Bathroom(s) Update(s)

Mission: "Spruce Up The Bathrooms" has begun:


First Bathroom:

I woke up one morning and decided to stain the vanity.  The hubs and I love how much storage space it gives, so we opted to save ourselves some money and keep it, but we were not a fan of the out-datedness of it. 

So this is where I came in.  After some elbow grease, a orb-sander, a few 60 grit sand paper sheets ,a lot of patience and some stain and spray paint we have this:

If you are looking to save money and want a drastic change, this is the project for you.  This project was $13.00 (spray paint and stain), which is a huge savings compared to the cost of a new vanity!

To get there I took the doors and drawers off and got to sanding.  (Heads-up this took a while at first, so that's why I eventually went to 60 grit and worked just fine).

 I took care of the doors outside and stained them in the garage.  You can use pretty much anything to apply the stain, I used a stain sponge.

 The stain I used was Minwax PolyShades Stain and Polyurethane combo in Mission Oak.

I used this stain, with polyurethane in it, which saved a lot of time and LOVE how closely it matches the blinds!

I also went ahead and painted all of the hardware on the vanity the same color as what I painted the vent (Rust-oleum Caterpillar Yellow).

I also went ahead and started to paint the trim around the window on the floors.  Definitely cleans things up if I say so myself!

We just need to switch up the vanity, the faucet and add a little tile and this bathroom will be in tip-top shape!

  

Second Bathroom:

This is our tiny half-bath.

This bathroom didn't really need a lot...it is small anyways. 

We switched out the light with this one, got our standard bamboo blinds from Overstock, slapped up a few coats of paint (Putty in My Hands),...

and I found this mirror from World Market and scooped it right up.  Since this bathroom doesn't really have any storage, the shelf helps a ton.

This room is pretty much done, we can add some spice with crown molding if we want, or wainscoting, but it all depends on how we are feeling.

 Any bathroom updates on a budget?

DIY Window Well Covers

Our dog loves frogs.  Tiny ones, larger ones, bright green, dark green.  She is obsessed.  For weeks she would stalk the side of our house, looking in every window well for the frogs that likes to sit in them.  Most of the time they were filled with old leaves that if they moved June bug thought they were frogs. 

 

There was one night we had a bon fire and we had her outside.  Well, she would not leave this one frog alone that was trapped in our window well.  I told June to leave the frog alone.  By the way did I mention she is GREAT at listening. (NOT!!)  Well about five minutes after telling her to stay away from the window well, she was running from it, with a frog leg flopping out of her mouth.  Disgusting to say the least and we never found the body. 

 

That night was the last straw for us.  The next morning we went to Home Depot, Menards and Lowes looking for window well covers.  They all carried two similar styles.

 

source

 

OR

source

 

Frankly for our situation, with a VERY motivated springer spaniel, we knew that neither would do the trick.  The last thing we need is for June to be able to see into the window well, she would probably end up breaking the cover.  The blue ones weren't terrible, but they did not have the size that we needed.  Instead we took things into our own hands and DIY'd some of our own and LOVE the way they turned out!

 

 

Here is what you will need if you want to tackle this:

• 3/4 inch plywood
• Plexi glass
• Vinyl lattice
• Polyurethane
• Screws
• Siding

 

The hubs measured each window well and transferred that to a piece of plywood.  From there he cut out each one, and penciled in for the interior cut.  After he was done with both this is what he was left with.

 

After each one was cut I went and applied a few coats of polyurethane to them.  As you can tell the left one isn't and the right one is.  This will hopefully keep them going strong through all the beautiful weather Wisconsin gets throughout the year. 

 

Once they were dry, or almost dry, the hubs took the plexi glass that we purchased and cut out an identical piece to match the ply wood (without cutting out the middle). 

After the plexi glass was sitting on the frame, the hubs took the vinyl lattice and cut it out to match.

He then pre-drilled holes (so the plexi glass wouldn't crack) and screwed the lattice and plexi glass into the plywood and bam, we had custom, DIY window well covers.

We did run into a predicament when we placed the window well cover on.  June came over, sniffed it and nudged it off.  Fail.

The hubs had a brought this project to a whole different level of custom when he grabbed some of the extra siding that was laying around in the basement and cut strips and screwed them into the plywood.

We had Project: DIY Window Well Cover completed and June bug, although she was a little upset about losing her areas to snoop around in for frogs, she has survived, and no other frogs have perished.  The frogs can thank us!

 

House Tour

Current House:

First House:

Our Current House:

When we walked through this house we LOVED everything about it. The layout. The fact that it has an attached garage (no more walking slipping on ice to bring the groceries in). The location. And most importantly, the potential!

One thing we learned from our old house was to take pictures as soon as we moved in, or even before. We didn't do that with our first house and seeing the before and after wasn't AS dramatic since our house was a completely clean slate. Without further ado here is the newest addition to our lives:

Exterior (Before):

Front Entry (Before):

Kitchen (Before): 

Office/Bedroom #1 (Before):

Dining Room (Before):

Living Room (Before):

Bathroom-Full Bath (Before):

Bathroom-Half Bath (Before):

Bedroom #2 (Before):

Bedroom #3 (Before):

Bedroom #4 (Before):

Hallway (Before):

Basement (Before):

Basement-Finished Area (Before):

Basement-Laundry Area (Before):

Basement-Work Bench Area (Before):

Basement-Creepy Crawl Space Area (Before):

Now the hubs and I are going through the 8,153 (or so it seems) boxes and trying to see how our furniture will work in this house, which is exciting and a struggle at the same time!!