendly than salt and vinegar.
Six Become Four, Two Become One
The transformation of $6 hotel nightstands into a built-in-wall-to-wall-desk-for-two continues. If you recall, we last removed the hardware, sanded, and primed them all in preparation for painting them white.
But before painting, we had to do a bit of construction (we needed to attach them in pairs and built them up about four inches so they’d be desk-height). And before doing any construction we decided we ought to look at them in the space first…
… which is clearly something that we should’ve done sooner (but they’re darn heavy, so moving them back-and-forth isn’t fun – which is why we plopped them down in the sunroom and moved on to sanding and priming). Oh well, better late than never. Once we had them in place we realized that it was a bit more cramped than we expected; the three pairs of two cabinets left hardly any wiggle room for our chairs. And things just looked, well, a bit tight. (Ignore the beginnings of construction on the cabinet on the far left. Our original photo of this got deleted by accident so we had to retake after I had already altered a cabinet. And while you’re ignoring things, pay no attention to the paint swatches on the wall. Not sure we like any of ‘em so we’re still at square one with that).
This little space planning exercise inspired us to take out two of the cabinets and look at the wall with four of them instead (two in the middle and two on each side). MUCH better. We loved this configuration a lot more, because not only would it look less crowded, we’d actually feel like we were sitting at desks (which usually have more breathing room than a few inches on each side of the chair). And there’s still more than enough storage space between the four remaining cabinets and our double wide two-tier file cabinet on the other side of the room.
Had we spent more than $6.30 on all six cabinets, it might’ve been a harder decision to ditch two of them, but I think we can handle eating the $2 (and the wasted time spent priming and sanding the extras). And who knows, maybe we’ll even figure out how to repurpose them (Sherry has been yacking about making a play kitchen for Clara for a while, so I’m sure she’ll fill you in if that happens).
Now on to the construction part of this process. The goal was to (1) visually connect the two cabinets in the middle so they’d look like one large two-doored cabinet instead of two cabinets randomly parked next to each other and (2) build the cabinets up four inches so that they’d be standard desk height (around 30″ tall with a counter) so our existing chairs could easily slide under the counter. I debated all sorts of fancy versions of this process, like:
- “I’ll build a drawer!… which would be about 2″ thick… and therefore totally not worth the trouble/expense… so never mind“
- “I’ll build them up from the base so the things in the cabinets are easier to access… by a few inches… wait, it’s a lot easier to build up the top since the bottoms have legs and a few inches won’t make a difference… never mind”
Finally I opted for a simple budget-friendly solution: I just picked up a bunch of 1 x 4″ boards at Home Depot (including some that were pre-primed, hooray for convenience) and cut them to size to create a nice little built-on frame to raise them up four inches.
Then using my Kreg jig I drilled some pocket holes to attach the front and side together, and then screwed them into the top of the cabinet. You can see it more easily on one of the single side cabinets in this shot:
Then I attached the back piece which is where I used an un-primed 1 x 4″ (because it won’t be visible at all against the wall and under the countertop). Why? Because an 8ft piece of primed 1 x 4″ was about $1 more, so using unprimed boards wherever they weren’t visible saved me a few bucks. Sure, I could have saved $3.50 more by just using unprimed wood everywhere and priming the visible parts afterwards, but since we already primed all the cabinets we lazily decided that it was worth spending $3.50 for primed wood in the visible spots so we wouldn’t have to break out the primer and do all that clean-up again. We figure finding six dollar cabinets makes small luxuries like an extra $3.50 spent on pre-primed wood ok in our cheapskate hearts.
That simple frame accomplished exactly what I needed in terms of building things up and connecting the two center pieces, but the cabinets weren’t thoroughly prepared to handle a counter top quite yet. That’s where some 1 x 3″ boards came into play. I cut a few pieces that would span the inside of my new frame and drilled them into the top of the cabinet. This added even more strength/stability, just because I’m Captain Careful.
Then I topped that with some leftover 1 x 4″ slats that lay flat – which created a platform for me to screw the counter top into when it comes time. They’re not attached in this pic below, so you can see that they don’t sit level with the frame at this point – but I’m going to add some washers to raise them up a smidge when it comes time to actually screw them in (so it’s all one big level plane):
With that, the construction portion of the project was largely over – well except for the counter of course, which we’re still working on and will cover in a few days. We’re doing something similar to the top of our living room console table… sort of (more details as soon as we’re a little further along). Once that’s all said and done, we’re also planning to add some baseboard trim around the bottom of the cabinets (where they meet the floor on the sides and front) to make them look even more “built in.” So yeah, I guess maybe the construction portion isn’t completely over. But we’re good for now.
So let’s move on to painting the cabinets. As we’ve mentioned, we’re painting them white for a nice clean look (which will tie into the white built-ins that are visible in the adjoining dining room, don’t wanna get to crazy with colored built-ins near white ones- we just want these to look like they’ve always been here).
We decided this was a perfect opportunity to try Benjamin Moore Advance paint, which a number of you guys have raved about recently. It’s self-leveling, which means it helps coat more evenly for a smoother finish (something that’s perfect for a cabinet project) and it’s a high quality alkyd formula (so it should be nice and durable) and it’s also water based and extremely low-VOC (even after the colorants are added) which is always a plus for us – and is extremely rare for cabinet paint.
The only drawback is that it’s expensive, at least for cheap-os like us (it’s around $45 a can). But as a thrifty reader named Heather suggested, Sherry told the Benjamin Moore guy about a 30% off sale at Sherwin Williams and asked if he could match it. He said he couldn’t do 30%, but offered 10% off on the spot – without so much as a coupon. So she saved around $5 by asking a quick question at the register.
We got the paint in Decorators White (a bestselling color by Benjamin Moore), which is pretty much the perfect white tone according to the lady wife. You could hold fifteen swatches of white paint up and they’d all look the same to me, but apparently Sherry can see all sorts of variations and likes Decorators White the best. Oh and we got it in a satin finish because they only offered that or high-gloss (which I worried would show more imperfections).
Interesting side note – the pic above is taken after we were done painting all of our cabinets. So you can see the insanely small amount of paint we used for this project (it was nice and thick, so it covered really well). This means we definitely could have gotten by with a quart (for around $25) but we’re glad we got a gallon since we plan to use the rest of the gallon to paint the cabinets in the kitchen down the road. Which might further take the burn out of a $40 gallon of paint. Haha.
Sherry’s tools for the painting task were both a brush (to get in cracks and corners) and a small foam roller (for a quick, smooth brushstroke-free finish on large surfaces).
You can (hopefully, although it depends on your monitor) see the slight difference between one coat (on the door on the left) and two (on the door on the right). Two coats probably would’ve been fine, but we did a third just to be safe – and to make sure there wasn’t a difference between the areas that we primed and painted and the pre-primed 1 x 4″ boards that we only painted (which were much lighter than anything else to begin with). Three thin and even coats (remember, this is Sherry’s mantra) definitely did the trick, and as seen from the photo of the paint can above, we hardly used any paint. Which is nice since we initially wondered how far it would go.
Here’s a finished door after three full coats. Each coat took Sherry about 30 minutes, which wasn’t bad at all. Except that the can called for over 16 hours of drying time between coats, so instead of finishing this process in an afternoon it was a bit more drawn out over the course of a few days. But everything cured up nice and strong and looks great. As for Sherry’s review of the Advance paint: “I want to marry it.” So yeah, she loves it.
And of course, a few consecutive days of painting is made much easier when you’ve got a fan club watching you intently (as some of you already saw on Young House Life). Here’s the wife in the sealed sunroom sporting her inside-out painting clothes with the bean looking on. You can see that we just used some leftover cardboard (from old Ikea purchases like the file cabinet) to paint on.
Even though the Benjamin Moore Advance paint is low-VOC, it’s not no-VOC. Which is why Sherry painted all of the doors in the much-ventilated / Clara-and Burger-free sunroom (also to avoid baby hand-print and puppy paw-print mishaps). We had to paint the cabinet bases in place in the office (the big middle section was too heavy to lift once the two cabinets were built up and connected), so we just kept Clara out of the room and opened all of the windows and ran some fans (Sherry painted during her nap, so by the time she woke up things were aired out and then we just kept her out of the room so we didn’t get little fingerprints going on). Thanks to a little flat-cereal-box-under-the-spot-being-painted trick (to keep paint off the floor), we got to avoid putting down drop cloths. Oh yeah, we’re rebels.
Oh and the shot above demonstrates how nice the BM Advance paint coverage was for us. This is just the first coat going on over the coat of primer that Sherry added a few days ago. That’s a really good showing for a first coat according to my paints-everything wife.
So here’s the finished piece all painted (and with the cabinet door just laying on top – we later moved that out of the sunroom to make way for countertop progress).
Oh and as for why we didn’t paint the inside of the cabinets, here’s an excerpt from our initial post about that for anyone who missed it:
As for the backs of the doors and the cabinet interiors, from day one we decided that we wanted a nice clean glossy front for our wall to wall built-ins, but to keep the backs and the interiors (and slide out interior fittings) of the cabinets the same natural wood tone that they were to begin with. We certainly know that not everyone would go that route, but the new KraftMaid drawers that we installed in our first house’s kitchen renovation had wood interiors and we really liked them (you can actually see some of them here full of tools):
They had glossy white drawer fronts, but inside they held up a lot better to natural wear and tear than anything painted (since we’re weirdos who will stash hammers and screwdrivers almost anywhere). And we actually don’t mind the whole wood + white look (sort of like the dresser we refinished for Clara). Although in this case we decided from the outside that the cabinets would look entirely crisp and white (no contrasting color in the door front or anything), and only when you swing them open will you see the wood tone.
But back to our freshly painted cabinets. The white paint was a big help in making the middle pair seem like one piece. We contemplated adding some caulk or wood putty in the slight crack down the center, but we held off since we thought it might be less obvious once the doors were reattached.
And sure enough, they were. So here’s everything built up four inches and fully painted. We just needed to wait a few days to attach the cabinet doors…
… which looked pretty darn good once we added those:
Of course we still have to add molding around the base of them all (so they look even more built-in), which will hide any areas down by the legs that still appear to be wood toned. And we’re going to trim out the sides as well (so they appear to attach to the walls on either end). We’ll hopefully be back with those details soon. But in the meantime, you know we love a budget breakdown, so here’s the wall-to-wall desk tally so far:
- Cabinets (from Habitat For Humanity ReStore): $6.30
- Kilz Clean Start No-VOC Primer$0 (leftover from painting the kitchen paneling, but it would be around $20 to buy for those wondering)
- Electric sander & sandpaper: $0 (already owned, but would be around $25 to buy)
- Benjamin Moore Advance paint (in Decorators White, satin): $40 (thanks to 10% off haggling/begging)
- Pre-primed & unprimed wood to build up cabinets (from Home Depot): $51
- TOTAL: $97.50 (which was about the cost of one unfinished base cabinet at Home Depot or Lowe’s)
We’ll also be back with all of our countertop details soon- just gotta make enough progress to snap some pics and share that stuff. One thing is for sure: we can’t wait to use our new double desk. And yes, Sherry has been walking around saying “double desk” like Robert DeNiro says “double dose” in the Little Fockers trailer (not sure how I feel about this weird club mix of it below though):
What did you guys do over the long weekend? Any building? Painting? DeNiro impersonating?
Psst- To follow our cabinet makeover process from the beginning, here’s the post about finding our $6 cabinets, the one about other places we looked, and the post about sanding and priming the cabinets to prep them for paint.
Pssssst- I just shared one of the coolest dresser makeovers we’ve ever seen on BabyCenter (and it’s not just for kids).
