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Friday, April 25, 2014

DIY Monogram Stained Wood Wall Art {DIY Friday #5}

I made a modified version of the stained wood wall art inspiration that I posted last week.  One of my good friends from high school just turned 30 and he happens to be married to another one of my good friends, so I wanted to make him (them) something special for his birthday.  I get so many compliments on our "Montague's est. 2010" sign that's part of the gallery wall in our family room, so I wanted to do something along those lines.  Here is what I came up with:



I forgot to take pictures of each step, but here's a quick rundown on what I did:

Supplies:
8' 1"x4" select pine board
Sandpaper
Wood glue
Pocket-Hole Jig Kit & screws
Chop saw
Circular Saw
Stain (I used Miniwax Dark Walnut)
Stencils (I cut my own using my Silhouette Cameo Cutter)
Paint
Sawtooth picture hanger

Directions:
1. Cut your board into 4 equal lengths, about 22" long.
2. Glue the boards together and secure with clamps.  Let dry for an hour or two.
3. Use your pocket hole jig to screw the boards together in the back.
4. Sand the whole thing down, making sure to get rid of any glue that squeezed out of the seams.
5. Stain, then let dry for about a day.
6. Apply your stencil and paint.  I cut my stencils on adhesive-backed paper to make it easier).
7. Let the paint dry overnight then remove your stencil.
8. Lightly sand over the painted words and corners to give it a rustic look.
9. Add something on the back for hanging, and you're done!

I think there's something special about a home-made gift... and it's much cheaper than buying something custom made, so it's a win-win!

*This post contains affiliate links*

I'm linking up at these great parties... go check them out:

Friday, April 18, 2014

Guest Post on Our Home From Scratch


It's that time of year again!  Time to pull out the outdoor furniture and spend our nights and weekends on our fabulous deck!  In case you missed it, my dad, Greg and I build a brand new, bi-level TimberTech deck last year.  Today Our Home From Scratch is featuring our deck as part of their "Show Us Your Home From Scratch" series.

Please go check out the post for more great information on the build: Your Home From Scratch: Colette's Amazing Deck.

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Friday, April 11, 2014

DIY Friday {#4}

It's Friday again!  Woohoo!!  You know what that means... time for some more DIY eye candy.  If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably noticed that my "Study" board has been getting a lot of action lately.  I have (contrary to my normal M.O.) been pretty good about focusing on the task at hand (finishing the study) and not getting distracted by other projects around the house.  Although now that the weather is getting nice, I'm really itching to do some projects outside, so this new-found focus may not last much longer. 
But in keeping with the home office theme, all of my DIY pinterest features this week are things I hope to make for the study:
Source: Menstyle
I love this quote.  I have been going through a bit of a 1/3 life crisis lately, and I've been reflecting on how work time can really creep into your personal time and, if you're not careful, completely take over your life.  I don't think I am quite there yet, but I'm definitely finding that the longer I work the harder it becomes to disconnect at 5:00 (both physically and mentally).  I am actually starting a new job soon and taking a few weeks off between jobs, so hopefully I will be able to get a few of these projects done during that time!

DIY Decorative Spheres
Source: Hill Country Homebody
I have been seeing all different kinds of decorative spheres lately (both DIY and store bought).  Hill Country's Homebody's DIY version using embroidery hoops is my favorite that I have seen so far.  I am so bad with shelf/table styling, but I feel like you can't go wrong with these guys.  I am picturing them on the free-standing desk in our study.  

 Fabric Covered Corkboard 
Source: Carolina Charm
This one is a must-do for the study.  I recently designed the built-in bookshelves for above our desk (see below) and I want to do a fabric-covered cork board for the middle space behind where our computer will be.  I don't happen to have a giant cork board laying around like the one in Carolina Charm's tutorial, and mine needs to be a specific size so I'll have to get a little creative, but I don't think it's anything I can't handle.


In study update news, I actually already have 2/3 of the bookshelves for our built-ins assembled.  Now I just need to prime and paint this weekend and then figure out how we're going to handle the angled wall.  We also have lots of landscaping plans ahead!!

What's everyone else working on now that the weather is getting nicer?

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

9 Pieces of Advice for Buying a New Construction Home


My husband and I bought a new construction home in 2012.  We were living in the city and decided we wanted a single family home, more space and a bigger yard.  We looked for houses and somewhere along the way stopped into a model home of a new construction community.  We were surprised to learn that having a brand new house built was not much more expensive (in some cases even cheaper) than buying a "used" house, so we started to give building from scratch some serious thought.  We looked into several different builders in our area and quickly discovered that Ryan Homes was one of the most affordable of the single family builders in our area.  Ryan Homes does not offer a lot of the custom features that other builders offer, but we knew we wanted to "customize" our home ourselves anyway, so we were ok with that.

We worked with an RH salesperson to look at several different models and price out options.  Then, once all our selections were made and our good faith deposit was paid, we were turned over to our project manager to begin construction.  The buying and building process was very overwhelming.  Neither my husband or I were first-time buyers, but building a house from scratch is an entirely different experience.  There are so many more decisions, trade-offs and potential to spend A LOT of money on upgrades.

Now that we have been in our house for almost two years, I wish we could do it all over again!  After living in our home, seeing what spaces we use most, and doing a lot of DIY projects, I have learned a ton!  In some instances I am glad we made the decisions we did, but others I wish we had done differently.  Obviously everyone is different, so my "lessons learned" may not apply to everyone, but here is my advice for anyone considering or in the process of buying a new construction home:

1. Ask for a price list of all of the upgrades offered for your model.  And ask for it early.  You will not believe how quickly your upgrades can add up and how little is included in the base price.  I promise you that about 90% of what you see in the model home is an upgrade... and is not cheap.  We went with very minimal upgrades and negotiated some things for free and still wound up spending about $25,000 over our base home price.  You don't want to get your heart set on a particular model only to find out you can't afford it when you add your "must have" upgrades.  

2. Splurge on structural, not cosmetic upgrades.  Almost all of the upgrades we chose were things we could not easily do down the road; a 4' extension on the family room, a few extra windows, master bedroom/bathroom luxury suite.  We passed on the things we knew we could either do ourselves or have a contractor do cheaper.  Things like flooring, crown molding, the deck, etc. were all things we knew we could do ourselves cheaper than Ryan's price.  We recently installed hardwood floors in our study.  The same exact flooring was almost exactly 1/2 the price of what the builder was charging.

3. Negotiate.  Most builders will tell you they don't negotiate, and they are all lying.  They may not budge on the base home price, but if they think you are really serious about buying, they will throw in some upgrades for free or at a discount.  Just make sure you do all of your negotiating before you give them any money.  Once they have you hooked, you can forget about getting anything else for free.

4. Consider lighting, especially on the first floor.  I wish we had gotten more recessed lights and/or rough-ins.  It's essentially impossible to add recessed lights on the first floor without tearing out your ceiling (unless you get really creative like John with his coffered ceiling).  If you don't like a ton of lamps in each room, think about splurging for the extra lighting package.  The second floor is a bit easier to add lighting later since you can access it from the attic.  That's what we plan to do for the upstairs bedrooms at some point.

5. Get a three car garage!  (If it's an option).  This is probably my biggest regret about our house.  This was one structural upgrade that we felt was superfluous at the time.  Both of our previous homes were in the city where we didn't even have a driveway, so we figured a two-car garage would be more than enough.  We were wrong.  I still cannot believe how often we use the garage and I think everyone has more "stuff" to store in their garage than they realize.  We added some storage under our deck and we are going to build a shed at some point, but it would be nice to have the extra garage space instead of adding another structure to our property.  A three-car garage is not cheap, but I would argue that it is worth the money.  (I would love to hear what someone with a three-car garage thinks about it).

6. Don't let the salesperson talk you into extras you don't need.  They love to tell you how that extra upgrade will only cost you $10.00 a month since you will be financing it in your mortgage.  But you're also paying interest on it for the term of your mortgage so you actually wind up paying more for it than the listed price.

7. Make sure you get the kitchen you want.  A kitchen renovation is one of most expensive things you can do to your house.  If you just have to have those butterscotch glazed painted cabinets, just do it... or it will cost you tens of thousands of dollars to rip out your existing cabinets and do it later.

8. Consider sunlight when choosing your lot.  We did not think about this, but it just so happened to work out for us.  Our family room and kitchen are in the back of the house, which is where the sun sets.  This is perfect for us because we both get home from work around 6:00, so we enjoy some natural sunlight in the evening.  And it makes for some romantic sunsets on our back deck :).

9. Be wary of lot premiums.  Some communities we looked at were charging up to $30,000 for lot premiums!!  In some cases every single lot had a premium, which still makes no sense to me.  I think it's false advertising to say that houses start at $200,000 when you need to pay at least $10,000 for the land to put the house on.  (Maybe that's just me).  As with the upgrades list, make sure you get the list of lot premiums for every lot in the community so you can make an informed decision.

I know a lot of readers have also recently built new-construction homes.  I would love for you to comment and share your lessons learned!

Friday, April 4, 2014

DIY Friday {#3}

Here is the next round of my DIY Pinterest ideas!  I'm not sure which of these I'm going to try next.  Right now it's a tie between #1 and #3.  Have you completed any Pinterest projects lately?

Office Chair Makeover from the Crafting Chicks
Source: The Crafting Chicks
I reeeeeally want to buy one of these awesome customizable desk chairs from Ballard, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to spend $500+ on a desk chair.  I saw this desk chair makeover on Pinterest and thought it might be a good option, at least temporarily, for our study.  We already have a plain chair like this, so I could do it for almost free.  Might be worth a try!

Vinyl Record Mail Holders from Hearts and Sharts
Source: Hearts and Sharts
This is seriously one of the coolest, most creative DIY projects I have ever seen.  She basically just heats up a vinyl record then bends it, lets it cool and paints it.  Ever since I saw this post, I have been searching for the perfect spot in my house to put some.

Easy Decorative Wood Crates
Source: My Home Lookbook
So cheap and easy and so functional!  Greg is always making fun of how many baskets and bins I have around the house.  I love them because it's so easy to just throw things in there when you need to straighten up quickly.  You can get unfinished crates like this from any craft store for cheap.  Then all you need to do is stain and throw some handles on there.  My MIL recently starting working at Michael's so I'm hoping to score some of these babies with her discount (I hope she's reading ;)).  This could be really cute for a shower present or something too... throw some shredded paper in the bottom and fill with gifts!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Pros and Cons of Chalk Paint {and my desk makeover}

I finally jumped on the chalk paint bandwagon.  I bought a desk off of Craigslist a few months ago.  It's fake wood with that plastic-y coating and it was in pretty bad shape, but it is the exact size and shape that we were looking for. 


Since it was so cheap, I figured if my chalk paint experiment failed, I could just scrap it and look for a new desk.  So far I am pleased with the results, but there are a few caveats to my satisfaction, which are outlined in my "pros" and "cons" list below and explained in more detail in the rest of the post.


What is chalk paint?  It's basically a thick, matte paint that can cover just about anything with very minimal prep work.  Ann Sloane sells the most famous line of chalk paint and has some pretty good information on her website.  Her paint is quite expensive though.  The color options are also somewhat limited, so I decided to make my own.  There are a whole bunch of different "recipes" out there, but I went with the plaster of paris option.

I simply poured about 4 tablespoons of plaster of paris (which can be found at any home improvement store) into a solo cup then slowly mixed water in until it reached my desired consistency.  (The thicker (less water) it is, the more coverage it will provide, but it will also be a bit harder to work with).  Then I added regular old latex paint until the cup was about 3/4 full.  It doesn't matter what finish your base paint is, it will turn out matte when mixed with the plaster of paris.  It also lightens a bit when you add the plaster, so you may want to go a shade darker with your base paint.

Application of the chalk paint was so easy.  All I did was wipe down my desk with some soap and water (since it was used), fill in some dents and divits with wood filler, and then I got to painting.  After the first coat, it was pretty streaky and the coverage wasn't great.  After the second coat, it looked much better, but I applied a third coat just in case.  It dries very quickly so I basically started my second coat as soon as I finished the first.  You do get some little lumps from the plaster so I lightly spot-sanded between coats.  If you want a really smooth finish, you should probably sand the whole thing between coats, but I was ok with seeing some brush strokes.

After first coat

After 3 coats

Application of the paint was easy.  The wax finish coat was not. 

It took me about an hour to do all three coats of paint and then about another 3 hours to apply the wax.  I'm normally a big fan of plain old polyurethane, but I had read in several places that polyurethane doesn't work well with chalk paint so I went with the wax as most people suggest.

The wax (I used Miniwax Finishing Wax) is pretty hard in the can, so it was difficult to get any onto my rag at first.  After a while it became easier, but it was just very time-consuming and tedious.  And it smells!  I applied one coat to the whole desk, and then an extra two coats to the top.  I already nicked a spot on the front of the desk, so I think I may add another coat to the whole thing.  You definitely need to apply the wax, because the chalk paint chips very easily without it.

I really like how the chalk paint turned out visually, but I'm not sure that it's going to hold up to wear and tear in the long run.  We shall wait and see.


Will I use chalk paint again?  Definitely!  But I will first do some research on easier ways to apply the wax finish.

Have you bought into the chalk paint craze yet?  If so, what's your opinion?