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Another Big Bite

Another Big Bite

Tag Archives: Remodeling

A Light of Global Proportions

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo'

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

boys room, diy, globe light, kids room, light fixture, light fixtures, Remodeling

Another Big Bite - DIY Globe Light3

Another Big Bite - DIY Globe Light2

Finn’s room has been done for quite some time, but the one thing we never got around to doing was updating his light fixture.  Finn’s was a builder’s special and hideous.  But, the light fixtures that I like are expensive…  I hate boob lights and they are seemingly the only affordable flushmount in the world.  Which is why we ended up DIYing a light fixture for him.  We had a lot of fun making his pin map, and this seemed like a logical direction to go in for his overhead lighting.

photo

photo 3

We started with a cheapie setup from Home Depot; a 4″ glass shade holder and a 8″ glass globe; which set us back about $15 total.  The holder got a nice coat of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint (which was from previous projects).

photo 1

We had silver and black vinyl lying around from a project that Nathan had dreamed up (and still has yet to come to fruition – surprise!).  I printed out a world map and got to cutting out each continent out of black vinyl.  I attached the landmasses to the vinyl with double stick tape and then got busy with my handy little embroidery scissors.  (A gift from my mom on my 21st birthday; proving that I had a mean DIY streak even then.)  I’m sure black contact paper would look just as good.

I eyeballed it for the continent to globe ratio… This globe aint going to win any cartography awards.  I started with North America, and by the time I got to Antarctica, I had to shrink it down to a quarter of its actual size.  And it is still swimming distance to Chile and Australia.  Little did you know arctic conditions now exist in South America.  Penguins have been spotted in Argentina.

photo 2

Oh dear god, someone get me some moisturizer…

photo 5

Once the continents were cut out (Russia in three pieces), I got to sticking and smoothing.  Wrapping a round object in a flat sticker is a pain, and it didn’t turn out perfect by any means.  There is a healthy crease through the middle of Africa and Russia is a major cluster fuck; I’m sure there is a meaningful political allegory in there somewhere.

But once it was up, even Russia’s problems weren’t noticeable.

photo 1 (1)

I cut a compass rose out of the silver vinyl (in 12 separate pieces) and we stuck that up first.  Nathan whipped out the compass on his phone to make sure north was really pointing north.  This, ladies and gents, is why I married the man.

Nae wired in the freshly painted fixture and we loaded it up with a CF bulb.  I’m not sure how wonderfully the vinyl countries would hold up to the heat if we had an incandescent in there.  Once the shade was on, all that was left to do was touch up the little screws that held the globe in place with some black paint.

photo 2 (1)

Even though I have checked three times with the compass and twice online – I still think the east looks weird on the left. The fact that it is on the ceiling must be what throws me off.

Finn has informed me that “I sure do like my new globe, Mom.  But I’m mad at Dad for taking away my Legos and I’m not telling him that I like it.”  So that is a plus, I suppose.  Even if we would have had to buy all the supplies we used, I doubt we would have spent more than $25.  Which about the cost of two fugly cheapie light fixtures.

Another Big Bite - DIY Globe Light

Another Big Bite - DIY Globe Light4

It is ten times better than that ugly mushroom lamp that was up there to begin with.  And two hundred and twelve times better than a boob light.

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The Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings: The Return of Irish Spring

22 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bathroom, bathroom remodel, before and after, diy, home, remodel, Remodeling, renovating

Oh, how I wish the completion of our final bathroom came with Viggo Mortensen sportin’ a crown and swinging a super intimidating sword.  (Do you think he uses Irish Spring?  I kinda figure him for a Nivea man…)

But alas, not all things turn out just the way you want them.

Our last bathroom, the master bath, didn’t turn out exactly the way I would have liked, but only because it didn’t make much sense to purchase a new mirror (instead of spray painting the existing one), invest in the most amazing mosaic accent tile and splurge on exactly the right light fixture – since the house officially went on the market on Wednesday.

Other than that, it looks just as I thought it would; amazing.  Due only to Mr. Nathan. When I look back on all our renovation “in progress” photos, most of them are of the back of his head, not mine.

Was I thinking ahead, I might have moved the toilet scrubber outta the way for the photo.

This was a full gut job; except for the tub.  I also would have put in a deeper tub if we were going to be here for the long haul.  Even though it was original to the house, the tub was still in great shape and pristine white.  No need to mess with (cough) perfection.

Way less penis-y, unlike our downstairs bathroom.

We added a new vanity/sink, replaced the toilet and redid the tile in the shower.  I know you must be sick of hearing about drywall dust by now, but I am sooo glad that we are done with drywalling.  It wasn’t the hardest part, but it was the messiest.  The new floor is so dark, and I like it, though I was a little nervous about it when we bought the tile.  In the end, I’m happy with it.

I was tearing out my hair looking for something cheap to put up on the walls, and lo and behold, I already has these postcards from our West Coast road trip many moons ago.

Right outside the bathroom was an awkward vanity/makeup area thing.  It was hideous, and that does not come through in the pictures at all.  We removed the 1970’s groovy door, painted the drawer fronts underneath and added a new vanity top.  In a perfect world, we would have used a slab of travertine like the vanity top in the bathroom, but again, money, money, money.  We sprung $22.00 for an unfinished door, stained and sealed it.

I’m a little sad that we don’t actually get to use this bathroom.  Very sad, actually.  The very same way that you might feel about these dorky “Lord of the Rings” inspired post titles.  Unfortunately,  my friend, this was the last one.  For a while, at least.

Once we were all done, Nathan took a deep breath and sighed one of those exasperated sighs one does after finishing a long and tedious project…

“Fuck it.  Let’s stay.”

And for a little second, I was totally with him.  I ran my hands along the edge of the vanity and took one glance at our doughy Ohio-ed selves in the mirror and then  immediately got my priorities straight.

“Nice house in Ohio, or the unknown in Colorado?”  I asked him.

Yep.  Both of us agree.  Colo-freakin-rado.

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Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings: The Two Showers

19 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House

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Tags

bathroom, bathroom remodel, before and after, diy, remodel, Remodeling, renovating

Our second bathroom renovation was much less stressful than the first. It was also relatively easy, since most of what we did was cosmetic and didn’t involve sweating pipes or tearing down any walls.

No, we do not have two showers in this room. There is only one shower, but guess how many times have we used it? Twice, you say? Yes. Twice. We have had a couple of guests use it, but counting those would ruin my clever title. The Seven Showers just ain’t as catchy. Much like the LOTR movie, The Two Towers, this bathroom was totally an inbetweener. Sure, lots happened, but it wasn’t as spectacular as the first, and not as challenging as the last.

We started with mauve (pink, for those of you men reading) sink, tile and toilet. The countertop was green. Gah. It was horrible. Within a few days of us moving in, the pink toilet started to run continuously, and instead of throwing an easy $20.00 into parts to fix it, we opted to just buy a whole new toilet. A good $100 decision, I think.

When we found out there was a possibility that we would be moving to Colorado, we started to renovate this bathroom right away. We had a leftover chunk of countertop from our first bathroom, bought a cheapity light fixture and scored a clearance faucet for $25.00 at The Depot. Once we got it out of the box, I totally figured out why it was marked down 75%. Take a peek; does it remind you of anything?

Yep. Weiner. The award for most phallic bathroom fixture goes to… This guy!!

I can’t even clean it without feeling like I’m being unfaithful to Nae.

But, we used it anyway. It was $25.00 for pete’s sake. We also put up a bigger mirror, got a new sink, frosted the windows in lieu of the old mini blinds that were there before and made new cabinet doors. Can I just express (again) how flippin’ awesome it is that I have a husband who knows how to work a table saw?

The one thing we didn’t do was redo the shower. We put up a new shower head and called it a day. If we were going to stay, we would have likely used one of those all-in-one fiberglass surrounds and just gotten new knobs for the diverter. All I ended up doing was spending a healthy chunk of a perfectly good Saturday scrubbing down the shower doors with Bar Keepers Friend. The shower is just on the other side of that wall below, and I’m not even going to tarnish my post with a picture; just trust me – you’ve seen better and you’ve seen worse.

In the end, a few updates really went a long way. I’m not testifying to this in court, but if I had to put a quick dollar amount on it, I think we maybe spent about $300.00 on the whole thing, including the toilet and all the little things like new light switches, paint, trim and hardware. I wish all bathrooms were this easy.

I’m sure you are all just dying to see the last installments of our bathroom extravaganza, yes? Next week, your expectations will be blown away (or not) when I do the final reveal of our master sa-weet (or suite). The Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings: The Return of Irish Spring is just a few short days away!!

I expect you all lined up outside in your very best Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings costumes for the midnight screening. Extra points if you come dressed up as Smeagol/Walter.

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Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings: The Yellow Sh*tter of the Rings

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House

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Tags

bathroom, bathroom remodel, bathroom renovation, before and after, diy, Remodeling, renovating

It is a tale of epic proportions. A sweeping saga of love and loss. Boy meets girl, girl falls in love with boy. They get married, have kids, cart said family all over the Continental United States and finally RENOVATE BATHROOMS. Three of them to be precise.

It is a trilogy of bathrooms, really. So I figured it only fitting to liken it to the great journey of Mr. Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee. They braved the fires of Mt. Doom; Nathan and I remodeled three bathrooms. Same thing, really. Here I give you the first leg of our epic journey; the kids’ bathroom. It started out yellow, and I don’t mean yellowy-beige, but lemon yellow. Tile, tub, sink, even the toilet was yellow.

We had been moved into our house for two weeks. I got an awful phone call; my mother telling me that my grandfather had passed away. I hung up the phone, started mentally preparing myself to drive sixteen hours with eighteen-month-old Finn and both dogs and went upstairs to go pee. And that is the moment when I discovered the wall looked a little funny. The plumbing was leaking behind the wall, and the only way to get it fixed was to rip the whole wall apart. And thus, we began our journey of remodeling our first bathroom. We thought it may take a month or two. And about $900. Ha, ha. That’s a laugh.

Here is the punchline; we just finally finished it totally, 100%, completely, finito – a few days ago. It sat in “almost finished” status for months and months. In fact, I posted about it way back in May. And then we had a major plumbing snafu in our other bathroom (which shares a wall) right before we went on vacation this summer, causing us to rip up the floor, lay new tile and redo the backsplash. I learned this valuable lesson along the way: NEVER grout a floor with white grout, no matter how awesome you know it will look. Listen to your husband. You will not be able to keep it clean.

The major holdup was that flippin’ cabinet.  The original plan was to get glass shelves cut to size, but after finding out that it was going to cost an exorbitant amount of money for four little pieces of glass, we opted to cut the existing glass shelves from the original medicine cabinet.  It was a tiny little project that we just kept putting off, since we a little trepidatious about getting glass shrapnel in our mitts.  Turns out it was no big deal; we used our wet saw to plow through them in about three minutes.

When we found out that we were moving; holy crapola, we had to get this thing done. And finish the other two bathrooms in the house.

I think the part that I love the best is the vanity.  I love the look of open vanities, but they are usually pretty spendy, especially when you need one that is almost five feet long.  I saw one that I loved at the botanic gardens in Cleveland of all places, and Nathan built this one to match.  We used a kitchen countertop from Ikea (I wish I could have put in carerra marble, but for a kids’ bathroom?  No.) and we majorly scored a display model Kohler sink at Lowes for $20.00.  Chica boom.

Now all the bathrooms are done, shiny and new, and I’m all about bragging about them here on my little bloggy-blog. Much like the first Lord of the Rings movie, this bathroom was my favorite one. We did it for us, before we knew we would leave so soon. We learned a lot of hard lessons, and got our DIY toes SOAKING wet doing it. When we started it, it was totally like all those Middle Earth-ians setting out on a cross-country hike to Mt. Doom. They (and we) had NO FLIPPING CLUE what we were in for.

Stay tuned for the next installment of The Lord of the Shower Curtain Rings: The Two Showers. AKA: our second bathroom.

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Breaking the Radio Silence

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House

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Tags

bathroom remodel, diy, Remodeling, renovating

Yeah.  About that…

Needless to say, we’ve been swamped.  So swamped that Finn has spent much of the last week parked in front of the television.  Never, ever, EVER have I been happier that our house is a sprawling ranch, and I don’t have to listen to “This is Halloween, this is Halloween, everybody make a scene, Halloween, HALLOWEEN!” over and over again.  I used to adore The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Now, I would gladly chuck that damn DVD out the window if I knew I wouldn’t break a little boy’s heart if I did.

In the last week, we have been feverishly (and literally feverish) finishing up the house renovations.  And you know what?  It is almost done.  Like, for real.  We are on our last leg of the master bathroom right now.  The window and door need to be trimmed, and we have a few spots to touch up with paint, but then all I have to do is hang a few pictures on the wall and scrub the place clean and it is DONE.  YES, I AM YELLING.  Virtually yelling.  IT’S ALMOST MOTHER F’ING DONE!!!!

This is how we have been keeping track of what needs to be done:  A good, old-fashioned list.  And it feels so good to check things off when they get done, but even better when the whole room is done.  See?

Even Nathan gets excited about it.  Beyatch.

We finished the kitchen last night.  The house looks about as good as it ever will from the street even though the leaves have shook themselves off the trees in a fit of joy. The downstairs bathroom is done.  Our bedroom is a disaster; it is covered in a thick layer of drywall dust and has about eighty tubes of various types of caulk, adhesive and silicone littering every horizontal surface in the joint, but I can live with that for now.  Our real estate agent comes on Friday to take pictures so we can put this bad boy on the market next week.

Now comes the cleaning.  I have never been so excited to clean this house in all my life.  I keep envisioning the Kardashian house hiding under all these layers of building materials, grime and toys.  I know, I am totally setting myself up for disappointment.

It is kind of a joke; staging this place.  There isn’t anything to stage.  Most of the rooms in the house are big and devoid of a single piece of respectable furniture.  The house down the street sold in THREE DAYS, but they had nice furniture.  Nathan and I got in an argument about not having a sofa in our living room.  I think it makes us look poor…  And maybe that we will take any offer that someone throws at us.  Nathan thinks I am being absolutely ridiculous.  Am I?  Maybe.

The downstairs bathroom. Done! Beyatch.

The master bathroom. Almost done. Eeee!!  Last time you saw this, it looked like this.

So, for now, y’all will just have to take a peek at things before they are all nice and spiffy/staged.  Que sera, sera… 🙂

And yes, tacky as it is, I totally just put an emoticon in up there.  Because  behold, I AM SMILING.  🙂

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