Honey, There Goes the Counters

So its official my house is down a sink. I'm now skinless in my kitchen, oh and I have no counters. It's crazy, Sunday morning I woke up to me new reality of being sink and counter free. But let's back up a bit to Sat afternoon, demo time. As you know we are getting new counters! In an effort to keep costs down, we decided to DIY the old counter tops and backslash ourselves. Here's a reminder of how our kitchen looks pre-demo. 

I hope from this picture you can see our kitchen has good bones, tall cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling and they're solid wood which is a plus. We have big plans for our tiny kitchen, on a tiny budget! As with most of our DIY projects we've done over the years we plan on DIYing most of it, and getting help from the Professionals along the way { counters installed, electrical }   Here's my quick rundown of our plan, I will do an in-depth one very soon, since our old plan is dated. We are re-placing our the outdated tile counters with solid surface counters, new stainless steel sink, updating the back splash with subway tile, adding hardware and installing a vent hood. Currently we have an outdated ceiling vent, think old school ceiling vent. Not cute, freaking odd. We also plan on installing a pantry cabinet, again more on that in my kitchen post. Also new lighting, and paint lots of paint { cabinets, walls } Oh and new appliances, one at a time. 

Now back D-E-M-O. For anyone planning on removing old tile counter and a back splash I put together a How To. 


Supplies & Tools Needed


Face Mask
Safety Glasses 
Trash Bin
Broom
Heavy Metal Dust Pan
Crowbar
Hammer
Chisel 
Flat head screwdriver


After putting our safety glass and masks on, safety first! First we removed the old light switch / plug covers, then got down business. We started popping off the front of the tile using the nail mover part of the hammer. The popped off pretty easy. Once the corners were off, we were able to see how they attached the tile to the.

Not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but in the past tiles must have broken off because they where glued back on, not a good look. 

Then Hasani used the crowbar to pull up the top layer, the top layer was cement board. Using this technique we were able to remove a large layer of our old tile counters quickly.

While Hasani was working on removing the counters, I started working on the back splash. I used a metal chisel, we bought a long time ago to tear up our old tile floor in our kitchen and dining room. I placed the chisel underneath the tile and then hit the chisel with the hammer. The tile popped off one, two at a time.

After the dishwasher side was finished, we moved on to the other side of our small kitchen. Apply the same method, this side proved to be more messy. Lastly we removed the heavy old ceramic sink, good riddance to that sink!

Altogether it took about 2-3 hours to remove our old counter and back splash and plywood underneath the tile board. We cleaned as we went, making everything less messy and dusty. Here's my kitchen now, minus the old white tile with icky brown grout, minus our old fugly sink. We are making progress! I should mention in the pictures below, our stove is pushed way out of the area, we just wanted to make sure our fabricator / installer had easy access to our counters on both sides. After our kitchen demo, I placed my dinnerware back inside my cabinet for safe keeping.

Yesterday we had our counters measured for the template! We really like our fabricator / installer. He was very friendly and helpful and answered all of our questions! He also has a quick turn around time,we should get a phone call next week for a date to schedule our counters being installed!! After our install, I'll share our the cost breakdown and of course the after pictures! After the counters are installed, we'll be removing the old drywall and hanging new drywall. Since we plan on tiling we want a smooth surface as possible.

What do you think so far? Doesn't my kitchen look so much brighter with out the dark grout messing it up? Oh, I can't wait for paint and tile :)

Have to Demo-ed tile before, any helpful tips?

DIY Gold Bowls

I love when I come across ideas that are so simple yet inspiring that is a total DIY must. I saw these pretty little gold bowls on Pinterest and knew I had to DIY a version. 

{ via Pinterest }

All you need to re-create a DIY version of the bowls above are; simple white bowls, gold paint and a craft brush. I found three mini bowls at Cost Plus { they're actually small tea cups } and a medium square bowl with round edges at Ikea. I love the little bowls cute and they where cheap, only 99 cents each. The Ikea bowl was a little pricier around two bucks. After finding the perfect bowls, I bought a bottle of Acrylic Gold paint from Walmart for only 97 cents. Love that they bought their craft section back! I can stop in there and pay next to nothing for craft supplies and some sewing supplies. 

Here's what I did. I poured a small amount of paint directly into the bowl and slowing painted the entire inside of my bowl. I left the paint dry for 3 hours and then applied a second coat of paint.
For the Ikea bowl I wanted to try something a different. I wanted to have a pretty design inside of the bowl, so I used a butterfly pattern ( left over from my wedding). I placed double side tape on the butterfly and placed it inside the bowl and then painted the entire inside gold. After allowing the paint to dry for an hour I carefully took the pattern out of the bowl. Then I waited another hour and carefully painted another coat of gold paint inside the bowl. 

Here are my little DIY gold bowls. I really like how they turned out. The gold paint is so vibrant in color and it shines. The small bowls are perfect for rings, earrings and small precious jewelry. I'm going to place two on my nightstand and one on Hasani's for his wedding ring. I plan on placing the butterfly bowl { its new name } in the bathroom. 

Here's the butterfly bowl, not perfect but perfectly imperfect. The the natural light in my house was starting to disappear when I took this last photo, so I I had Hasani hold the bowl. I love how the butterfly is center towards to bottom of the bowl.

It's funny, I love sliver and pewter shades in my house, but now I want to pull our my paint brush again and pretty up some more items with gold. This is such an easy project and a must to add to you DIY to do list. Little bowls painted with a variety of colors on the inside would also make pretty gifts:)

What do you think of the little bowls? Are you a 'new' fan of gold again? Like I am. 

Top Five of 2011

Wow we are officially four days into a New Year!! Last year went by so fast, but I think they all do when you have kiddos and now that we were blessed with a new baby in June I'm sure time will speed up even faster. It's fun to look back over the past year and reminiscence about my favorite fun projects. I decided to stick with my Top Five Projects of 2011 broken down by category, the projects big and small that I had fun doing. From painting to sewing to crafting ( a little) here they are. 

Top Five of 2011

Best Refreshed Furniture Piece


Mid Century Modern Desk
- I love how many purposes this pretty desk has in our home. The dresser holds, our DVDs, board games and even provides a work space. Gotta love a multi-functional piece that we bought for only $ 80 bucks for. All it needed was a little 'PP&P' that's Primer, Paint & Pulls :) Read more about its makeover here.

Best Use of Glossy Spray Paint 


Mirror Makeover
Transforming an old dated mirror I bought at a Thrift Store proved to be easy peasy when I used super glossy Krylon Fusion Spray Paint in Navy. The result a pretty focal point at the end our our hallway. Read more about this project here. 

Best Use of Ribbon

DIY Back Tab Drapes

Who knew Ribbon could be so useful when making back tab style drapes? Ribbon ended up being the perfect solution to make my DIY drapes appear pleated and more polished. You can read my how to here.

Most Fun with Mini Pom Poms 

DIY Giraffe Softies 

I made two darling little giraffes for Avery's nursery, thanks to the help of a pattern I found on Woman's Day. I changed up the pattern just a little bit and added cute mini pom poms for the giraffes mane. I used the same fabric for each giraffe just in a different color. Read more about this sewing project here.

Most Fun with Colored Paper 

Baby Artwork for the Nursery 

I had so much fun transforming color paper into pretty artwork for Avery's nursery. For the artwork below, I used left of dot garland I made for my baby shower and framed it. The dots are varying shades of blue. They look so sweet in his nursery. Check out the other color paper projects I completed here. 

That's my round up for 2011. I'm so looking forward to what this year will bring. The plan for the new year is to work on lots of projects that are both budget friendly to our wallet, but have big impact. I've already finished up my 1st DIY project of the year and will share on Thursday. Oh, and I'm almost DONE with our bathroom update! 

How was your New Years eve, whats you favorite fun project you completed last year?

Chic Little Main Line: How to Unclog Your Drains Like a Pro

When roots from trees ,hair or something plugs up a pipeline and causes your toilet not to flush and maybe water to back up in the tub and or sink a plumber would tell you 'you need a clean out' and charge you anywhere from $ 90 to $ 300 dollars so I'm going to show you how we did it for $33.00. A few years ago we noticed that the water in the tub was not going down the drain and the toilet wouldn't flush completely. We ended up calling a plumber and spending a lot more than we expected for a job that seemed too easy (to me) Fast forward 2 years, to 2 weekends ago to be exact, water in our shower wasn't draining which made it impossible to wash laundry, dishes the basic stuff in life, all on a Holiday Weekend - Easter.

So this time before calling a plumber or spending the $33.00 I tired using things I already had around the house to see if the clog was minor hot water, soap and bleach usually gets minor clogs out . My second thought was to snake the main line drain by accessing our clean out. What is a main line drain and clean out you ask? A main line drain is your house's main sewer line that connects to the county line sewer line. Here's what I did.

First thing you want to do is check your clean out, by removing the cap on the sewer line this is usually found in the back yard lined up with the toilet . Your local sewer district should know if yours is in the front or back of your home. This is the access point point most plumbers use to snake your drains. The further you get from the house the deeper the pipe is going to be so its better to find the one closest to the house there should be at least two openings you can get to with the caps sitting at the surface( maybe under the stairs ,patio ). 

You can use a screw driver to lift the cap up .You will see a pipe going down unscrew the top off it may be filled to the top and water shoot out depending on how backed up it is but if you don't see any water, run a water hose in it and see how fast it fills up this will give you a nice idea of how far down whatever is clogging it is .

Next go to your local hardware store and ask for a snake you can rent one from $30 to $50 a day depending on how many feet you need. I rented a power snake from HD Home Supply same place we rented the floors sanders. In our area the have the best prices on rentals. This is what the pros use. 

I suggest getting one that goes all the way to the end of your yard  where your property stops and the county line starts in our case the 75 foot snake was the middle size reached our back fence which is where the county's line starts. If the county's line is the one clogged then they come out and repair the sewer line for free! Free is a good thing, but so is only spending $ 33 bucks.

Where our county line starts - the very end of our property line. 

The snake has one switch that goes forward off and reverse and one foot pump that's similar to a gas peddle .

You want to make sure that you are close as can be to the hole and have a flat surface to put the machine on I suggest a board this will keep the snake from wrapping and twisting up. There are different types of blades to put on the end of the snake try using one with teeth on both sides. 

This is where you attach the various blades

Feed the snake in the hole slowly with you foot on the pump/peddle and the switch set to forward if you feel it hit something switch to reverse slowly pulling the snake out the hole and go forward again one its loosened up this is cutting and pushing whatever is in the pipe down to the sewer line. 

Once the snake has cut through the clog the water will rush down the pipe. I like to run the snake all the way out then slowly reel it back end making sure i get everything in the pipe then run the watter hose in the pipe for about 15 20 minutes to check the flow whole process this should take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and save hundreds of dollars . Before returning the snake to the store, turn all your inside faucets all, flush the toilets make sure everything is flowing properly. Our clog was caused by tree roots, not surprising since we have tons of mature trees in our 1950's neighborhood. For hear on out, I plan on renting a power snake once a year around Springtime to catch any clogs before we get slow drains in our house.


All in a days work, oh yeah wear clothes you don't mind getting stinky dirty & a mask - just saying.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this will save you a ton on your next plumbing issue. 


Hasani aka

Mr.CLH

Well Hello, Refinished Hardwood Floors!

Remember my whole house project I mentioned a couple weeks back? Well over the past two weekends, we took the plunge and refinished our hardwood floors. DIY style of course! This isn't the first time we've talcked a whole house project DIY style, remember we painted our entire house in a weekend. We saved a bunch of moohlah and a blast even though its hard work. Let's talk about how our floors originally looked when we moved into our 1956 rancher. Plus why we waited to until my 7th month of pregnancy before taking on this dusty / smelly project. Here's a reminder how our floors once looked like.

One thing that we really loved about our Rancher was the wood floors & no carpet, which is a plus when your husband has asthma and a slew of allergies and your kid inherited a few too! Originally Mr. CLH & I talked about having our floors refinished when we fist moved into our house January 2009 - but we decided to wait and do it later. I'm so glad we did! Why? Well at the time we were still discovering our style in our little Rancher and most likely would have went with a color that now isn't US. And your home should always feel like you, right?


We started talking about going the DIY route refinishing our floors ourselves after finding out I was pregnant, basically it was now or never or 7 months later. After having a conversation with my dad when he was in town visiting, he offered to help Mr. CLH on the project and refinish the floors. We wanted to wait until the weather warmed up, which improves dry time, working conditions & moral. So finally we choose a date, the first weekend in April. Which lands on my birthday making this an awesome birthday present from my husband and my dad to me. 


After much talk and looking at stain options, Mr. CLH and I decided to go with Early American by Minwax for a couple of reasons. We liked how the color looked on our test we did in the closet. A deep color without being too dark. We loved the variations in the wood grain with the stan, to us thats the beauty of or refinishing old hardwood floors. We loved the imperfections and the 'movement' the stain created on the floors. 

Here's some before pictures of our original hardwood floors, in their orange glory. In some places our wood floors were still in 'solid condition' others not so much. Which is not too surprising since the floors are over 50 years old and we learned from our neighbors there was once carpet in the entire house covering up the floors. 

I'm loving our floors now, the rich dark floors so much! Removing the old finish and sanding down the floors to the natural wood grain, staining them and ploying makes the house feel CLEAN. Let me tell you no matter how ofter I would swiffer or clean the floors, they never looked 1/2 this good. They really help ground our space and make our home appear larger. The dark floors had the same affect in our tiny dining room.

The nusery floors before

After being sanding down to the bare wood, love how fresh the bare wood looked. Look at cute Mojo peaking though the door.

Nusery floors now = LOVE

I'll have more pictures of our hardwoods floors soon. Mr. CLH is working on a 'How To' post and adding up the cost for refinishing our floors DIY style. Trust me we SAVED a lot of money, had mini break downs from frustration (me) got giddy over looking at color, but in the end it was all worth it. 

What do you think of our refinished hardwood floors?

Our DIY Headboard Done

Over the weekend we finally completed out DIY headboard for our Master Bedroom. This was a quick project, but it took awhile to get around to. We plan to complete a number a projects in the next few months before the our new little one arrives.

But back to our headboard project. After much consideration and debate between a light grey fabric vs. a dark grey fabric. We went with a dark grey linen fabric{ so glad we did } Our inspiration for our was the Nail head Upholstered Headboard from West Elm. Here's a glance of our headboard.

Supplies:

Particle Board Cut to 63 wide x 43 high { just a smidge larger then a Queen bed width }
2 Twin Mattress Foam Pads
2 Yards of batting
2 Yards of Muslin
2 Yards of Dark Grey Fabric
Staple Gun and Staples

Here's what we did. Instead of buying expense foam, we bougth two twin mattress pads from Wal-Mart and placed the flat part of the pad on top of the board. Then place the other pad contoured side down, which created a nice thick pad. Note: The pad wasn't wide enough to cover the entire length, which is fine because the portion is the very bottom of the headboard which will be cover by the box spring

Next we placed the batting over the pads and then wrapped the foam around the board and stapled the batting and muslin in place.

Then we stapled the grey fabric on the board. First we stapled the top then bottom and then sides. We pulled the material very very tight. Then I carefully trimmed the excess fabric from the back of the board.

We really like how the headboard turned out, it looks great in our bedroom. I also love how soft  the headboard is, its nice to sit up in bed and have a nice thick cushion to lean on. We decided to skip nail heads on our headboard and prefer how it looks without. We are also playing with the height of the headboard and most likely will raise it a few inches. Before the headboard after, a reminder of how bedroom looked pre-headboard.

Here's our diy headboard in our bedroom.

There are a few projects left to complete in our bedroom: sew Euro Pillow Covers, hang curtains and install new blinds and eventually hang artwork. I'm excited that our bedroom is closer to being completed.

What project are you looking forward to completing?