DIY Wood Ceiling Beams

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DIY Wood Ceiling Beams

Back to the basement. There were a few reasons for making ceiling beams. We have a weird, lumpy low ceiling in the basement. Despite having just told you this, we wanted a way to draw attention away from its imperfections, and ceiling beams do just that. They’re also functional – this I will explain in a bit. And lastly, they just plain look good.

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DIY Built-in Bookshelves

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DIY Built-in Bookshelves

Alright, I must confess: I was 100% all for jumping on the IKEA hack bandwagon for this project. There are so many tutorials about retrofitting the “Billy” cabinet to make floor-to-ceiling bookcases. But when the dimensions didn’t fit our space, we had no choice but to go for a custom solution. And that’s usually where the best ideas are hiding.

Before

DIY builtin bookshelves before

You can ask Joe, this was probably the thing I was most excited about when we moved into the house. It was at the top of my list, but not high priority compared to some other projects.

 

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Bathroom Demo | Phase 3: Ceiling and Duct Work

Bathroom remodel phase 3

 

Blue Side

Strong side! We finally made it to the other side of the wall. The brown side is getting pretty old, so I’m glad to be on the blue side for awhile. We’re definitely tired of looking at that brown/tan paint! Can’t wait to pick out some new colors.

But first, we need to see where we can add the new shower. We have no idea what’s behind these walls or in the ceiling tiles, so we need to scope out the situation before we can make any firm decisions as to where things go. Joe’s going to walk you through taking off the old closet door trim, and share what he’s looking for.

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Vday 2015

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy (Belated) Valentine’s Day

While we’re not huge fans of Hallmark holidays, we do like to celebrate special occasions in our own way. I’m big on spending quality time together, so I figured there was no better time to sign Joe up for some volunteer activities. Hey, that was my Valentine’s Day wish.

Leah and Joe volunteering Cheerful Givers

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Plastic Wrapping Windows

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It’s Tensile Time

No, not tinsel. (Although it’s almost tinsel season too!)TENSILE. That’s my new word of the week. It’s a measurement of how tense or resistant to stretching a thing is.

We needed some high-tensile sheathing tape for last weekend’s project. It’s basically really strong tape that can hold a lot of weight before breaking. This particular tape can withstand 28.3 pounds per inch. Pretty impressive for tape! It must have went to the gym. If you want to get all sciency, read more about it.

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Ice Dam[age]

 

 

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Ice Dam

Remember that phone call we got about the ceiling leaking? Flash forward. We have the situation under control now and learned a few things about how to handle an ice dam. Firstly, we should have seen the signs. They were written on the wall roof. We know the deal now and have to say, it’s not so much fun. A little preventative maintenance is much better than a whole lot of cleanup.

So what is an ice dam?

Looks a little something like this:

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Fall on the Wall

wallz

T-minus 1 week

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and I’m happy to report that it’s looking fall festive in here. Does that shade of orange energize you? Agitate you? Make your insides scream?

All of the above?

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Memories for the Mantle – Phase 2

phase 2 mantle

Welcome to Phase 2 of Operation Mantle Magic

With the heavy lifting done in Phase 1, it was time to transform this log into a mantlepiece. Santa will be so happy we made this just for him!

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