Escaping the Draft

No, we are not running from our civic duties.  Rather we are doing our best to keep our house cozy and energy-efficient in the cold winter months.  We were told back in April by our home inspector that it would be wise to insulate our attic fan, since it would be a direct line from the inside of our house and the chilly, drafty attic in the winter.  So Phil did a great job gettin' it done. Here's what our basic attic fan looks like from the attic:

 As you can see there is currently nothing keeping the cold attic air from seeping into the house other than the vent in the ceiling (which is certainly not a tight seal).  So to insulate it, Phil simply built a box out of insulated foam board and popped it on.

Ok so it wasn't that easy.  Here were the materials we were working with:

One piece of insulated foam board, heavy duty duct tape and an exacto knife.  Total cost was probably no more than $15.

Phil did a lot of internet searching to figure out the best approach and then ended up winging it.  It would have been a simple task if it weren't for the roof beams that cut so close to the attic fan that there wasn't room to just pop a box over the fan.  So Phil had to be a little more thoughtful with the shape of his box and how to make it fit in there.  After some trial and error, he figured it out.

As you can see Phil had to cut some of the sides at different widths in order to make it just right.  But he basically just measured, measured, measured. Cut the pieces of foam board to the right sizes, and then duct taped the seams together.

Bada bing...

Bada boom. 

Voila! It fits! Phil's version of this blog post would probably be much more filled with frustrated expletives.  I think it involved more trial and error than I may have even realized. But in the end he did a dang good job.  And a couple winter months later, I can tell you it has definitely made a difference. Prior to insulating the fan, the upstairs part of our house was pretty frigid - to the point we had to crank up the heat when we went to bed (the attic fan is located in the upstairs hallway directly outside our bedroom door.  Nowadays, we actually have to turn the heat way down when we go to bed to keep from overheating.  I'm gonna go ahead and chalk at least part of that up to our newly insulated ceiling hole. 

 

Oops Count: I'm gonna call this one a zero oops project. Phil had some trial and error with putting the box together but all in all once he put it together it was a done deal and fit perfectly the first time. Again, he might have a different oops count (I wasn't around for most of the process, I just got to witness the successful ending), but from my end this was a rare occurrence in our household of a project being pretty successful the first go around. Go us! (er, go Phil, I guess).

 





Lesson(s) Learned: There are certainly some home improvement DIY projects out there that are extremely cheap and totally do-able.  This one took a bit of research and trial and error but who knows how much it could have cost us to out-source this project.  Now let's just hope we remember to remove the box before turning the fan back on in the summer. Foam board confetti party anyone?!

A New Name and a Baby Step

In case you didn't notice, "This Idiot's Guide to Home Improvement" is no more.   I had been toying with renaming the blog for a while, and finally bit the bullet.  I do a lot of DIY/crafty things that don't always fit into the category of "home improvement" that I might someday want to write about, so I decided the old title was too specific (and in a google search, get's buried under 1,000,000 "The Idiot's Guide to BLANK" search hits). So say hello to "One Oops At a Time."  Because whether it's home improvement, crafts or crochet.... you know I'm gonna screw it up at least once. So now my blog is more open to sharing other endeavors, while still highlighting my incompetence. Because self-esteem is for losers, obviously.

So, anyways, onto one of the latest updates going in our casa.  As I've mentioned previously, we are chest-deep in the complete redecoration of our master bedroom and bathroom (I hesitate to call it a "renovation" because we are really using what we've got - no major changes other than lots and lots of paint and actually having furniture for once).  One baby step along the way was painting our closet.  While most people might really wonder why the heck we are going through the trouble of painting our closet of all things, it made sense for us. Here's why... our master closet extends off of our master bathroom which extends off of our master bedroom. While the closet originally had a door, we quickly realized it served no purpose and just took up space (we never ever closed it, and so it just got in the way). Sayonara closet door. Oh and the bathroom is door-less too (there's a door separating off the toilet room, but other than that, the bedroom flows unobstructedly into the bathroom). So that means you have a constant view into our walk-in closet.  The new color scheme for our bathroom is a smoky gray with bright white trim.. so the peachy-pink-off-white walls and golden oak trim just could not stay in the closet, given the open flow of the rooms. So without further ado...

BEFORE

AFTER

The closet will obviously fill up more with clothes and shelves and hampers, but you get the idea.  Our closet all of a sudden has class. Never thought I'd need a classy closet. But now that I have one, I'm happy. I'm in love with the colors, especially the contrast of the gray and the white trim.  And given that I've seen the bathroom evolve into this same color scheme, oh yeah, I'm excited. Can't wait to share the rest of the transformation.  The bathroom is about 90% done - all that's left is getting a new light fixture, touching up some paint, finding a new shower curtain  that Phil and I both like (which is harder than you might think, oy), and maayyyybe getting some new sink faucets while we are at it. Hopefully I can share a finished bathroom update soon! As for the bedroom, we are one last coat of paint away from being done painting our armoire, and once that's done we can start bringing the furniture in and rearranging the layout. All that's left then is to build a bed (no sweat), thrift some nightstands, get a new ceiling fan, get new curtains, bedding, lampshades and then get some art on the walls. So close, yet so far....

Lesson(s) Learned: Even the smallest little changes, like painting your closet, can bring joy to a homeowner's heart.  Don't be afraid to extend your updates into spaces like closets, it might be more exciting than you think! 

Om Nom Nom

As promised I'm back with another development in the ever growing additions of RED in our kitchen.  I recently threw a "Pinterest Party," a.k.a. an excuse to eat, drink and do crafty projects with friends.  I worked on a few projects, but I'm here to talk about one in particular, being how I added some wordy fun to our kitchen.  My "Pintspiration" came from a few places like this:

credit to The Crafty Sparrow

I liked the idea of graphic letters in a space, especially in the kitchen.  My hang up came when I thought about what word(s) to feature. I'm not the type to go with something traditional like the above "eat," or "food," or "love." Those just felt too.. expected. But eventually I figured it out (and jumped for joy when Phil approved)...

Yes, you read that right. Our kitchen now says "Om nom nom." Hopefully most of you reading this understand what this means, because after attempting to explain what "om nom nom" means to my parents, I realized it is very hard to define.

The project itself was very cheap and easy to do. I picked up the cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby for $2.50 a piece.  We knew right away we wanted to put them above the cabinets (we had been wanting to fill that space with something for a while, but had never quite figured out the right thing). We grappled for a while on what to do with them, color-wise. The original idea was to do a faux-metal treatment with tin foil and black paint in hopes it would like like rustic tin.  But after the knife block went red, and the red frame came into the kitchen I realized it would be awesome if the letters, too, were red.  And in another stroke of luck, Phil approved of red letters as well (Phil tends to not like most of my more quirky ideas so I was truly shocked when he OK'd this project).  So during my Pinterest Party I (with the help of my friend Jo), painted these bad boys red, again using more of the free paint provided by my friend Megan's poor judgement.  Making the total cost $20.

Isn't it fabulous how the red all ties together now? It looks purposeful, and as if we now have a consistent accent color happening.  Six months ago I never would have guessed red would be a prominent color in our blue and brown kitchen, but now that it is, I'm in love.

Lesson(s) Learned: Don't be afraid to show your personality in your house. While some people might find the "om nom nom" to be silly or stupid or just plain weird, I love it and it really shows our personality.  And I love that every time someone comes into our kitchen we get some hearty chuckles bouncing around the room.  And unless you are a Bluth and are living in a model home, there's really no one to please but yourself. So just do whatever makes you smile. And be happy with that.

Anyone else taking quirky risks in their house? How do you guys show your personality through your decor?

Seeing Red

Wow feels like forever since I've posted anything. I blame the holidays and the fact that we've been mid-project since December so there just hasn't been a whole lot of anything worth sharing (we are working on completely redecorating our master bedroom and bathroom, and it's been a months-long process). But today I wanted to share some pictures of a super simple, easy update in our kitchen that makes me super happy.

See, we've had this ugly knife-block for years.

I never really enjoyed the way it looked, espeically in our newly updated kitchen that makes the light wood stand out like a sore thumb (a really boring, sore thumb), but also never thought twice about doing anything with it or to it until Pinterest gave me a lightbulb moment... PAINT IT. Duh. After sufficiently face-palming over the fact that I had never thought of that on my own, I got to work thinking about what color to make that bad boy.  And in a risky move I went with....

RED.  Red definitely did not come to mind initially as a possible color choice.  My initial thoughts were colors that would be super matchy-matchy with the blue and brown tones. I was thinking deep, warm jewel tones like a nice forest green or eggplant purple.  Those would have been nice too, but also rather predictable and JCPenny-esque.  Red came to me as an idea after I randomly happened to notice the small pops of red that were already in place in the kitchen and living room...

My brain tends to yell 'MERICA everytime I think of red and blue together, which is partially why I never thought of red in the first place, but I realized that the lighter, non-'MERICA shade of blue in the kitchen and living room did not paint quite as patriotric of a picture when paired with the red as I had feared. Rather, it's a super fun, funky and unexpected pop of color in an otherwise low-key space.  I love it. Particularly because it then inspired this...

This came to be in a really random way.  As you saw above, the umbrella picture was always there (and played a big role in motivating me to go red with the knife block).  Then, while hunting through a basket of stuff in our yet-to-be-unpacked "office," I found that boat print, which is actually a card Phil got me for our anniversary last year.  I thought it was an awesome card and noticed immediately that the red flags matched the red umbrella almost perfectly.  Another lightbulb went off in my head (my head was getting pretty bright by now), and I knew it needed to join the umbrella picture in the kitchen.  Initially I stuck it on the wall unframed, but quickly realized that looked way too random and unfinished. Then yet another lightbulb went off (you might want to grab your sunglasses at this point) and I remembered we had a gorgeous red frame sitting unused in the basement.  Bada bing bada boom, we now have even more awesomely funky red pops in the kitchen that make the knife block seem totally not random and it all just makes sense now. And I love it! Oh and in addition to the sentiment of the boat card Phil got me, that umbrella picture is very sentimental as well.  Phil bought me that print when he visited Paris with his family a looong time ago, back before we were even dating (back during the time when we were really good friends, and knew we were head over heels in love with each other, but kept fervently denying it to ourselves. And each other. And our friends. And our significant others at the time. Yikes. Let's not go there).  So not only does the red = super funky and awesome color pop, but that little corner of the kitchen is now also full of sentimentality and warm fuzzy feelings of love.

See how well the red ties together now? Now if only I had some less boring, fugly kitchen towels. It's on the to-do list, I promise.

So there you have it. This update cost me a whopping $0, given that we already owned the frame and the card and the knife block.  The red paint was lovingly offered up by my friend Megan who made the mistake of buying a gallon of paint for her fully-windowed french door (and therefore had ample leftovers to share). 

Lesson(s) Learned: Don't be afraid to go bold with colors! Especially in a more neutral space, unexpected color pops can turn your place from drab and nothing special to super unique and fun and YOU.  And as with most house projects, patience is a virtue.  Take some time between your lightbulb moment and actually executing a project... you never know what kind of awesome inspiration might come your way during that period of time!

This post reminded me that I haven't shared the befores and afters of our kitchen yet! You've seen some hints of the "after," but I'll have to show you the before as soon as our kitchen is clean enough that I can take some more pictures of it. Don't hold your breath.... but I do have yet another chapter in the Book of Red to share very soon. Get excited.

Thrift Store Win!

Phil and I made the rounds to our favorite thrift stores this past weekend, and came out with some sweet, sweet deals...

Everything you see on that table cost us a whopping $50 total.  That might sound like a lot, but most of that $50 went towards that painting you see on the left with the sunset scene.. that sucker ran us $35, and we splurged on that guy because we are planning to paint a favorite quote onto it ala this awesome project that inspired us. We've been searching and searching for an old, cheap painting that we liked enough to stencil over so when we finally found one we agreed on, we figured the $35 price tag was workable.  So that means we got the rest of our loot (3 frames, 2 shadow boxes, a wine rack and a big ball of jute) for $15.  Those frames and shadow boxes all ran us $1 each, on average, with most of them being discounted, the wine rack was $3.50 and the ball of jute was $2.50.  What are we going to do with all of it, you ask? And why on earth did we buy such hideously ugly stuff, you also may ask?

Well none of what you see here will stay as-is.  Like I already mentioned, the sunset painting will have a quote stenciled over.  The rest of the frames and shadow boxes will be painted/stained/altered and the content will be replaced with something personal.  Then they are all going up on the wall that is directly adjacent to our front door, to make the beginnings of what will eventually become a giant frame wall.

The wine rack is going to be painted and turned into a yarn rack to store all of my yarn in an organized fashion (instead of throwing it all in a bag where it gets tangled and impossible to sort through).

The ball of jute is going to have endless crafty possibilities.... from gluing it around a frame, to making tie backs for curtains to wrapping it around cans, jars or vases, that $2.50 ball will last me through quite a few awesome projects TBD.

So that was our successful trip to the thrift! Although the one sad-faced part of the day was that I did have to walk away from this beauty...

Most of you probably think that sucker is hideous, but I have a serious affinity for 1970's decor and art.  This was labeled as being an original 1976 painting, and the second I saw it I wanted it. Bad. But Phil is one of those many who thought it was hideous and wouldn't let me adopt it. Wah wah wah..... oh well. It will live on forever in my dreams, though!

Lesson Learned: It's worth the intense brain power required to sort through thousands upon thousands of items in a thrift store to score some awesome, inspiring deals.  Also, it's hard these days to go to a thrift store and not hear this in my head the whole time... 

Anyone else score sweet finds at a thrift store recently? Got any favorite thrift stores that are sure to deliver?

A Trip Down Memory Lane

When updating my frames with some new pictures the other day, I realized that I have a habit that may be worth sharing.  Maybe everyone does this, but if not, everyone should.  Basically, to whatever extent your frames allow, a fun way to have periodic trips down Memory Lane, straight through the heart of Nostalgiaville, is to keep any pictures you replace in your frames hibernating behind your new picture. Bonus points if you keep a consistent subject in said frame (i.e., a child, a pet, a particular friend or group of friends).  Instead of taking old photos out and throwing them in an old shoebox somewhere, let them renew their lease in your frame....

Nest pictures behind each other in a frame for a surprise visit from the past each time you open it up!

What this allows you to do is get a surprise visit from your old pictures, and witness the development and growth of the subjects over time every time you open the frame to pop in a new picture.  My parents did this with my yearly school pictures when I was growing up, and it was so fun to get to see them in succession each time a new one came along. So I've found myself doing this with my picture frames as well, and enjoyed watching my timeline with my best friend Kristen develop when I added an updated picture of us today...

The top picture is circa 2006, middle picture is circa 2009 and the bottom picture is from this past summer. It warmed my heart and brought back fond memories to find the top picture tucked behind the middle picture (which had been front and center in the frame until today), and it will warm my heart next time I add a new picture to see one more to reminisce over (and so on for years to come...).

It's my little secret that that picture frame holds a little piece of friendship history!

Lesson Learned: While no one else may ever know, it's super fun to have hidden pieces of nostalgia and sentimentality scattered about your house, and nesting old photos behind each other in a frame is a fantastic way to do just that!

I'm genuinely curious... have any of you ever done this, or is this a relatively novel concept for most people?

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

We've tried our hardest to ascribe to the philosophy that patience is a virtue when it comes to filling our house with things we love. Our instincts have at times told us to run to the nearest big-box home store and just fill our house with what we need right away, in the spirit of not feeling like we are perpetually living in an unfinished space. We've held out, though, and worked with what we have, trusting in the house-powers-that-be, and that we would stumble upon the right pieces at the right times. And, behold!  In the case of our kitchen storage dilemma, we were rewarded!

See, we have this gap of empty wall space between the window in our kitchen and the sliding door that leads out to the sunroom. A gap just begging to be filled with something. We knew right away we wanted to use that little space (which is about 3 feet wide... and, again, I failed to take a before shot of this particular spot so I can't show you what I'm talking about without spoiling the surprise) to add some counter space and storage to our kitchen. Initially, we filled that spot with a console table/wine rack we've had for years that we used to use in the entry way of our apartment as a spot for keys, mail, etc.  I also have no pictures of what it looked like in that spot, but here it is in it's new (and temporary) home, just so you have a visual of what we were working with for the first 5 months or so....

As you can see, it provides a teeny bit of "counter space," (it's only about 10 inches deep) and zero storage space (except for wine, of course).  Suffice it to say we were perpetually in the market for something that gave us a little more help in the kitchen.  We wanted something along the lines of this, your average "kitchen cart:"

Problem was, these puppies tend to run $200-400+, and we went months without finding anything that was affordable. Until we stumbled upon this pretty lady at a local flea market:

Isn't she beautiful? (Excuse the Piper photo-bomb).. we love this piece, and we didn't have to do a thing to it.. we were lucky enough to find something with the refurbished DIY look we love, without having to do any of the grunt work, and for a mere $75! We were initially thinking we might want to paint it, because we weren't sure how the green would go in our blue kitchen, but we kind of love the unexpected color pop, and think that the colors actually go just fine with each other.  Also doesn't hurt that it's forcing us out of our sometimes matchy-matchy instincts. Here's a different perspective to better show you how it fills our gap...

A perfect fit, no? And just enough space to give us decent workspace on top, two more junk drawers (because everyone needs more junk drawers!), and we've finally found a resting place for our oversized boxes of Costco goodies that previously lived as eyesores above our cabinets. Now let's revel in it's beauty with some close up shots...

 

She's sporting some gloriously unique and vintage hardware that I loooooove...

LESSON(S) LEARNED: Patience, grasshopper! It pays to hold out for that special moment when you stumble upon the perfect piece for the perfect price at the most unexpected time, in the most unexpected place (did I just write a Dr. Seuss poem?!). Also, turn off the ugly date-stamp on your new digital camera. (Yikes, sorry about those eyesores mucking up all the pictures)

Anyone else had similarly serendipitous run-ins with the Perfect Piece?