Every week or so, I like to make a room-by-room list of every single thing we need to get done, just to really stress myself (and William) out. One room that we don't have a million things to do in anymore is the den. Other than decor, it is finally coming together. Last weekend, I tackled a project that had been looming over my head for a few weeks now: the fireplace.  When we moved in, the fireplace had a mantel, but it was so ugly, we just ripped it out and never replaced it. It had a decorative routed edge and was painted with some weird textured, multi-colored paint. I wish I had a photo, but I don't. I'm not sure what look they were going for with it, but it was just plain ugly. The brick was already painted, which was fine with me.  It was covered really well and it seemed to be a decent paint job. The only problem is that the paint was a dingy off-white color, much like a lot of the trim in the house. (Why do people do this? White looks best!)  The hearth was also a mess. I'm not sure what it's technically called, but instead of being nice, square tiles, it has those red, cracked, misshapen tiles. It also looked like someone had polyurethaned over it or done some type of glaze gone wrong.

Similar to this, but with yellowing, peeling polyurethane on top. Really beautiful!

For this project, I decided to try a project from Young House Love and just paint the entire thing, except for the firebox because we have working gas logs. For the hearth, I painted 3-4 coats of white paint. I haven't done any type of glaze or top coat, and it may not need it. You can't use polyurethane on white paint because it will turn yellow with time.  The paint I used for the entire project was Olympic no-VOC kitchen and bath semi-gloss. Only one thick coat was needed on the bricks since it was already painted a similar color. It looks great on the bricks and the hearth, and has a nice sheen without being too glossy. We also use this paint for our trim. I love it - it looks great and there are no fumes!

Dingy bricks getting covered with white!

After a few coats on the hearth

We decided to go with a simple mantel - no routing or decorative edging, just a rectangle. I went back and forth on painting vs. staining but William convinced me to stain it, and I love it! We have a white couch and white curtains, so I'm trying not to add too much more white. First, William cut the piece to size and I used our orbital sander with 220 grit to smooth it out. To stain it, I used Minwax dark walnut. I haven't sealed it yet since no one really touches it, but I may put a coat of Waterlox on it just for good measure. To secure it, we are just going to use some liquid nails (glue). We will be wall mounting our TV and the mantel will just be used for some decorative items - if we were actually placing the TV on it, we'd probably look into securing it differently.



Hopefully my image quality will improve when I get a new phone - my current phone's camera is definitely on its way out! Even though we made some big strides on the fireplace with this quick project, there are still a few more things to do in this area:

• Mount the TV above the mantel


• Add some trim around the hearth to clean up the look


• Caulk area between bricks and side trim


• Glue mantel and waterlox


• Decorate mantel and hearth

So far, this fireplace makeover has been very cost efficient. The paint was $15 and we have tons leftover for trim around the house. The mantel piece was around $7. I used stain that we already had, but you can buy a small jar (and still have a ton leftover) for less than $5. The glue and waterlox we'll be using is something we already have on hand, too.  Overall, I'd roughly calculate that we spent less than $15 for the entire project considering we mostly used what we have and how much we have leftover.

Update: The fireplace paint held up pretty well, but I have done an additional coat of white paint on the hearth to be safe. I have also purchased some satin Minwax polycrylic and plan to do a clear coating on top of the hearth only. I would also suggest priming your surface, first. I use Kilz multi-surface primer and it works very well! 

Well, we did it. We removed our in ground pool! The pool was actually one of our main hesitations with buying this house.  It was an old, vinyl liner pool and needed repairs. It needed a new liner, a new light ($400 just for a pool light. I wish I was exaggerating), some deck repairs, and possibly other maintenance. There aren't many people who still work on vinyl pools, and it was going to cost at least $3000, probably closer to 4, by the time it was a swimmable pool, not to mention monthly cleaning and maintenance.



This is the realtor's photo, which makes it look slightly okay. Once the water was out, it was bad. There were also a lot of cracks in the deck.

We were not up for that, especially for a pool we didn't really want that badly. So, after getting a few quotes on removing the pool and filling it in for anywhere from $3,000 to 10,000, we decided to DIY it, just like we do with almost everything else!

First, we emptied the pool...well, actually, we just let it dry up and empty itself. Next, we removed the liner with a basic utility razor blade, and folded the liner into the deep end. We did take a few minutes to rescue some frogs that were living in the couple of inches of remaining water. Our pool had a vermiculite (basically, sand) bottom and side, with the side surrounded by a metal sheet to hold up the sand, which we left for the time being. Since it isn't a concrete pool, drainage isn't an issue.

Next, we rented a jack hammer from Home Depot and William painstakingly jack hammered the deck.  This is one part that in hindsight, we may have looked at hiring out. I wouldn't think it would cost too much to hire someone to do a couple hours of jack hammering, and someone who does it a lot would probably be more efficient. Not that William wasn't efficient, but it is tiring, painful work and caused a lot of blisters.

The fun part was up next - we rented a "mini" 7,000 pound excavator from Sunbelt Rentals. We went back and forth on whether to get a skid steer or excavator, but in the end, the excavator was the right decision.  It helped us dig up the concrete, even the parts that were still in large chunks. It also has teeth, so it allowed us to really dig into the small hill surrounding the pool. It did have a blade, so we used that for leveling the yard as best we could.  We also had 20 tons of dirt delivered, and the excavator did a pretty good job of moving that around, though the skid steer would have been faster.

A glimpse at how ugly the pool was once the water was out

The hardest part was the metal walls. We didn't realize this, but the sheets were anchored in with large metal bolts. We dug around each bolt and William cut through it with a reciprocating saw that had a metal blade attached. We tried to remove the metal completely, but ended up just folding it in and burying it.

Now, the yard is basically a sand/dirt pit where the pool was, so we will be figuring out a landscaping plan soon. We are so excited to have it gone and done with, and for MUCH less than we would have spent having it done professionally. Having an excavator for a few days was pretty fun, too!

Before leveling and adding more dirt, but already looking much better!

The approximate cost breakdown:

• Jackhammer rental and saw blades: $115


• Excavator rental and gas: $400


• Dirt: $200


• Total so far: $715 

We do need to put in grass, which will be an expense, and will probably buy some more plants. We are mulching a portion along the fence and back, and have a free source for mulch, which will cut down on costs. We also plan to do 2-3 raised garden beds. Even with a few hundred extra dollars put into the landscaping, this is a huge cost saving compared to having a professional remove it OR having it fixed and having to maintain it regularly.

Well, I kind of forgot about the blog for a little while.  It can be hard to remember to take good pictures of the whole process. I do have some progress photos of the "appliance wall" in the kitchen.  We are also starting to work on the peninsula and I have a feeling we are getting close to the finish line! We do have some brief interruptions planned for pool demolition before it gets too hot out, but I think we just have a few days of work left on the kitchen, depending on how hard the crown molding is.

I'm not sure what the top before picture looks like to fresh eyes, but don't let it fool you into thinking it was salvageable.  When we first bought the house, I thought we would save the cabinets. They were short, and I didn't like how there was a foot of empty space between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling, but I figured we could do something and just paint them. Looking further, it was pretty clear that we were not saving the cabinets. The uppers were actually okay, but the base cabinets had all kinds of water damage. Since it would look pretty weird to mix cabinets, we got rid of them all. We will be re-purposing the double upper cabinet to the right. The plan is to turn it into a little bar cabinet using leftover butcher block in the dining room, so stay tuned!





Please excuse the terrible lighting and quality. These were taken on my phone at various times and we still don't have a ceiling light for the kitchen because I can't make a decision on one.  As you can see, we've come a pretty long way!

We have:

• Gutted the entire kitchen


• Added new oak hardwood flooring - installed, sanded, stained and sealed by ourselves


• Run a new gas line behind current range and installed range + microwave


• Installed dishwasher, sink and faucet


• Installed new Ikea cabinets


• Installed and painted a beadboard backsplash


• Sanded, sealed (with Waterlox) and installed Ikea butcher block counters


• Installed a new ceiling

We still need to:

• Finish open shelf on other side of kitchen (this project has been a beast and warrants its own post)


• Install peninsula (cabinets + countertops) that opens to the dining room - so excited for more counter space!


• Prime and paint ceiling


• Add light fixture


• Add crown molding


• Fill in hole that used to be a window to the left of the counter over the dishwasher


• Install open shelving above the sink


• Extend beadboard around the left side


• Some other trim and baseboard work


• Move refrigerator from laundry room into kitchen


• Paint some existing cabinets that are in a different part of the kitchen and re-install

Whew! We have done most of the heavy lifting, but there are a few details left to go.

As you might have noticed in the "before" kitchen photos, our house had CRAZY paint colors when we bought it. I'm honestly not sure why anyone would choose these. Almost everyone that walked in commented on the color scheme. Here is a rough illustration of the paint colors that were here. I think they were actually worse than these, but they're pretty close:


All of these colors were packed into about 1,000 sq ft! Note that the pink in the hall bath includes pink tiles and pink walls.

The lighter blue bedroom was actually a somewhat acceptable color, but we wanted everything to be light, bright and neutral. As I've mentioned, our house is small! Light, neutral colors open up the space. Dark, crazy colors make it look even smaller and cave-like.

For a while, I was pretty stressed about picking all new paint colors. In the rentals I've lived in throughout the years, I've only painted 3 rooms: my bedroom and 2 separate dens. That was easy and not really that big of a commitment. I was only going to live there for a year and it was only a rental. (Side note - in the bedroom I painted and one of the dens, both were hideous shades of gold before I painted them. Another terrible color choice.) Choosing new paint colors for a whole house seemed a little overwhelming! I didn't want to spend a bunch of time painting only to hate the colors and have to paint over them.

Of course, I consulted Pinterest and Google for advice on picking paint colors and made kind of a big deal about it. Then, it was time to paint the guest bedroom. William and I were at Lowe's and I pretty much just decided the paint color on whim, based only on swatches in the store. (I'm so glad I spent all that time researching color schemes!) For the den, kitchen, and dining room, I did spend a little more time and bought samples before painting everything.  I definitely recommend doing this - they are only about $3 and actually contain a good bit of paint. (Tip: Sample cans are also perfect for touch ups - they are easy to open and close. I'll probably end up buying another sample of all the paint colors we chose just for that purpose.) After painting some of each sample on the wall, were able to pick 2 colors - Notre Dame and Dove's Cry, both by Valspar.  Notre Dame is in the den and Dove's Cry is in the dining room, kitchen, and hallway. They are all kind of connected, so it made sense to paint them the same color. Here's our new color scheme, minus the master bathroom, since that hasn't been decided:

New color scheme

What do you think? The top 3 are already in the house and they look SO much better! We have already gotten quite a few compliments on them. I'm not sure if this is because people actually like them or just because it looks SO much better than it did before.   I had been dreaming about a grey den - I wanted something neutral, but wanted to break out of the tan colors. So many colors look good with grey - coral, navy, mint, yellow, and more - and I'm having a hard time choosing decor and furniture!  For the hall bath, we are thinking about doing beadboard around the bottom half, so it would be half white and half blue.  The master color is one we used on our previous rental's den and we loved it.

Choosing all new paint colors for an entire house can be a challenge, but my advice is: don't over think it, buy samples, and go with light, neutral colors no matter the size of your house. Also, be sure to go with what you like! I also recommend priming the walls first if you have really dark colors, even if you buy a "paint and primer." The color will come out differently than you thought it would if you don't! On light colored walls, I skip the priming.

I'll update again once we've painted some more rooms! The master bedroom will be next - we've already painted the pink walls in the bathroom, but the pink tiles are still there.

So far, the kitchen has by far been the biggest and most time-consuming project we've worked on. When we came to look at the house, it was small, dark, and not laid out very well.  We actually all stood there wondering where all the appliances were supposed to go. (Many times, foreclosed houses have no appliances in them when you buy them, or bottom-of-the-line new appliances installed by the bank.)  There was no dishwasher ever installed, but there was also no space to put both an oven and a refrigerator.

I don't have a true "before" picture to share right now. I may be able to track one down to share later, but I do have a lot of in-progress photos.  Almost right away, we knew we needed to tear down some walls. The kitchen and dining room are right beside each other, and before there was just a small doorway between the two.  We've knocked down the wall separating them completely. We are rebuilding part of it as a refrigerator nook, and the other side will be open, with a counter separating the rooms.  This will give us storage space and an extra place to eat and prepare food. It also really opens up the house!

You're seeing it correctly. The cabinets are painted 3 different colors.

At the very beginning, we were thinking about saving the cabinets - obviously they needed a paint job. After seeing the faulty plumbing and the water damage it had caused, we decided to just take it all out.



After putting a few holes in the wall, we decided to just go ahead and also take down the whole wall. (You might notice a pattern emerging here...) In retrospect, I guess we could have actually just patched it and left it, but I am actually glad we took the time to just take it down and replace. The wall was filled with some nasty stuff (rat poop, decades old razors) and obviously was not very strong. I don't think I would have trusted our new cabinets to be held up properly with this wall!



This area had a little L-shaped cabinet configuration. I can't quite remember, but I think they were actually all the same color! Either way, we knew we wanted to open up this space so we started tearing up the wall almost immediately. We did it on a whim and all we had was a mini crowbar, but that did the job! We were just thankful that it was not plaster.


                       

You may be noticing the crazy color scheme here. Dark green in the hallway to the left, dark red cabinet, bright orange kitchen, a lighter, but still bold, green in the dining room to the right

Here you can see a glimpse of the base cabinets and the counter tops. Again, multicolored cabinets and drawers! Who does this?! There was an ugly peg board over the old stove exhaust (see above) so we tore that out to see what was going on. As soon as we saw this brick, our minds started churning with ideas for bringing some kind of exposed brick into the space. You never know what you'll find behind a wall (just hope it's not more rat poop!)





Next up, we started on the floors. Installing and refinishing hardwood floors warrants a whole other post, but I'll give you the summary: it's hard. We only put new hardwoods in the kitchen and part of a bedroom, both of which were small spaces, and they took much longer than we expected. That is probably our biggest lesson during this renovation: it's going to take longer than expected.

The kitchen is in much better shape these days and we have a functional gas stove, dishwasher, over-the-range microwave, new counters, new plumbing, new sink, etc. We are still working on our exposed brick shelf, the back splash, and the bar/peninsula area that is open to the dining room. More kitchen updates to come soon!

If you spend any time looking at Pinterest or DIY blogs, you will read about chalk paint pretty quickly! Chalk paint is not chalk BOARD paint; it's not meant to be written on.  It's just a different type of paint and the main appeal is that you can paint it over other finished without sanding and priming. This is perfect for reviving an old piece of furniture with minimal effort.  It is also supposed to work on many types of surfaces: wood, veneer, laminate, etc.  Most people buy Annie Sloan's chalk paint, but there are a few new brands out there, too.  The problem with chalk paint (for me) is that it's on the expensive side, and you generally need to have it shipped to you.  I definitely like to see paint colors in person before buying them, so this is definitely an issue for me.

Luckily, chalk paint is VERY easy to make yourself! Be sure to have your piece of furniture (or whatever else) ready for painting before you mix. It isn't super time-sensitive, but you can't make it and save it for another day. All you need to do to prep your furniture is remove on/inside it and clean it with some cleaner and a rag to get dust off.

Yep, it's that easy! I bought the Plaster of Paris and paint at Lowe's while we were getting some other items, and it took me about a minute to mix everything up.  I bought a $2.99 sample jar of paint and the plaster was less than $7, which is another perk of this project. I also have tons of plaster leftover for the future. I used a plastic spoon and a solo cup, because I didn't want to risk contaminating any of our regular cups or spoons with the plaster.  Being the non-detail-oriented person that I am, I wasn't even that exact with the measurements and it came out great. It should have a texture similar to that of a mousse or pudding.

Once it's mixed, you're ready to start painting! I used a regular brush and did one coat, let it dry, and did one more coat.  This paint dries fast, so it's great for a quick project.

Most people recommend waxing furniture that you've chalk painted. After a bit of research, I found that a lot of people kind of hated this part about chalk painting. What's the point in skipping the time to prime and paint if you're going to spend the same amount of time waxing? I decided to skip the wax because 1. I don't have any, 2. I'm lazy, and 3. This piece of furniture isn't extremely valuable - it's just a side table that we use in our den right now and will probably switch out eventually. Instead of waxing, I used a clear Valspar spray paint protective coat on the top. I did several light coats of this to protect it from water and other damage.  So far, so good!

Instead of starting with our harder projects, I have an easier DIY project to start with. This is not only beginner-friendly, but also very affordable, and you can easily get it done in an afternoon. If you mess it up, you don't have to feel guilty about wasting tons of money, which is a nice comfort on any DIY project.

The first step of the project is finding an old chair from a yard sale, thrift store, etc.  We found our chair for $15 from a local thrift store. Make sure the chair is in good enough structural shape to sit in and that it's comfortable. I tried to find a chair that didn't have too much reupholstering to do. For my first DIY reupholstery project, I wanted something simple and something that didn't require sewing.


Next comes sanding. To sand the chair, I mostly used our hand held orbital sander, which I love. It even has a dust bag so it's extremely easy to use and clean. We liked the idea of having a dark finish, but because the chair was veneer, we had to paint it instead of staining.  If it were solid wood, we probably would have used a dark stain instead of paint.

After I sanded the chair, William had fun kicking out the sides and adding a couple of additional screws to make it sturdier.  I skipped this part to do some fabric shopping, so unfortunately there are no photos of this! I probably used about a yard of fabric for this chair, but bought 2 just in case. Overall, the fabric cost was $30. I also bought some piping for the trim and a one-inch foam panel for the back of the chair in case I wanted to add some upholstery as a back rest.

Once I was back home with the fabric, the chair was ready to be painted.  We wanted it to be a dark, charcoal grey color, but not black.  I took a little bit of a risk here and used Rustoleum automotive primer, along with a satin protective finish by Valspar. (Note: I do not like regular Valspar spray paint, but the Satin finish did just fine.) I couldn't find any colors in "normal" spray paint that I liked, but I actually really liked using the automotive primer and would definitely use it on a future project. The color is really dark without being black, it goes on well, and I like that it's not a gloss finish. It also dries very quickly! For furniture or anything people will touch a lot, I would suggest using a gloss or satin finish coat, not just the primer.

I tried to be a good spray painter and do several light coats and get all the corners, back, and under areas. While the paint was drying, I worked on recovering the seat cushion. This was probably the most labor-intensive part for me because I really wanted to get the fabric pattern centered and the staple gun is hard (for me) to use with one hand while stretching the other side of the fabric in place. It is helpful to have someone on hand for this to call over from time to time, but not completely necessary. It would also be much easier to have a staple gun that is attached to an air compressor. We didn't have the right staples to use with our nail gun, so we went without it this time, but for the next project, I will definitely be buying those staples!



Since the paint was dry by the time I was done with this, I tested out the look and so far, so good! I couldn't decide whether to take the effort to upholster the back panel, so I draped the fabric over it to test out the look. I really liked it and felt like that small detail made the chair seem so much more finished and better for the den, which is where this chair was going.

So, I got to work on the back rest portion of the chair - first, William and I deliberated on how to best get this part done. In the end, we decided to just leave the caning in the back middle portion of the chair and cover the front with the foam panel that I cut to fit. (Remember to put your cushion back in the chair for these measurements - my cushion would not have fit back in the chair had I added foam all the way down!) Then, I just kept the foam in place while I stapled the fabric over it and onto the back.  Once again, I made sure the fabric pattern was lined up and matched the cushion. After I stapled all the way around, I used a utility razor to cut the extra fabric from around the staples. I also used some heavy duty adhesive to the bottom of the fabric (behind the seat cushion) to help everything stay in place. Then, I repeated this process on the back of the chair, but without the foam. This is just to make the chair look more complete and finished.

After the excess fabric is removed, I used glue to add piping all around the edge of the front and back parts of the back rest of the chair. This is to hide any staples. Use a heavy duty glue so your piping holds up! This part was easy and adds a decorative element to the chair.

Finally, admire your finished work and put it in the room! (Our den is still very much in progress, so I'll add a photo of the room when it's more complete.)


For anyone interested, here's a cost breakdown of this chair makeover:

• Thrift store chair: $15
• Fabric: $30 (and I have plenty leftover!)
• Piping: $2
• Foam panel: $3.99 (There are cheaper options but I wanted a high quality, high density foam.)
• Glue: $3.99 (Again, plenty leftover)
• Spray Paint: $9
• Total cost: $64, with materials leftover for future projects

I've seen plenty of "vintage" upholstered arm chairs around the web for $200, $400, even $800, so I'm very happy with my outcome! It's not perfect, but no-sew DIY upholstery is not for perfectionists. I would definitely do this project again!