Laundry Room, Part 2

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I find that I am getting slower with what I get done in a day, but at least I keep on doing!

Once the plumbing was done, this is what I was left with in my laundry room. I have never had a nice laundry room, at all! This time it's going to be different, it won't be fancy, but it will be nice!

I appreciate that this had to be done this way, I'm not complaining about that, I just need to do something about it. (I will eventually have a dryer in here too, just not ready for it yet)

Some of the boards are still missing because the electrical work is not done yet.

My solution is to gather some reclaimed wood and some cupboard doors from the Restore that I have had for several years. I laid them out on the floor and got planning.

Remember all those pipes and things on the wall, I had to cut around each one in order to put up the cupboard (this was a real pain and I had to lift the unit up and down off the wall several times before I got it right). I made the cupboard shallow as I didn't want it to stick out into the room too much. Also when putting on the cupboard doors I found that one of the drain pipes was in the way, so that had to be moved down. Johnny took on the task of making the new hole for the hinge.

I will eventually add shelves on the two end cupboards. This cupboard will come off the wall with the removal of a few screws, if that is ever necessary. Oh and look, I finished putting the shiplap on the wall.

Doors closed, everything neat and tidy. Time to move on the trim.

Door frame inside the room,

and from the outside, looking in.

The paint is still drying on the cupboards, that's why they look streaky. But doesn't it look so much better already?

With all the drawer pulls I've saved from other dressers etc., the only pulls that will fit these doors are royal blue, they are beautiful but they won't be the best colour for these doors. I think for now I will probably put them on anyway.

I got the trim on the door, and one wall. It's starting to have a finished look.

Now it's time for a door, hmmm, which one will I choose? It's nice to have my own little Restore. Yes  I'm a door hoarder, and proud of it!

This one just happened to be in the very front of the pile, thank goodness, because this stack of doors is heavy and I don't think I could have gotten another one out.

It doesn't look too bad in this picture, but it had a lot of flaking paint on it.

The door fit in the doorway perfectly! I couldn't believe it!

The hinges however, did not line up so I had to cut new space to lower the hinge.

I scraped the loose paint off of this door for 3-4 hours. Right now it has a very chippy look. In the summer I will likely take it outside and strip the paint off of it and probably paint it white. Those decisions will be made later. For now it's the chippy look. People go to great lengths to make doors and furniture look like this.

I love the doorknob on this door.

Look at the difference a little white paint made on the trim outside the room. It was painted the same green as the wall before.

The door needs just a little sanding on the top left corner to make it fit. I'll do that tomorrow.

I'm feeling pretty accomplished today. 

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School House Part 1 - Laundry Room, also Part 1

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I'm calling this part one but there are things we have already done that I will post about later, so these posts won't necessarily be chronologically correct. I'm sure you can live with that, I know I can.

So this picture really doesn’t show how disgusting this room was. Plus I didn’t get a picture when the disgusting cupboards were still here. They have since been burned in a bonfire, that’s how bad they were!

We pulled off the wallboard, which was not gyproc but hardboard, so every nail head showed. But...what was hiding underneath? Ship lap! I thought I had struck gold!

I changed my plan from tiled walls to painted shiplap.

However! It was a mixed blessing because the shiplap was installed using big ardox nails. In case you don’t know what that is, they are the twisty nails that are NOT meant to come out. What a job!! See the wall on the left? That whole wall of shiplap needed to be removed so it can be insulated. I also removed a few boards (as carefully as possible) so that electrical can be done.

We both had to work on this wall because it was so physically demanding for my old body. We used a variety of tools to get this done. Then Johnny took over and removed the rotten bottom plate which he replaced with pressure treated wood, and a few studs that had been pretty cut up to make room for plumbing, which we removed. This room was originally a bathroom for the students.

So today was the beginning of tiling. I first had to scrape the whole floor to prep for tile.

After 3 hours of that I was ready to begin.

Where is my tiling partner (Budd) when I need him?!! I’ve only tiled by myself once, I usually cut the tile and be the gopher. He mixes the thinset, lays the tile, and cleans up. Yup, I’ve definitely been spoiled, until today.

But I got this much done, this is 5 hours of tiling by myself. I didn’t cut any tiles today so a couple of broken pieces were used for spacers and I'll cut tiles tomorrow to fit in those spots. That rectangle in the middle is where it’s sloped for the floor drain, so that will take some special care. I will continue tomorrow...if I can move!

If you're still here, thanks for reading!

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I Made a Sectional Sofa for Approximately $200.00

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Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I posted, you've probably all given up on me by now, but I think this project is definitely worth blogging about.

  I was looking for a small sectional for our little park model and couldn't find anything that worked. Everything in the stores is so big! I thought about maybe building one myself. Now I don't have my full accompaniment of tools down here so I am somewhat limited, although I could always go to the Wood shop here in the park. One day a lady put an ad out that she had a free, yes I said free queen sized memory foam mattress to give away. Lucky for me I was the first person to respond and it was all mine. So this is how it all began. 

Not only do we not have tools down here, but we also don't have a truck. The speed limit here in the park is 10 miles per hour so the guys didn't even bother to tie it down.

After thinking it over for a couple of days I got the butcher knife out and started slicing.  There were so many decisions to make along the way.

Since I had to bring all the wood home in the car, I figured out my cuts ahead of time and had Home Depot make as many of the cuts for me as I could. 

I built the bottom support and then went shopping for the fabric. Luckily there were a lot of sales due to black Friday.

I guess I forgot to take pictures of this part, I upholstered the seats using the old mattress cover and the new fabric. The picture below shows the set up for upholstering the back of the couch. I had to wait a week or two for the foam to be delivered, but I still had a lot of thinking to do so that was ok.

This is what it looked like after the back was attached. 

This is after I put the seat back on.

Here is the arm in progress, foam in place and batting stitched and stapled to hold it all together.

Ta da! We have arms! Oh the magic of the internet, it all looks so quick and easy!

Testing out the fit of the bed pillows.

Now to start the "over the top" part, stained glass! These parts are all built individually and will be pieced together later.

Here they are, after much deliberating and switching around, now how am I going to get that home? Luckily Johnny showed up right then and he carefully carried the board to the car and I slowly drove home, again that 10 miles per hour worked in my favour.

A little test fit.

Here it is, glued, temporarily tacked, and painted.

The foam was free, and so were the two mattress covers I used for most of the batting. The two little cushions were here when we bought the place. The upholstery fabric was on sale for $10/yard and was 100" wide, so I only needed 5 yards. The fabric for the pillows was part of a yard sale bundle that I paid $10 dollars for, so maybe that was $5.00. I purchased 4 pillows for $10 each. I paid $37.00 the first time I went to the lumber yard, and I needed another sheet of chipboard and some staples so I think it was around $25.00. I bought 3 sheets of white glass and used 2 1/2 so that was around $30.00, it cost something for the coloured glass although it was all leftover from other projects and of course the foil and solder weren't free so I'm just going to guess $10.00 for those. That totals $197.00.

It's comfy and I'm happy!

 Oh, and in case you are wondering, Johnny did not help me! I've been asked before if he helps me with my projects and pretty much "no". I did get help from the guy at Home Depot, but if I had the tools and a truck I wouldn't have needed him, but I'm glad they are willing to do that, it is a great service.

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Bold and Beautiful Antique Chair Makeover

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Sometimes it takes some imagination and a lot of faith to see the beauty in a piece of furniture.

I remember this chair (and sofa) when it was in better condition, but it still took some vision to believe it could be beautiful again, or should I say to believe that I could make it beautiful again.

 I reupholstered the matching sofa several years ago, but it was such a big job that I put off reupholstering this piece. I guess I had to forget just how much work it was. It took many hours to get it looking like this! So many staples!!!

I sanded and painted the wood.

A work in progress.

Wow it felt good to get to this point..

I had to wait until I could get to the city to buy the braid to finish it off.

I love, love, love this chair and can't wait to have it placed in our 3 season room with the sofa.

 Look at how the detail of the wood carving stands out now. 

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This Dresser is Distressed Over Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint!

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This project came out even better than I anticipated. A client asked me to paint this dresser that was her Mother's. How great that she wanted it updated to be used in her house rather than discarded. 

I'm not sure how it is that I could forget to take a before picture. It was a dark stain, and the wood is in great shape but nothing special. The finish was good on most of it but had problem spots.

I painted it with Annie Sloan's Old White and did some distressing. I sent the customer a picture and she said to distress it more. I'm so glad she did because although I thought it was going to be overdone, I love it like this!

When I varnished it it really came to life!

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I've Been Waiting All Winter to Make This Bench

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Last year was a fairly busy year, plus I was injured, these two things kept me from creating some of the projects I have waiting for me. 

I've had this dresser for a few years and have moved it a couple of times. I've had this project in mind for some time now. I'll admit I saw this idea online, and now that I've finished this one I look forward to making another.

It started with this dresser.

I knocked apart what I no longer needed,

and added support for the seat, and the back and added some trim.

After sanding and paint (Annie Sloan, Provence).

I just went outside to go over to my shop and take a picture of the final product and this little guy was standing in the driveway looking at me.

 Then on to varnish, stain (Minwax, Ebony), varnish. I cut the top down to size to use for the seat, added a nice foam seat cushion, and here it is! Please excuse the background, I don't have the space or the muscles for nice staging.

So much fun!

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