Space-Saving Coat Storage

My husband thinks I'm crazy sometimes, but I think I'm genius!  Ok, let me explain.  See, we had our home built about 6 years ago.  We basically went with a house at the top of our budget, at least the budget we wanted, not the bank.  That was when the housing market was booming, so they approved us for much more than we actually felt comfortable with.  Good thing we had some common sense (thanks, parents!), 'cause it probably wouldn't have been good.

Anyway, back to the genius part.  Our builder wasn't a custom builder.  As in, we had a few choices but not many.  We picked our flooring, countertops, cabinet style, and siding color from a limited selection.  Most things were upgrades that we would have had to pay extra for, so for the most part we stuck with the basics.  We didn't even have a choice in paint....everything was painted flat white.  My mom and I painted almost the entire house in the 2 days before we moved in.  Fun times!

One of the great things about our house is that it is a perfect DIY house!  Everything works and there is nothing we had to do, but there are lots of things we (or at least I) want to do.  One such project was to add storage near the main entrance.  Our front entrance and garage entrance are close to each other, and there is just a small 2x2 coat closet in between.  Not enough coat storage for a family of 5!  So, I started googling (this was before I knew about Pinterest.com!) and found a couple inspiration photos that I thought would be good for our situation.

Here's the project:

Basically, when you open the door from the garage, there is a blank wall that is just not doing anything.  Here it is in the photo below.  The door you see in the background on the right is our 1/2 bath, behind me is our front door, and to the left is the coat closet.

Anyway, I decided the best solution would be to add a coat rack behind the door.  My parents have a 103 year old farm house, and it has coat storage flat along the wall, so I kind of use that as my inspiration as well.  I would have loved to add a "locker" or a bench or something, but obviously there is no room for something like that.  So, off to the hardware store I went.  I basically just purchased some 1x6 boards.  I picked the pre-primed composite ones, because I'm pretty new with woodworking and didn't feel competent to work with raw wood.  If I had to do it over again, I would choose the raw pine wood because it's a little nicer material than the composite ones I chose.  The only extra step is to sand and prime the wood before you paint it, but that doesn't take very long to do.

So, basically once I purchased my wood, I came home and cut it to the length of my wall, painted it, put construction adhesive on it and then screwed it into the wall.  I wanted 5 hooks on each board, so I measured them out equally and put the screws in so they would line up behind the hooks.  No patching... genius!

Here's how it looked with the screws, before adding the hooks.

And here is the finished product:

It's the perfect place to hang the backpacks as well as some of the jackets that we use the most.  It also turned out to be a good place to stash a couple of baseball caps.

Here's a close-up of the hooks I used.  I found them at Lowes.  But unfortunately there was a supplier issue and I had to go to 3 different Lowes to get all 10 of my hooks :(.  But I really wanted hooks with two places to hang things on.  Plus I didn't want something that was tiny or huge since the door would hit them if they stuck out too far.  These were the perfect size.

So, those 10 hooks added a lot more storage room in a previously unused wall space.  For a little extra shoe storage, I hung a closet organizer on the back of our closet door...it's the perfect size for all of those toddler and little boy shoes. Plus our adult sandals fit in there as well.

Hope this post gives you a little inspiration for a totally easy DIY project!

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The Evolution of a Swing Set

Today we built a new swing set for the kids!  My parents and Steve's dad came this morning to help assemble the new swing set.  I bought a kit on Amazon that included instructions, brackets, swings and a canopy and then I purchased the wood and screws separately as well as a glider swing.  I took photos of the entire process and wanted to share :)

Mom and Molly sitting on one of the piles of wood.

I had two little boys who "helped"the entire day.  The past week they have been telling everyone that someone "sole our old swing set so we are building a new one."  I actually sold the old one on craigslist, but whatever :)

 Starting to put the "fort" area together.

Getting there, but so much more to do!

For those of you who know my dad, you won't believe this photo...WHAT!?  He's actually reading the INSTRUCTIONS?  Maybe he was just posing for the picture :)

The boys helped me screw on the deck boards and then we paused for a photo op.

Putting the swing hangers on the beam.  Oh, and the kids decided they didn't want to wait any longer.  Who cares that the ladder to get up isn't built yet...just climb up the slide!

SWINGS!!  I still need to buy one more set of swing hangers for Molly's swing, which will go between the boys' swings.

Almost there!  Just need to finish adding the safety boards around the "fort".

Finished for now...just need to hang the glider on the cantilever area (I forgot to buy the hangers for it), add Molly's swing, stain and add the sand.  Oh, and you can't really tell from this photo, but the yard kinda goes downhill towards the fence, so I need to dig some holes for the A frame brace to go into to make it level...right now it goes uphill.

Oh, and just to compare, here is a picture of the previous swing set.  It was similar except it was about 20 years old, wobbly, leaning and it only held 3 swings.  It's hard to tell with the different angle but the new one is much bigger, sturdier and will hold 3 swings plus the glider.

It was a great team effort and I'm so excited to have this project almost finished :)

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Cleaning Your Microwave...the lazy way :)

Ok, so I'm a little embarrassed about this post.  Because this is gross.  And not something I can blame on the kids.  Although, my husband is a big part of this as well, so it's really not just me.  Really.

Here is a picture of our microwave.  Yep, that's splattered food that we didn't clean off right away.  This is how everyone's microwave looks, right?!

Ew.  Anyway, I have found an easier way to clean the microwave.  I've been doing it for years, but just recently learned that not everyone knows this trick, so I thought I would share.  Anyway, the best way to clean your microwave is to clean up the splatter right away so the food doesn't have time to dry out on the sides of your microwave.  Making it impossible to clean and tedious scrubbing.  But that doesn't happen often enough around here since I am usually rushing to get everything on the table at the same time.  So here's my trick....put a glass of water in the dirty microwave like pictured below.

Ok, so it's more work than just putting a glass in the microwave.  Obviously it doesn't clean itself.  But, you put a glass (I always use glass because of the BPA crap in plastics) of water in and turn it on high for a couple minutes.  I always do 2-3 minutes and then let it sit in there for a few more minutes.  Be careful removing the glass because it gets hot and can burn your hands!  The steam from the water you just microwaved will turn the dried out food into "hydrated food" that will just wipe right off.  No scrubbing necessary.  I remove the glass turn table from the bottom and wash that in the sink with soap, but everything else just gets a quick wipe down.  The "after" photo is below.

Like I said, no scrubbing involved.  It's easy peasy.  Now only if I could do it more often so the microwave doesn't get as gross as the first photo!

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Stainless Steel Countertops

As most of you know, I am a stay-at-home mom.  But I also make cakes (wedding, birthday, etc) from my home.  This helps me keep my sanity and earn a little extra spending money to fund my HGTV and DIY Network addiction. :)

Anyway, one thing I have really been wanting for our kitchen is a larger center island.  Our kitchen is great and we have lots of counter tops, but our center island counter top is fitted to the cabinets and doesn't allow for bar stools.  Something that I've wanted since the first party we had at our house. 

Here is a photo of the unfinished kitchen right before we moved in 6 years ago.  Please forgive the quality of the photos...our digital camera was much lower quality back then!

Here is a photo of the kitchen after we painted and move the appliances in, but we were still moving all of our junk in, so therefore all the junk laying around.

Our home was built by Beazer Homes.  They are not a custom builder, so we didn't get many options on finishes, but we did get to pick our counter tops from about 10 different laminate styles.  This is a close-up of ours.

It's great because it doesn't show stains.  My parents have white counter tops courtesy of the previous owners of their house and I don't know how they have lived with them for so long!  While I like the color of our counter tops, laminate really isn't the "in" thing anymore.  Obviously.

So, besides wanting some bar stools, I've been wanting a surface that is better for working with my cakes. I do cakes with fondant icing a lot, but I always have to spread out some vinyl mats to work with it on because fondant sticks to laminate.  And the last thing you want once you've rolled out a huge sheet of fondant is for it to stick to the counter and leave a hole right in the middle because a patch almost always shows, so I would have to re-do it a lot.

In my research of finding out the best surfaces for fondant use, I found that solid surface counter tops and stainless steel are both NSF certified (food safety standards).  I am a home-based "cottage bakery", so I don't have to meet the NSF standards, but I like to do everything as sanitary as possible.

I really liked the look of stainless steel to add a little modern look to our kitchen.  So I did some further research and found some companies online to get quotes from and also went to Home Depot and Lowes for some quotes as well.  Um, can you say EXPENSIVE?!  I needed a 3'x6' piece for our island, and most companies were coming in around $2500.  I think the lowest quote I received was $1700.  Which was even more expensive than the high-end granite at the big box stores.  Yikes!

So, I did some more research.  AKA, I called my dad.  My dad is an airplane mechanic and I know he works with metal and welding and such, so I thought he might have some ideas.  Unfortunately, he said he didn't have the tools or access to the tools needed to work with stainless steel.  But he recommended calling a local metal shop to see if they could custom fabricate anything for me.  SCORE!  I called a local company and they quoted me $310.  WHAT!?  You've got to be kidding!  They used fancy terms like "sheared edges" and "20 gauge" in the conversation, so I called up my dad just to see if that is what I needed and he agreed, so I ordered it!

The company did end up taking a little longer to make it than they originally promised, but I really wasn't in any hurry and it wasn't that big of a deal.  I actually probably got it sooner than if I would have ordered it from any of the other companies.  I actually ordered it on 9/13 and got the call that it was ready for pickup on 10/5.  So, three weeks.  The most nervous part of the process was just waiting to see it.  Since it was custom, it wasn't like I could go and pick it out.

Anyway, here's a long-awaited photo of the new island counter top!

See how it shines?  I love it!  It's got a brushed finish so it should mask any scratches pretty well.  I was really nervous about how sharp the corners and the bottom edge would be, but I really don't think it will be a problem.  At some point, one of the kids is bound to run into one of the corners and get hurt, but they would do that with any surface.  They are soldered, so they aren't sharp but they definitely stick out farther than the old counter top.

So, here's a photo of the entire kitchen.  As you can tell from the first photos, not a lot has changed since we moved in.  We still have the same colored walls (I love the color!).  Just about the only difference is the light fixtures.  We changed out the mushroom light over the sink and added a couple matching pendant lights over the island.  I still need to find 3 bar stools and am even thinking about changing the back/sides of the island to a bead board and add some trim molding around the base to give it a more "built-in" feel.  Oh, and eventually we will change out the rest of the laminate to a solid surface.  And I would live to have a marble tile back splash (subway style) and add crown molding to the tops of the cabinets as well. See, I told you I watch way too much HGTV and DIY network!

 

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Lunch Box Notes

While I don't have any kiddos going to school this year, I have been in a back-to-school mode for some reason.  Maybe it's because I have a lot of friends who are teachers or that most of my friends have a kid that is at least going to pre-school.

Anyway, one thing my mom did occasionally and something that I want to do for my kids when we get to this stage, is put notes in the lunch box.  Because she didn't do it every day, it was a nice surprise and such an encouragement to see!  I don't remember what Mom wrote the notes on, but I know it wasn't anything fancy.  But with the help of Pinterest.com (follow me on Pinterest here)and the internet, I found a ton of free printable lunch box note pages.  

Some of these are also suitable for sending in a lunch packed for your spouse as well :)

http://getbuttonedup.com/2010/08/25/tool-free-printable-lunchbox-notes/

http://kelsieandnate.blogspot.com/2011/08/friday-freebie-lunch-box-notes.html

http://silverboxcreative.com/blog/2010/08/lunch-box-notes/

http://freshpickedwhimsy.typepad.com/fresh_picked_whimsy/2009/02/love-notes.html

http://cute-and-crafty.blogspot.com/2010/07/free-printable-lunch-box-notes.html

http://www.anotherlunch.com/2010/08/blog-header-inspired-bento-special.html

http://www.oliebollen.com/funstuff/lunch.html

http://www.allfortheboys.com/home/2011/8/4/free-printable-school-lunch-notes-jokes.html

http://living.weelife.com/2010/08/free-lunch-box-notes-for-downloading.html

Ok, so this last one isn't a printable note, but you can also use a toothpick and "write" on a banana.  The note will show up about 1 hour later.  How cool!

http://www.cutefoodforkids.com/2010/10/banana-art.html

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Homemade Grout Cleaner

Undoubtedly, this is not the most exciting post ever.  I realize that, but I wanted to share it with you anyways.

As you might know from reading this blog, I had a baby about 4 weeks ago.  During this recovery time, I have watched WAY too much HGTV and DIY Network.  My project to-do list is growing longer by the day.

After discussing possible projects with my husband, I took a "research" trip to Lowe's and Home Depot.  My plan wasn't to purchase anything, but to check out a few options for different projects and try and figure out some pricing to see what we could tackle and when.

One of the projects I would like to do is to tile my backspalsh in the kitchen.  While in the tile aisle (BTW, I didn't find anything I liked at either store...boo), I realized that our kitchen floor grout was getting pretty gross.  So, I picked up a bottle of heavy-duty grout cleaner and another bottle of general tile cleaner and light sealer.

I continued on to a couple different departments to price things out and then made my way to the checkout.  And then...the checkout lady gave me the total...$16 for the two little bottles!  Yikes!  Plus there was a warning on the heavy-duty grout cleaner about prolonged exposure to the fumes.  Definitely not something I wanted in the house with a newborn.

So, I came home and promptly googled "Homemade grout cleaner".  Up popped a cool article that gave several ideas depending on your tile material and how dirty things were.  Our floors are a natural stone, so I decided to go with the most mild suggestion:  baking soda and water. Brilliant...because baking soda costs less than a buck!

Here's my before photo...the grout started originally the same color as the tile.  Ew.

The recipe calls for 3 parts of baking soda to 1 part of water.  Depending on how big of an area you need to clean, I suggest starting out with 1 cup of baking soda to 1/3 cup of water and test to make sure this is going to work for you.  Here is the baking soda and water mixture.

Here's the fun part.  I used a tooth brush to put this on the grout lines.  The boys enjoyed helping me for all of 2 minutes and I got stuck with the rest of the job.

The article says to leave on the baking soda for 10 minutes and then rinse clean.  But I have 3 kids to take care of, so the baking soda stayed on for about 45 minutes until I could get back to it.  But that just makes it cleaner, right?!  I figured it wouldn't hurt at least, so I didn't worry about it.  When I did get back to remove it, I used the toothbrush to scrub the lines again.  And guess what?  It works!!  Here's a shot where I used the baking soda mixture on the right but nothing on the left.  What a difference!

And here you can see I used the baking soda on the bottom half but not the top half.

The only downside of this project is that I had to mop twice after finishing each section.  We have a commercial mop bucket and mop (like they had at McDonald's, for example), so maybe it was the fact I used that and wasn't on my hands and knees scrubbing.  Not sure, but after mopping once, the tile still felt "gritty" from the baking soda, so I had to do it all again.  Considering the alternative of using the expensive, toxic-fumed stuff, this didn't bother me.

We have this tile in our kitchen, dining room, hall, 1/2 bath and entry way.  So needless to say, this wasn't a quick project.  I'm in the process now of finishing up the entry way area and then I will be done (YAY!).  Next on the to-do list is find a block of time long enough that I can mop and re-seal everything!

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Canvas Wall Hanging

I recently decided it was time for a slight change in decor for our living room.  I had made a lap quilt a long time ago and hung it on the wall above our love seat.  While I like the quilt and was proud of the fact that I made it, it was not quite the look I wanted for the room anymore.  I forgot to take a "before" photo of the quilt, but it was in the same spot as the canvas in the photo below.  

I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something, but needed something substantial for the space.  Along came CraigsList!  I found this blank canvas with a frame for $20...right in my budget and perfect for the space!  I scoured the internet for some ideas of what I could do with it and decided to get some vinyl wall art and make an easy project.  I found a design that I liked in a size that would work on Etsy.com.  Here's a link to the Etsy.com listing.

I prepped the canvas by painting it with white latex paint.  This caused the canvas to "seize" up and become more of a solid surface for the vinyl to adhere to.

The next step was to unroll and cut out all the individual vinyl pieces.  Kelly (the etsy shop owner) included instructions on how to prep everything and even included a test decal to try out first (the fish at the bottom right corner of the photo below).

Once I had all the pieces cut out, I arranged them on the dried canvas.  I followed the layout guide first and then adjusted the pieces to fit my frame size.

Next, I just peeled off the backing to stick the pieces to the canvas, and then peeled off the top paper to reveal the design.

Here's the final canvas.  I ended up putting a layer of Mod Podge on top to seal everything up and make sure it wouldn't peel off over time.

Easy, cheap and I think it looks nice.

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