Repainted fireplace hearth

One of the tasks on my 101 list was to re-paint the hearth of our fireplace. When I made this list a year ago, I guess this seemed like a priority. It doesn't at all now (maybe because it's covered with my homemade baby deterrent ... and in toys), but who am I to disagree with the list?

Before

The hearth did need a bit of help. The dark gray color wasn't that bad, but the paint was peeling in a few places. And it had black spatters on it. Not really my thing, those spatters.

Before

I should mention that we never ever use the fireplace (not sure if it's still functional), so I am not concerned about latex paint + fire/heat.

I wiped down the tiles with a damp cloth and then gave the strip two coats of Olympic Dark Granite semi-gloss leftover from the upstairs bathroom. This took so little time and effort, I'm not sure why I didn't do it sooner.

It definitely looks cleaner and matches the living room's color scheme better. Maybe someday I will strip all the paint off and expose the original tiles (assuming they are in good condition), but for now this is an easier and quicker transformation.

(a more realistic photo)

Hallway carpet: done!

I'm so excited our hallway carpet is done! I laid every last inch of it myself and have the dull carpet knife to prove it.

The base molding still needs to be replaced and I need to get some of those metal strips for the edges. The carpet tiles have a heavy backing and they don't require any sort of threshold strips, but I need to hide my raggedy edges.

Amazingly, I didn't take a photo of the carpet before we ripped it up. This is the only photo of it I could find, though it proves it wasn't much to look at. Boring, beige, matted. Please ignore dazed kitty.

This is what we found when we pulled up the carpet and padding. Strange tile. Not quite sure what it was exactly. It wasn't linoleum. Let's hope it wasn't something toxic.

After my dad scraped off the tile, we discovered the hardwood floor underneath wasn't in that great of shape.

There is a large ugly patch job, which I'm guessing was once a return air vent? It's either that or there's treasure buried beneath the plywood.

Before I laid down the carpet tiles, my dad put a bunch of screws into the wood to try to minimize some of the outrageous squeaks. It didn't eliminate the squeaks entirely, but they are much quieter.

I didn't think that I would be able to match the pattern of the tiles at all. The whole process was like putting together a puzzle when I wasn't even sure I had any matching pieces, but I found enough tiles that "connected" to run a long stretch down the middle. I decided to run the turn the tiles along the baseboards 90 degrees. There was no chance to match the pattern, and I thought it might look more purposeful if the tiles were turned.

After spending more than 30 minutes cutting around one piece of molding, I got smart and made a template from some scrap paper and scotch tape.

They make a tool for this purpose, but this poor man's version worked OK.

I traced the template onto the back of the carpet tiles with a Sharpie and it definitely sped up the cutting.

I think it looks pretty great for $18! I don't even think I could have bought a runner for $18.

Kitty and baby love the new carpet!

Check it off the 101 list!

A story about carpet tiles and a $200+ savings!

On the hunt for carpet tiles for the basement office, I made a trip out to Hood's, a local home improvement outlet store. They have a huge 99-cent carpet tile section with pallettes full of Mohawk and Interface carpet tiles. The only trouble is, you have to sift through to find ones that match and finding enough to cover a whole floor can be challenging.

A really nice man who worked there helped me find enough of one style and just as we found the last little bunch, I realized we had been collecting two slightly different designs. Same colors, same general pattern, but one had the floral pattern I was after and the other had leaves. I had spent nearly an hour sorting through tiles, so I figured, for a dollar a tile, close enough. I'll figure it out in the basement.

Floral

Leaves

When I got the tiles home, I organized them into two piles: floral and leaves. I thought I bought mostly floral, but the leaves stack kept growing. The final score? 40 leaves, 18 floral.

The stack of floral carpet tiles was sitting there and I had a thought... "I wonder if these would work for the hallway?"

Final installation will not include overlapping.

I quickly layed the tiles over the carpet in the hallway, just to get an approximation of what it might look like (and to check if I had enough). Good on both accounts!

We were planning on replacing the hallway carpet with carpet tiles from FLOR (the fancy designer division of Interface, the same brand as the tiles from Hood's), and I had even ordered samples. The total cost for the number of tiles we need for the hallway added up to more than $250. The cost for the 18 floral tiles from Hood's, $18 -- nearly 14 times less than tiles from FLOR.

Can you believe the two different types of tiles I chose are the exact same colors?

I must really love that shade of brown.

I like both styles of carpet, but do I like the FLOR carpet 14 times more than the floral pattern? Hmmm, no. This makes the choice very easy.

Now I just have to install them, which is going to be a big pain in the booty with all of the cuts around the doors. There are five openings in this hallway! And I also have to go back out to Hood's to find more carpet tiles for the basement office. Hopefully I can find more of the leaves or at least something that coordinates with the leaves.

Patchwork stuffed doggie

When I saw this project on Ohdeedoh last year, I knew I had to make one for Elise.

I was on track to complete it before Christmas, but I lost a battle with my mom's sewing machine. But I just got a new sewing machine for my birthday and I couldn't wait to get working again on this little doggie.

I used 3.5 inch squares (about 3 inches on the finished product), so the dog is bigger than Elise -- approximately 22 inches high and 22 inches long.

I used a quilting square and rotary cutter to cut out the sqaures. Using a ruler and scissors would have made the job a thousand times more difficult for sure.

I cut squares for the perimeter, but then I saw this version and liked how the solid color framed all the patterns. I used some red velvety fabric I had on hand. Now I have a bunch of extra squares, so I'll have to think of something else patchworky to make with them.

I'm sure an experienced seamstress could pick this thing apart, but I think it turned out pretty well for a sewing novice like me. I'm proud of how I was able to hide the seams of the red panels in the corners (under the head, by the tail and on one foot).

Merry Christmas, Elise!

What lies beneath... the carpet

Yikes! This is the tile that was underneath our hallway carpet. Who would have guessed?

I'm going to take the week off from posting to work on this and some other big projects. See you next week!

Check out my double towel bar...

I don't think I've ever been so excited about a towel bar before.

Just the finishing touches now. This may be the last bathroom update before the big reveal. Maybe.

Don't put me on a pedestal

We have a sink! And it actually works! The bathroom to-do list is growing shorter and shorter. A bit of painting and some odds and ends are all that's left!

Let there be lights. And paint.

We're making great strides now. Won't be long before it's done!

An organized office... (well, sort of)

I quickly filled the new office shelves with all the junk that was on the floor. I would have liked to decorate a little, but the temperature quickly got too cold to spend much time in the basement. I didn't really want to wear a coat indoors, so I will revisit when it warms up.

Not perfect, but at least you can see the floor!

The office gets some shelves

We've needed some shelving in the office for a long time and I finally had the not-so-original idea to use a closet system in this little alcove, rather than building shelves from scratch.

I'd like to say I installed it completely by myself, but I had help from Leon drilling into the studs.

I love these Rubbermaid Configurations closet systems. So simple to install and the shelves are easily reconfigured. Check it off the 101 list!

Come back later in the week to see how I organize this mess.

Check it out, we have grout!

I can't get over how the dark grout makes the white tile pop.

All of the wall and the floor grout is done. Just a little touching up to do, sealing and then all the fixtures are going in! We are getting close! It's a good thing too. I'm getting sick of brushing my teeth in the kitchen.

Mini chest finally done!

This was another half-completed project that had been sitting in the basement for more than a year. It was more unfinished than it appears in this photo because I originally used a flat paint.

Before

I gave the whole thing a coat of black gloss paint, but it needed something else. I picked up this foam stamp at Michael's for $1 without any real plan for it. I've been in love with all things black, white and flourish-y lately, so I thought this would be a good time to test it out.

I was pretty fast and loose with the stamping, but I like the way it turned out.

This tile put a hex on us

Don't look too closely. You'll either get dizzy, be hypnotized or notice the imperfections.

I've been thinking about my doorbell...

I'm gearing up to give the hallway a makeover - new paint, new carpet, new artwork. (All of these tasks are part of my 101 list too.)

Our doorbell speaker is on one wall, and it's kind of an eyesore. I wanted to cover it, but it still needs to "breathe" because we still need to hear the doorbell.

I tried a variety of boxes and packages on for size, and finally hit the jackpot with this little wooden crate. I think it came from the packaging of some fake apples. Yes, I own fake apples.

A perfect fit, but it needed some prettying up.

I found an image I wanted to use and resized it to match the dimensions of the bottom of the crate. Then I flipped the photo so it was a mirror image and printed it on inkjet iron-on transfer paper.

After that, I trimmed off the excess paper.

I found some cotton fabric I had on hand, and measured and cut a piece that would be big enough to wrap around the bottom of the crate with some excess to fold over on the inside.

I ironed out the wrinkles, centered the transfer on the fabric and followed the package instructions to iron the transfer on the fabric.

Next I peeled the paper off the transfer.

After that, I was ready to attach the fabric to the crate. I draped the fabric on the bottom of the crate, sort of like a miniature tablecloth on a tiny table.

Then I flipped the whole thing over, wrapped the fabric around the edges and began stapling the fabric to the inside of the crate, first starting with a staple in the middle of one side, then in the middle of the opposite side. (And continuing on to the third and fourth sides.)

I pulled the fabric taut and stapled the fabric on each side, working my way out from the middle staple to the corners. Next, I dealt with the corners by folding the fabric over the edge and stapling.

Then all that was left was to test to make sure we could still hear the doorbell once the cover was on the speaker. Perfectly audible!

Now onto the rest of the hallway projects!