When projects get out of control

From what I hear, home ownership always involves lots of projects.  Our tiny house is definitely what you could call a "fixer upper" so house projects have been the norm for us for as long as this house has been in our lives.  Had we known then what we know now about our house both R and I would agree that we would have walked away from this house.  Actually, run screaming is more like it.  The whole house is one big project and we've both felt like we're in over our heads at times.  With no time machine forthcoming, we've learned over time that we have to balance the need to get things done with the need to do things away from home sometimes too.

First, here are some signs that your project has gotten out of control:

• You want to stay at work longer hours so that you don't have to face working on your project at home
• The first question you hear from friends and family when they call you is, "how's the house coming along?"
• You think of the cost of a dinner out in terms of how many sheets of drywall, cans of paint, or other supply that would purchase from the home improvement store
• You can't remember the last time you didn't have the cordless drill charging on the kitchen counter
• You no longer feel strange running errands or shopping at the grocery store wearing old clothes with paint stains on them

More seriously, if you are hating your house and feeling miserable about your situation or maybe even being short-tempered with others, it's time to re-evaluate the project and get things back in control. 

Our most recent out-of-control project has been our living room.

Our living room has been looking approximately like this for a few months now.  Yes, I said months.  And yes that means I haven't sat in my sofa or walked sock-foot through the room since summertime. 

At least the ceiling is up now, but we've still got some work to do.  I'll be back with more updates on that and I can't wait - it's going to be an amazing transformation.  And I'd like to post a bit on getting a project back on track and coping with construction disruption too.

My fabulous sewing room reveal!

A long, long time ago my husband and I built a new room for me to use as my sewing/crafting/peaceful get-away space. I was blogging at the time and posted our progress and showed the room off just as it was almost done and ready for furniture.  

My room has been a great little haven for me and I'm excited to finally be putting some pictures up here to document it.

Now lets get to the pictures...

BEFORE

eeek!  I called this 'the dungeon'

AFTER lots of hard work, insulation, drywall and paint



NOW
come on in




 
desk and work table to move around for different tasks
 

I stash my upcoming projects and mending in this basket.  The rest of the fabric is stored in the trunk on the other side of room.

thread and storage bins


some ribbon in the glass bin- LOVE these


Lane cedar chest from my Grandma where I'm storing most of my fabric. I made the pillows using a zig-zag tutorial from Make It Do.


Roo in the circle chair, which is temporarily out of the room as you can see in the next picture


sad my veg calendar year is coming to an end, the illustrations are so pretty.  EDIT: I just found out the calendar, a printable from Cottage Industrialist is going to be offered again this year, so I can just do it all again!


another place for Roo to lay when he visits me in my room


my sweet cast iron "pin pan" that I got at a yard sale


the room in action- it is really little, but I feel lucky to have a dedicated crafting space at all

It feels great to finally get that posted. I hope to get back to blogging more regularly now. I have lots more to share just about this room as well as our other projects around the house.

Inspired by patchwork

For some time now I've been adding patchwork quilts to my inspiration files. I love seeing the colors and shapes mashed together. Gradually it's become quite a collection of images. Here are a few of them. Enjoy the inspiration!

don't call me becky

Material Obsession blog

Moda Bakeshop

Material Obsession II

Anna Maria Horner




Material Obsession II

katie did

Sew Take a Hike

Moda Bakeshop

Quick Pantry Makeover

I've been meaning to show the update I made to my country pantry for a while...so here it is!

BEFORE

AFTER

I simply painted the edges of each shelf with chalkboard paint using a foam brush. I did about three coats to really get a nice surface, especially since the wood is pretty rough and rustic.



After it cured I used chalk to label the shelves. I love the white/black and how much more charming it looks than having the printed labels.



At some point I will probably ask R to redo the writing for me because his handwriting is much, MUCH better than mine.

How we finished our basement

In my last post I shared our finished basement room and now I'll share a little info of how we got from frightening cinderblock to smooth and lovely drywall.

First, the before:




Notice that our cinderblock had been previously painted. Also, the mortar joints between the cinderblocks were crumbling in lots of places. The problem with this was that water was able to seep into the basement during heavy rains. So first we addressed our water issue.

Step 1. Route downspouts away from the foundation
Step 2. Redo mortar joints
Step 3. Remove old flaking paint from walls
Step 4. Apply two heavy coats of Drylock paint

This was really a lot of work. We really wished that we had just started out with plain cinderblock walls that were in good shape. We could have skipped the first 3 steps!

Next up was laying a sub-floor over the concrete. There are a few different ways to do this. We chose to use a product called DRIcore. See how the subfloor has a plastic back with feet to keep the room dry. The pieces fit together with a tongue and groove.


With the subfloor in it was time to build the walls up.
Step 1. Line the ceiling and walls with thick (6 mil) plastic- again in case of water
Step2. Frame walls and ceilings with studs for the drywall
Step 3. Add foamboard insulation between studs.
Step 4. Bring in the electrition to wire the room for outlets and internet
Step 5. Install moisture resistant drywall
Step 6. Install "crown molding". Since the scale of this room is so small we actually used picture frame molding so it wouldn't overwhelm the space.






Now it's time for finishing!!

Step 1. Mud drywall joints with mesh joint tape and joint compound
Step 2. Sand joint compound smooth
Step 3. Prime walls and prime again...it took a lot to cover that green
Step 4. Paint walls and molding
Step 5. Install flooring
Step 6. Install baseboards and finish them










That should about do it. This project has been totally worth all the effort. Having the walls and floor finished make all the difference for comfort. I'm warm and dry and no sign of mold or spiders.

A basement room becomes REAL living space

I'm so happy to be able to reveal that our mission of transforming the tiny, scary, damp, dungeon of a basement room is complete.

Let's begin with the before:



Here I am doing the first coat of Drylock waterproofing paint. That was after a lot of prep work already.




This is how I really felt about it. And oh my is that stuff stinky!



Eeek, here's the other side of the room.



Are you still there? ::crickets::




It gets better, I promise!


a wall length shelf painted the same color as the walls


laminate click flooring is IKEA Tundra (but we got it on Craigslist for less).


ahh, after all that construction and dust the flat, white walls are such a sigh of relief. The wall color is Behr's Moon Rise in flat finish.

I love passing my room on the way to do laundry and enjoy the transformation!

In these pictures we still needed to add some finishing details like the baseboards.

I plan to share more about how we executed this project in future posts and also start sharing how I decorated and furnished the room- my new CRAFT ROOM. woohoo!

Starting the New Year with a Splash

Oh forgive me for the pun in the title. I just couldn't help it.

There are all sorts of interesting things that people do to greet the New Year. This year I joined several hundred other [idiots] to jump in the Monongahela River! The Pittsburgh Polar Bear Club takes the plunge into the Mon each year.

This year the outside temp was about 27 degrees (with flurries!) and the water temp was about 35 degrees.

The pictures tell the story of the madness...


















It was actually really fun! Kind of like a roller coaster- during is really scary, but afterwards you want to do it again.

However you started your new year, I hope it's a great one. :)