Home decor and renovation craftalong

It’s always good to “know a guy.” Jealous. Lol

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It looks really nice and finished! I’m sure your son will be happy to get back into his room. I also really love the quilts. The bed looks so big and cosy and inviting. I was wondering earlier how the room was heated, as I didn’t see any heaters and old hardwood floors don’t really go together with underfloor heating, but that question is solved now (baseboard heating is uncommon here).

@Whistlefish I don’t really know any of those “guys” either, but my cousin knows everyone! The guy has a real business, it’s not a cash in hand side hustle or something, but he doesn’t even have a website, word of mouth is enough. If it wasn’t for my cousin we literally wouldn’t have even started our renovation, as we couldn’t even convince a contractor to come over for a quote until he put us in touch with someone.

Our guy just sent in the quote for the ladder / stairs to the attic - he’s going to make this: https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/413838653277261389/ and the quote is for €950, which is a bit higher than what he estimated it earlier (due to changes I requested) but I think it’s still a fair price for a design he had to draft from a pinterest picture + lumber + building it + installing it + tax.

It does mean my budget for the room is probably a bit too low though, I’d set a budget of €1500 to finish and I still need a floor and a bookcase - although flooring is the priority atm. For the bookcase I’m looking for something sturdy but thrift store would be fine, too.

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Everyone who is helping me with the house is word of mouth…these guys are so busy with more people upgrading their homes that they don’t need to advertise!

I told my handyman that I was going to have to adopt him so that he had to do his “mom’s” house first! He is going to start building Jim’s drum playing room now that Jim feels well enough to start practicing again! February is just going to be a month of mess inside and outside!

I think that ladder is cool in design…I don’t think I could climb a ladder at my age, but that one looks a lot safer than some I have seen! The handrails are what makes it much safer and easier to use!

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The closet is white! Peeling contact paper is gone, corners patched with drywall seam tape and mud, sanded, patched, sanded, coat of primer, coat of failed bedroom paint…the paint that looks like a warm peach in daylight and pink in any other light. But I was rethinking the finish on the walls, the vacuum and mops will be banged in and out, we shove stuff in there and drag them out…we needed something tougher. I found a relatively new (4 years maybe?) Can of White Dove trim paint. Perfect.
To do:

  • Final coat of paint in closet
  • Cut all new shelves, new side, shelf supports
  • Prime and paint the above items
  • Assemble
  • Reload closet
    We will end up with less storage, but that will help limit what we lazily stuff in there. The vacuum and mops will be easier to access.
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Tiny dining room closet update.

My goal with this closet is to “not buy anything!” I am reusing the old shelves, a scrap piece of wood for the middle panel that is not quite big enough and has two notches in the back, and various other bits. I did have to buy more primer, and I used up all the white trim paint I could find. It was so dirty before. Original wall board with a slapped on coat of something that had yellowed under the old crappy contact paper. Nicks, dents, and bad patches abounded. No one will ever see it but us and the cat sitters, I just wanted clean and functional, not pretty.
I cut, primed and painted all the pieces, carefully measured. Then…
The top shelf was not changing, just painted and it’s level. That was a surprise because few things are in this 75 year old house. But when I dry fit the center vertical panel, and made it actually vertical, there is an inch difference from the side wall from the bottom to the top of the panel. I cut all shelves to fit 15.5 inches! I can find wood to recut in the scrap pile, but that means cutting, sanding, priming, and painting all over again. Sigh. I love how the photo emphasises the issue with the camera angle.
Tomorrow we will be assembling the shelves and I guess I will be cutting, sanding, priming, and painting a few more shelves. I like the old ones because they were solid wood, not great wood, but no plywood edges.
Home improvement at it’s finest.

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Ouch, that looks familiar!! Our old house has the same issue, you can never take anything for granted, you need to measure in the exact spot you need! We thought we could measure the length of the curtain rail on the floor… at least we were lucky that the floor is an inch wider than the ceiling and not the other way round :laughing:

Your closet will look great and be very functional once it’s done. It’s just taking a little bit longer than expected…

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I have big plans to paint and decorate the living room this spring. It has been on the plans list for literal years and things keep coming in and swiping the budget out of the pot. Currently, and no pics because it’s ugly, the big spending of the day is getting a bunch of rug runners to make a boardwalk around my main floor for the poor old lady dog whose legs keep failing her on the bare hardwood. It’s going to look terrible, but terrible with love, lol

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We did that for our old dog…just put random rugs all over the floors…we didn’t care how it looked…you do what you have to in order to keep your fur buddies comfortable and safe.

@marionberries Any home project whether it is done by you or a pro runs into house weirdness!

Our front yard renovation came to a halt today as we are having some changes made before certain things get done. I got an interim cost sheet that was 30% over the original estimate, so something has to be cut or changed. I am sure they are going to have to shorten the retaining wall. It was estimated to be 45 feet and then somehow morphed into 75 feet and $6,000 more!

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Closet done. I am so tired of paint and paint clean up. I’ll put away the paint brushes until the kitchen remodel happens.
I love it. I’ve tossed, gifted, and rehomed so much.

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It’s going to feel like a totally new home by the time you get done with all of these upgrades!

The closet looks fantastic!

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That looks great!

It looks amazing! You made good use of every cubic inch of that closet.

Any idea what this is called?


Yes, I could make it but honestly I’m not even making time to get a studio set up right now. Too much other stuff :stuck_out_tongue:

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Amazon sells similar hanging wall baskets

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I can’t find a thing on amazon.ca with the description, so frustrating! I know ikea used to make them years ago.

Apparently not available in US either…mom and pop shop and made custom…sorry

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Does this help:
Etsy link

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Oh my word, yes that price indeed helps me feel entirely motivated to shake a leg & DIY! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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We have spent the better part of this weekend working to get an enormous iceberg off the back porch roof. Connected a garden hose to the kitchen faucet & blasted it with all the hot water in the tank, poured manyManyMANY pots of boiling water on it, smacked it with a shovel & a 2X4 from above & below, gave in & sprinkled calcium chloride all over the dang thing… half of it is still frozen solid very firmly stuck to the roof.


The actual roof is even worse, 2 foot ice dams, it grows icicles the size of a man daily.

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We just finished a bedroom make over with built in dressers, two closet redos and replacing a dresser and bed frame in the guest/kitten room. When setting up and cleaning the room for the arrival of a pregnant mama cat next weekend, I noticed that we had never added the shoe moulding and painted the baseboard. I think I’ve used up most the shoe moulding we purchased for that room years ago in other projects. Oops.
It will have to wait for the kittens to grow to adoptable age…

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