Staining your worn out fence for dirt cheap …

Okay. So this project is no where near as fun to look at as a kitchen or bathroom remodel … but nevertheless, it was on our list and we found a way to save a boat load of money … so here we are.

As I’ve said before, we bought this house 6 1/2 years ago. What I haven’t said is WHY we bought this house. I grew up in a much more urban area than I live in now … and my husband grew up in the country. We compromised … and moved slightly farther out, but I didn’t cave and buy a barn chock full of barn animals either. However, we did buy a home with a decent sized yard. The tax documents say that our home lot is 1/2 an acre. For those of you living on farms … stop laughing. For my more urban self, 1/2 acre is about a 1/2 acre more than I was looking for. So, in a nutshell, we bought the house for the yard. Not the brass. Not the white Formica. Not the builder grade carpet. It was the yard. We bought it for the yard. And never looked back. ;)

Said 1/2 acre also comes with a LOT of wood fence. So much wood fence, that it required 25 gallons of paint/stain to cover it. Fence stain isn’t cheap, in case you haven’t priced it out yet. So … after pricing it out 6 1/2 years ago … we promptly gave up on the idea of spending $900 on fence stain. Yes, folks. I said $900. On. Fence stain.

So, fast forward 6 1/2 years … and our fence was looking nice and … nasty. Ugly. Gray. Worn. Weathered. We knew we were going to have to replace the whole thing soon … because we never did splurge on the $900 for fence stain.

Then, about 6 months ago, a big storm knocked down the entire back side of our fence. We were exposed. Luckily, Superman has salvaged a bunch of steel fence posts from the neighborhood (HOA) fence that was being replaced prematurely (because there wasn’t a thing wrong with these steel fence posts). So, he set the steel fence posts in concrete and bought new cross panels. Then, he took off each and every picket, pulled all the nails out … and screwed each one back up. (He’s only done this along the back side so far, but we have steel posts for the entire perimeter … another day … another project)

Then, he bleached the fence, to wash out all the old gray. And then. THEN, Superman got one of his best ideas yet. He noticed during a routine Home Depot visit that they were selling several 5 gallon buckets of fence stain for $20 (they are usually $180/each). Home Depot calls these particular buckets … ‘Oops’ paint. It’s paint that people have purchased but didn’t like, so they took the paint back for whatever reason. Only problem? Every color is completely and totally horrid. Like, so ugly that you have NO idea why anyone would have thought to purchase it in the first place.

However … If you buy 5 different colors and dump them all together … and then add a little tint … you end up with a decent color. And, you also end up with 25 gallons of said decent color. So … that is just what Superman did. He bought 5 separate 5 gallon buckets and dumped them all into a big trash can (probably a 35 gallon can). Then, he stirred and mixed and mixed and stirred. And finally … for the grand total of $100 … we had the perfect color and enough stain to make our ugly old fence look new again. Take a look for yourself. :D
Here is the fence before (we did have to replace about 40 pickets because there were about 40 overall that just weren’t worth salvaging) the stain, but after the bleach process:



And here it is after the stain:



See. There are still a few wobbly looking fence posts, but those will soon be replaced with steel ones anyway. For now … it did the trick and fixed a HUGE eye sore … for very little money, considering how big our fence actually is. I am only showing you a tiny little corner of this great big old fence. :D

So, y’all … run, run, run. Find yourself some ‘Oops’ paint. And fix your old worn out fence. You won’t regret it!



Total cost: $100. For about 1,000 linear feet. Give or take a couple hundred. Brilliant.

The $750 Complete Kitchen Remodel

Finally. Here it is.


It took a total of 5 weeks, start to finish. Minus 2 days. 2 days shy of 5 weeks … not bad, considering that this was a one man project. I’m telling you. He. Is. Superman.

Without further chatter, here are the before pictures:


Typical builder grade, pre-fab wood cabinets … complete with bright white wood trimmed formica. And uber boring backsplash.


Lots of fake/faux wood veneer on every side panel of the cabinets. Builder penny pinching at its finest.


I would like to say that there wasn’t anything wrong with our kitchen. If your kitchen looks like mine, it’s a lovely fully functioning kitchen … it’s just boring. That’s all. ;)


And the desk. Oh man. The desk. Two tiny cabinets that didn’t hold much at all. That desk was a continual struggle for my OCD self.


Paper hanging lanterns … cause I used to think they looked ‘cool’. I don’t know. I really just don’t know. So, don’t ask.


This 7” white porcelain sink might have been my absolute least favorite thing about this very plain kitchen. It was the ‘armpit’ of the kitchen, if you will.

And finally, my el cheapo IKEA chair … purchased many years ago out of desperation when I just couldn’t find a desk chair (within my budget) that I liked.

Combine all those boring builder grade (or worse) aspects … wait 6 1/2 years … and you’ll be where I was at. I was just plain tired of that kitchen. Tired of keeping it clean. Tired of cooking in it. Entertaining in it. Doing dishes in it. I needed change.

And … here we are:


Superman ripped out the crown moulding on the cabinets and replaced it with thicker moulding, added trim on the bottom side of the cabinets, installed under cabinet lighting, replaced the veneer side panels with trimmed bead board, painted the inside and outside of the cabinets, replaced the counters with marble, replaced the sink, replaced the backsplash with split faced travertine, replaced light fixtures … and then, called it quits. :D

There really are no words for the finished product. That backsplash consists of 1,700 tiles … each placed one at a time.

The marble tiles used for the countertops were painstakingly cut to be installed with a zero grout line.

We found unfinished cabinets at Home Depot for roughly $200 … and Superman finished them out with paint, crown moulding, bead board, and under trim to match the rest. He’s going to install under cabinet lighting here as well … and clearly, we have a cord situation that we need to take care of; but, overall, I am very pleased with the desk area.


I kissed all of the IKEA mirrors and clutter goodbye … and hung a homemade-by-Superman triple mirror in its place.


Superman even refinished my kitchen table … read about that here.

We also replaced the paper lantern with an identical ceiling fan … this is Dallas, people. You cannot have too many ceiling fans … and this new addition makes ceiling fan #9 for this house. :D


The lights above the sink and desk are original to the home … we dug them back out of the attic and spray painted the brass bases with the oil rubbed bronze paint.

He did such a beautiful job … I am truly one spoiled girl.


One of my favorite parts is the new stainless 9” deep sink and goose neck faucet, with built in soap dispenser. :D I know I sound silly. It’s the little things.


To give the chair a face lift, he sprayed the base with oil rubbed bronze spray paint … and then painted the seat and back to match the cabinets. I love it!

So, here are the before and after pictures … side by side.








Here is the break down of cost, for those interested in duplicating something similar:

Marble tiles (Crema Fedora): $200 (about 100 feet at $2/ft)

Paint (Sherwin Williams Turkish Coffee in an oil based glossy enamel): $50

Sink and faucet (sold together as a set at Home Depot): $250

Pre-fab unfinished cabinets: $200

Under cabinet lighting: $50

We spent a total of about $750 … but that backsplash was free for us. Superman brought it home about 5 years ago when he was working in home building. Another homeowner didn’t like the backsplash, so it was ripped off the wall. We cut the tiles off the fiberglass backing and scraped all the glue off and then installed them one at a time. It was a labor of love … but that same backsplash would have been $15/ft otherwise.

I’m currently pricing new appliances … I’ve found several appliance packages for all 4 of our built in appliances that sell for around $800 for all 4 total, through Craigslist. I’m just trying to sell a few things to pay for them, so I don’t feel guilty going out of pocket for an unnecessary purchase. The bulk of this kitchen remodel was funded by Christmas money we received from my parents, Gary’s parents, and family. Gotta love that. ;)

What do you think? Worth $750?? ;)

PS- I do not know why all of my pictures are blurry when I upload them. They aren’t blurry on my computer. Sorry.