Here’s a quick before-and-after tutorial of a sofa table I scooped up for $30 (bargained down from $50). There were a few scratches, but nothing a little paint and elbow grease couldn’t take care of.
Bathroom Remodel: Priming and Painting
Project Updates
Let’s step back and recap: We are unfortunately way over budget, but hey, we’re ahead of schedule! We should be done by May 1. We had a lofty goal of $2,500 for our bathroom renovation, but we’re currently around $3,200. This was our ambitious plan, but we realized all the little things we forgot to take into account along the way: Nails, screws, bags of mortar, caulk… That stuff adds up fast! We do have returns to make which will hopefully bring some balance back to our universe. In the grand scheme of things, that’s still extremely inexpensive for a whole new bathroom that we DIY’d. We’re almost done, and we don’t expect to exceed $3,500.
Whitewashing a Brick Fireplace
How to Whitewash
Alright, this project has been on my dream wish list of house projects since before we even moved in. I figured we could tackle this in a day, and it didn’t even take that long. Honestly, it was so easy. This took me two hours, tops.
Supplies
- White paint
- Paint brush
- Painter’s tape
- Towel
- Shop rags
- Water
Guest Bathroom: From Popcorn to Knockdown
Popcorn vs Knockdown
Are you like Joe and hate popcorn ceiling with a passion? It never bothered me much, until I realized how many alternatives are out there! Joe has always wanted to try doing a knockdown ceiling treatment, so we decided to pick a sample room and try our hand. Since Steve’s bathroom is basically unoccupied now, we figured it was the perfect small space for a test run!
The Supplies
You’ll need to buy a few things before attempting this yourself.
Plastic Wrapping Windows
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.
Spare Room Conversion
Brown or Purple?
You be the judge. We really love this paint color, but everyone seems to have a different take on it. Depending on the lighting and time of day, it looks either brown or purple. Or both! For the record, it was in the brown section of Pittsburg Paint, but it must have some purple undertones.
United States of Bean Bags
Bags or Cornhole?
That will be the great debate of our generation. Does it depend on where you were raised? Whether you grew up around more corn or more beans? Is it a midwest farmer thing? I’m not quite sure…
But it has crept into the cities and city slickers pay big bucks for these lawn game sets. Luckily it’s not hard to make your own set! You just need a couple 2×4’s, some paint, screws and plywood. Joe, my brother and I made a set for my parents’ birthdays. Since they always want to play, but never had the game.
Door Progress
Movie Room Teaser
We can’t reveal the whole door all at once! Need to keep the theatrical suspense and drama going. For theme’s sake… We officially finished everything just last night, and got to christen in the movie room with all the roommates. Unfortunately it was late and dark, so Joe’s taking some better “after” photos today. If the rain lets up we may even get graced with a hint of natural light. Start here for the beginning of our door, and here for the finished product.
Bathroom Remodel: Phase Two
Onto Phase Two
There was a lot of good grunt work that went into this one, but it went pretty smoothly once we got our process down.
We couldn’t be happier with how the whole bathroom turned out!