Holy GRUB!!!

So it all started one Saturday morning with Darrell and I getting up on a ladder and cleaning out our gutters.  This was a first for me.  I guess some things you just don't get to experience in life until you own your own home.  I don't think they had been cleaned in years and had collected some major leaves.  

While we were feeling pretty productive, I suggested cleaning up some other areas of our yard.  Apparently, our back yard is like the Discovery channel.  No really!  For a second, I knew what it was like to be Bear Grylls... Check out these crazy bugs we found while digging up some mulch that was left by our garbage cans.  The first one we came across was the grub.  It was pretty pissed that we discovered it, but we still had to take pictures of it.  It kept trying to use its jaws and 6 orange legs to dig back into the ground.  The second one we found, as we dug a little deeper, was what we think is a rhino beetle.  So cool.  I wish I had an image so you could get perspective of exactly how LARGE they were, but I'd say there were half of the size of my fist.  

Darrell at one point was like, "Bear Grylls would eat the grub..."  and looks at me.  Gross. :o)  I told him to go for it.  What did we do with them one might ask?  We felt bad for disturbing them from their home, so we put them out with the compost.   

DIY Headboard

For our new house, I wanted to spice up our room a little bit. Of course, new house means new everything, right? If only my wallet would allow for that. Well I love do it yourself projects, so I figured I could find a pattern and make my own head board. I had been searching for fabric all over online, but it was happen stance that I came across one that I loved. And as you will see, this is where my blog header came from. :o) I purchased enough for both a head board and some throw pillows that will be made soon.

The one thing that I didn't think about was the direction of the pattern. I wanted originally to just do one single board covered with fabric, but once I took it home, I realized that wasn't possible while keeping the pattern vertical instead of horizontal. So I debated using 2 boards or having the fabric pattern the other way. I finally decided that using 3 boards would look best.

When my brother and I made the head board, we first spread out the batting on the floor and placed the largest plywood board onto the batting.

This will give you a "fluffy" look, and if you want more, you can use foam as well. I just wanted a slight puffy look, so we just used batting. We made sure there was about 5 inches of extra on each side of the board. I used a staple gun to secure the batting once folded over the edge of the board. I suggest cutting off some of the extra on the corner so you can fold it easier, and this makes it the same size all the way around. Once I put enough staples into the batting and it is secure, I took a hammer and make sure they were all flush to the board.

Once I got the batting on all the pieces of the boards, I then repeated this with the fabric. Once thing to note when you are dealing with the fabric is the pattern. It had slipped my mind that with my fabric, the rows should line up on each board. Not only that, but also since I was doing 3 boards, that they all should line up. However, some of these mistakes make for the best results. Make sure that you look at the fabric and all is in place before hammering down the screws. I actually had to take some of my staples out and readjust my fabric because the pulling had adjusted the pattern.

The most difficult thing for me was finding flush mounts to secure the boards onto the walls. You'd think places like Lowe's and Home Depot would have them... I was wrong. I did find them at Target and was so excited to finally get it hung today. To put them up, we first took a level and drew a straight line on the back of the board. You want to make sure (depending on how many you want to use) they are both even. Then take the drill and make holes into the board. Make sure you do not go through the batting or fabric. We used the screws that came with the flush mounts since they were only a little bit longer than the board we used. We then had to find the center of where I wanted my bed to be. We again measured out a straight line with the level and drew onto the wall. We adjusted the line to match where the mounts were.

The boards I used were actually pretty heavy. We decided to use wall anchors for the top 4 screws on the large board. Once we got all the screws in the wall for the main board, we went ahead and placed the board on the wall. I was not sure exactly the distance I wanted the side boards, so we played with the distances a bit. We ended up placing them about 1.5 inches from the larger board and 6 inches down from the top to add some drama. We then attached the mounts to the other 2 boards. Because they were much lighter, we only used 1 per board. Once we drew them out on the wall, we were ready to place the boards on. Here is the final product, minus some fabulous pillows that will be added soon.

New home discoveries

It has been one project after another since we got into the new house. It's funny that every project that we start [even what we think will be the quick easy ones] takes 10x longer than expected.

Case in point was our patio door. We purchased a new sliding door for our back patio and decided to put it in ourselves on Sunday. I took the first step and ripped off the screen door - liberating! Although we got the correct size for the space, the square was slightly larger, which resulted in a few issues. I was lucky enough that it was over Memorial weekend and we had some friends and family down to help us. Once we finally ripped out the side paneling, layer by layer, the boys were able to get the entire piece out. At this point we felt pretty good about what we were doing. It wasn't until we looked at the directions that we realized we did not have half the items needed to put the door on. After a quick trip to the nearby Lowe's, we were back on track. This is one project you need to go by the book. Several hours later, the boys had the door securely on. Now, the only thing we need to finish is the cosmetic pieces to the door. Looking back, I probably would suggest splurging for the $99 installation instead of our DIY mindset. :) Live and learn.

We have also replaced all the hardware throughout the house. That means we took off all the outlets and switches and put on brand spanking new ones. It's amazing what the smallest little details will do for the look of the house. We also got child safe outlets so they can not be tampered with. Of course, with a house that was built in the 80s, we had to come across some fun in changing the electrical outlets. We found out that the entire living room [outlets and switches] are on one breaker AND the microwave in the kitchen is on the same one. So in the evening when I start to make dinner and we have the TV on, the breaker blows. Awesome. Yeah, we will have to spend some money in the future getting our electrical wiring fixed in the house so it actually makes sense. This is something that I never would have thought about looking at when purchasing a home. Although, not a huge deal breaker, it does make things more difficult.

Did I mention we also found some wood rot in our living room. While we were painting over the God awful colors, we found a section over our fireplace that was bubbled up a bit. We ended up poking into it and bugs started running out. Gross. Automatically I thought the worst, termites. But to my releif, they were just ants. I haven't seen them back since we sprayed the whole with bug killer. :) Basically, come to find out there had to have been a leak in the roof for a while to have that much wood rot. Thanks home inspector. We cut open a pretty large portion of the drywall to examine how much damage we were looking at. Luckily, it was not the whole wall. We were able to hire someone to come in and take out the boards and replace them with new ones. Now we have our hole covered, but we still need to fix the problem on the roof. What happens is, when it rains, our chimney is perpendicular to roof and there is a section where all the rain piles up. After so much rainfall, the water will flood over the flashing and result in leaking into the interior of the wall. So after having several contractors come out and look at the issue, all of them said we need to put in what is called a cricket. It basically is a section they build to divert the rain away from the chimney so it does not have a chance to leak under the flashing. This is also something that will be getting fixed soon. In case you are wondering, if you have it in your own home, here are some images below.

Shiny New Appliances!!

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I finally found my camera cord so I can load images of the progress.

I'm not sure that I can quite explain how happy I was to see our new appliances arrive last Saturday afternoon. We had called in and purchased our appliances over a month ago, and the anticipation was killing me. So you can imagine that Saturday, for me, was like a little kid at Christmas!

I don't think I have ever had anything so nice in my kitchen. Since I have lived on my own, they have always been half broken, never cleaned, old appliances provided by the apartments I lived in. Let me tell you about the upgrade!!! When we started looking for appliances, I didn't even know half of these features existed! We are all for energy efficiency, even before we got the rebate, but the rebates sweetened the deal even more.

We immediately knew what refrigerator that we wanted. Since we saw this as a great investment, we didn't skimp in this department. We got a Samsung Stainless Platinum 29.0 cu.ft. French Door Refrigerator with Premium External Water and Ice Dispenser = BEAUTIFUL. All you have to do is open it and it is like a little piece of heaven in my kitchen. Okay, I know I might be going a little far, but still! :o)

Now the dishwasher was a little tougher of a decision. We actually originally thought we were going to get a Bosch, but after talking with the sales associate and seeing them in person we went with a Kenmore Elite Stainless Steal 24" Built-in Dishwasher with UltraWash HE Wash System. It had a much better customer satisfaction and was more energy efficient. Not to mention how lovely the inside of this machine is. It also has dual spray arms and deluxe adjustable 2-position rack. That means that depending on if we have really tall glasses on top or really tall pans on bottom, we can adjust as need be so that they will fit. Amazing!!! And if that was not enough to make you want to run out and get one... it also can fit 12 PLACE SETTINGS. Holy cow. I absolutely love to cook, but I make a mess and as Darrell says I use almost every dish in the kitchen. So how happy am I that it can fit all of that? Very!

We also got the really ghetto looking old appliances hauled away, which was amazing. We were lucky enough to have 2 really old dishwashers in the house. One was so old, I just had to take a picture of it!!

It's just so nice to walk into the kitchen and see them standing side by side. I must admit, it brings a smile to my face. Now, I just need to get a new 5-burner gas top and double stacked oven.... One of these days! :o)

I also wanted to post some more pictures from scraping the ceilings. Just because it was that much fun!!

Here is the Roundup Sprayer that we used on the entire ceilings

We had to rent the Home Depot Truck so we could get scaffolding

And we got to put it all togehter

Since we had painted the kitchen already - We had to make sure none of the dust got into that room

The boys hard at work scraping the ceilings

We completed room after room - this is our master bedroom after it was completed

This is the ceiling as you scrape away each layer


The next step was rolling out the new textured ceiling paint onto the ceiling and then using a sponge for the texture


I must admit, I was too short to do this work, so I just got to watch


You can see the top section is done with the texture. Once it was all finished we painted over it


This is my brother and the result of doing textured the ceilings!