Fourth of July Wreath

I found this on Facebook, but don't know who posted about it first. I thought I would share a tutorial of how I made this. It is seriously super easy to make! You only have to be able to fold, cut, tie, and glue!

Materials:

12-18 bandannas in red, white, and blue (I got mine from Walmart for $1 each and only used 12)
Wire wreath form (any size)
Stars (mine are foam glitter stickers from Walmart in the craft aisle)
Scissors
Hot glue gun

Step 1:

Find the middle of the bandannas and cut them in half.

Step 2:

Once they are all cut, you will tie them around the wreath form.  

Step 3:

Fill about 1/3 of the circle with all blue and then alternate red and white for the other 2/3. Glue your stars onto the blue section with hot glue (or whatever glue you prefer to use)

Step 4: 

Admire your work and hang it on your front door. I didn't have a wreath hanger so mine just stayed on the door knob.

And you are all done! It took me about 15 minutes to make this and I can use it from Memorial Day until July 4th. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Explore the blog and look at some of the other tutorials I have as well our neat house projects!

Removing Popcorn Ceilings in the Whole House!

We were back and forth on removing the popcorn ceilings. We knew that if we wanted to do it, we needed to get it done BEFORE we moved in. We got a quote on getting it done professionally and it was going to cost a couple thousand dollars. We ended up doing this entire project for about $300 including paint and all supplies. Now I would say that if you don't like the idea of sweating and doing very hard, physical work for 2 weeks you might want to hire someone.

I did a lot of research on Pinterest reading multiple blogs about what to do with popcorn ceilings. Some people said they just covered it up, but that was going to cost about the same amount as hiring someone to take it down. I did not find a blog on someone doing this on the entire house. Most people just did one room at a time while they were redecorating. It took them about an hour to scrape 1 room so I thought we would be able to do our entire 2300 sq. ft. house in 2 days. HAHA boy was I wrong.

Step 1: Preparing

Materials:

• Painters tape ( we only used 1 roll in the entire house)
• Plastic Sheeting  (We got our's from Home Depot and got the more expensive stuff because it was supposed to "stick" to things. It did stick very well to the wood floors, but not the carpet so lots of tape was still needed)
• Ladder and drill to remove fixtures.
• Bag or Tupperware to put all screws for fixtures in!

We closed on the house on a Tuesday afternoon. On our way home from closing, we stopped at Home Depot to pick up some supplies such as plastic sheeting, tape, and a scraper. 

For the next couple of nights we came over and laid the plastic sheeting on the ENTIRE house. We went up over the base boards and taped it to the walls with painters tape. I had seen where you could tape it near the top of the wall, but none of it got on the walls (just water) so I'm glad we decided not to do this. Honestly, most of the tape came off the wall when the ceiling fell on it, but I think it helped enough! 

We were extra careful to overlap the seams and tape them with lots of tape. On the wood floors it wasn't the end of the world if it leaked through, but we didn't want to ruin our new carpet. We were lucky that the flooring was brand new and to our liking when we bought the house, but this project would be SO much easier if you didn't care about saving the floors!

We thought we could do the entire house in 2 nights. I now laugh at our enthusiasm, as it took us like 9 hours to do this. Also, we learned very quickly how to talk things through and be a team. Plastic sheeting is NOT very much fun to spread out. Think plastic food wrap times 100.  We also made a reference or two to the show Dexter and we decided he made it look WAY too easy!

Once my dad came in town Friday night (he had the ladder), he worked on taking down the lights, vents, and ceilings fans while we kept laying plastic sheeting. We really lucked out having my dad on board. He brought so many of his supplies so we saved money on paint supplies and ladders.  ***Make sure you turn the breakers off when messing with the lights. It was dark so we plugged a spotlight into the fridge plug (on it's own breaker) so we could see what we were doing.

Originally (you can see in many of these pictures), we were going to leave the ceiling fans up and just drape plastic over them, but after getting started they were in the way of the guys scraping motion so they all go taken down and put in the garage.

The florescent lights in the kitchen also got taken down. I did not like them and knew that we would be replacing them. It left 4 pretty decent sized holes in the ceiling, but we filled them in before painting.

What the house looked like the morning we started scraping.

Step 2: Scraping the Ceilings

**BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, TURN YOUR BREAKERS OFF!!! Water and electricity DO NOT mix!**

This part is very messy and very physically demanding. You need at least 3 people to make this most efficient. Also, if you have 9 foot ceilings like we do, make sure at least 2 people are around 6 feet tall. Otherwise, scraping is even harder! My little 5'3" self could barely even reach the ceiling so I couldn't get the force behind it to scrape without denting the drywall.

Materials:

• Garden Pump Sprayer (We choose this one because of it's multi nozzle. We knew we would use it for fertilizer/weed killer later on so we wanted more options)
• Scraper (I read so much about the different options. We choose the actual one made for scraping ceilings because we could attach an extension pole. We also used a plastic paint scraper along the edge where the ceiling met the wall to clean it up)
• Extension poles (you know the ones you use to paint)
• Safety Items: Eye glasses and mask for sure. We added cloth booties to keep our shoes clean and hair nets to prevent the nasty to dry in our hair.  Andrew works in a "clean" environment so he snagged these for us from work (Please don't fire him) the week before our project.

~I don't have many pictures of each step because it was wet and gross and I was actually working, but most are self explanatory and if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to help you out :

1. Put your safety gear on. You could do this project without all of it, but you have water and the ceiling falling down so a mask and safety glasses are a must. ***Please check to make sure you do not have asbestos before doing this project. Our house was built in 1994 so we knew we were safe***

   

   We look like nerds, but it was helpful!

2. Fill up the garden sprayer with water and pump it up to build pressure. I was the one who was spraying the water and I would only fill it up 3/4's of the way. While this means more trips to refill, I could actually hold the water above my head.
3. You will now spray the ceiling with water. This is the tricky part. You don't want it to be too wet or the drywall will tear, but too dry and it is near impossible to scrape. We found it to be useful to spray an area first and let it sit for about 5 minutes and then respray it right before Andrew or Dad scraped it off. Having this job is frustrating because you are literally holding a sprayer over your head ALL DAY long. My neck and shoulders and back were on fire after doing this for 2 days.
4. Once you think the ceiling is wet enough, use the scraper to scrape it off in long straight strokes. You want to make sure the blade on the scraper is about 45 degrees to the ceiling and you don't actually want to use too much force/pressure or the drywall will tear. However, if you find it hard to get the texture off, just Both the guys will tell you that it will cut through it like butter, until you get to a joint where there is mud underneath and then you really have to use some force.
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   
   

5. This is really dirty and disgusting and looks like wet oatmeal falling to the floor. As the water sprayer, I would make sure that none got on the walls. If you immediately wipe it off then it causes no damage. If it dries, just take a warm wet rag and wipe it off and it should come right off!
6. The guys went around and together scraped the living room and kitchen. When that was done, they took turns taking breaks and getting up on a ladder to do the edges. They would spray a section near the edge and then take a plastic putty knife to clean up the edges. They would then wipe down the walls and move around the room. They also did around the lights, if it wasn't done with the big scraper.
7. This took us 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) to do our entire house. We were going to leave all of the plastic sheeting down to use for painting, but it had holes and some of the water leaked through so cleaned it up as soon as possible.
8. After we had done the whole house, we came around to make sure we hadn't missed any spots and touched it up with the scraper and water bottle.
9. We forgot this part until after we had cleaned up, but now would be a great time to go around with drywall spackle and fill in all holes in the drywall. After it has dried, you will sand it down and you will have a perfectly smooth ceiling! We really didn't have to do much of this-mostly just where we took out lights.
   

Step 3: Clean-up

1. We took the plastic sheeting up when we were done. We just rolled it up onto itself. We then put about 3 rooms into a giant black bag. These bags weighed at least 50 pounds and we could only get 3 in the garbage can with us feeling comfortable that the wheels wouldn't break. We also made some jokes in reference to the show Dexter and how it looked as if we had killed a lot of people (there were 6 bags total). haha
2. We then spent the entire week cleaning the place up. We had 2 shop-vacs thanks to my parents and Andrew and I went into separate rooms and first swept then vacuumed around EVERY SINGLE BASEBOARD! 
3. After we had vacuumed the baseboards, I used some of my Mrs. Meyers Multi-surface cleaner and wiped down all the baseboards to get rid of dust.
4. Our wood floors looked HORRIBLE and it took us damp mopping 3 times to get them back to normal! 

Step 4: Admire all the work you have done!

You will be sore for the entire next week-neck, back, arms, shoulders! You have done a great job and your house already looks better! You will contemplate just leaving the drywall exposed because you can not imagine ANOTHER weekend filled with doing things to your ceiling. All your hard work is going to pay off real soon when you have nice flat ceilings.

Shout-out to my dad, whose birthday is next week! We are so incredibly thankful for all the work you helped us accomplish! We would not have been able to do this without you, at least not all in 1 weekend. Thanks for inspiring me to do things myself and buying Andrew all sorts of power tools so he can help me be crafty! Are you ready to quit your job and scrape ceilings full time?! haha I love you, Dad!

I will share in my next post about how we painted the drywall and show you the finished look! 

One Hole Washers Board

We were having a July 4th gathering and Andrew decided that we needed to make a washers board to add to our lawn game collection. We turned to Pinterest to get some ideas on measurements, but we could only find tutorials on 3-hole washer boards and we are NOT into that! I actually learned that it is played different ways in different states, but in Texas is started off with a cup in the ground and you get points for getting the washer in the pit, leaning on the cup, and in the cup. This is how we still play it, but instead of using a sand pit we play on a board.

We used the advice of my awesome Uncle Donny who has made washers boards and cornhole boards as well as random tips we found on the internet.



Materials:

Plywood 2'x4'
Outdoor Carpet (Optional)
2- 2'x4'x8'
wood screws/nails (We ended up using 32 total)
8 washers 2.5" Outer Diameter (1" inner diameter)
Spray paint
Tacky Glue (Or any craft glue on hand)
jig saw, circular saw, drill
Exacto knife/box cutter/pocket knife

1. Cut Plywood in half to make 2-2'x2' squares using the circular saw.

2. Cut the 2x4's to have 4 pieces be 24" long and 4 pieces be 21" long.

3. Take a 24" and 21" piece and set them perpendicular to each other. Use your square to make sure they are actually square. Pre-drill and then screw 2 wood screws to attach the pieces. Repeat this to each corner to make a square.

4. Place the plywood on top of your square frame. Line them up and them pre-drill 2 holes on one side. Screw in the wood screws. Now pre-drill the other 3 sides with 2 holes each. Screw in wood screws. You should have a total of 8 screws on top.

5. Go through your entire kitchen and try to find a circular object that is 3.5" diameter. Trace it in the center of the board and use a jig saw to cut out the center. (We do not own one yet so this part took forever and our circle looks pretty horrible. But as my dad said, "The washers won't care!", so neither do we!

6. Spray paint the base with your desired color. You can seal it if you so desire.

7. While you have the spray paint out, paint your washers two different colors. We did maroon and white to continue with the Texas A&M theme.

8. After the spray paint has dried,  lay outdoor carpet right side down on the ground.

9. Use Tacky Glue (or any kind of glue you have on hand) to coat the top of the boards.

10. Set the boards on the carpet with the glue side down and dry for a couple of minutes. Now use your knife to cut out the carpet. Place the boards-carpet side down- and let the glue dry overnight.  You can put heavy objects to apply pressure but we did not do this and the glue dried perfectly!

11. After the glue has dried cut the circle out of your carpet.

12. Play washers!


***UPDATE: We have had these boards for 6 months now and they have seen a lot of play. They still look nice and the turf is holding up great! Only con is that they are quite heavy. I'm sure you could use lighter wood. We also added handles to the sides to make them easier to carry. We took them to the beach and found that wasn't the best idea as the washers disappear in the sand easily.***

Here are the rules we play with:

DIY: Desk to Coffee Bar

DIY: Desk to Coffee Bar

So when Andrew moved into his old duplex, the previous owners left him this lovely 
piece of furniture. They used it as an island in their kitchen. 

When we moved into our duplex together, we simply had too many kitchen appliances (thanks to our many generous friends who got us cool things for our wedding!). We have a pretty good sized kitchen for a duplex, but we couldn't fit everything on our counters and still have space to cook. I remembered that this desk was sitting at Andrew's old place and was most likely headed to the dump. It sat in our house in it's original glory for about 2 months and then I decided that it needed to be painted.

I did some research on the internet and I found that chalk paint is really awesome to paint old furniture with. It doesn't require sanding or priming (unless you only want to use one coat of your chalk paint) and it looks good!

I found some recipes to make your own chalk paint, but I knew that I only needed a little so I bought some already made from The Home Depot. I used some old brushes that I already had and bought a plastic tarp for $2.

Chalk Paint   I got the 8 oz jar of Serene for $8.50 and used about half of the jar.

Creme Wax I got the 8 oz jar for $12 and only used about 1/4 of the jar.

The finish on the top had been sanded off at some point and I noticed that when I started painting with the chalk paint that the brown was showing through. I could have done two coats, but I'm cheap and remembered that the tenants before us left two bottles of cream spray paint. So Andrew helped be carry it outside and I used a bottle of spray paint to prime the desk.

 It was pretty warm out that day so this dried in 15 minutes and we carried it back inside to be painted.

It is hard to tell in our awful lighting that we have in the house, but it came out a nice light blue :)

 It only took about 15 minutes for the paint to be dry enough to put the wax on. Honestly, by the time I was done painting, the first side I painted was dry. This stuff dries quick and doesn't smell very strong AT ALL! I did all of the painting in my dining room.

The waxing was fairly easy. I used a microfiber towel and just rubbed it all over the desk.

 Here is the almost, final product! The knobs that were on the desk were just awful (I'm sad I didn't take a picture of them) so I ordered some glass knobs from Amazon and two days later we have this...

... a place to hold our Keurig, bread maker, and bread box! The drawers come in handy to store all of our coffee, soda mixes for our Soda Stream, and candy! 

Not bad for $20 and about an hour and a half of time :)

DIY Reclaimed Wood Headboard

I've been wanting a headboard for a while now. Since Andrew got a circular saw for Christmas and a cordless drill when we moved, I thought we could make one. I had been doing research on Pinterest how to make one and I got some great ideas, but we ended up making this up to fit our own needs. 

We looked for about a month for some free pallets, but they would be gone when we would go to pick one up. One morning when I was looking a Craigslist, I found a gentleman getting rid of some scrap wood. The picture made them look small, but they ended up being 2x6's. I knew that we could still make a headboard out of it, but it would be HEAVY!! 

Supplies:

2x6 boards (or you can use pallets)

3 2x4's for the support in back

2.5" wood screws

Wood Stain and polyurethane

wood putty

foam brush

old cloth for staining

circular saw

drill with a drill bit

sander 

Cost:

$9 for 50 wood screws (we used them all)

$9 for 3---2x4's

$4 wood putty (used 1/8 of it)

$8 wood stain (used 1/2 of it)

$8 polyurethane (barely used any)

$100 multi-tool

$0.50 foam brush

---------------------------------

Total = $138.50/  $24 = project

The wood had at least 3 nails each that we had to take out. I wasn't strong enough so Andrew had to take care of this step. We did this immediately because we had to keep the wood in the backyard and we didn't want Kyrie to step on them and hurt herself. Of course, Kyrie thought she could help too! Every time Andrew took a nail out, she went crazy and thought she would get to play with it. 

We were originally going to do this project on President's Day because Andrew had off from work, but it was super rainy and cold that day so we had wait :(

Once the wood had dried, I laid the pieces out to make sure we had enough to make our headboard. Our boards were either 60" or 42" long. We needed the headboard to be 60" wide to fit our queen bed. We decided that we didn't want all the boards the same length, but decided to do the typical pallet wall look.

I wasn't comfortable using the circular saw, so one day when Andrew got home early from work we got started!

We used a square to make sure our cuts were straight and measured everything like 3 times.

We used the porch as our workspace as it is about a foot from the ground. Andrew did all the cutting and I helped hold the wood steady.

Once all the boards were cut, we went to the 2x4's. We made these be 57" long and cut 3 of them. We then used the left overs to make 2 boards that were 30" long each to use as the base. Andrew wanted to make sure the force was distributed evenly on the floor.

Here they are all lined up ready to be attached. 

We then used the 2x4s to level up the boards on the top and side. We then laid a 57" 2x4 on top of the boards flush with the ends. 

We used a 3/8ths drill bit and pre-drilled 2 holes for each 2x6 board. We did this so that the screws would go in straight and our boards wouldn't move so much when putting the screws in. I don't think this step is 100% necessary,  but it was easy and only took an extra 5 minutes. 

Once we pre-drilled one 2x4 board, we drilled in the 2.5" wood screws. We did the two outsides and then put one down the middle for extra support. We wouldn't have had to do this if we used the same length boards, but we needed to support the middle boards. Also, it is really heavy so all the extra support was good.

We had a couple of boards that needed to be attached together. So, we used some of the scrap wood and attached them. I didn't take a picture of this step because it was dark and the porch light wasn't good. I then forgot to take a picture of the back so when I get a chance to move the bed I'll take a picture. Sorry!

This is what it looked like at the end of the first day. At this point we have put about 1.5 hours of work into the project. 

The next day while Andrew was at work, I tackled the staining. 

I first sanded it down using Andrew's new oscillating multi-tool with a 60 grit sanding pad.

It started raining so I had to move the project to the garage so it wouldn't get wet and I could stain it. 

I laid down my old plastic drop cloth and put the headboard on top. I mentioned before that there were nails in every piece of wood when we received it. I tested the stain on the holes and decided I didn't like the look so I made a quick trip to Home Depot and bought some wood filler. I got the stuff that changed colors (you know like the glue sticks) so that I would know when it was dry.

It took about 3 hours to dry. I'm glad it changed colors, otherwise I probably wouldn't have let it dry enough. I sanded it down real quick and was now ready to stain!

I brushed it off with a microfiber cloth to make sure all the saw dust was gone!

Andrew picked the stain. Minwax  Jacobean. It actually ended up being darker than we both anticipated, so I only did 2 coats of stain with 3 coats on the green boards(I think they were treated?).

I used a foam brush to apply it and then wiped it off with an old undershirt. MAKE SURE TO WEAR GLOVES! It's not necessary to apply, but definitely good when wiping off--this is the messy part. I applied the stain one board at a time about 1/3 of the length before wiping off the excess and moving on. 

Make sure you have good ventilation, because this stain is pretty strong! I let it dry for 9 hours before applying the polyurethane. We used Minwax fast drying satin polyurethane. You can buy the 2-in-1 stuff, but I didn't know how many coats we were going to do with the stain so went the non-quick way. I used another foam brush and did 2 coats. 

We let it dry over night with the garage door slightly cracked. We actually went out of town so it sat in the garage for the weekend and still felt a little sticky when we got back. We decided it wasn't wet and we were done--almost! 

We took it upstairs which was a challenge it's pretty durn heavy! Our screws were too long so we couldn't attach the headboard to the bed frame. We will buy some screws and bolts and drill into the 2x4 supports. 

I hope you like this as much as we do! We are so proud of our work. Our plan is to make a kitchen island with the rest of the scrap wood we acquired so stay tuned for that.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!