Archive for the ‘Make Over Projects’ Category

Recently we have been busy working at getting some much needed repair done at our home.  We first had the box windows replaced (the framing).  Once that was done we had the outside painting done.

If you need a painter I would recommend SuperPainter@ 214-762-9730.  Carlos was very responsive, did what he said he would, on time and reasonable.  They do spray paint so if you want someone who uses a brush then you may have to keep looking.  Our house has very little wood so they were able to take care of it (even protecting my new guttering) in about 3 hours.  They wrapped my windows and guttering and then went through about 4 gallons of paint (they supplied Sherwin Williams paint).

1 & 3  Windows repaired, chalked and primed.

2 & 4  Same windows with new paint (which by the way is the same color as my dining room – Mushroom Bisque and        an exact match to the new gutters)

5 & 6  Inside the front porch and he even painted my garage door (which by the way is metal).  Love the shadow of the trees on the door.

You will notice in picture 2 the trellis is missing that is in picture 1.  Someone stole my trellis right out of my front yard.  We didn’t notice it until I was telling Carlos he could just lay it down to paint.  Makes me mad!  Even more it makes me feel violated.   I heard a loud thump the other night but didn’t think much about it.  Next time I’ll turn on all the lights grab my camera and take their picture and one of their license plates.

Next on the list is to finish up my Master Bath’s Roman faucet.  We are also getting estimates to have my deck redone.  I really would like to have that done before Spring!

Now that the windows are done (Whew!!!!), they are just primed so they need to be painted.

Back in the heat of the Summer I tried to start painting.  I got everything scraped down and bought the paint.   My DH decided that the guttering needed replacing before we painted.  The new guttering is not the same color as the paint I purchased for the house.

On my trusty new “To Do” Home list this did go.

Because you know if it is on the list it will get done, just so I can wipe it off.

Yeah, yeah the deck and 1,000 other things need to be done.  You don’t live in the same house for 26 years without reaching that point where everything seems to break, come apart or start leaking all at once.

Remember when my Dining Room went from this color.

To this color.

Turns out it’s the same color we need to paint the exterior wood on the house to match the guttering.  Apparently, I really like this color.  Hmmm, maybe I’ll paint my front door black and the little  trim around the glass in white or maybe I’ll paint the trim on the windows white after they have been painted.  Oh boy, something else to add to may project list!

The trick t picking exterior paint color, is make sure it goes with the brick on your house if you have brick, but most of all make sure it is something you love because it is expensive to paint and exterior if you have to pay someone.  Yes, I could do it but DH is willing to pay someone and I’m going to take him up on that!

We’ve been in our house since 1986 and the faucets are worn out!

First thing was we had to decide what we wanted then once we found them, next came installing.

First we were going to pay a plumber but my BFFs (yes that is plural) offered to help us install them.

Now I’m showing you these instructions because like all good DIY’er you don’t need “no stinkin instructions”.

Like all good replacements I don’t think there was one faucet that didn’t have some kind of issues.  When you watch the shows on TV they make it look so simple, but what we soon discovered is if we hadn’t had someone who knew what he was doing, we would have given up.

First thing was taking out the P-trap, easy enough but nasty.  Now if you notice there is copper tubing which means they are soldered in….humm could that be a problem? Absolutely, you bend that copper tubing wrong and you are now having to put in new valves and flexible hosing.

Are you impressed I know what some of this stuff is called.

After much difficulty with working on them (corrosion, mineral deposits, rust and even some sawing through metal) we got them out.   So we are talking about 4 faucets taking 9 hours to replace, now that is true friendship for them to give their weekend to change out difficult faucets.

The “fake” marble has yellowed where the faucet was but that will be covered with the new faucet.

My original faucets were antique gold (very popular back in the 80′s).  Although, I wanted to go with brushed nickel I didn’t want to have to replace the shower faucets, so I got something that would compliment.  I like the contrast between the rubbed bronze and the creamy color of the counters.

Now all I need to do is update the cabinets in both bathrooms.  That means I have an itch to pull out the paint.  Oh, but first comes an inspiration board.  I’ve learned over the years as I start re-painting or re-decorating to start gathering pictures and inspiration of how I want things to look.  When I do this I find that I am happier with the end result and satisfied longer with the results.

The mirror needs updating (I can do that), the light fixtures need to be updated (I can do that).

The cabinets need painting or refinishing really bad (I can do that)!   Here the cabinet looks black but they are a golden oak.  The hall bathroom cabinets will be done with chalk paint I know for sure.

So, I’ll take pictures along the way and keep you posted.  I probably will not start this update until the later part of March.

Finally, there is not enough ways to show the gratitude or words to tell,  Phyllis and Joel, how much they mean to us and how appreciative of their invested time in us and helping us get this done.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

I bought this cute bulletin board quite some time for my “Woman Cave” but could not find a place for it.  Really how sad is that, you have so much stuff there is not room for anything else.

After I painted my closet in the Woman Cave (WC) I re-arranged some stuff and decided I would hang this on the door as you enter the WC.

Issue the door is a hallow core door.  Some day, I envision this door being white with some decorative trim added to it.  Maybe a new white door with a design built into it.

Right now it is the right spot for a cute bulletin board.

3M to the rescue.  I found these hangers that would allow me to put this on the door and be able to remove it easily when I get ready to change my mind or enhance the door.  Everything for me is some form of canvas, I just need the time and the money to use it and birth it into it’s new life.

Holds about 9 lbs ( you can click on the picture to get a closer look).

Pretty simple, peel and stick and this one told you to put 3 pieces on the item you are hanging.

I put one on each side of the bulletin board and then one in the middle of the bottom.  Pulled the paper off on the stickers that glue to the door and centered the bullet board where I wanted it and pressed it.

Look at that!  It turned out perfect.  Now I can put stuff on it and use the cute little thing!

Hmmm, now that I look at this my head starts coming up with other things I could do to this door.  We’ll have to see what I come up with when its time comes.

Right now the next huge thing on my list is replacing bath room faucets.  We’ve lived in our house 26 years and slowly but surely each one of them is wearing out.

I’ve had this little stool every since my girls were little.  I purchased this back with the country was the decorating style, notice the hearts cut into the end of the stool.

It was originally oak stained, then when I renovated the kitchen I painted it red.  Now, I’m going to completely change it up to go with the dining room make-over.

In order to cover that red up, I start out by giving it several good coats of Kilz.

Now it is ready to start painting the white.  The Kilz seals off the stool and keeps the red from bleeding through.

I’ll have to give this a light sanding before I start painting it white.  I’m going to use my sprayer to paint this since I need to get the paint inside.

So now we letting it bake in the 120 degree garage.  This will have to wait to be painted until the temperature drops or next Saturday early in the morning.

It is hard to tell but this is the pedestal, back in the house with the table top attached.  Whew, re-painting this piece was really difficult.  There was some issue with the pedestal and every time I put the sealer on it, it bubbled.

I finally got it to the point where I was “ok” with the piece but it was not “perfect”.  Luckily, it is under the table.

The next part of this will be to paint the band around the bottom of the table top.  This will be accomplished at a faster pace since I will have to do this by hand and it is in the house, where there is air conditioning.

So, stay tuned for the process and  then reveal.

I’m always looking for ideas on how to store or handle some items that are cumbersome to contain.  For me it is ribbon.

How do you display or control your ribbon?  Right now mine is several different places, some are rolled up on clothes pins and stacked in a tiered basket, others are still on the ribbon roll.  At a recent stamp convention I saw this display.  It looks like a great way to display and it is also a reasonable priced object.

So, how do you display your ribbon?

I haven’t been able to work on my table because it is too “dang” hot.  It’s been 107 to 109 degrees here this last week and to come home and try to work in a hot garage, ain’t going to happen.

I also had a little hiccup, when I sprayed the sealer on the trunk of the pedestal it got really rough.  That means it bubbled, so I need to see what is going on there.  Could of been heat, could have been I had oil residue in my sprayer (I spray it with WD40 so it won’t rust after I clean it, probably sprayed to much).

So, I will try to finish this up sometime this week if the weather will cooperate.  I may just have to bring it inside and finish it by hand.  We’ll see! 

Whew!  Yes, I know it has been a long time since I posted anything but I’m still working on my dining room table.

As I started sanding and even after I got the first few coats on the pedestal, I noticed some huge cracks.

This s a large gouge out of the pedestal and it has the ball and claw foot on the legs.  When I turned this upside down to start spraying that is where I discovered the bigger issue.

I didn’t get any pictures because I was trying to get the cracks filled and then out of the 110 degree garage.

You know there are just certain tools that make a job easier, one of those is a LVHP sprayer.  Another one is a Dermal Rotary tool.  It helped me sand the cracks I had to fill and smooth out the edges around them.  It can get into tight places without messing other areas up.

I’ve started spraying the sealer so this will be done very soon.

I bought a couple of these mini furniture dollies at Harbor Freight a couple of weeks ago.  They had a coupon in the paper to get them for around $7.00.

I’m using this to put the pedestal of my dining table on it so I can paint it.

The first thing I’m going to do is protect the dolly from getting black paint all over it so I’m wrapping it in plastic.

Here it is all bundled up and ready to to.

I needed to put a board across the bottom to provide a level surface and then I added a couple of smaller boards to lift up the pedestal so when I paint it the paint will go under and not stick to the plastic.

The purpose of putting it on the dolly is so I can turn the pedestal when I spray paint.  That will help me keep the hose out of the area I just painted.

I took a medium grade sanding sponge and sanded the pedestal.

Next I filled any places that had nicks or holes.  At this point I’m done for the day.  I need to let the filler dry so it can be sanded.

Hopefully, I will be able to get this sanded down again and then the first coat of paint and primer on the base.  That means by the end of the week it could be done if I can get a coat on each night this week.  Three thin coats of paint and primer and three coats of sealer.

Here is what I did with the second mini dolly.  Now I can just roll my pancake compressor around instead of trying to pick it up.  This will certainly save my back and make getting it out from under the table a lot easier.  Sweeeeeeet!

This is a picture of the base of my china cabinet when I was repainting it.

If you look in the background you will notice a blue strip of tape running down the wall.  This is actually my make shift paint booth.

I took a sheet of plastic and Scotch’s blue tape and put it on the wall to protect it from any over spray when I used the spray painter.

This worked like a charm.

I pulled this particular sheet of plastic down and put up some new.  This time I moved everything that was against that wall out of the way and taped the plastic sheet down the wall and out on the floor.  This way no air can get behind the plastic.  This will keep the plastic from fanning out and touching the item I’m trying too paint.

This is the first place I start, preparing the work space.  I have my paint already bought (it is Behr primer and paint in one) it is called Black Suede.  I have a LVHP paint gun, some cheap paint brushes, an orbiting hand sander (I have the DeWalt, it runs around $79) and some sanding blocks.  I also have a cup for water to thin the paint and the usual stir sticks, wiping cloths and a sealer (Minwax Polyacrylic).

I’m starting my table this weekend so, be sure and check back to see the progress.

These are the items I use.  I do not get paid or receive (at this time) any products for referencing these  products.  They are items that I use and some of my favorite things to achieve the results on my furniture.