Outdoor Happiness

When back in the day when I first bought my house the back "yard" was a very sad and terrible looking space. Since the dryer sat in front of the door just enough that you couldn't use it, I didn't give much attention to it. I would just cringe and pretend it wasn't there when I saw it. Here's an original angle:

A wondrous "before" shot of the door of doom:

The weird cheap light fixture that has never worked in my recollection:

Overall, I wouldn't describe it as a pleasant area. The cheap lighting, the scary door, the cheap tiny piece of gutter above the door, broken steps, and peeling paint. So this year I decided it was time to step up the game on the entire exterior. Last summer I replaced the light on the front of the house:

The lovely gentle that gave me the light for the front, also gave me another for the back! So after one year of having it around the house, I decided to finally install it:

The new stark white door looks so incredible and keeps the house so much cooler. I love it! But it did make the peeling paint look that much more terrible...

Here's a full range view, ignore the lumber and debris, that should be gone soon!

Every year I repaint the front porch, so it totally makes sense that I should repaint the back porch. Finally. After six years. I used the same paint from the front porch to keep costs down and make it look cohesive.

Ah fresh paint how much I love you! Here's another view from the same angle with the light and paint. The new steps also look fantastic! There are still a few things to do, for instance; clean up the rubbish, paint the new step runners, and fix the mulch and rock leading up to the steps. 

 

I feel like it looks a thousand times better! It makes the back of the house much more in line with the rest of the house. Plus it helps increase the resale potential, if I ever get to that point of course. Maybe next year I can build a wood fence along the chain link to create more separation and visual appeasement from the neighbor's yard. Hopefully before the summer is out I can get you a full updated image of the space with accessories and everything! I hope you like it as much as I!

Top 5 Messy Business Redos

I've owned my house for quite awhile now and feel like I've done a lot of upgrades. But sadly most of them I did before discovering the blogging world, so I didn't "do it as a I went" I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my big projects and some of my favorite projects. That might light my fire to pick up a paint brush again. or something.

1. Kitchen. The kitchen overhaul was my number one favorite favorite thing. (Besides installing wood floors rather than uglio carpet that was originally there.) This is what the kitchen looked like before. Clean. Dated. Nasty. Ew. 

The kitchen had everything from the handles spray painted... to the cabinets painted... to the walls painted... to the countertops. It got real painted all up in there.

Installing wallpaper backsplash from Lowe's was also an awesome money saving solution and made it actually look pretty.

Here's a comparison of the before... and after. Way better in my opinion!

Total cost: $300.00
Total time: 10 days

find all the details: painting the cabinets here, painting the countertops here, see how i added little details here, tile backsplash here, accessories here and here,

2. Guest Bathroom. My second favorite project I actually did quite awhile ago... almost two years I think... might be time for some switcheroos! But anyways. This guest bathroom has undergone at least three transformations. The most recent one being from a baby blue nursery with the same dated cabinets as the kitchen to an elegant, relaxing space.

Here's what it looked like back in 2008:

And in 2010-2011:

Everything in this room got a face lift. The countertop was replaced awhile back but I painted the cabinets a blue gray color and moved the shower curtain up to the ceiling and put in two panels which makes it feel bigger and allows light from the teeny tiny window to come through.

2011-2013:

New light fixture for super cheap from a WalMart clearance sale (I think it was only $20.00 or something)  and even added a storage component where the old towel bars used to be. That's the problem with a house like mine... no storage. At all.

Total Time: 1 week

Total Budget: $150.00

find all the details: how it got started here, some cabinet assembly info here, and the final product here.

3. Jewelry display built-in.

Total Time: 2 days

Total Budget: $35.00 (already had beadboard left over, bought trim and hooks)

find all the details: built in details and origination here, how the whole bathroom panned out here.

4. Laundry Room.

 This room was originally such a total nightmare we called it the "murder scene" when we first bought the house. (I say we because it was my parents and I.) Everything was basically wrong about this room and I've managed to correct most of it. The venting for the dryer was being pushed under the house, which is real bad bad for the insulation under there. So that was rerouted and new flooring was put in when we first did the overhaul on the place.

Here's what it looked like for the first couple years of living here (roughly 2008-2011):

My washer and dryer came from Habitat for Humanity. The dryer I actually got off a dude that was shopping that same day. For free! So they were okay for the first few years. They were super loud and sometimes you had to wash stuff twice and definitely not energy efficient.

                      
Gross. That's all I can say.

                                         

After the great flood of 2010 (when my entire house had to have the flooring replaced due to a slow leak from the water heater) I decided it was a good opportunity to redo the laundry room, though I feel the color is a bit too dark now.

We ended up tripling the amount of usable storage/work space in the laundry room. Which has been really great.

And this was the final reveal picture:


Total budget: $900.00 for the washer and dryer. Roughly $150.00 for wood, paint, and accessories.

Total time: 3 weeks

 find the details: starting the project here, making the awesome countertop here,  making the shelf here, finishing up the accessories here.

5. Free Furniture Painting.

I think free furniture is the best furniture. If you know exactly how to make it pretty anyways, otherwise it could get a little out of hand. 

One of the first things I painted was this park bench my Mom gave me. I don't recommend actually sitting on it but some spray paint and a little can of exterior paint can go a long way.

A previous roommate had left behind this old desk. It was sort of warped and funky but with a little engenuity it worked out well in the laundry room for the litter box and extra storage. That's my thing if you haven't noticed... creating storage.

Not to bad eh?

 I had another friend that was moving into an apartment from her townhome and didn't have any back yard space for a full 8 piece outdoor furniture set. They weren't awful but I thought they could use some more class...

9 cans of spray paint and 1 horribly sore thumb later I had an awesome, all matching patio set.

 

This chair was given to me by my Mom also. She found it at a thrift store for about three dollars. So it wasn't free exactly but pretty close. I think it came out of an office or something.

Some spray paint and cute fabric made it totally awesome. No more weird chair! Yay.

{see it all here}

 Before my parents moved away to New Mexico they found this buffet/cardenza thing on the side of the road that said "Free" they loaded it up in their mini van and brought it over! It cost me nothing to redo it because I used a bunch of paint I already had and reused the handles.



{see it here}



Not too bad ey?


I suppose when I stop to think about it I do have a lot of things accomplished in my little house. I also now think that I've got a few more ideas for other things to do. No more blogging slump! Hopefully anyways. lol. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions on any of these. :)

It's Getting Cold in Here

As I mentioned a few days ago I've been doing a few things around the house to prepare for winter. Squirrel style, I've even got a few nuts hanging around. (cue Lucy walking across the keyboard)

But moving forward in terms of preparing the house for a hard winter, it's suppose to be a harsh one in Colorado this year. I've been working on doing little things to keep as much as the heat in the house as humanly possible. 

I sealed the electrical sockets earlier this week and then earlier in the month we plasticated some leaky windows at the end of October. My biggest hurtle is still this awful backdoor. I had planned on replacing it before winter for a lovely insulated door that I could paint a little chalkboard on and have all levels of warmth and cuteness.

But alas, Sir Budget came roaring into my castle so I'm just going to do what all DIYers do and...

improvise.

This here is my G-to the-Hetto backdoor. Crappy blue blinds, tin foil on the windows, and half-assed plastic already in place. It's ugly from this picture for sure... now imagine what it looks like from the outside!

 

Here's a look at the bottom of the door. (Love the cat door that is stuffed with newspapers currently? Yeah it looks pretty.)

During the day you can literally see sunlight coming through the bottom of the door. My thoughts are if sunlight can get through, guaranteed my expensive warm air can too.

 

I found these Door Bottom Seals at WalMart in the home section (once again not sponsored by anyone just me trying to save on the energy bill.) They were under ten dollars and super easy to install. I figured it would be worth giving it a try to see if I could keep some of that air in my house.

 

All that I needed was a pair of scissors to use after I measured out the door and then to peel the tape off the back and apply it. How great does it look??

 

Okay not very pretty but I've already noticed a difference in that room, the floor isn't as cold or drafty. Good start! 

Next hurtle to jump? The cat door. My previous improvisor aren't going to hold another year. I'll get back to you on the crazy cat lady door soon.

 

Until then... let's hope it doesn't snow so I can get the door sealed off the rest of the way!

Energy Efficiated. Is that a word?

I'm really really trying to save some extra money on the energy bill this year. Last year it peaked at over $250.00 and for those of you that have done this whole college-being-poor-thing, you feel me when I say that is a LOT of money. Like a lot. 

So last year I picked up a bunch of those save the planet energy efficient home things by Duck. I got most of them at WalMart. One thing I have been working on lately is blocking air leaks in the house. Now of course I know that there is not really any way to completely prevent them. Let's be realistic, but some of them I can. Such as behind the outlet covers. Total exposure to air leakage opportunities! Luckily Duck makes something to help with that. (PS this isn't sponsored by them, it's all me and me brain.)

Since I was already updating the outlet covers in my room (they used to be bisque. What kind of color is that anyways? The word even sounds gross.) I figured I should try to do what I could to seal them off.

They call them Socket Sealers! Wow! You can see all the details from the front of the box. Handy. 

They come in little sections like this, which is cool you just pop out the outlet things and tear away from the rest of em. I had to use scissors to trim mine down a little bit because they were too big for the standard sized outlet covers that I bought. I somehow ended up with one oversized outlet cover and it worked great with that one.

And check it out! You can't even tell the difference! They still fit great against the wall and hopefully help prevent any warm air leaks. We'll see if I can really tell a difference from my outlets. Like I said though. Every little bit helps...

I've already swapped out all of the bulbs in my house for energy efficient bulbs, purchased thermal curtains for some of the rooms, and plasticated a few of the leakiest windows. Now all that I have to do on my energy-savings list is make sure that I'm turning off lights, keeping the thermostat low and changing filters on the furnace frequently. I also need to figure out how to plasticate and draft block my front and back doors. Therein lies the challenge.

I seem to say that a lot. Maybe that will be my manufactured home motto. Creative right?

How do you keep your energy costs down when it gets cold? It's so hard!