When we moved in, the kid’s bathroom was a bit too cheery. Almost everything was sunshine yellow, including the shower tile. We replaced the old tile flooring and sink top, and then someone told me it would be safe to paint the tile with kitchen and bath paint. It looked good at first, so we [...]

It started with the hallway flooring shortly after we bought the house. Two years later, we built a wall to divide our giant family room into two rooms. Later, we did a sort of overhaul of those rooms to create a fourth bedroom for Molly and Mia. To complete our budget-friendly renovation of the lower [...]

As I mentioned yesterday, the gazebo is up. I finally got around to bringing a power source outside. My parents gave us the light set they had for their gazebo because they hated setting it up. It had a center lantern and 4 others that hung from the corners. I rewired it so we’d just [...]

It takes 2 1/2 – 3 hours to mow our lawn (as you can see here). Micah always gets the mowing done on his day off. Meanwhile, I take the edge trimmer along the fence and steps, trim the bushes and rip out some random weeds. The lawn bags fill up quickly. The town only [...]

The downstairs bathroom confused the hell out of me when a realtor showed it to us. Since then, we had most of the plumbing redone, put in new flooring and a new toilet. We even tried to paint the moulding to contrast with the walls, but that never looked right. The most confusing thing of [...]

We had a relaxing holiday, but also accomplished a few things. I scrubbed the patio and finished the hard-to-mow areas with the edge trimmer. I found some stainless outlet/switch plates on mark down and replaced the ones in the kitchen. The old ones were a shiny chrome finish and seemed so outdated. Lastly, I painted [...]

I have found some deals on eBay lately. I bought white roman shades for the kid’s rooms, and fabric-look pleated shades for the two windows in the playroom. They look nice, but you do get what you pay for. The installation was tricky, and we had to be careful. I added a new curtain rod [...]

The downstairs bathroom is complete. We decided to choose a wall color that would match the flooring, and a dark brown for the trim that would give a natural wood appearance. I chose a semi-gloss for the walls (as always), but a flat paint for the trim. This worked very well. I painted the frame [...]

The kids’ bathroom is complete. We painted the shower tile tonight, using the same color that was used in the other bathroom: Before: After: The yellow tile was a LOT easier to paint over than the blue! We have about 2/3 gallon left, just in case we ever need to do touch-ups.

We have lots of updates! First of all, the flooring has been replaced in both upstairs bathrooms. The kids’ bathroom was a mess. The tile was popping out, apparently because it was installed over vinyl. Underneath, the base floor was a mess: After: I ended up buying a replacement vanity top because they had dismantled [...]