$20 Floor? Don’t Mind If We Do

Tags

DIY, floor, home, house, reno, renovations, tile, townhome, townhouse, vinyl

After our recent vinyl tile adventure in the laundry room, B and I began to talk about using vinyl tile elsewhere. Truth be told, we really didn’t want vinyl tile in our bathrooms, but the more we thought about it, the more we leaned toward the idea. For very little investment, we could update the space. Down the road, when we have the extra $200 or so to invest in tile, we could remove the vinyl tiles with little effort, but in the meantime, the space would be new and clean. If, in the end, we never get around to laying porcelain tiles, the floors would at the very least be new and presentable to a buyer. (No one in our neighborhood with their townhome currently on the market has anything but laminate.)

So we decided to go for it. B did this job himself while I was busy with work-related obligations, so the credit goes 100% to him.

Before (with the shoe molding removed):

And After:

While B was in there with the floor all torn up, he took the time to repaint the trim from cream to white. SO MUCH BETTER.

The tiles we chose are from Lowes, and are plank style, 24×18 I believe. We laid them in a brick pattern (as you can see).

Rather than purchase a new plate for the doorway, we chose to spraypaint the old gold one silver to match the other hardware. The doorknob will be changed soon to match. Gone with the gold!And that’s it! It’s a small room, but boy does new flooring make a huge difference. Other than framing the mirror on the wall and replacing the doorknob, we’re done with this bad boy.

Pear, Lentil, and Brussels Sprouts Salad

Tags

bacon, Brussels sprouts, cooking, dish, food, healthy, lentils, meal, salad

Brussels sprouts are not B’s thing. He tries so hard to like them, and eats them with very little complaint whenever I make them. So this salad was an indulgence for me, not him. Lucky for him, it has other components he can get behind. Like bacon.

This recipe is by Happyolks, and is very easy and very tasty, if I do say so myself. Even B agreed, after eating everything on his plate, that when he got a bite with a mix of all the ingredients, he liked it. I served it with pan-seared tilapia, for a very quick and healthy meal. In hindsight, it would be wonderful with a crisp, cool white wine.

So there you have it, folks. Even if you aren’t a Brussels sprouts person, I urge you to give this a try. One note: I cut the recipe in half, and we have a lot left over. I bet the recipe, when halved, could serve six people for a side dish. Take note.

Head on over to Happyolks for the recipe.

Operation: Dress Up the Front Yard

Tags

curb appeal, DIY, front door, home, house, how-to, renovation, town, townhome

To continue on our “dress up the house without spending any/a whole lot of money” mission, we spent the last two (beautiful!) weekends fixing up our front yard. Because we live in a townhome, there is only so much we can do. So we set out to work with what we have, embrace it, and add some charm to it, all without breaking the bank.

The first thing we undertook was our small yard. We’ve been working on improving the plants since we moved in, and this year, the bushes are looking much improved.

Real estate listing photo:
It’s hard to see the bushes in this photo, but they are in front of the big window, looking small and freshly planted. A week ago:

As you can see, the bushes have filled in and grown (and in the spring have very pretty pink blossoms), but the mulch and the grass are having a party. We needed order, separation of church and state, mulch and grass, to each his own (side). You get the drift. So for $30 in bricks and an afternoon’s worth of time, we created a simple, easy, affordable border:

The grass is just starting to come in now, so in a few weeks it should look nice and green. The other benefit of this is that when we have heavy rainfall, the mulch will no longer rush out all over the walkway and into the yard. Easy, peasy!

Now to our next project. I don’t remember exactly what this one cost, but it was very affordable. Our front door is in less-than-wonderful shape. There are dings in it, dents, and overall wear and tear. We plan to replace it down the road, but until we have $200 that we want to put toward a new front door, we wanted to dress up the one we have.

Again, the before:

After:

Nice, huh? We’re thinking now that we’ll replace the Command hook holding up our (old) wreath with a silver one to match the rest of the hardware, and add a bright green boxwood wreath to blend with the boxwood planter. All in all, not a bad way to work with what you have, all for under $100.

Updating Our Laundry Room—For $20!

Tags

DIY, laundry room, tile, update, upgrade, vinyl

Our laundry room is like the hidden “ugh” in our house. We ignore it, open the double doors to do our laundry, and then hide the ugly beast that it is behind the doors again as quickly as we can. It’s been ignored, by us and all the other (three) owners that this little town home has gone through. The walls are a weird shade of what once may have been red-orange. They’re banged up, scratched, and stained. The floors are 14-year-old laminate, damaged in some spots and yellowed in others.

So on Sunday, when the I-have-to-do-something-productive vibe hit me, I jumped on Pinterest for some inspiration. What could I do that would help our home without spending a dime? That was the mission.

What I stumbled across was a neat laundry room upgrade for $150. Though I didn’t have $150, I did have a lot of leftover paint from all the rooms we’ve redone. An idea  formed. I ran downstairs and began taking the laundry room apart. (I should note here that I did not take the entire room apart by myself. Credit is due to my dear husband, who begrudgingly agreed to my makeover scheme even though it involved moving a very heavy washing machine out of a very small space. Thanks, B!)

A lite makeover ensued. Here’s what we started with on Sunday around 12:30. I was so excited that I took this picture without bothering to straighten up the shelves, so we’re keeping it really real today, guys. Enjoy.

The right side of the room has piping for our sprinkler system that we have to leave in place and work around. It’s ugly, but there isn’t much we can do about it. (It has to be accessible.) The bottom of the floor on the right side is where there is a bit of damage.

As you can see, things are old and faded and dirty.

Or they were old and faded and dirty. Until we did this to them!

The first thing we did was to use some of the leftover paint from our foyer (Benjamin Moore Natural Linen) to repaint the walls. It took one coat of primer and two coats of Natural Linen to get the walls sufficiently covered. Then we waited for the paint to dry, and marked 8-inch intervals on the wall with pencil. We taped them off using a hodge-podge of painters’ tape that we had around the house (thus the green and blue). The differing widths of the tape didn’t matter because we aligned the edge of the tape on the outside of the pencil marks, so that the sections we were painting would be exactly 8 inches. Immediately after painting, we removed the tape, and the Natural Linen section and lightened section were the same widths. (If you try this, make sure your pencil marks are in the areas that you’ll be painting, otherwise you’ll have to go back over them with an eraser after the paint is dry. Speaking from experience here…)

For the lighter shade, we poured a small amount of Natural Linen into the paint tray and then added about double the amount of white paint. Then, mix ‘em until they’re blended. Wa la! Lightened paint in a similar hue without spending a dime (assuming you have white paint on hand).

You’ll have to forgive the poor camera angles. The washer was pretty close to the doorway. Why move it farther than you have to? And the color is about as accurate as I could get it. Small spaces don’t photograph well, especially when combined with my limited camera skills! Because the room is so small and the sides are not very visible, we decided to skip the stripes in those areas.

The next thing we tended to was the floors. Once we got the washer and dryer out of the room, we realized how gross the floors were. Even after we scrubbed them, they were less than fabulous. So B came up with the idea of laying some vinyl tiles. Not only would they be affordable, but they’d be fast to lay and durable—good for an area that has water nearby and carries a heavy load. We made a trip to Lowes, and returned with one box of slate gray vinyl tile, for a grand total of $20.

After allowing the tiles to acclimate to the temperature/humidity in our home, B was able to install the tiles flush with one another (you can grout between the type of tiles we bought, but it’s optional) in about an hour, so installation was a breeze. Even though these are by no means high-end tiles, we think the room has been improved nonetheless.

After installation was complete, we repainted the shoe molding to match the freshly painted white trim (it was all cream before) and reinstalled it. And that’s it! We went over my “not going to spend a dime” budget by $20 for the floor, but it was worth it, we think. And though others online mentioned that they had trouble with these tiles sticking, we had none at all. My advice would be to make sure that your floors are squeaky clean before installation, and also that they’re level. If not, you’ll have to use a leveling compound, something we were thankful to avoid.

One day maybe we’ll invest in some vintage metal baskets to hold all our junk.

And that’s it for the laundry room. I will admit that every once and a while I walk by and open the doors to examine the stripes. I’m a fan. They are so much fun that I might just put them somewhere else in the house. After all, it’s only paint!

Fixing the Fence

Tags

DIY, fence, repair

When we moved in, the fence on the right side of our yard was falling over. (See this picture from earlier this year, during our touch of snow.)

It was pretty bad. The fence itself had come undone from the post, and was just hanging over into our yard. Technically speaking, this is not our fence. Before we moved in, this neighbor took down the 4-foot fence you see around the rest of the yard, and replace the fence in their yard with a 6-foot fence, leaving our yard with an odd conglomeration of 4-foot and 6-foot fencing. I assume the old owner didn’t care and let them do this. Either way, this is what we’ve got. Fast forward to today, and this neighbor isn’t in very good health. So when B offered to repair the fence for him, he jumped at the chance.

So yesterday B did just that. First, he took the vertical pieces of wood down, and saved them. Then he lifted the old post of the ground. It wasn’t hard—the wood had completely rotted through.

Then he had to dig up the old hunk of concrete that was holding (or not) the old post. This proved to be really difficult because whoever built the fence mixed broke pieces of brick into the concrete. B actually broke our shovel getting the concrete out, and had to make an emergency run to Walmart to get a new one.

But finally the concrete plug came up, and B put his concrete class that he took while in school to use, mixing up a new batch to replace the old one with.Once he’d mixed the new concrete, he put a layer of drainage rock in the bottom of the hole, added the new post, and then the concrete.

B used quick-set concrete, so it cured in 20-40 minutes. He waited 4 hours to ensure it was set, and then replaced the dirt he’d unearthed and added new grass seed. Done!

The two newer-looking beams are the spot that used to lean. I wish the pictures did it justice. It looks so much better! Worth every penny of the $20 it cost (plus $20 more for a new shovel).

(No, I did not pose Scout in that position. I actually couldn’t get her to move out of the way. She was very concerned about whether or not we were going to play fetch. Priorities.)

Snow To Start the Year

Tags

Alabama, snow, weather

Last Thursday, we got a little dusting of snow. North of us received a few inches, but we only got a dusting, something to make it feel, at least for a little bit, more like winter.

It hung around for a few hours and then melted away. Scout didn’t seem to care about the snow, only that her favorite blue ball had ice on it, which she thought was concerning.

Happy (Early) Birthday to B

Tags

kitchen, range hood, remodel, renovate

After my last post, my guess is that you’re sensing a theme. A these-people-don’t-wait-for-their-real-birthdays kind of theme. In 2013, you’re right.

For Christmas, B was gifted a number of gift cards to Lowes, our most-convenient home improvement store. So like any good shopper, he pulled up their website to see what was on sale. Lo and behold, he found something. A Whirlpool range hood with good ratings on sale. And with his gift cards, he could get it for under $100. Sold!

We do not currently have a range hood over our stove. We have God’s worst microwave instead. This microwave is 14 years old and dying. Remember how it turned itself on once? It used to do that quite a bit, until we finally unplugged it for good. Leaving it unplugged meant that it was in essence a very ugly looking paper weight, so we were eager to get rid of it and put something less bulky in its place. Enter the range hood.

Before:

After:

It makes an amazing difference to cook without the microwave in your face now (it wasn’t to code; it hung down too close to the cooktop). Like the early birthday gift I received, this gift opens up the space and updates it. It also coordinates with the stainless steel stove. Now picture the room with shiny new black countertops and we’ll be in business.

Happy (Early) Birthday to Me

Tags

dining room, furniture, living, West Elm

On our way back home after visiting family for the holidays, B surprised me with a stop at West Elm. We don’t have one in our state (sad), so we try to stop at ones in cities we pass through on trips. It just so happened that I’ve been saving up gift cards for over a year with the hope that I could buy a particular table that I’ve been in love with for the same amount of time. As luck would have it, they had one in stock (it’s been on backorder quite a bit) and it fit into our already-packed car. So here it is, the Rustic Acacia Console table in its new home in our dining room.

It has truly transformed how that corner of the room looks. Before we had two small bookshelves packed with our signed first-edition collection, and it was too much. Dark and dingy. Now the space looks put-together and bright, and it’s made the entire room feel larger in size.

So happy early birthday to me! Patience (and gift cards) have finally paid off.

Blueberry-Sour Cream Drop Biscuits

Tags

baking, biscuits, blueberries, breakfast, cooking, food, lemon

When the weekends come, I like to make breakfast. Weekday mornings are rushed and, though we both eat breakfast, the meals are less than memorable. There isn’t time for experimenting, for baking, for fun. So Saturday and Sunday mornings are for fun.

This Sunday I woke with a craving for biscuits. It happens sometimes. B doesn’t complain. I lay in bed under the warm covers and thought about what I had on hand: all-purpose flour, organic sour cream that was nearing the ends of its life, some half-and-half leftover from mashed potatoes made on Thanksgiving. Blueberries! Probably just enough too.

These drop biscuits have been in my to-make stack for quite some time. Originally from Bake or Break, they’re light and airy and perfect for a lazy morning with some tea. I made a couple changes, incorporating my current favorite technique of grating the butter on a cheese grater and adding a lemony glaze. Enjoy.

Inspired by Bake or Break

Biscuit Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used kosher)
• 1/4 cup butter, placed in the freezer while you measure out the other ingredients
• 1/2 cup organic sour cream (Our current favorite is Organic Valley)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2-3/4 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

Glaze Ingredients

• Zest of 1 small lemon
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
• Dash of vanilla extract

Method
1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Prepare biscuits: Whisk together the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Grate cold butter over bowl using the large holes of a box cheese grater. Gently stir butter into flour mixture using a fork. Stir in sour cream and milk. (Batter will be very sticky.) Stir in blueberries. (I didn’t worry about the blueberries streaking the batter; you shouldn’t either. They’ll still taste divine.) Drop by scant 1/4 cupfuls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

3. Bake at 375° for 20 to 22 minutes or until light golden brown on top. Remove from oven, and let cool 2 minutes.

No glaze yet.

4. Prepare glaze: Stir together all ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over warm biscuits. (You might not use all the glaze, but this makes enough for you to be as generous as you choose to be. The glaze soaks in pretty quickly, so drizzle right before you’re going to serve.) Serve immediately.

My camera battery died right as I was taking this shot, so it’s not the best quality.

Painting the Porch and Coat Closet

Tags

DIY, home, home renovations, home repair, house, house work, paint, painting, redo, renovations, townhome, townhouse

One of the benefits of staying in town during a holiday is that you have all this extra time you wouldn’t otherwise have to check things off your list. It’s especially handy when this coincides with some beautiful weather. For us, this meant that B had a project he could busy himself with while I prepped and baked Thanksgiving dinner: painting the ceiling of the porch outside.

This porch has seen better days. There’s paint on the brick from where whomever built the old screened-in porch didn’t tape, and there’s unpainted wood where the previous owners tore down said screened-in porch and didn’t paint over the exposed wood. Tsk tsk. So when we had leftover paint from the second story painting project, we knew we had a use for it. We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We’re going to replace the outdoor light, which is sadly out of date, but in the meantime B is spray-painting it black so that it’s at least clean until we can pick out a replacement.

Quite a difference, huh? And we also knocked out another quick paint job, our coat closet, which had surprisingly banged-up walls…

Done! Now, anyone know how to get paint off of bricks? We’d like to clean up the areas that have old paint on them, which we oddly enough didn’t even notice until we painted the ceiling.