Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Master Closet Remodel





Let me begin by sharing that I'm not really sure how we made it through this project without one of us crying. At 7:15 am, it's not the right time to look at a newly taped and mudded wall and say out loud "You better be f***ing fixing this wall later or I'll call someone" while your boyfriend is still half asleep.  I'm pretty sure never is the right time to say that after he spent hours putting that new wall up, but I'm also pretty sure he still loves me. Not my best moment, but when all you can think about is how much it's going to cost to go back and fix something it throws you in a state of panic.

Our master closet was small.  It was technically a walk-in when we moved into the house, but it was tiny, and the wire shelving wasn't utilizing the space.  The first time I saw it I remember scrunching my face until I saw the other room. The guest bedroom had a huge closet that spanned the wall shared with our closet and had two entrances, so obviously one of those doors had to go.  In all fairness, the comment that I mentioned earlier came two days after this phone conversation:
Tim: Hey baby what's up.
Me: Nothing. Done with work and I'm headed home.
Tim: Good. Soooo don't be mad but I blew through the wall today.
Me: Without me? Damn.
Tim: Yeah, it's better that way. Looks big. Also a big mess so be careful when you come in. See you later love you byeeeee *click*


And now the closet was past the point of no return.  As much as I'd love to tell you that we didn't have any problems with the studding and setting the new wall and closing in the door hole to the other bedroom, this was not easy. This is likely the reason Tim won't even listen my little whines about building our own built-ins in the living room. He's still recovering from the closet... and it was nearly two months ago. Truth is, I caved to my inner-crazy and called one of our friends to come help us smooth out that wall. A reasonably priced handyman is a new home owner's dream. Once everything was plastered and set, we finally painted the walls navy. Navy is one of those colors you see on Pinterest  and really want to use somewhere in your house but are too chicken to actually do it.  Since I was set on having white shelving (and a lot of it) I hoped it would balance well with the blue.


Tim let me design how I wanted my part of the closet. I gave him a drawing that could have been better executed by a 6 year-old, and Tim made it happen.  We ripped plywood at Lowes for the shelves and used trim around the edges. The most annoying part of the whole project was the painting. All that wood has to be painted and then repainted once it's up where it's supposed to be. (And someone was still staining those cabinets downstairs in the kitchen...)  Tim finished my side first and then took about a week to finish how he wanted everything. Super tall people need super tall shelves. (And fancy hand made tie racks...)

I haven't mentioned the holy grail of tools in this blog. Yes, Tim is incredibly handy, but the reason we can even get this stuff done is because we have a Kreg Jig.  If you haven't heard of a Kreg Jig, it's a device used to put holes in wood to join pieces at 90 degree angles without using biscuits or dowels. The Kreg, the saw, and the tool set made this year the best Christmas ever (for me) and everything was addressed to Tim.


Some good points to remember:

  • Someone will cut wood for you at your choice of home store.
  • Plywood is still better wood than particle board.
  • Blowing out a wall makes a HUGE DUSTY MESS EVERYWHERE.
  • "Low-dust plaster" is a liar.
  • Master closet remodels improve equity...we hope.

                     (The guest bedroom new wall-->) Mandy

Monday, February 24, 2014

General Finishes Java Gel Stain

After the garage floor was finished I really wanted the next project to be the kitchen cabinets before we moved kitchen stuff inside. Almost everything in the house was very builder-basic and the cabinets were that weird orange-brown color everyone seems to equally dislike. It wasn't horrible, it was just...orange, and they were clashing with my theme. We're going for this "rustacoastrial" look and in my rustacoastrial kitchen the cabinets were going to be dark- java dark to be exact.

My friend in pharmacy school bought a house six months before me and posted a before and after picture of her DIY kitchen. It was so impressive I instantly texted her to know what medium she used to stain the cabinets. All I had ever used previously was that runny stain you can get at any home-store and while it works great for other projects, I knew it was a nightmare to use on kitchen cabinets. She told me to buy "General Finishes Java Gel Stain," and warned me that "it was messy but that I would love the results and want to gel everything I owned in it."

I bought the gel stain online (because it's unavailable everywhere you would think would carry it) and happily took down and numbered my 26 (yes, 26) cabinet doors. This is the easy part. I realize at about cabinet 14 there is no way I can lay the cabinets on the floor all at the same time so I put them in the garage and focus on the wood on the cabinet bases first.  I sand and clean the bases, tape the walls, counter tops, appliances, and floors, and pop open my gel stain. Instant love-it's awesomely dark.  I assumed that foam brushes were the way to go and I dove in.  It took me 2 and a half hours to get the first coat on by myself. I was exhausted, and it was indeed stupid messy. Not accepting defeat I closed everything up and go upstairs to find Tim has taken every wire shelf out of the master and guest room closets. 

Tim felt the second project on the list was to blow out the wall between the master and guest closet enlarging the master closet, and making the old guest closet door a wall. Since gel stain takes hours (sometimes days) to dry I had no problem with trying to do two projects at once. 





To avoid making this entry overly long I'll just get to the most important points:

  • Take the kick plates off before you start (the piece of wood that runs along the floor). See picture, you'll understand. No, the orange pieces are not intentional, kickplates are flimsy, break, and then expensive to replace. :I
  • Use gloves, then put a sock over your hand and dip your hand in the gel stain. After learning this little gem the labor went from 2+hours to 40 minutes per coat.
  • It takes 4 good coats to see good results.
  • If you have a dog, especially one like Laika, just get ready for a good dose of frustration. Dog hair will inevitably get all over your cabinets while they are drying, and then you will curse like a sailor as you try to lightly sand the stain you meticulously applied in every crevasse of every cabinet.
  • Blue Dawn+ (unused)floor scrub brush+your shower = only way to take gel stain off. 
  • General Finishes make a rub on polyurethane. Buy it. It's wonderful and you can still apply it with your new favorite tool- the sock.
I also needed hardware for my cabinet doors. I went with 5" stainless steel bar pulls and bought them on eBay. Don't buy them at a store, you'll waste your money. Tim made the template, and I'm happy with my kitchen. Got lots more to do, but it's a huge start.

It only gets better.

Mandy





Purchasing Laika Land and Our First Project

I'll admit it: I had(have...let's be realistic) a serious Zillow problem.

It was an addiction. I swiped and zoomed in at my new home's listing five times a day until I saw it in person.  When I pulled up to the house and went inside I looked like a 5 year-old going to the circus. It was perfectly imperfect. The good things were great and the bad things could easily be fixed. I went under contract two days later and haven't looked back.

And then I made the list.

I think I overwhelmed my boyfriend because "the list" was completed by the end of the night. I'm not even sure if the house was mine yet at the time, but that obviously doesn't matter now. Some projects on the list are expensive. Some projects are easy, some are important, some not so much.  Should half of the ideas even be on the list during our first year? Absolutely not, but I wrote the list in pen.

Prioritizing our projects was the MOST IMPORTANT concept. Helped me budget, plan, and coordinate with moving all my stuff in and time off work. In my delirious mind I was going to finish everything on that list in a week.

The SMARTEST thing we did is start with the garage. Oh my God I can't even begin to tell you how freaking genius that was. Not that we're a dumb couple or anything- Tim has a Master's Degree so clearly he was Master of putting down that floor. And I have my Doctor of Pharmacy-which means I can...mix things and over-analyze everything..not the point.

The first project we (Tim) completed was epoxying the garage floor. He swept and cleaned it while I sterilized everything inside our house, and it took him probably 6 hours to complete.  We went with the Valspar brand epoxy and bought two for our two-car garage.

Here is why this project should be your first:

We left all of our belongings at my parent's house/garage.  We didn't even think about moving in until the floor was down. Then we U-Hauled our stuff from my parent's garage to our garage and ba-zinga, we had everything at our house and had no NEED to move anything if it wasn't necessary. And then we could move to other projects while still having all our stuff here, but not everywhere.

When you buy a miter saw and start doing your real projects and get wood and saw dust EVERYWHERE in said garage you will be so grateful you put down that indestructible floor.


Did I mention it's blue? It's blue!

Follow the instructions. This one was easy, and nobody fights.

Mandy

Hi from Laika Land

I'm not one to post about my life on Facebook. I don't have a Twitter account, and Instagram just sits on my iPhone collecting app-dust. Facebook has turned into this land of sad/depressing posts or makes me sad/depressed when another person 3 years younger than me posts a picture of their engagement ring.  Don't get me wrong, I like to think I'm a generally fun person, but lately if I'm not working, I'm hiding at home, or at Lowes wasting time and thinking of ways to torture my boyfriend with another project. Since I bought my house, lovingly called "Laika Land" in November of 2013 I have been non-stop crazy about DIY projects to make this my home.  Since I ran out of money and still can't seem to slow myself down, I thought I'd start writing about each project to share what works and what doesn't and reflect on the awesomeness of manual labor and sweat equity.  And I mean the real, in-your-face, run-downs of our projects. Not the "omg it was so easy and look how we playfully got ourselves covered in paint that would wash right off" facade that some DIY shows or movies like to pretend is real life.  If you're twenty-something, and you just shelled out all your savings to buy a house that is not custom-built with upgrades, you're going to want to do something to your home, and I probably did it or it's on my list. 
Happy reading, and if you do read this, and you have cool ideas that you did to your house that you found on Pinterest/HGTV/DIYnetwork/ect let me know.

Mandy                                                     (Real Laika --->)