After 6+ years of dealing with shoulder issues and looking at all the 'stuff' that needed doing I am glad to say that I finally stripped the hallway of its old awful wallpaper that is the last holdover from the previous owner and working on painting it, a bit of a challenge b/c it involves the stairway and stairwell, (overhead work to test the shoulders!) once that is done the kitchen walls are next. The outside needs to be painted this year but I think that I will have to hire someone b/c of the 'ladder work' that is involved (feeling good but I am not the spring chicken I once was :/ ) and the side of the garage needs re-shingling (one story) which I might tackle this fall ....if I run out of boxes to find that is :)

Happy new projects to all!
~C~

We made a ton of progress on the renovation house that we bought last year. This year we're planning to replace another 13 windows, install a tub/shower in the second bath and finish the gutted master bathroom. Also in the works is putting up two walls in the walk-out basement, replacing one basement door, installing laminate flooring in the basement (2800 square feet) and landscaping. Stripping the finish off two staircases, then staining and varnishing them. If we are really motivated and not broke, installing new siding on the exterior.

I know that the list seems huge, but I'm still surprised My husband has gotten bit by the remodeling/house flipping bug and I'd like to finish this house before purchasing another huge project.

Anyone have any cool pics of painted patio floors? I may have a chance to do one this summer and am looking for ideas. I was originally thinking about painting the concrete to look like faux slate. Then I thought, "why not go for an actual patterned design?" Would love to see what others have done!

Our floor in the basement laundry was painted in faux tile pattern. I'll post a pic tomorrow. Unfortunately the previous owners scratched it up. I haven't had the time or motivation to redo it. The back deck had a checkerboard pattern stained in it. I redid that 5 years ago and it took 4 days to complete. I think the birds used it for target practice. The last 2 years I re-stained it a sage color. Fooling the birds a little bit, I think.

We also have some faux tiles painted on the front concrete porch. I was told the owner used regular exterior paint, but watered it down to make it appear more like stain.

http://cozylittlehouses.com/before-and-after-how-to-paint-concrete-floorswalkways/

-amanda from seattle

Do you mean paint or stain? My dad owns a concrete business and does decorative concrete. At our house we have stain that was powdered onto the wet concrete on out patio. We did stain on cured concrete for our shuffleboard court. At the office building we have acid washes, other staining techniques, shadowing to show some of the stamped concrete better. There is so much you can do with wet and cured concrete. You can even put printed images on it.

Would love to have a peek at your handiwork, speed square. Thanks!

Oh. Em. Gee. That compass design is gorgeous!

Probably paint. I'm looking to redo a patio with an existing concrete pad, currently painted a deep red-brown (looks like paint rather than stain, though I'm not sure; not my doing). Part of the patio is covered; part is open. I'm wondering exactly what would work to cover it. Any ideas? Can I just paint over the paint that's already on there? Does your dad have a website where I can look at pictures or find additional information? :-D Help!

I have a page from Sunset Magazine from YEARS ago that was a Scrabble board painted onto a concrete patio http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/backyard-scrabble-00400000013845/
it was sooo cool...but I am now in a condo and will probably never be able to do it myself....but I clipped that article cause I loved it so much

-Amanda from Seattle

THAT is cool! We love Scrabble ~ and also play a game called "Gobble It," which would also work on those tiles. Neat idea!

Wow. The basement "tiles" really look like tiles! AMAZING. ~ I'm thinking I may be able to do this with painter's tape. But I'm also thinking I might now pay a pro. I have a feeling my tiles will turn out wonky!

The tiles did look great, but after working 4 days in the hot summer sun with a wooden deck, I know the basement will take a lot longer. And moving the washer/dryer out of the space is a hassle. I think the easiest way to accomplish this after you map out your design on paper, would be to mark the grout lines (very tedious). Then a tile template could be made and the paint could be artistically brushed without getting on the grout lines. I was lucky the previous owner had scored the wooden deck, so I only had to tape using the scores. Of course checkerboard pattern took 4 days.

Just got new-to-me stainless steel appliances. :-)
What can I use to clean them ~ and leave them streak-free?
Not having much luck with "gentle" vinegar Windex. :-/

Vinegar and water with a microfiber cloth? I haven't tried it on stainless, but vinegar is awesome and microfiber helps with streaks. That's what I used to use on my laminate floor that had a streaking problem.

There is such a thing as stainless steel cleaner. It is awesome and smells nice.

I have had good luck with Weiman's Stainless steel cleaner.

The people who make Panel Magic, and Cabinet Magic, made a Stainless Steel Magic. Check at your major hardware like True Value or Best.

Their products are with money back guarantees. I found this out once when I needed Magic for Formica.
It worked and saved the life of my youngest son..who found a Flair magic marker and got my 6 foot long Mersman Coffee Table ...with Formica on the top.

It worked. Good luck. I sure hope my appliances hold up till this Stainless phase passes. Sigh...I am too old to be polishing. Granny

I clean my stainless appliances with stainless cleaner ... a small section at a time and buff it quickly before it dries.

When the appliances were newer, I obsessed about the shine. Now, I obsess less. Enjoy the beauty of a clean refrigerator door!!

Oh, I am sorry for you. I know everyone loves stainless, but as the mother of children, I hate it. No matter how many times I polish with the stainless stuff (three different brands) it never stays clean for more than an hour. It's made for single OCD people. Which I am NOT. But I will say, the stainless cleaner works the best of everything I've tried.

And the winner is ... MICROFIBER! I used it with the vinegar Windex and it is flawless. I'm still going to try the stainless cleaner ~ just for fun (because we are OCD DINKs). ;-D Thank you, everyone!

I was going to suggest covering them with magnets!

We live in an unfinished Cape Cod, so when our neighbor offered us 7 sheets of drywall for $20. we jumped at the offer. Our thought was to finish insulating the upstairs, putting up the drywall and making a simple computer/craft room. This after saying no more projects this year.

So I told my parents of the great deal we got and my Father (retired plumber) says, you should at least rough in the plumbing for a new bathroom, and I can help.

Long story short in a year where we were to have no new large projects, we are now putting a new 1/2 bath into the basement and not doing anything with the upstairs.

Beware the great deal! and
Don't Panic!

Here how it works with Mr. No Borders.

A friend calls about about a rotten looking stud in the wall when replacing his cabinets. Mr. No Borders states that if you are going to replace the cabinets now is a good time to replace the flooring. They agree. All the molding will need to come off and its cheap enough might as well replace with new. Now would be a good time to move that door you wanted to move. Since this is an open kitchen/living room all the molding will need to come off so all will match. Before putting the molding back in the living room, now would be a good time to use the left over floor tile and put it around the fireplace before the molding is put back. Since you will have new cabinets, flooring and the trim, It would be nice to have the walls painted, light switches and outlets updated…………..A quick look, ended up being a 5 weekend project at a place that was an hour and a half away from home.

Our free labor ended up costing them a lot more money and have their house a construction zone for a while. It looks great and they love it.

By the way, the stud was structurally sound. No need to replace it.

Mrs. No Borders

Wow, no one has posted here for a while so I thought I would fill in a bit with my latest adventure. I decided to knock down the wall between my dining room and kitchen. What a dusty mess! My dad came out and helped. In just two weeks, we took down the wall and replaced the vinyl floor in the kitchen and laundry room with ceramic tile. We also had to straighten out a wiring issue we found in the wall (none of my lights in the dining room, kitchen or hallway would work, because the builder had connected them through the outlets in the now-missing wall). We built a decorative oak beam out of three 2x4s to cover up the transition between the ceilings, which were slightly different heights and have a rosebud stippling effect that would be impossible to patch.

The job is not quite done - I have to paint the patched drywall where the wall used to be as well as stain and install the beam, plus I am having a kitchen island made that will go where my small kitchen table and the wall used to be. But when it is all done, I am going to have a wonderful space for entertaining!

Any one else doing any home improvement? Or is every one taking advantage of the nice weather for boxing?

Katy

I have some projects that need completing, but I have been lazy. Well, rather, occupied with family projects. But we did start something yesterday that didn't get finished! We have a rather large (60" round or larger) oak kitchen table from our last houses that we put in our basement when we moved here, because I already had a dining room table. Well, this little bungalow will be getting my other grandmother's dining room table some day. It is round, but expands with multiple leaves. I would keep it in the round shape 360 days a year. I didn't put the larger table in the basement, but something tells me the guys took it apart. We could not get it up the stairs! So we are taking it apart. Got quite a bit of it done, but the electric screwdriver is charging now. Must not strip the screws. I am really regretting this purchase; seemed like a good idea at the time. If we don't finish it tomorrow, we will have to put the old dining room table back into place. Luckily this compacts nicely as a accent table, which is what my grandmother did with it 360 days a year. It's just getting a bit old and too fragile for some of the family.

What should be on my to-do list? Sanding down, priming and repainting the adirondack chairs Dad made for me, cleaning and restaining the back deck, finishing the salvaged door project and some furniture refinishing. Playing musical chairs in the house. And really - I need to total wash down and repaint the kitchen. Not until the weather cools down.

I just moved and need to clean out an area so that I can put up a homemade book shelf (I just sanded and stained some large boards and am going to put bricks down to create the book shelf). Part of the problem with this is that I have a limited space and the area where I need to clean up is going to (eventually) be *on* the bookshelf-but much neater (I hope-LOL!). In the meantime I am DEFINITELY taking advantage of the fact that it is summer and we have some spectacular weather to letterbox!!! Having a blast with my new obsession!!!

-PLP

I have been to busy doing house projects to post about it!

We were preparing to sell the house so I was both packing/clearing out, viewing houses 5 states away, and prepping our house for the market when we decided to stay. All new floors, trim, fireplace insert, new electrical panel, new hot tub, pergola over it, 3 new decks, change out all the bathroom fixtures in both rooms, moving individuals into different bedrooms, preparing to shut down my business to turn that part of the house into a MIL's apartment and all the painting you could dream of. (funny I didn't change any of the colors, just fixed all the walls)

Actually the floors and trim are not done yet. They start a week from today, all new wood floors thanks to a letterboxer who would not accept my defeat and allow me to put in carpet (against my will) and convinced her husband to put in new wood floors even though I live out of his companies work area. THANKS AURORA!

We've been busy with projects and just life. One daughter and I scraped paint off the garage. I scraped the walk out basement and then painted two srories of cement block on an addition to the back of the house. Then I broke my wrist. My ling suffering husband painted three more sides of cement block. Then we decided to install vinyl siding. My husband sided four dormers and replaced the windows.

I made 6 screen windows for for one of the porches.

We're hoping to finish the siding and install 8 more windows before september. So much to do. So little time.

Disclaimer: I am not a super handy gal. I own a hammer and a few screwdrivers and that's pretty much it for tools.

I am trying to hang a picture over my bed and it needs to be centered over the headboard. I got some of those Herculese hooks since they looked easy to use. I measured twice and started to twist the hook in. It went great at first and then just stopped. I am guessing I hit a stud. I'm going to get a stud finder tomorrow to be sure. My dilemma is...if I did hit a stud what do I do next? Moving the furniture is not an option. This picture has to be centered over the bed or it will look weird and it's way too large to do anywhere else.