Updated 90's Medicine Cabinet

Another month passed??? Well $hit.
I've been doing little projects here and there when I have time, and helping my parents with an exciting undertaking; all the while neglecting The Cabindo. More to come on that undertaking soon, but in general: I'm back! And seeing as how I have little vengeance, I'll instead tell you about a recent project that will help me be ready for any potential incoming vengeance.

Enter: Lot of Misc. Construction Supplies and Various Items. Had you at 'Lot of Misc.', didn't it? Yeah, me too.

But soft! What stuff from yonder auction breaks? It is the east, and that First Aid Kit is the sun!

Arise, fair First Aid Kit, and kill the envious random-yellow-bin, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou, her erstwhile forgotten kinsman, art more fair than she.
On second thought, I'll keep the yellow bin for hardware.
You can take out Lord Sprinkler Head. I'll take an 'A' in High School English for $300, Alex.
BOOM.

Goodnight sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy dumpster.
Sorry bro; without a yard, it couldn't have ended well for us.

Anywhooooo.....I acquired an ugly yet functional first aid kit. It looks to be from the early 1990's (hellooooo stripey turquoise images!), is painted metal, came decently stocked, and has room for more stuff.
It has a handle on top and is clearly meant for wall mounting.
I have limited storage space for first aid stuff in my 2nd bathroom, so I figured with a little updating; it could attractively be ready to provide me band-aids come any vengence-related-injuries, and Advil when my head is about to explode and "dammit-I-can't-find-where-I-stashed-that-stupid-bottle" moments happen.

I took said First Aid Kit Box and wiped off a layer of grime. Yum. It had an emergency number taped to the front which was stubbornly holding on for dear life, but a little razor blade action removed what picking at/begging couldn't.

Time for a power tool!

What happens inside my head every time I get to use one.

All the turquoise graphics that were absolutely 'rad' in their time came off quickly with a little low number palm sanding. I wanted to just remove the graphics and leave the white base coat, but got a little overzealous and sanded bare some of the edges. This gave it a nice worn look, so I continued to over-zeal several more places.

Picture taken before the excess of zeal applied.

My bathroom is quirky and the walls are full of pretty random things, so I knew I needed to paint something on the front of the box to help it fit in with the other kids.
Several times I've seen Emily Henderson's use of a large Red Cross flag, and thought this would be an exceedingly appropriate place to use that sort of graphic punch and color scheme.

Style By Emily Henderson

I had some reddish/pinkish/coralish paint lying around that I'd gotten for $0.25 from the 'oops' paint bin at Home Depot, so decided to give it a coat and see how that looked.

Same paint used on the legs of this once-forest-green table.

Measuring very carefully first, of course.

After one coat it was spotty as heck but had potential, so I forged ahead with a glass of wine and gave it a few minutes to dry.
Several coats later, along with some razor blade edge touchups, the cross was finished.

Awesome kitchen lighting, I know

Because the sanded white surface was super porous picked up every spec of grime; the whole thing needed to be sealed. The next day when the cross was good and dry, I grabbed a can of semi-gloss poly-crylic spray from my paint bin and utilized the gloved-hand-on-porch method, with the accuracy and lung-protection properties that have made me famous smarter lazy.
I did 3 coats of the poly-crylic and let it dry outside for several days.

It has great little tab mounting brackets, so I was able to center and hang the thing faster than I can tie my shoes. Which is saying nothing, as I usually get distracted by a cat mid tie.

"Resistance is futile, you will rub my tummy."

-Beans the Snaggletooth

See how the First Aid Kit leans upon the wall. Oh, that I were a fastener upon that wall, so I might touch that First Aid Kit! Ay me!

Weird? Useful? Check and check.

But I can, and I have, and it is working great!




-Lindsay

(yeah, it's been a long month, thanks Shakespeare)

Recent Projects - from the Land Where Nothing Ever Gets Finished

As is pretty clear: new posts have been MIA lately.
I blame a lack of time, a bad habit of not finishing projects, and my constant failing to take some damn pictures of the things I do get done!

Below are a few of the projects I've been working on recently, in no particular order.
As I get my $h!+ together and finish them up, I'll post a rundown on each.

• Mounted my TV on the wall.
- Getting rid of the massive entertainment center and putting the tv up on the wall has totally changed the living room.

Makes my living room hotel-sexy.

• Worked on screening in the back porches.
- Started on this in the spring, and when it got hot outside I got lazy. 
- Came back to it his week and discovered a roadblock I'll have to overcome with a bit of rework. But, progress is being made.

Patio progress. Catio creation.

• Reupholstered 3 old office chairs for use in the dining room.
- Related pattern (chevrons) and color (pinks!).

$5 each, and now all sassy.

- And made a bunch of coordinating pillows.

Modeled by the glamour-puss.
Meee-ooow

• Customized and hung a new dining room light.
- Changed my original plan from this post, but the result is close.

Real pictures to follow.

• Refinished a mid-century modern dresser and converted it into an entertainment center.
- Waited forever for the right piece to come along, and am trying to keep it classic enough to do Don Draper proud.

This was an exercise in patience and high # sandpaper.
I cant' wait to be finished and show you more. It's crazy gorgeous.

• Picked up a couch and two chairs from Craigslist and skinned them for their leather.
- Then washed and conditioned the heck out of it.
- Then made a purse out of said leather.

Lots of oiling. And shooing away cats who wanted to lick up ze oil.

• Received a used OTR microwave from the BF's parents to replace my broken one.
- Pictured below is die kaputt maschine. Mounting is in progress for the new-to-me zapper.

Best looking appliance when I moved in: only one that totally didn't work.
'Best' being SUPER relative.

• Mounted my grandfather's antique tools.
- For display and ease of use.
- Progress has gone at the same (snail's) pace as setting up the office/second bedroom.

Aaah. Love, love, love this project.
More to come!

• Relined an antique humpback trunk from my grandmother.
- Removed the old lining and blitz cleaned 40 years of dried mold. During which; the house smelled kind of good, in a granny's-basement sort of way.

Creative fabric manipulation 101.

• Played florist and created all the flowers for a friend's event.
- Tons of happy flowers to honor the passing of her beloved aunt.

10 arrangements, 2 Xl altar pieces, and a 24' broken heart.

• Found and shined up some old silver pieces.
- Sunday afternoon thrift store browsing.
- $20 in my pocket got me both of these AND a bangin smoothie. #winning

A good deal + a little elbow grease = not-so-shabby chic accent pieces.

• Turned a retired firefighter coat into a throw pillow cover.
- Will be a wedding present for a fellow firefighter, made from his old coat.

The most ridiculously complicated 'easy' project ever.

• Made a fuse box cover.
- Out of leftover paint chips from picking my wall colors.

For an ugly eye-level fuse box.

• And spent some quality time with my favorite furry guy.
- Like all good animals, anytime his person is on the floor for more than 10 seconds(dining room chair upholstering, in this case); it means PLAYTIME NOW.

He managed to get himself stuck in a bag handle and dealt with it by flopping over and looking cute.
Good call, actually.

One of these days I will find the missing hardware, cut the last piece, install the whatever, take a picture, or write a post about each of these projects. In the meantime, they are already improving The Cabindo, half-finished states and all. 

At the end of a recent post, John from Young House Love touched on being content with a home in-progress. I'm accepting that more and more, and it helps that most of my big projects are to the point that I don't have multiple construction zones 24/7. Home feels like home when I get there, rather than a to-do list. Theres still plenty to tackle, but I'll get there eventually.
My wallet surely appreciates the lul. Though it feels too long since I've last seen my buddy Mary at the Home Depot paint counter.....

-Lindsay

Quick Gallery Wall to Bring Together a Room

I've been taking a little time off project and post wise.
Work has been SUPER busy, along with a log jam of other commitments over the past couple weeks.

I love being busy, but I've needed to decompress when home rather than start new home projects, or even finish any of the 10+ ongoing ones. My place is cleaner than normal though, as I've been tidying up rather than building impressive and dynamic messes.
Buy mostly, I've been taking a stab at relaxing.

the closest I will come to being a Lil Wayne fan

Something I did do over the weekend was rehang a bunch of art in my living room to create a gallery wall. The pieces previously there were hung when the room arrangement was different.

Before at Thanksgiving.
With old furniture arrangement. And big bro.

Absolutely no piece of furniture is currently in the same place as above, and so the picture placement no longer made sense.

I gathered up all the art I wanted hung that was lying around in different rooms, and set it all out in front of the wall on which it would go.
I tried to evenly distribute the the art across the wall, by varying landscape vs. portrait orientation pieces, as well as picture content (naked peoples, landscapes, flowers, abstracts).
There are all sorts of tutorials about using paper or tape or toothpaste to measure out exacting measurements for gallery walls.

Pin

Breaking form, I used no precise method and continued to rely on those good ol' eyeballs.
Lots of picture hooks and hammer swings later: the room looks settled and sensical.

Yeah, I'll be working on doing better panoramas.
It just has not fit into lasagna time yet.

This room has had about 5 different furniture arrangements, and this one feels like home....finally.
The gallery seals the deal, as it's made up of favorite pieces of mine done in various mediums: pastel, water color, pencil, paint, and cut paper.

bottom shot taken post-wine

The gap in the middle on the bottom is for Mr.Beans the cat, who often looks artfully perched while enjoying a favorite view of his kingdom.

Another good free project, using what was already had.

-Lindsay

$2.50 Wooden Storage Bins

Things Organized Neatly is a blog that gives me goosebumps.

Because organization is a beautiful thing, and I'm horrible at it.

I have to create methods for organizing rather than claiming it as a quality that comes naturally. Organization works best for me when I can throw things into labeled containers rather then stack or arrange individual items. 

oooh la lots-o-boxes! 

A similar lots-o-boxes solution was needed in my garage closet for all the tools strewn over each shelf.

before the tool takeover

Most attractive, durable, and non plastic bins start at about $12 a pop. Which as with everything else, is too rich for my blood.
Through my Pinteresting addiction, I'd seen a good tutorial for making cheap wooden bins here.

My boxes would need to be bigger to hold lots of tools, and lighter so I could easily lift them when full of said tools. Handles on both sides were also a must.

Using closet shelf measurements, I figured out how big I could make the boxes. They needed to be narrow enough to fit between the shelf brackets, and low enough to leave an inch or two of space open at the top for  I'm-feeling-too-lazy-to-even-pull-this-sucker-out tool deposits.
I made a cut list and headed to the hardware store. The boxes would need to be made of real wood, as MDF just doesn't last. I found the least expensive plywood I thought would stand up to the task: 1/4in. x 4ft x 8ft underlayment. With some quick math wizardry (for which I am widely NOT known), I figured out I could do all the boxes with just one $14 sheet in just a few cuts. A lovely staff member performed all the cuts I needed for the 45 sides and bottom pieces to make 9 boxes. I also grabbed some inexpensive 1x2's and got them cut to size for the corner pieces.

At home, I assembled the boxes the same way that Kristi did in her tutorial. I did use fewer screws because I didn't need to attach multiple separate boards on each side. And I was running out of screws that day.

sandpaper and sponge brushes, reporting for duty

I then sanded all the edges, as many of the plywood pieces had splintered veneers from being cut.
A little polycrylic sealed them up and brought out the grain of the wood.

For handles, I looked at the cheapest hardware store options and they were unattractive and would have almost doubled the per-unit cost of the boxes. Nahhhh. I could do better.
During my pallet excavating at the firehouse for the pallet table, I'd seen a big pile of old throw away fire hose. There are all sorts of things being made of of fire hose lately, why not handles?

So I got permission, took one, and cut it up while on duty into pieces about 1.5 x 6in.
I drilled two holes in each strip and two holes in the front and back panels of each box.  The distance between the holes in the strips were about 1.5 inches greater than that on the boxes, so when I lined the holes up and bolted the pieces together, the hose strip would buckle and have room for my hand.
I painted on chalkboard squares in roughly rectangular shapes on the prettier end of each box and set them to dry.

 Handles were cut from the side of the hose with the most writing

I split my tools up into 9 logical piles, used chalk to label each bin, and loaded em up.
I went with chalk rather than a permanent label because I already had chalk paint and chalk, and it made sense to use them since the content of the bins will change over the course of their lives.
The current bin types are: Adhesives, Paint, Hardware, Cutting/Sanding, Frequently Used Tools, Tools, Extra Tools, Housekeeping, Pets.

Into the closet they went, all pretty and ready to keep me organized.

life is like a box of hardware.....full of nuts

They are fantastic for pulling out and grabbing a tool, or picking up the whole box to take with me to a project location.
This (and only this) closet is now a highlight on the house tour when people come over.

Cost breakdown:

plywood - $14

corner wood -$5

chalkboard paint - already had it

fire hose - free
  nuts n bolts -$4  

$23

Price per bin = $2.50

-Lindsay

Dishwashaaa

In a previous posting, I talked about my kitchen and the 'antique' appliances it came with, and how I'd replaced the stove. The second item on the hit list was the dishwasher.  Here is the story of how it's replacement came to be.

Since my new stove was nice and shiny stainless, I set out to find a new (to me) stainless dishwasher. I know dishwashers are among the cheaper appliances to buy new, but I'd been seeing a bunch of good looking ones being sold on Public Surplus. Turns out there's some mandate that all dishwashers in schools now have to be commercial grade, so they are dumping late model, perfectly fine non-commercial machines.
Through a serious commitment to lunchtime auction stalking, I saw one for sale in my area that looked promisingly modern. Sure it was white, but I could use a little paint to deal with that.
The bidding was fast and furious. Ha, just kidding. There was one other person who seemed interested, and only $10 of interested. The final price of the dishwasher after taxes, buyer premiums, and bid price was ONLY $11.86!!!! I was flabbergasted and cautiously optimistic that it actually worked, seeing as it was listed as condition 'unknown'.

A friend of mine lives out by the school district the dishwasher was from, and as is my normal food-for-help exchange scenario, she agreed to help me pickup the thing and then we'd go have lunch. I'd bought a small desk from the same school district and planned on stuffing both items into in the back of my Subaru Outback. Since a bigger item like the stove had already fit no problem, I had an over inflated sense of confidence about what could be hauled. The guys at the loading thought I was nuts, but both the machine and the not-so-small-after-all desk fit perfectly with the back seats down. I drove home nose to steering wheel and managed to lug the thing up the stairs by myself.

Plumbing is something I know nothing about and as there are immediate, serious, and super bad consequences for doing it wrong: I figured a professional installation would be worth every penny. Luckily, my Bf's parents gave me a very generous housewarming gift which covered all those pennies.

I've since painted the dishwasher to match the stove. I used appliance enamel on the top and bottom, which my girl Mary in the paint department was able to color black.
On the front panel, I applied two coats of aluminum paint to ensure good coverage. When they were dry, I painted on a third coat that I let dry halfway and then dragged a stiff brush through horizontally. This gave the panel a brushed look which made it look closer to real than just flat painting. I then over-fiddled around and it turned a bit splotchy. I need to learn when enough is enough. Perhaps in another 30 years. It will be an easy fix with another brush-dragged layer at some point, but at the moment, the general appearance of the kitchen is much improved.

Old and New

i take pictures like an off kilter drunk apparently
sorry

Stainless tile backslash post later. :)



-Lindsay