My New Office Reveal!

For those of you who have read my previous posts, you may remember I mentioned a few months back about how the recent rains in my area had trickled into my basement leaving my original floor in my office a hot mess.  The water table around my house was so high that water was coming up through the cracks in my basement flooring.  It was very disheartening, but after a weekend of work I now have it all put back together and I am so in love!  Here's a before photo of what I was dealing with:

What Happened To My House!?!

Surprise!  I painted it!  I decided to paint it last month during the time I was staining the oak floors at the flip house since I had to wait for coats to dry over there.  Plus we had nice weather during the time so I felt like it was now or never, especially since I've wanted/needed to paint the house since the day I moved in.  I painted it all by myself too and while it was total misery during the process, I felt such a sense of relief and accomplishment after it was all over.  It took me an entire week from start to finish and would have gone SO much faster if I didn't have to scrape about five layers of white paint that was peeling off of the wood siding before I could apply the new color. 

Below is what it looks like now.  Can you spot the cute little dog peeking out of the window on the left?

Cheap Update to an Old Mirror

Last fall I bought an old dresser off Craigslist for $25.  I wanted to use the drawers on it to create my own custom made dresser that would fit in the "closet" of my closet, if that makes any sense.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of what the dresser looked like before I got my hands on it but it looked exactly like this one here only it was in really bad shape.  The drawers were in perfect condition though which was really what I was after.  Just for fun here's a pic of the dresser I made all by myself:

DIY Fun Bachelorette Gift

Last Saturday I attended a bachelorette party for my cousin.  Being that she was my younger cousin I felt uncomfortable purchasing lingerie or any other sort of typical "naughty" type of gift that is usually given to the bride-to-be at bachelorette parties.  So I pondered and thought on the situation for days until it hit me.  And this is what I created for her:

It's a Bridal Emergency Kit!  Everything a bride may need on her big day as she's getting ready!  It was super easy to put together too.  I found the hanging jewelry organizer at T.J. Maxx for $12.99 and it is double sided so the other side also has compartments.  When she's done using it for the wedding she can store her jewelry and scarves in it.  The blue shade also matches the bridesmaid gowns in her wedding as well so double score on that!

Adding A Focal Point to Kitchen Cabinets

Above my kitchen sink was a big blank section that housed a recessed light.  I knew right away I wanted to put some type of focal point there just to give it a little somethin somethin.  I finally got around to it!

Here's what I'm talking about:

Prettify Your Old Medicine Cabinet

I wanted to share a quick and easy way to cheer up that old medicine cabinet in your house.  I have one in my closet bathroom and it is just one of those el cheapo $30 ones that looks very industrial and, well, ugly.

I'm not too concerned with the outside but I wanted to dress up the inside a little better because there were rust spots and it just looked dirty and that's not a good look when you store all the little items inside that are supposed to make you feel clean and pampered.

Here's a before:

DIY Jewelry Display

I'm not going to lie, I have quite a bit of jewelry.  The sad part of this story is I really don't wear much jewelry.  I have necklaces and bracelets that still have the tags on them and have had the tags on them for over a year.  I'm always noticing and admiring cute accessories on other girls and I asked myself the other day why I never wear jewelry myself.  The answer I came up with is because my collection is not easily accessible. 

That problem can be attributed to a lot of households, I think, with things other than jewelry.  Maybe some of you don't have the proper place to put things, or maybe you do but the problem is it's a pain in the rear to get these items out to use.  Most people wouldn't bother with it then and just leave it unused.  That's exactly where I found myself with my jewelry. 

Here's what I was working with prior to my overhaul so that maybe you will understand my quandary.  When you immediately walk into my closet on the right hand side of the doorway I have my sunglasses, belts, and some casual necklaces draped on hooks.

Freshening Up My Front Porch

Okay, I'm ashamed to admit I've severely neglected my front porch since I've moved in.  Basically it's a screened in porch with beige and brown indoor/outdoor carpeting, a wicker chaise lounge, and a wicker side table.  It's a bit dullsville. 

In time I'm going to rip up the carpeting and lay down indoor/outdoor slate tile but that won't happen until we get the flip house listed on the market so I don't feel guilty working on my own house when I could be working on the flip house.  In fact, I need to paint the outside of my house first before I even think about the front porch, so yeah, reworking the porch is down towards the bottom of my to do list.

But I honestly can't stand my porch the way it is any more so what's a thrifty gal to do when she's unhappy with a space?  Spruce it up with things she already has!  Plus it only took me maybe a half hour to do and that included sweeping off my porch.

In my workout room in the basement I had one of those el cheapo round wood side tables.  You know the kind where you screw in the three legs to the bottom and cover it with a table cloth?  It was just hanging out because I didn't have anywhere else to put it and I wasn't ready to get rid of it as I felt one day it would come in handy.  Well that day is now because I decided to revamp it.  Here's a before pic of the table I'm talking about.

DIY Perfume Stand

For some time now I've been wanting a new setup to display my perfume collection and I had an idea of what I wanted.  I wanted a two tiered cake stand but let me just say, these are impossible to find.  I've literally been looking months for one and not only that but even just a plain jane cake stand is super expensive.  So what's a thrifty girl to do but make her own exactly how she wants it?


So yesterday I was browsing Hobby Lobby for a different project and I found myself over in the clearance section when low and behold I found the perfect "stand" pieces for my cake stand.  They were super heavy and well made which I thought would be perfect to securely hold heavy perfume bottles.

I headed straight from Hobby Lobby to the Dollar Tree to look for some melamine plates that I can use and I came across these silver tin platter plates.  They had round ones and oval ones so I bought one of each and immediately brought them home to get started on my project.

Display Some Original Artwork With a Frame Update

One of the projects I've worked on over the last week is updating an old picture and frame from my "To Be Spray Painted" bin in my storage room in the basement.  Last year one of my friends made an original art piece and I've been meaning to display it, but I had other priorities and kept putting it off.  Well now I've finally painted the frame which looked like this:

Dying to Change the Color of Your Grout?

A few months after I moved into my house I laid porcelain tile in my kitchen with a friend and my own two little hands.  I wanted the texture and design of the tile to be the show piece so I chose a light gray grout color so it wouldn't compete.  Bad idea.  Over time countless spills, dog slobber, and muddy boot debris left my grout looking dirty and I could not for the life of me get it clean.  I scrubbed and scrubbed even with a manual toothbrush and a special "spinning" toothbrush designed for tile grout, yet the stains would not leave my grout lines. 

It left me very frustrated because even when I would mop my floor and it would be clean it wouldn't look clean.  So then I never wanted to mop my floor.  Take that stupid stains!  Okay, I don't think the stains cared very much but here's an overview of the color of my grout lines all stained up.  Those dark spots on the grout is not from your computer monitor, it's from dirt stains and it looked ten times worse in person.

IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULDA PUT SOME PAINT ON IT

I don't know what it is, call it Spring Fever, but I have been craving me some yellow.  As in yellow like the sun kind of yellow.  So the other day when I was in Menards picking up some satin nickel spray paint I noticed a bright yellow can of Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover Paint & Primer in Sun Yellow on sale for $2.98.  Into my cart it went.  I had plans.

I got home and dug into my "to be spray painted one day bin".  Yes, I really do have a bin in my basement for that purpose and I admit I feel weird typing this right now.  Hey, at least I don't have it labeled as such with my label maker.  That would really make me a weirdo right?

At any rate, I pulled out a picture frame I've been meaning to rework.  Here's a before:

Jazzing Up Old Plaster Wall Decorations

Recently my mama gave me some old plaster wall decorations.  She's all the time gifting me things she finds at garage sales and whatnot and I like to put my own spin on them to make them "mine".  And what better way to do that than with good ole spray paint? 

The other day we had a perfect outside painting day so I took advantage of the break in the weather to spray paint several things I've been holding on to.  It's cheap and it's a quick way to bring new life to old items.  Here is a before shot of what I was working with.

Lighted Cabinet Update

Remember a while back when I shared my lighted cabinet purchase with you?  If not you can read about it here.  Well, it's finally time for the grand unveiling as far as what it looks like now and what I chose to do with it!  If you don't remember, here's what it looked like before as it sat in the antique store.

My New Lighted Cabinet

Darn that Craig and his stupid list!  Last night I bought a lighted cabinet off of Craigslist.  I have been searching for almost a month every night before bed for something that looked just like her for a specific project I somehow got into my head (and one that wouldn't leave).  When lo and behold this beauty appeared on my tablet screen in all of her outdated glory. 

I smiled when I saw her and then promptly turned off my Kindle because I told myself I don't need another project right now.  You see, I thought it would take me months if not years to find the perfect piece and this was all just happening way too fast.  But then I thought about her the next day and looked at her picture again online.  And the next day I did the same thing until I very quickly drove myself crazy.  I knew I would kick myself if I let her go to someone else when she could have the best life she's ever had at my house. 

I have big plans for her.  She may not be the prettiest thing in the world....yet, but I see the potential and she's going to be beautiful when I get done with her.  Here is a before picture for those curious as to what she looks like.  

The price was $75 and I negotiated it down to $60, ultimately paying $64.50 with tax as it came from a local antiques store rather than privately owned.  For solid wood and for how heavy and nicely built she is (not to mention how large at 54" X 72") I feel as though I got a steal! 

She's a Brick House (Patio)

I'm not sure what's going on in my crazy head but for the past two weeks I've been stuck on outdoor landscaping.  It's probably the worst time of year to be doing such a thing but for some reason I have moved from remodeling the inside of my house to fixing bad areas outside of my house.  The days are getting shorter and perhaps its my body's way of soaking in as much sun as possible, but let me tell you with the warm dry weather we've been having I have literally been exhausted every night after working outside.  So I guess I will just jump in and get right into the nitty gritty of what I've been up to.

As you know from an earlier post my house used to be surrounded by tons of overgrown bushes.  Whilst trimming said bushes a week into owning the house I discovered a snake right where I was going to grab a handful of branches.  Out went the bushes.  I.  Hate.  Snakes.  I did keep two large burning bushes on either side of my house as well as two bushes yet to be identified in front of my screened in porch.  They were hacked to the ground and I've started over and am going to keep them small and manageable. 

At any rate I had a ton of stumps, holes, and nothing but dirt around my house where these bushes were all winter, spring, and summer long so I set off to make things more presentable in anticipation for grass planting this fall.  Here is a before picture of one of the areas I've been working on.

Working On My Fitness (Room)

First let me apologize for being MIA for a while.  Sometimes I feel like a candle burning at both ends and I just can't quite keep up.  I do want to show you one of my many projects I have going on right now and that is my workout room in my basement.  This spring was my first one in my new house and we had some very rainy days this year.  Like a lot of people I discovered my basement leaked when it would rain a lot and it would seep in towards the bottom of the floor.  Having had this issue in every house I've ever owned I knew a cheap and fast remedy to keep the water out and my floor dry and that is to waterproof.  So I purchased Drylock and painted my little rear off and then topped it off with some heavy duty gray Dutchboy concrete paint.  This gives it all a nice, even, finished look and helps seal it off even more from the water.

How To Update An Old Dresser

When I was a little girl I would go over to my Great Grandma Rickgauer's house and admire a dresser she had tucked away in one of her spare rooms.  Even at my young age I admired its clean modern lines and felt it was an unexpected piece of furniture for any grandma to have.  When she passed away no one seemed to take interest in it and I requested to have her old dresser. 

This dresser followed me from my bedroom at home to my apartment in college.  When I purchased my first house (660 square feet) I soon realized it could no longer live with me and it ended up with my stepsister who painted it black and used it as a buffet in the dining room of her house.  When I would visit her I would admire the old dresser I always loved and I was thrilled the day she moved again and asked if I wanted it back.  Of course I said "yes, yes, yes!" because by then I had a larger home.  The dresser remained black and sat in my kitchen as a buffet and I got a ton of use out of it for this purpose.  When I moved into the house I have now I still felt I would get more use out of it as a buffet rather than a dresser, however I did make a major change and painted it white to keep in theme with the Cape Cod style of my house. 

I placed it in an unused space in between my living room and the kitchen, right next to my pet bird Gizmo.  In it is where I store not only his cage cover and toys but also extra things like kitchen towels, tablecloths, etc...  Years ago I had updated the drawer pulls and purchased shiny chrome ones, however the hardware in my current home is satin nickel and they just didn't fit in.  I thought about buying new satin nickel pulls but I couldn't stand the thought of discarding nice heavy hardware just because I didn't like the finish of them.  So I set to work and grabbed some leftover spray paint from my basement that I used when I painted my kitchen table and chairs and I headed outside with my new project.   

How To Revamp An Old Sweatshirt

Last winter I purchased a couple of new tops off Ebay and when I tried them on I didn't really like the style and fit of them.  I love Ebay...you can find some great bargains on there, however most often the items cannot be returned because you simply don't like them.  Since I only paid $10 for each of them I figured I would hang on to them until I decided what to do with them.  Below is a picture of one of the tops in question.

Adding Wall Storage To My Craft Room

It's official, my office/craft/gift wrapping room in my basement is complete.  Unfortunately I did not realize I was going to start my own blog and I did not get before pictures.  EPIC FAIL.  However trust me when I say the room that was there before was a disaster.  I don't even know what it was used for, storage I think.  It had dark paneled walls, stick on floor tiles, and a ceiling light that would not fully turn on but instead would flicker.  This made me scared to even enter the room much less entertain the thought of actually utilizing it for something.  Fast forward several months later and add some blisters, bruises, and a few choice words, and I have one happy little space I can work in and be inspired by. 

Wainscoting panels cover the walls and enclose the ceiling's ductwork, and bright white paint make this formerly horror film worthy room a nice escape for me.  I hung my wrapping paper using tension rods so I can easily switch them out and replace when needed as well as raise and lower to accommodate more/fewer rolls of paper.  The table underneath the wrapping paper has casters and can move around the room as needed and I have placed command hooks on the sides of the table to hang my gift bags on.  A shelf underneath it holds several bins, drawers, and cup holders to store all of my crafting supplies.

And did I tell you I laid the laminate wood flooring?  All.  By.  Myself.  I've never felt more proud or accomplished but my knees were saying bad things about me all the while.  During this project I learned to use a miter saw with skill, a finishing nailer with aplomb, and set up an air compressor with my own two little hands.  I also know how to remove and add nails to the gun and where the release is on the miter saw blade so that I can use it.  I gotta start somewhere I tell ya!  Move over Amy Matthews from DIY network.  I'm coming after your job with lip gloss in one hand and caulking in another.

So now I'm at the stage where I'm trying to refine my space.  I'm living in it for a while and adding what I find I need.  Which comes to the purpose of this post....I need an easy access storage spot for my small wrapping paper remnants, tissue paper, and shirt boxes.  Armed with a mission I set out for Target, my favorite store in the whole universe, and perused several aisles for inspiration for storage solutions.  I found several options however, per the name of this blog, I wanted to stay thrifty since I am adjusting to living off only one paycheck now.  Finally I came across these puppies in the office organization section.

And felt like they would be perfect.  See the holes on each corner of the backing?  I made a pit stop at my local Dollar General and found these to attach my new organizers to my wall.