DIY Crazy!

I have a problem. My problem is that there are about 50 million different projects that I want to do and I just don't have enough time to get them all done! Let me outline just a few. We'll start with my lighting dreams...

This is the light that I want to go above the island in the kitchen. The small problem is that Pottery Barn thinks that I should spend $399 on it and I very strongly disagree. Solution, I'm going to make one. I found very detailed instructions here that I am going to alter slightly to fit my needs. I think I can make my version for around $150 which is way more reasonable. I don't mind spending money on a nice lighting fixture, but I am not putting a $400 light in the DW. That is just a little too fancy for us. Realistically, it doesn't look all that difficult to do. I've found most of what I need online, but I want to use cloth cord for the lights and that is proving a bit more difficult to procure. I'm persistent though, I'll find it! I'll find it if I have to make it myself. Add another month on to this one.

Lighting project number two. This one is for over the dining room table. Again, I plan to alter it slightly, I want the cords to be gray cloth cords that match the mason jar light and I want the light sockets to be white. I'm also planning on hanging the bulbs at slightly different heights. In my head, it's really cool. We'll see how it actually turns out.

So far that about sums up my lighting project for the time being. I'm sure I will find more things in the world of lighting. Someday I'm going to make things easy on myself and just buy stuff, but I guess there's not much fun in that huh?

Another item on the to do list is the chicken coop. We've got a lot of the supplies to build it, it's just a matter of finding the time to get it done. The plan is to move next weekend and I've told Brad that needs to be the next thing we do. The chicks will be about 4 weeks old by then and should be ready to get out of the house by 6 weeks. I really don't want them in the house when they get that big.

Dog Run- This one sounds simple enough in my head, but I know these things never are. We've decided that the front door will lead out into the dog run since we won't ever be using it anyway. Like the coop, the picture for this is in my head, but Brad really wants us to throw down gravel. I agree, though I'm a little concerned about drainage. The last thing I was is for it to reek of dog pee.

Coffee Table! I want to build a coffee table out of some old pallets that I have. I can never seem to find a coffee table that I like, so I'm making one. This is kind of what I'm thinking, though I'm toying around with some other options too. I definitely want it on casters, cause that's just kind of cool. I'm kind of thinking I want more of a bleached out wood look, though I'm not sure how to do that without doing a whitewash style. Whitewash could look pretty cool though. Decisions decisions.

A tufted ottoman for our "closet". Our bed and dressers won't fit in a single room, so we are having a master suite with one whole room dedicated to our clothes! I'm buying, yes buying, garment racks to put up and we'll put our dressers in there as well. I've always wanted a giant walk in closet with an ottoman in the middle. It makes me feel fancy, like a princess. And that makes me happy.

There are plenty more to add to the list, but I feel like I should go tackle some of these things instead of just talking about it. Mostly, I need to get my butt over to the new house and finish putting the cabinet doors up, install the dishwasher & stove. Build a platform for the dryer and washing machine.... the list just never ends! One step at a time, and breath, just breath.

XoXo
Erin

DIY Plywood Floor Tutorial

I've never done a tutorial before, but I've had a lot of people ask us about our floors, so I decided to put it out there in case anyone might benefit from our experience. I'll start with a quick back story.

My husband and I stumbled upon a property for sale that we absolutely loved. It was 20 acres, partially wooded, and extremely close to town. The only drawback was that it was also home to a double wide, which we did not particularly love. I like to believe that I am pretty open minded about aesthetics, but this thing was pretty hideous. It was in good condition, but definitely needed a major interior face lift. We eventually want to build on this property and get rid of the double wide, so after successfully closing on the property we started trying to come up with cheap and creative ideas for remodeling. Flooring was extremely difficult because the DW is over 1,800 sq ft and having dogs, we hate carpet. Everything we looked at was going to run us over $2/sq ft and we just didn't want to sink that kind of money into it. So, after scouring the internet for ideas, this is what we ended up doing.

Our first step was picking out Plywood that we liked and was reasonably priced. Not as easy as you'd think. Thankfully, when we were ready to buy the wood Menards was having a sale on 1/4 birch veneer plywood. It was over $10 off a for a 4' x 8' sheet. We ordered a bunk (50 sheets) to start with. This cost us right around $800 and would cover a bit under 1,500 sq/ft. We then had the boards ripped into 1' x 8' boards. 

We toyed around with various ways to lay and secure the boards. We looked at using laminate glue and laying them almost like tile, but that was going to get extremely pricey. Almost the cost of the wood itself. We decided on using a combo of sub-floor glue and nails. At first we were only applying the glue to the center of the boards, but after laying about 2 rows, we discovered that is was better to apply it to the edges to make sure the the boards didn't ever pop up on the sides.

After gluing a board down we then nailed each board in place as well. We made a "nail template" that you can see below to ensure that all the boards were nailed down evenly. You can't really see the nail holes now that they're done, but it was very handy to have. We used a chalk line to start with squared up to the center of the house and then we just started putting boards down like it was a normal hardwood floor.

We used 1" straight nails to secure the boards. I really wanted to use hardcut masonry nails, but this would have added not only significant cost, but significant time as well. I would have loved the look that the masonry nails added, but I'm glad we went with the cheaper/faster method.

Measuring and cutting was definitely the most time consuming part of the process. Luckily my husband has a good head for math and took care of it. 

After the floors were down we sanded everything with an electric hand sander and 220 grit paper. We considered the idea for renting a floor sander, but were concerned that we might go through the veneer on the plywood which we definitely didn't want to happen. There were quite a few spots where the boards were slightly uneven where the edges so we sanded those down. In the really bad spots we went ahead and sanded through the veneer to even them out and it gave the floor more of a rustic look which we really like. After sanding we vacuumed the floors and went over them with tack cloth to pick up any remaining dirt or sawdust.

These are the floors after being sanded and prepped. You could potentially skip the next steps and go straight to sealing them at this point if you wanted a lighter floor. We wanted dark almost black floors so at this point we started the staining process.

The stain we used was Miniwax Ebony. You can use any color or brand that you want, just make sure you test it on a board before applying it. Seems like common sense, but I have been known to simply buy a paint color without testing it out first, so I thought I'd mention it. Patience isn't my best virtue.


We used a deck pad stain applicator to apply the stain. We put it on pretty thick to make sure that the edges and nail holes got stained and there weren't any sneaky natural birch spots showing through. We applied stain on 2 rows of boards at a time, allowed it to sit for 5-10 minutes and then wiped away any excess. Then we rinsed and repeated. It wasn't a hard process, but it is frustrating that you can only do 2 rows at a time, otherwise it's too difficult to reach the boards and remove any excess stain.

 After the first coat the floors were a bit splotchy and uneven. Honestly, I kind of liked the way they looked with only one coat. If I hadn't wanted them a little bit darker I may have tried to convince the DH to leave them with only one coat.

After the second coat of stain I was happy we went with 2 the color was just so much richer! It's hard to tell from the photo, but it really warmed up the floors.

Once all the floors had their second coat of stain we were ready for the sealer. We went with a product called Bona Mega Clear HD and I must say I was pretty thrilled with it. We chose the satin finish. There are a couple of ways to apply it but we went with a T-bar. From all the videos I watched it seemed to be the easiest and fastest application method.

I wish I had taken some video of the actual application process, but sadly I didn't. You can find a few different videos on Youtube if you are really interested in it. The sealer took 2 coats. One gallon covered about 550 Sq Ft for us. We let the first coat sit and cure for about 2 hours before applying the second coat.

This photo shows the difference that the sealer has on the color. It really makes everything pop!

Here are some photos of the finished floors. 

As you can see the Bona gave everything a beautiful even sheen.

We left the wood in the bathroom natural because we wanted a darker paint color. This gives you a good idea of how it will look if you decide not to stain the floors and go straight to sealing them.

Well there you have it. We kind of lost track of how much stain we used, but after tallying everything up our cost came in at about $1 Sq Ft. Not too bad. I hope this might help anyone else who is trying to do some low cost flooring. I'll update later on how they are wearing with our 2 dogs as well as some pictures once the baseboards are up.

Finished Floors

That's right! The floors are finally done. I never thought this day would come. It feels so good to be able to put the floors behind us and move on to all the finishing touches. I'm absolutely thrilled with the way the floors turned out.

The Bona Mega really made the floors pop! The picture below shows the difference between sealed and not sealed. I was amazing at the difference the Bona made when we were all done.

Partially sealed floors.

Photo montage of the finished floors!!!

Sealed and completed plywood floors!

Close up of the finished floors.

After the floors we completed we started working on our baseboards. We were able to get them all painted and are hoping to put them up this week. We also managed to install a toilet, first time ever, and it's not leaking which is always good and ripped out the kitchen sink. Goals for the week include getting the baseboard up, counter tops painted, and appliances installed if we're lucky. 

Here are some more photos just for fun!

This photo was taken last October when we first started. Please ignore the McDonalds bag. Sometimes we make poor food decisions when we have not time.

This photo was taken this past weekend. My little DW has come so far!

Furniture that Won't Break the Bank

We have a bit of a dilemma. I don't think our current sofa will fit in the room we are planning as using as the main living area. We also don't want to drop $1,500 on a new couch at the moment. So I've been scouring the internet for ideas. This is what I've got so far...

This is the KARLSTAD loveseat and chase in Isunda Gray from IKEA. It's $978 and we would probably want a chair as well. I like the color a lot. We're hoping to go with lighter colored furniture to contrast the floors.

This is the Oregon Chaise Sectional from Dania, priced at $799. Again we'd probably need a chair to go along with it.

This one is probably more of a pipe dream. Also from Dania, this is there Wellington 2 Piece sectional. I love the look of it but it's $1,299 and probably wouldn't fit anyway.

Another one that is on the pricier side is this sofa from LA Furniture. It's $1,195.

If you know of any place that sells more modern style furniture at decent prices let me know. We could always get a cheap couch from one of the discount places around here, but I really want to have something that fits our style.

Slow and Steady...

Nothing ever goes as quickly as I'd like. I was really hoping to have the floors done and ready for pictures by today. Alas, it is not to be. Finishing up the flooring in the kitchen took a little longer than expected on Saturday so we didn't get to stain until Sunday. That being said, we did get a first coat of stain on all of the flooring that is done. It's really dark and I love it! The pictures below are before the excess stain is wiped off. I pretty much looks like black paint when you first apply it. I kind of freaked out a little when I first started applying it.

The plan this week is for one of us to work on the house each night. We're going to swap out nights so that we each get a little down time and then hopefully we can apply the sealer this weekend. We have a ton of stuff going on over the weekend, so it would be really good timing if this all works out. After that we'll put up the trim, move the saws and everything into the side of the house and finish up the small amount of flooring that they sit on now. Then we can move! Wow, it's seems so small when I write it down, but I know that's going to take another couple weeks.

Here are just a few pics of the first coat of stain. I think that it's going to look fantastic when it's all done. Second coat will darken it up and even it out and the top coat will even out the sheen.