In part one of our little fence adventure we dug holes, poured concrete, and set our posts. Part one was kinda drawn-out and sucky, and carrying the 2-man digger around made my back hurt. So I wasn’t exactly looking forward to part two – putting up the panels. But it turns out this is the […]
Category Archive: How-To
We installed a new porcelain tile floor in our kitchen about 1.5 years ago. It has held up beautifully, and I’ve never once regretted the color or style. The dark, varying color and rough texture hide almost everything, except for mysterious muddy boot prints that no one cares to claim responsibility for. (My booties idea? […]
When we gutted a third of our upstairs in order to remodel the bathroom, we had a golden opportunity. Restructuring this area of the house meant we could put the walls wherever we wanted. So we made the bathroom about 4′ wider, and used the leftover space to make a closet. All old houses lack […]
This weekend, we puttered around yet again with the craft room and closet. Skim coating drywall is B-O-R-I-N-G. I hate waiting for one coat to dry just so we can go put another thin-as-can-be coat on it. Good technique means very little sanding. That’s the only reason I haven’t gone beserk yet. The only interesting […]
Nadja and Sean of American Four Square Renewel took our “wallpaper on the ceiling” cheat one step further, painting it copper. And the pictures look amazing! We’ve thought about doing a copper-colored fake tin ceiling in our living room, so I had to bookmark their post. You might recall that we did a quick fix […]
Note: This is Teague’s second post in 2.5 years! Let’s all make him feel welcome, and maybe he’ll come share his how-to’s (which are much more thorough than mine, since he tends to lead the process while I follow along) more often! – Mindy STEP ONE: The first step to installing our free-standing chrome fixture […]
When our Sunrise Speciality shower enclosure came in the mail a few weeks ago, it felt like Christmas. It was a welcome sight, those boxes filled with shiny chrome goodness piled high on our porch. We ripped into them like maniacs, taking each piece out to examine and admire the fixtures inside. But of course, […]
Adding trimwork and molding is one of the best ways to add elegance to a plain room; I can’t tell you what a difference it makes. It’s one of the main reasons historic houses have so much charm… they have layer upon layer of built-up trim throughout the house accenting the windows, doors, and walls […]
Haven’t read part one, which covers cement backer board, tile layout and mortar? It’s right here. Once the mortar is fully set, you can move on to grouting. We chose charcoal gray grout to hide our dirt and grit; white grout would look pretty for a week or two, but I know after that I’d […]
Yes…….. happy days are upon us, because we’re finally getting to the really fun part of the bathroom remodel. Beadboard went up last weekend, and this weekend was tile-o-rama! We chose white hex tiles from Home Depot, and mixed a few black accent pieces in to make it interesting. The tiles have a very historic […]