Concrete Countertops

Well, for the second week in a row we've got no bathroom or loveseat progress to show so we're going to take a blast to the past.  A few years ago Anthony took his experience of working with concrete flooring to a new level - making concrete countertops.  He made a few outdoor kitchen countertops and also a few indoor kitchen countertops.  Unfortunately, we (I worked alongside as an apprentice) got so wrapped up in the entire, time-consuming process that we didn't take many pictures but we do have a few to share.  We're currently toying with the idea of bedecking our current bathroom and kitchen cabinets with new concrete tops so this post is actually very relevant at the moment.  We'll let you know if the idea becomes a reality in a few months...if we ever get our bathroom's mini-makeover or the curb-side loveseat finished.  :)  When and if we decide to take on that job, we'll getcha a post that's much more informative than this picturific, remember-when-we-did-this post.  :)  Anyway, onto the pictures.

Here's our garage-made-workshop, where we spent hours upon hours cutting, caulking, pouring, grinding, and sealing:

 

And here are the only finished tops we thought to take pictures of:

And, unfortunately, that's all we have this week.  Next week we'll be back after trying our darndest to make some major headway on either our bathroom or the loveseat so that we have an update for y'all.  Until then, have a great weekend!

I Just Had To

This past Tuesday I had one of those I-really-need-a-mini-project-to-make-me-happy days.  Ever have one of those?  It wasn't like I was in a bad mood or anything but me, being who I am, just have these urges sometimes (okay, maybe "sometimes" is a little under-exaggerated) to change something from not-so-pretty to wowza!  So, to handle this little mood swing, I made my way over to a local Goodwill after a few hours of babysitting to see what I could salvage.  Here's what I found:

An old, brass tray.  Perfect.  Except you must think I'm crazy...  :)

This is the detail in this little soon-to-be-beauty that had me at hello:

I love cut-outs but the shape of these had me at the register with $1.99 and on my way home in little to no time.

So, since everyone loves a little tutorial once in awhile, here's the play by play:

Step 1:  Thoroughly clean seemingly "ugly" tray.  Scrub, scrub, and scrub with an abrasive sponge to make sure all dirt and grime is gone, gone, gone.

Step 2:  Prime time.  I sprayed on two light coats of Rustoleum's white primer and said "bye, bye brass", watching my project come to life.

Step 3:  Out came the spray paint.  The color I chose?  White by Krylon.  Two light coats of this went on also.

Meanwhile...

While my two thin coats of spray paint were drying, I was going through some scrapbook paper I grabbed for a few bucks on clearance a few months ago.  The plan was to cut out a round piece to fit perfectly inside the bottom of my new tray.  This is the pattern I chose:

 

To get a perfect fit, I simply traced the (completely dry) tray onto the opposite side of the scrapbook paper I was going to use...

...and cut it out.

The great thing about using scrapbook paper is that I can switch it out whenever my mind fancies a change.  :)

Back to the play-by-play though.

Step 4:  Cover painted tray with one coat of clear (make sure it's non-yellowing!) acrylic for extra protection against scratches, scrapes, husbands, and children.  :)

Step 5:  Bring completely dry tray back inside, set it upside down on dining room table, and notice that it would make a great cake stand with a little piece of round wax paper to separate tray from cake.  (This step is optional.)

Step 6:  Use felt furniture protectors to protect tray further by

a) cutting out small pieces (the less noticeable, the better),

and b) placing them on the bottom of the tray.

Last, but possibly not least, introduce the tray to it's new little round scrapbook paper friend and enjoy!



Ours is a sweet little place to hold decor in our guestroom bathroom.  It would also be a great spot to place apothecary jars filled with cotton balls, q-tips, soap, and whatever else a pampered guest might need.  :) 

And so you have it, my need-a-project predicament solved in a few hours and our guest bathroom all the better for it!  (Aunt Sue and Grandma, you can't get here fast enough!)  :)

In other bathroom news, we finished our master bathroom floors!  I hope to have a post up on that project next week but until then, here's a sneak peak:

Also, the loveseat saga is about to come to an end since I FINALLY found fabric.  It's been a little bit of a whirlwind with that, but I'll explain that too in a soon-to-come future post.  We're crossing our fingers in hopes to get the fabric on this weekend!  :)  Oh projects!  Will we ever get enough?  Nope, I don't think so!  Any other project-tacklers out there?  What have you been working on?  I know we're not the only crazy ones!

Calling All Ladies

We're taking a break from talking about current projects this week 1) because we're still "in progress" with the bathroom and loveseat and we just feel we'd be boring you with the minimal progress we've made and 2) because I want to delve into a budget-friendly topic every lady should be taking advantage of right now...that is, swimsuits.  That's right, this post is dedicated solely to every woman reading it.  :)  

With summer on it's way out, big savings on popular, super-cute swimsuits are in.  So, I've rounded up some of my favorites to show you.  You'll notice that not only are most of them discounted, but they're also cute and modest.  My good friend Lauren and I spoke at a Theology of the Body Teen Summer Party Camp a couple of months ago and we dove into the realm of modesty, self-worth, and protecting and saving yourself.  As a woman in this society, it's sometimes hard to see the value in "covering up" and is, more often than not, looked at as "prudish".  I was convicted after that week to someday write a post dedicated to modest swimwear, showing that modest can be cute, and doesn't mean your swimsuit needs to consist of a turtleneck and baggy pants worn to the pool or beach...  :)  Now, when these modest swimsuits are on sale, is the perfect time to get this post in.  :)  So, without further ado, here are my faves categorized by whence they came:

jcrew.com



belk.com

landsend.com

macys.com

target.com

Out With The Laminate

(Post Disclaimer:  My intention was to have this post posted last Saturday...I thought I did but it turns out it wasn't...was it me?  our crazy computer?  the wacky world wide web?  who knows...but, better late than never, eh?)

A few weeks ago at the end of this post I had y'all guessing about our next project.  Well, I'm here to tell you that it's going to be our master bathroom and that we officially started on it last weekend.  :)  Here's the plan:

~ Short-Term ~

-rip out the icky laminate tile and put in new, ceramic tile

-paint the walls Valspar's Smoked Oyster

-paint the cabinets white

-install new cabinet hardware

~ Long-Term ~

-add a little Hollywood glamour by adding a semi-homemade chandelier  :)

-replace the countertops (concrete?)

-stencil either the cabinet wall or all walls?

Last weekend we started by ripping out the laminate tile.  First, we had to remove all of the quarter round molding to be able to remove the laminate that was installed underneath it. 

Anthony started by sliding a razor blade along the top of the quarter round, where it meets the baseboard, to cut through the paint.  Then he wedged the end of a pry bar in between the baseboard and the quarter round and carefully pryed the quarter round loose.  These we set aside to be re-installed over the new tile.

Next up, ripping up the laminate tiles.  This is where it got a little sticky...quite literally.  Lucky for us though, all we had to do was get a hold of a corner of each tile and lift, causing each one to come right up.  We hadn't ripped out but a few tiles when we realized that whoever installed this tile installed it right over another layer of laminate flooring. 

Great.  More junk to rip up.

At this point we realized it would probably just be easier to get underneath the second layer of laminate and rip it up, with the top tile layer coming out right along with it.  So, we started at a corner of the room and began tugging when lo and behold...

...another layer of laminate!  That makes three layers for those of you counting!  :)  See?

For whatever reason, whoever installed the laminate layers was lazy found it too much work unneccesary to remove existing flooring before installing new. 

To make matters worse, the third layer of laminate was a pain to get up.  Anthony removed all he could by just lifting and pulling before he had to get back to studying so in I came with some music, the crowbar, a hammer, and my super woman strength to hammer, pry, lift, and pull.  Let me explain.  First, I had to find an edge, place the crowbar at said edge, and hammer the end of the crowbar until I was under the laminte piece I intended to remove.  (Side note:  using a scraper with a handle attached would make this job much easier, but we worked with what we had on hand.)

Then I stuffed the crowbar underneath the laminate, slowly prying and disconnecting it from the concrete floor. 

It came off in pieces so the cycle continued - find an edge, hammer, pry, lift, and remove - for about an hour until every scrap was out of sight and our bathroom looked like this:

It still looks like there are laminate remnants on the concrete but it's really just some glue residue which we can tile right over.  We hope to get the tile in within the next week.  We still have to pick up some mastic adhesive to attach the tiles to the floor and matching grout and then, unfortuntely, we're going to also have to remove the toilet to install the tile underneath it.  But, we've banked the experience of doing this before in our first home's basement bathroom so we can do it again.  :)

.           .           .

Between the loveseat and the master bathroom, we've got lots going on in this house and lots of updates to keep you posted!  For today, we're going to try to start tiling while wishing we were really at World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain with some beloved friends (not to mention Pope Benedict XVI!), taking in the beauty and enormity of the Church here on earth and relishing in Her truth. 

 Lord, bless all of those there and
set their hearts on fire with Your love
and incredible mercy, that they may
ignite the rest of a world
that is in desperate need of You. 

Setback City

I had fun in our backyard last weekend:

Subtract the plywood and sheet on the ground and you'd think I was rocking a vintage photo shoot.  :)  What I was really doing though was getting my white spray paint on.  Three thin and even coats and our beloved loveseat was ready to come back in.  In she came and at her we stared.  Something was wrong...dare I even say it...she was too white.  Never did I ever think I'd be one to say that but Anthony pointed it out and after trying to convince myself that it was okay, I finally agreed.  We wanted it white, but not stark white...blindingly white...and it's just not all white (that's for you Lauren).  But we didn't want it off-white or ivory either.  Oh the dilemmas of being a DIYer...

So, off to Wal-Mart I went to find a "creamy white".  I had already convinced myself that they only made white and ivory and I was going to end up having to hand paint the loveseat with some custom color when I found it!  Dove White for plastic...metal, wood, wicker, and more!  If you can tell the difference on a computer screen (they lie about color...keep reading), here's the original, stark white on the right and the new, dove white on the left:

So, from setback to happy ending, we're good in the paint department.  Now for our next setback...fabric.  I ordered fabric last week and it arrived this week.  You can see what I ordered by clicking here. I couldn't decide what I wanted so I ordered seven yards each of Crawford and Chuck (haha...that sounds funny) and a swatch of Bass.  It's free shipping here and back so I had nothing to lose.  :)  So, they arrived, I ripped open the box, and...wop, wop...they were too light (and to add to my disappointment, they sent me the wrong swatch).

The description on fabric.com said "natural" and the color on my screen looked like a taupe color but, like I learned, never trust your computer screen to give you an accurate color.

You can see just how light the fabric is in this picture:

Even though I love the pattern of the cut on the left, I can't use something this light.  I don't think the loveseat will ever be able to stand another reupholstering since it's been through several so I need the fabric I put on it to last through kids and grandkids...a.k.a. able to hide whatever life throws it's way without looking dingy after 10 years.  Is that an unreasonable request?  I hope not.

So anyway, those are our two loveseat setbacks...one happily solved and the other still lurking.  I'll let you know how it pans out.  For now, that's not all I've got for you on this beautiful Saturday.  Check back later today for another post about an "in progress" project we started last weekend.  :)