Style with Cents

Home Refinance

2012-02-08T20:08:00.001-06:00

Superman and I are waiting for our home refinance to finish up … should close in the next couple weeks. Then, we can hit our big kitchen remodel … can’t wait to show y’all how we are completely redo-ing the kitchen, for less than $500. It’s gonna be awesome. So, stay tuned. :D

How To: Hang Train Tracks

2012-01-16T14:49:00.001-06:00

Y’all are really going to love this one!!!

To begin this project, you need to put together your train tracks and measure to see how big your sheet of masonite board needs to be.

We measured both train sets and cut the masonite boards accordingly. Since we were hanging these on our walls, I wanted them framed … just to add a little bit more of a “finished” touch. (You totally don’t have to do this, if you want to skip a step … and not worry about miter cuts.) We used baseboard for the frames. This project uses 1 sheet of masonite and about 20 feet of baseboard. And then, of course a couple cans of white enamel spray paint (unless you really feel like brushing all that paint on with a brush). Total cost is: just under $30. (Give or take, depending on the glues, adhesives, and paints you have on hand already)

We used a combination of both hot glue and Gorilla glue to attach the frames/baseboard to the boards, then caulked around the inside of the frame to give it the finishing touch.

Once you finish your boards and the paint is dry, lay them flat and once again, put your train tracks together on top of them. Then remove the track, one piece at a time …

… and DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use liquid nails to adhere them to the board. If you try this method, you will find that the glue is no where near as flexible as it needs to be … you will have kiddos crawling across these boards and those tracks will pop right off. Trust me. I speak from experience.

Instead, grab some industrial strength velcro. It’s stronger than liquid nails. Not even joking.

So, remove one piece of track at a time and place a strip of double sided sticky backed velcro on the underside and place the piece of track back in its place. It’s a tedious task … just keep reminding yourself that it is the last time you’ll ever have to put those tricky train sets together!! :D

Once you get the tracks good and stuck on with the velcro (our new favorite adhesive), you can begin brain storming the myriad of options you have for hanging them on your wall. Or, you can learn from all our trial and error and go with the option we chose:

Superman used some solid wood scraps to build little bottom braces to set the trains on. These are mounted to the wall with 3” screws, drilled into studs. (We’ll paint the front of those screws someday … right now … they don’t bother me too much.)

Then, he used some more solid wood scraps to build some top braces that swivel up and down to lock and unlock the boards in place. Seriously. This was pure genius. It makes it super easy to put them away and take them back down again. I’m in love with his problem solving. And, it’s super easy and inexpensive to make these braces.

The end result is pure genius and adorable and functional all at the same time.

The storage space in the toy closet was dramatically cut back … because now I just have two small plastic shoe box size bins with all the trains and controls and props in them.

And now, when my kids say, “Mom, can we play trains?” … I don’t cringe at the thought of having to spend a solid 20 minutes trying to figure out exactly how those trains go together.

And, because the trains are stuck to the board, there is no more crying over one of them messing up or breaking the train track.

Which means that there is that much less fussing and whining and crying in our house on a daily basis.

So, do it! It’s cheaper than buying a train table, takes up hardly any room in storage, saves on time, and makes for a happier playing environment.

You’re welcome! ;)

Creating an Inexpensive Playroom

2012-01-16T14:04:00.001-06:00

As I’ve said before in previous posts, my Grandma lived with us for nearly three years. She recently moved elsewhere, which meant that we had an extra room upstairs. This is the room we lived in while she was with us. (Hence the paint color – something that we don’t feel like changing right now.)

We had two choices: create a guest room (with the furniture we already had), or sell said furniture (and giant king size bed) and create a playroom for the little guys upstairs.

We went with the second option. Who really NEEDS a guest room that gets used once or twice a year? Not us.

Our only problem?

We had ZERO playroom furniture. No entertainment center. No bookcase. No wall hangings. Nothing.

So, we budgeted a very small amount of money towards creating a playroom out of nothing.

And, here is what we came up with:

I’m in LOVE with this cute little room. We had several problems to solve along the way. First problem: Where to put the giant TV (this is an old school TV … that weighs 250 lbs. Not exaggerating or making a joke – it really weighs that much!). We decided it would take up the least amount of room if it was in the corner of the room.

So, I brain stormed and told Superman my idea for a corner-double-shelf-slash-built-in-thingy. I drew out a simple sketch of what I was talking about and he said, “You go get the materials and I’ll build it.” Superman HATES going to Home Depot. Isn’t that hysterical?! I think so.

Anyway, I went to Home Depot and figured out that I could buy one sheet of MDF (they come 4’x8’) and cut that in half … and then cut both halves into half again, but diagonally, and that would give me the 4 perfect sized pieces that I needed for the top and bottom of each shelf. Then, I grabbed 3 pre-cut shelves (the kind they install in your laundry room and pantry – also made of MDF), and that would be enough for the sides and center support. Total price? $13 for the sheet of MDF and $27 for the shelves, so $40 for the pseudo entertainment center … plus a couple cans of white enamel spray paint (Rustoleum, of course ;). Superman knocked that out in one afternoon. (He drilled big 2” holes in the back of the top shelf so that the cords to the DVD and Xbox could hang down behind the TV, instead of hanging all over in front.)

The best part about this corner shelf idea: ALL THE ROOM TO STORE STUFFED ANIMALS! Seriously. By far, my most favorite part. My kids LOVE stuffed animals. It’s always baffled me. I have zero use, need, or value for stuffed animals, so it takes everything in me to not chuck all of them in the Salvation Army bucket.

(There was a trick to setting them all up, and I’m short, so this isn’t the best view, but I put a couple old boxes in the back, covered those up with a blanket, and then topped them with the animals. It made the ones in the back sit high enough to be seen. Silly idea, but it made a big difference in the display.)

And now for another one of the problems we came across: This is a VERY small room … and my kids have a TON of toys. I blame Santa and popularity (large birthday parties). LOL!! Y’all know I’m joking, right? Anyway.

So, I told Gary that it would be awesome if we adhered their train sets to boards so that we didn’t need to take up a ton of room (which we didn’t have) with a train table. (I’ll do a separate post with a tutorial on how to do this. Because, believe me, there was PLENTY of trial and error that went into this.)

So, that solved the no-room-for-a-train-table dilemma. And, it also solved a few other dilemmas: 1. We never have to set up these train sets again!!!! These aren’t easy to set up train sets, or like the IKEA trains that you put together in a number of ways. These train sets have specific directions on how they go together. It’s a nightmare for small kiddos. 2. We didn’t have to come up with any “playroom friendly” wall décor on either of those walls. This was a huge bonus because it totally saved us money (and, I can never find kid type art/wall décor that I like enough to buy and hang).

(I would like to throw a super random plug in here to the parents who picked traditional names for their children … go to eBay and type “Pottery Barn Kids your child’s name” into the search engine. You will be amazed at all the cute and inexpensive things you can find. I found these chair covers for $4.99/each WITH THE MONOGRAM! It’s been years since I bought them, but at the time, there was a knock off manufacturer who made the insert for the chairs and sold them for $20 (they might still be selling on eBay – you never know!). So, I paid $25/each for these chairs, when PBK sells them for close to $100, including monogram. So … check out eBay. I go on from time to time just to see what cute monogrammed things are for sale.)

Problem number three … a smaller part of our original problem … no bookcase. My 3 year old is an avid reader. Stop laughing. I’m dead serious. We were blessed with a child prodigy who is smart beyond her years and has a voracious appetite for reading and books. (No, she doesn’t ACTUALLY read … but she can recite books, word for word, after we’ve read them to her.)

So, we needed somewhere for all of the upstairs books. (I teach preschool and have a classroom downstairs full of books … but we’ve always had a ton of “special” books upstairs that she reads in her room, etc.) I went to IKEA and found similar shelves … but they were $14.99/each. So, once again, I told/showed Superman what I wanted for bookshelves. He sent me to Home Depot … and when I got home, I sent him to the garage. The finished product is perfect!

They are deep enough to hold several books on each. These three little shelves house 78 books! SCORE! (We used crown molding and strips of MDF for the shelf. Total cost for all three shelves: $12. Take that, IKEA.)

I don’t know why the paint color in this room is photographing so unevenly. In case you want the name of this color, it is Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. Pretty much the most beautiful color ever. Not lying.

These two little shelves used to be in our upstairs bathroom before we did the makeover in there. When we took them down, I knew exactly where I wanted to use them next. Since I have such an extreme love for stuffed animals (dripping with sarcasm), I thought they would make for cute decoration if displayed on these little shelves. Note: I hung them high enough that my kids can’t reach them. Because they seriously really are just for decoration. I’m mean like that.

For those wondering … yes, Superman did make this play kitchen. He made it during Thanksgiving Break a couple years ago while we were at his parent’s house. His Dad is Superman, Sr. and the two of them spent quite some time in his Dad’s shop putting this together WITHOUT A PATTERN/PLAN. They just made their own dimensions and went with it. They. Are. Amazing. (The sink is a stainless steel bowl and the oven window is complete with a sheet of plexiglass. Adorable.)

So, back to the second problem of having very little room in the room … I solved that by dedicating every inch of the walk-in closet to shelving for toys … and by removing all ‘toys’ from the room and organizing them onto the shelves in the closet. Superman knocked out the hanging rods and installed a few extra shelves instead.

The end result here is much more functional than clothing racks for clothes that don’t exist.

Now they can take out one bin or one toy at a time and actually have room in their playroom to play with the things they get out.

I just wish that my classroom downstairs came with a walk-in closet … so I could stuff all my preschool supplies in it. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Oh. And the ceiling fan in their playroom used to be … drum roll please … BRASS. Superman took that down, removed the fan blades, and sprayed all the brass with oil rubbed bronze spray paint instead. It looks SO much better.

When he got done, he said: “I actually kind of like that fan now.” My sentiments exactly. We’re giving all those builder grade fixtures ‘the finger’ and it feels great! :D

So … go ahead … lay out your plan of attack for your playroom.

I promise … it will be worth it and your kiddos will LOVE you for it!

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I don’t miss hearing, “MOM!!! Ashley broke the train track AGAIN!!!!!” It’s like sweet {non} music to my ears.

Re-Using an old, discarded chandelier

2012-01-13T18:32:00.001-06:00

We are the original owners of our house. When we moved in, there was a dated BRASS chandelier in the “formal” dining room. A carpeted formal dining room. Seriously? Who eats on carpet? Well, we quickly replaced the chandelier with a ceiling fan … because we live in Dallas … and we were never using the carpeted room for a formal dining room anyway.

To my complete shock (and almost horror), Superman found the chandelier in our attic recently. I don’t know why we hung on to it because there is NO way I would hang it in our house. You’ve seen it before. You might even HAVE this exact chandelier in your home. If you do and you love it, my apologies.

Here is the most recent victim of our Rustoleum goodness:

I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture … you know … before we declared war on all that brass.

After we sprayed it bronze, I was so excited that I had hung on to that ugly brass chandelier because I knew exactly where it needed to go …

… in our entry way. To replace … yet again … more brass. I almost didn’t get a ‘before’ picture of that dusty hanging light. I had to snap a quick pic while Superman was on the ladder taking it down.

We used the same long chain from the original hanging light and just spray painted that too … we needed it … the other chain just wasn’t long enough.

It took Superman a couple hours to take the old one down, remove the chain/wiring, spray paint it, and then re-wire the chain and wires to the newly spray painted chandelier. Then, he hung it up … and holy moly …

… it looks so much better than the dated brass hunk of glass and junk that used to hang in its place.

Seriously. For the whole $2 worth of paint that it took to change out the two fixtures, it was WELL worth it. Because at this point in time, the game is: trying to change everything out while spending the least amount of money possible.

Mission. Accomplished.

$1 Front Porch Light Makeover

2012-01-08T22:08:00.001-06:00

Our latest project:

Updating the sad porch light out front. The thing was beat to smithereens during a record breaking hail storm last April. Well. That … and it was just plain ugly to begin with.

Behold, I give you more brass:

And then, a few minutes later after we kicked its butt with some spray paint:

Total cost: About a dollar. Booyah.

Saving the world. One ugly porch light at a time.

How to: Hang a swing or trapeze in your home

2012-01-06T13:11:00.001-06:00

As I have said before, we live in Texas. Last year, we broke the all time record for most days over 100 degrees. It was something like 77 days or another ridiculous number close to that.

When it is that hot outside … you do not send your tiny children out. They will cook to death. So, our solution was simple:

Bring the fun of the outdoors … IN! Here’s how:

1. Locate a joist or solid beam in your home; One that has plenty of room on either side … conducive to swinging. Perhaps … a doorway or hallway. ??

2. Pick up some porch swing hangers (the hardware shown below). I’ve been able to find them at Wal-Mart all three times I’ve needed them. They cost about $6 for the two pieces.

3. Screw those puppies into the joist. The ones we use are about 6 inches long and at least 1/4” in diameter – these are some big screws!

4. Figure out how high or low your swing(s) needs to hang and make adjustments accordingly. Our children were very small when we first installed our swings, so additional rope, to lengthen the swing, was necessary.

5. If you are making a trapeze (or “monkey swing” as it is called in our house), you just want to pick up a piece of wooden rod (about 14” across), drill a hole on either end, thread some good rope through it, and tie it off in knots under the rod. Bingo. A trapeze swing for pennies!

6. You can find swings, like the green one pictured, at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Toys R Us, and many other stores for around $12/each. They are worth every penny!

Once you’ve installed your indoor swing set … sit back and watch, with calm assurance, as your 3 year old pushes your 1 year old on the swing:

These are great in the winter time too … when it’s just too cold to go outside! As you can see, you can also install a baby swing … at the time this picture was taken, we had three swings hanging … the baby one, the trapeze, and the seated swing.

This was one purchase/install that we have never regretted. Hours and hours of enjoyment, watching our children swing and squeal in delight.

And, there’s nothing better than watching them swing, spider style, either:

BTW, since this was installed in a joist … my husband and I often swing with the kiddos on our lap. It can take the weight! It’s held over 300 lbs of adults and kids before and never budged.

For those of you with questions:

1. No, we have not noticed any wear pattern on our carpet under the swings. Not even a little bit.

2. When we don’t want the swings down … we just tie them up on a hook, which is mounted on the side of the wall. When we want them down again, we just unhook them and they drop right back into place.

$2 Ceiling Fan Make-over (with tutorial)

2012-01-06T11:09:00.001-06:00

Here we go again … more brass. It’s every where. EVERY. WHERE.

We live in the Dallas, Texas area … which means that there is a ceiling fan in every room … to keep us from melting in the scorching summer heat. :D

Here is my daughter’s bedroom ceiling fan. Builder’s grade. Ugly. Brass.

So, I had Superman take the fan down … I cleaned it up really good with soapy water … and I sent the poor guy back out to the garage to spray paint it. Since he’s a firefighter, he was worried about the white plastic that surrounds the casing that the light bulbs are screwed into. See what I am talking about in the picture below? Those white tube things? He did NOT want those sprayed with spray paint, aka flammable material. (The last thing we need is the firefighter setting his own house on fire!) So, he taped those off really good so they would not get paint on them. I must recommend that you do this. There, I recommended it.

To make the job easy, he suspended a 2x4 from a couple of buckets in the garage, screwed the fan mount to the board, and then just hung the fan from the 2x4. It made it super easy to paint.

The whole process, start to finish, was only a couple hours and literally cost pennies. Maybe a third of a can of spray paint? Maybe? And believe me, you’d spend more time if you bought a new fan … put it together … and then hung it up. This was easy peasy.

Here’s the before and after:

Sorry. Those aren’t the best pictures. The fan was on … and I was too lazy to pull the cord to turn it off. ;)

$15 alternative to painting a dresser

2012-01-06T10:55:00.001-06:00

Six years ago, my husband and I took a trip to Haverty’s to buy some furniture for our unborn son. We are sort of furniture snobs … when it comes to dressers and beds, we only buy solid wood. Period. End of discussion.

At the time, we were rookie furniture buyers. And the set of bunk beds and matching dresser that met our durability criteria only came in this natural color. Not my favorite. At all. BUT, I’d rather have a natural colored dresser that withstands the test of time, than a different color of junky furniture that we’d have to replace in a couple years. I digress.

So, we made the purchase.

It has since been moved into our daughters room. We did not paint our son’s room bright pink. We aren’t that harsh.

Anyway, I never liked the wooden knobs on the dresser.

Never. Seriously … wooden knobs?! But, I always had the intention of replacing them with some beautiful metal knobs … and then got busy making babies, building my own preschool, being a mom and wife, yadda yadda … and those metal knobs went by the wayside.

Now that we’re on this kick to actually follow through with all of our intended projects, for the lowest bottom dollar, I did what I always do these days: I sent Superman to the garage to spray paint those knobs. (yes, Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze)

And, see the mirror that is sitting on the floor behind the dresser? Yeah. A friend gave us that mirror 3 years ago when she redid and room in her home and no longer needed it. We intended to frame it. 3 years ago. Sigh. So … I sent him to the garage with the mirror while I ran to Home Depot to buy $10 worth of baseboard. :D

A few hours later:

We had a beautiful framed mirror … and a revamped dresser … with minimal effort. The project took only a couple hours of time … and less than $15 (baseboard and paint), since we already had the mirror. However, you can frame a purchased sheet of mirror, which you can buy at Home Depot for cheap!!!

And now, the before and after:

Completely changes the look of the whole thing … hardly any work, hardly any money. That mirror looks way more expensive than $10, don’t you think?

I’m telling you … don’t bother sanding, scraping, priming, and painting. Paint up the knobs to match a nice framed mirror. Booyah.

$20 Bathroom Refurb

2012-01-06T00:21:00.001-06:00

We just completed the refurb on our upstairs bathroom. The ‘before’ pictures on this are a little crazy with clutter because for nearly 3 years, we shared this small bathroom with both of our children. (My Grandma moved in with us, we gave her our master bedroom/bathroom downstairs, and we moved upstairs with the kids. Sacrifice of serious proportions and love.)

Anyway. Here is what the bathroom once was. Holy clutter. We were just trying to survive.

My eyes are burning with all the clutter. There was NO WHERE to store our bathroom supplies, so I turned to hanging buckets on the wall … yes, those are the same buckets that now hang in my master bathroom. Good eye!

Yikes. Clearly, not going for aesthetics at this point.

100% functionality. The picture frames were empty at the time that these pictures were taken (nearly 3 years ago). I did, however, put pictures in them later. I swear. ;)

I’m in bath toy hell right about now. Please. Someone come save me!

That was our life. For 3 years. 2 adults, 2 children. Makes me itch just thinking about the confinement. ;)

And, here we are now:

We used the same Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint for this project. I’m a little obsessed. But, don’t knock me until you try out the color. It’s gorgeous and magnificent. Too bad it photographs black … because it is not black.

You’ll notice that all of the fixtures and door knobs were sprayed with bronze.

We also took down all the craziness from the past 3 years and de-cluttered the small bathroom. No more make shift shelves or stainless steal buckets full of cords. Ahhhh.

No more bath toy hell either. Can I get a hallelujah?! ;)

I have always hated the faucet in the bathroom upstairs. Very dated. And the red and blue hot and cold handles … seriously … like we need them labeled? If you haven’t figured out which one is hot and which one is cold by the time you are old enough to recognize color coding, you don’t deserve to wash your hands! ;) So … I did what I do with every other builder grade aspect I don’t like: I had Superman spray paint it. It looks better in real life than it does in the photograph. :D

And … here are the before and after pictures:

This was the flooring when we bought the house … we had it tiled a few years ago. The cost of tiling the floor is not included in this $20 makeover.

Huge difference.

$6 of spray paint and $14 of baseboard for the mirror.

Yes, we spray painted the toilet handle up here too. ;)

Bye, bye color coded hot and cold handles!

All four of us love the new look. My kids feel so special now!! :D

How to: Disassemble your shower trim

2011-12-30T20:35:00.001-06:00

Okay. Someone asked for a tutorial. Here is the best I can do:

Begin disassembling your shower by pulling out all of the rubber braces from both the inside and outside of the shower. If your shower does not have these, I guess you just omit this … and maybe find another tutorial because I can’t tutor you on a subject I don’t understand myself. ;)

Once you have removed all the rubber braces things, you’ll want to carefully begin unscrewing the different pieces from one another. WARNING: This is a two person job, minimum. No exceptions. You cannot do this yourself. Even if you are Superman.

We started at the back corner of the shower, opposite the door, pulled the top section off, and then kind of followed an obvious order on what to take apart next. PLEASE make a note of where each piece goes and how it fits back together. There are so many pieces … and it’s difficult to put the puzzle back together once you are done. Difficult. Not impossible, just difficult.

Once you have all of the pieces taken apart and your shower is totally disassembled, you’ll need to start soaking. Soaking? Yes. Soaking. Our solvent of choice was Xylene (you can find it at Home Depot). That stuff eats through plastic cups in 3 minutes flat. This is good news … cause you’ll have an awful lot of silicone caulking that will need to be soaked and eaten up by the Xylene. Soak all the parts with silicone in the Xylene for about an hour. Then, it will be loose enough to scrap right off with a razor blade.

After you have successfully removed every shred of silicone (and I mean every shred – paint will not stick to silicone … NOTHING sticks to silicone), you can begin sanding. Use a very fine grit sand paper and lightly sand all of the surfaces of the trim.

Clean and dry all trim pieces … and then … rig up a ridiculous apparatus in the garage so that you can begin spraying all the pieces. Your ghetto rig job should look something like this:

(Don’t judge me based on my garage right now. We are in the middle of re-doing our entire house … by ourselves. This is our workshop for now.)

Superman took fishing line (you can use very thin string as well) and tied several pieces back and forth across 4 boards in the garage. Then, he laid the pieces of trim on top of those and sprayed the top and bottom and sides all at the same time. (You’ll want to string your lines high enough that you can get under them to spray them at the same time.)

When he was finished, there was just tiny little spots that needed to be touched up with a small brush, which I did after the shower was put back together. (I just sprayed some of the spray paint into the lid of the can and used a small water color brush to touch up the imperfections) You’ll need to do a few touch ups after you get the shower put back together, so don’t panic if you chip any paint in the process. Once you touch it up, it holds up REALLY well. We’re a month in (and about 50 showers in) and there is no visible wear. :D

When you put the shower back together, you need to make sure that you put silicone caulking under each piece that touches the surface of the shower, whether it is on the floor or wall. Then, use silicone caulk to caulk all of the edges of the trim around the entire shower.

Like I said, it’s intense. But, totally worth it! :D

And, you can enjoy your very own before and after pictures!!

Table for Five

2011-12-30T16:09:00.001-06:00

Superman built this at the end of the summer, when I presented him with a challenge: seat 5 kids in a 6 square foot space. The outcome was perfect!

The table, or ‘bar’ if you will, is a 6 foot shelf from Home Depot. I picked one that was laminate (read: WATER PROOF) for $13.

Then, I found a couple shelf braces and painted those with a bright white enamel to match. $6/each.

The chairs are from IKEA, and came in at $12.99/each. I think.

He mounted the table just under the window sill and then caulked the tiny gap between the two. It was a super easy project, took a couple hours of time, and cost about $90, including chairs. In the event that you find yourself needing to seat quintuplets in a small space, you now have the solution. ;)

$50 Master Bath Re-do

2011-12-20T16:25:00.001-06:00

Finally.

After 6+ years of loving the size of our master bathroom, but not loving the look of our master bathroom, we decided to change it.

Only problem? Our budget.

$50.

I honestly had no idea how much we could accomplish, but set out to change the look of our bathroom as much as possible … using our tiny little budget. I would love to change out the light fixture and faucets … but in order to change all 3 faucets, the shower head/kit, and light fixture, it was a hefty $1,000. Um. No.

Instead, using my trusty Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint … we stuck with the old and pushed forward with the face lift.

Gary took down the old light fixture and spray painted it with oil rubbed bronze (it looks black, but it’s not). He taped off the entire bathroom and used the same oil rubbed bronze to spray the cabinets with. They. Are. Gorgeous.

He also built the mirror frame using baseboard from Home Depot. The baseboard was around $18, give or take a few cents.

He also took down the towel rod and sprayed that to match.

By far, the trickiest part was the shower trim. Superman had to take the entire shower apart, sand down all of the silicone, spray paint everything to match, put it all back together, and silicone everything to make it once again water proof. Serious work. I will not lie to you. However, what would have cost us around $800 to replace … wound up costing us a mere $5 to paint. And, I’m happy to report that after several showers, it is holding up nicely. (Rustoleum is an indoor/outdoor paint, so we knew it could take the water)

All of the handles on the faucets were brass. I hate brass! So, we unscrewed them and sprayed those too. Why not?!

Then, I dug out a couple of treasures that I bought while I was in college. Yes, 11 years ago. I’m impressed that I still had them.

Even more impressed that I once purchased something so ugly. They were $1 each … and I needed somewhere to store my paints. Fast forward 11 years, and bam:

I now have a unique washcloth bin/holder … and …

a convenient cubby to hold 2 extra rolls of toilet paper in my toilet closet …

… so simple and so perfect! We didn’t care for the trash can that was in the toilet closet; however, I wasn’t about to spend another dime on a trash can … so, we spray painted it. Again, why not?! We also spray painted the toilet handle and toilet paper holder while we were at it. :D

And, since we were already spray painting everything else, we decided to take off all the outlet covers and switch plates and spray those too. Because I am OCD … and I like it when absolutely everything matches.

This chic towel rod/holder used to be a brace for my Grams to help herself on and off of the toilet. It was a shiny chrome that matched exactly nothing. We spray painted it … and now it’s a towel rod … much better looking than the builder grade circular towel holder that used to be in its place.

These are not the most aesthetically pleasing light fixtures; however, if I use what I have, I spend less. This is the goal.

On Black Friday, I stood in line at Kohl’s for 2 1/2 hours. As a reward, I scored 4 bath mats, 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels, and 4 wash clothes for $23. Well worth the wait … at 3am. ;)

So, here is the breakdown:

$18 for baseboard

$23 for towels/bath mats

$10 for spray paint

The project took us a solid two weeks. Although we didn’t spend much money, it was very labor intensive … but oh, so worth it! Here’s a final before/after look:

Worth every penny … and every minute! :D

$5 Powder Bath ‘Renovation’

2011-12-10T15:15:00.000-06:00

I know this isn’t really a renovation … but we managed to ‘disguise’ all of the previous ‘builder grade’ aspects of the small little room.

This is what the bathroom looked like when we first bought the house, 6 years ago. The craziest part to me is that this bathroom was built in 2005. That is LINOLEUM on the floor. And brass hardware on the doors/sink/fixtures. Linoleum and brass. In 2005. I digress.

So, a couple years ago, while my husband was on ‘forced vacation’ for 2 months, we upgraded the floors to 18x18 tile. Tile … which was free. Before my husband was laid off, he worked in the construction industry and was given all sorts of materials. He was also the only Spanish speaking supervisor (or employee, for that matter) at his company. Which meant that when it came time to have a little tile installed … my husband’s tile crew was there. And did it for … nothing. Who does that?!

Since then, we decided to change out all the hardware throughout the house. No more brass. Anywhere. I hate brass. Problem is … it’s expensive to change out every piece of hardware. I know, because I shopped. And shopped. And shopped. The cheapest that I could change out JUST door handles for the whole house was $400. Ridiculous for something totally cosmetic.

Well, we got creative recently and bought a few cans of Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. I’m telling you … that stuff is magic in a bottle. We got busy. And, here is the result.

My husband built that mirror frame a couple years ago out of some old flooring pieces he was given … but, we had painted it black, which didn’t match anything in our house. So, he took it down, along with the iron hanging above the toilet, and sprayed them to match the light fixture, faucet, toilet paper holder, towel ring, doorknobs, trashcan, and yes … step stool. That $3 step stool used to look like this:

And thanks to a little spray paint, it now matches everything and looks like this:

I know. I’m hysterical. Laugh yourself all the way to Walmart and pick yourself up some Rustoleum. :D

Here’s a few more pictures:

Like I said, yes, we painted the trash can … AND the toilet handle. Sounds silly. LOOKS awesome.

Oh. And the toilet paper holder. Can’t forget to spray paint that one. ;)

The light fixture (which doesn’t photograph very well with the lights on OR off), towel ring, faucet, and electrical plate:

The handles on the faucet used to be … you guessed it … brass, along with everything else. We simply unscrewed the handles and sprayed them along with everything else.

And, there you have a simple $5 bathroom ‘renovation’. Of course, you’ll want to budget a little more to lay tile. This was just one aspect of our overhaul that we lucked out on.

We found Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint to be the cheapest at Walmart: $5.77/can. (Although we also found it at Lowe’s AND Home Depot) Worth every cent!

Here’s one last side by side comparison:

Refurbishing Hardware

2011-12-07T16:39:00.000-06:00

It finally happened. After 6+ years of living in this house with brass hardware everywhere … and cheap white plastic light plates and outlet covers … I decided to take the time to take off every single door handle, lock plate, dead bolt, outlet cover, switch plate, etc. and used Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint to give everything a face lift … for pennies. That’s what I call MAKING CENTS!
So, here is everything before:

Builder’s grade brass …

… and cheap white plastic covers on everything.

Superman set up the garage, covered everything of value with tarps, and went to work.

He had everything down to a science. He stuck all the screws through a shoe box lid so that the tops of every screw got painted as well.

But, he wasn’t about to stick bright white safety covers into those outlets … so he rigged up a few more box tops and painted all of the safety covers to the outlets to match. Here is the result:

Uncovered, I think they look great (sorry about the blurriness) …

Slap the painted safety covers on and they blend in well and look so sharp on the wall.

I am not going to lie to you … this project was intensely time consuming. Plan on about 2 full days of work. It takes lots of time to get every piece of hardware off of every door and wall … and then a couple hours to get everything painted evenly without drips.

Speaking of drips … see how the handles are lined up across the 2x4 in that picture? Yeah. Don’t do that. Drip. City. Instead, paint them while they are upright (as shown in the picture just above that one). Much better result … way less frustrating. (ps- Check out the mismatched frames hanging up … they all got a coat of paint to match. However, again, I would lay them flat/horizontal, not vertical. Way less dripping that way)

This is the hardware on the front door (please ignore the dirty paint … we’ll get there eventually). It was so weathered and worn out. It used to be brass. But, by the time we painted it (and made it look amazing again) it was looking really worn out. I had priced out hardware to replace it: $180 on the low end. Um. No thanks. How about 50 cents worth of spray paint instead? :D

The inside of the front door. Light plate, handle, deadbolts … all painted to match.
Don’t they look so sharp?!

In all, we replaced 29 door handles and probably 100 outlet covers and switch plates. Total cost? About $15 worth of spray paint. Total savings? About $1,000. Win.

Here’s the side by side, one last time:

And yes, everything is holding up GREAT!

Repurposing an old picture frame

2011-12-06T16:10:00.000-06:00

About a month ago, I hit the point where I was tired of everything looking 1. cheap, and 2. tired. However, I am a FIRM believer of ‘Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do, or Do without!’
Thanks to a trusty little can of Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, I was able to give all of my picture frames a new lift and a fresh look. Plus, they all match now … even if they are different styles. The result was awesome. I’ll be continuing my quest to give all of my accessories a face lift, but for now, let me show you what I am talking about. Here is a $10 picture frame from IKEA that I purchased a couple years ago:

Boring and cheap looking, right? Right.

Well. Check it out now:

It’s amazing what a little spray paint can do for something. I spray painted both the frame and the matting to match. Then, I flipped it horizontal and hung it up on a different wall in my house.

Mission accomplished.

Total cost: Probably 50 cents worth of spray paint. Win.

Here’s the side by side comparison:

How To: make rain gutter bookshelves

2011-12-05T15:54:00.000-06:00

I love the look of rain gutter bookshelves. But, I hate the actual rain gutter ones. So, when I decided to turn a wall in the preschool room into a bookshelf, I knew it had to match the crown molding in the room … which isn’t in the picture. Because I’m just awesome like that. ;)

So, I asked Superman to pick up some 4” crown molding. He measured the wall before heading to Home Depot. He had them cut the pieces down to size so that his job wasn’t as bad when he started. He still had to make a few cuts and tweak things to make them work (who knew that walls could be so imperfect?!).

He used the 4” crown molding and then another 3” strip of wood, so act as the shelf for the books to sit on. Here is what the actual construction looks like:

Don’t forget to caulk all of the imperfections … and along the back of the shelf, by the wall. And measure the distance between each shelf with precise, exact measurements. Use a level when you install the shelves.

Then, putty the holes and paint.

I think, in all, it took him just under 2 hours, start to finish. It wasn’t a difficult project at all. Anyone with a nail gun can do this, especially if you have Home Depot make all the cuts for you.

The finished product is so dang cute and it really brightens up the preschool room. Thank you, Superman!

I love Pinterest

2011-12-02T20:06:00.001-06:00

It's true.

I'm an addict.

I was once a skeptic.

And was once very frustrated trying to figure out how to get the 'pin it' button on my browser.

I didn't get it.

But when I finally did ...

... It was magical.

I've been taking mental notes of all the things I'd like to do around my house (for cents!) and now I am finally ready to begin the overhaul ahead of me.

You see.

We've been in this home for 6 1/2 years.

We've never really decorated it.

We hung a few things here and there.

Painted the walls.

But never really set out to make everything feel like it had a purpose and was thought out and done with intent.

So.

Here we are.

I hope you enjoy my anything-but-fancy-or-formal 'tutorials', if you can even call them that.

It's okay if you laugh at my ideas.

My husband usually does.

Amen.