A Fence for Hudson :)

It all starts when Steve gets ants in his pants...Sunday afternoon and Steve is studying in his office and I am relaxing outside. Next thing I know, Steve decides he needs a break and what better thing to do then put in our dogs underground fence!
So off to Home Depot I go to pick up a PetSafe underground fencing system and Steve finishes his assignment.
We knew we were going to have some difficulty putting it in because our driveway is connected to our neighbors driveway with only a small groove separating them...but we made it work!

We started by mounting the system in our garage and drilling a small hole through the side of the garage for the wires. We then began working on a system to get the wire in the ground. Steve was using the shovel and we had to be careful that he did not cut through the wire...or my fingers :)

Not sure whose flowers these are...ours or our neighbors, but they took a beating! Whoops :)

After this section by the garage we had to tackle the crack in the driveway...Steve took the easy job and sprayed water in the cracks. I had to sit my butt on the pavement shove the wire into the crack, and then grab the pieces of moss and mud that Steve sprayed out of the crack and shove them back in to hold the wire down...oh joy!
Don't I look like I am having fun!!

The rest of the project went smoothly although we had no idea our front yard was filled with roots....Steve was continually fighting with the shovel and has blisters to show for it...I have dirt under my fingernails that will probably be there for another three months...
One suggestion: Use gardening gloves!
When you are poor newly weds buying an underground dog fence, we decided we couldn't afford the gloves ;) slash we didn't even think about it before we began...oh well

All for the love of Hudson! Hope he is worth it!

D.I.Y. Gone Awry...

The day we moved in we were eager to work on our house. We were looking to do a few quick projects that would spruce up the look of the house...like the fireplace and an outside door. Well as you saw, the fireplace project went wonderfully. To door project....well a week and a half later it is finally done....ish.

The idea of stripping and staining our outside, side door came from watching DIY Network where everything looks SO easy. We bought paint stripper, foam brushes, and a paint tray...just like they did. We slathered on the stripper and waited patiently for 20 minutes while it did it's job...just like they did. We excitedly grabbed our scraper and started scraping at  the bubbled paint...just like they did. We waited to see beautiful, solid wood underneath...just like they saw. Except we didn't see beautiful wood underneath. We saw another layer of paint, and then another, and another, and so on. I think there were at least 20-30 coats of paint on our lovely door. of the Frustration!! Eventually, after countless layers of stripper and innumerable minutes waited patiently, we gave up. We had to! We had to accept the fact that we would never find beautiful wood underneath all the paint.

Time to Complete Project: 1 1/2 weeks
Difficultly: High! (but it shouldn't be)
Caution: When the paint stripper says to wear gloves. Do it!
What happens if you don't? Well, it doesn't feel good. When the paint stripper first touches your skin it feels cold, like a IcyHot...great! However, a few seconds later it starts to burn! Not a good feeling...

Since It has been so long I only have one pic left of the project at the mid-point...On with the story...

We started sanding our lovely door. We sanded and sanded until I had no fingerprints left. Yes we were able to use a sanding tool on most parts of the door. However, with anything old, there was a lot of detail in the door. Many, many ridges and nooks and crannies that no sanding tool was ever going to reach. So I worked for as long as I could and finally refused to touch sand paper one more time. At this point, however, you could see no significant improvement in the look of our door. So, what else could we do?? We called in help from the power tools!

We worked hard for awhile and started noticing a difference! Thank goodness!! Then Steve's ADD kicked in...

(Sorry if this offends anyone...thought it was funny ;))

After all the sanding was finally done to our now very low standards...we decided it was time to paint! Yahoo!
This is the door after all the stripping, sanding, and taping off the glass...not to shabby right?!

Thankfully, we bought paint with primer in it already so we did not have to prime first. This is a picture after one coat of paint. After 2 coats we were satisfied and it was about to rain so we needed to get the door inside :)

And finally our LAST obstacle:

Note to all future painters:
              #1 Don't be cheap like us. Buy the Blue painters tape, not some store brand
              #2 DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT leave the tape on until the paint drys and DO NOT leave it on for
                2 more days after the paint drys...
We learned these lessons, because as we took the tape off, it not only left a very sticky residue on the glass, it also peeled the paint of with it...LOVELY DOOR :)

Here is our finished product:

Looks good from far away :) That's all that matters I guess!

Happy Wife, Happy Life!

Out with the old and smelly...

There were a few areas in our house that were carpeted. Which at first you think great! Our house is almost completely covered in wood flooring so you would think a few carpeted closets and steps would be nice. Not So! Carpet is a very undesirable thing once it was been urinated on...by a cat. Gross. Smelly.
It had to go!

So we got out our handy dandy channel-locks and hammer and got rid of it. Oh and by we, I mean Steve. I refused to touch the stinky, smelly, dirty carpet :)

 

The Stinky Closet Before:

 

In Progress:

Final Product. TaDa! No more stinky closet :) Our coats would finally have a sanitary home.

Next project: Our back stairs covered in carpet. In short, I think we got a little carried away with ripping out carpet. This carpet was by no means stinky, smelly or dirty. Basically, we wanted to rip it out cause we could and we wanted to see what the wood looked like underneath...so we did.
 Before:

Turns out the floor was probably covered for a reason. This is the main door used in the house and it has clearly had a lot of wear and tear. So, we will get a rug! Problem solved :)
We are excited to refinish the floors in the whole house next summer. One project at a time.

Happy Wife, Happy Life :D

Making a home for all the shoes...

As you may know, we have an absolutely enormous closet! However, we have had no room for all our my shoes! So, I asked Steve to make me a shoe rack and he jumped at the challenge. Lucky for us, we have a closet connected to our closet, which is now officially our shoe closet :)

This is what it looked like before the transformation:   

 

After measuring things, Steve headed to Lowes where apparently they are willing to cut wood for you! Lucky us, because we have no saw.

At Lowes Steve picked up lumber, some "L" brackets, and screws...

He put in 3 "L" brackets for each shelf. One on either side and one in the middle. Since it was not necessary for the shelves to hold any significant amount of weight, we thought this was sufficient.    

Our finished product! Looks good right?



Happy Wife, Happy Life :)

Changing the mood...

We are happy to announce we have just completed our very first DIY project and have a few more in the works!
Our Goal: Change our gold fireplace to brushed nickel
Time Frame: One Day
Outcome: Successful

Difficulty: Low/Easy

Here are pictures of the Fireplace Before...Ugly, Shiny, Gold...

 

Here are the supplies you need: Screw Driver to remove the front from the fireplace, sand paper or a drill bit that can "rough-up" the gold surface, windex or other cleaner to remove any dust or grease from the surface, painters tape to protect the glass, and spray paint to change the look!

Start by "roughing-up" any surface that is going to be spray painted. This will help the paint to adhere better.

 

Next is the fun part, begin spray painting in nice even strokes. Always start spraying to the side of the object. Do not start spraying directly onto the object as that may make the paint look thicker, darker or spotty there.

Finally,we are happy to present the finished product!

We are very pleased with our completed fireplace area :)