Girls Bedroom Makeover

Ever since we moved into our home, I have been trying to accept like the color my daughter picked for her room. It's called "Himalayan Mist" by Behr and it's..... an okay color. Her walls were painted this color but with the dark brown carpet, dark brown doors, and black ceiling fan, it just made the color look dirty blah.


Last month, we tiled her room and I was thisclose to repainting her walls. However, she insisted she still loved the color and I decided to give it one more shot. After all, we were about to add light colored tile, white baseboards, white doors, and bright wall decor.


Boy, has her room brightened up now.


Here is the before:

Those chest of drawers have been asking for a new paint job for a year and a half now. One day I will be brave enough to tackle them.

That brown carpet is all over our house. I was told by a friend (who liked it) that it "hides all the dirt." WHAT? No! I want that nasty dirt revealed so I can clean it up! Ew, buh-bye dirty carpet.

 helloooo tile!

After:

 

Look at how beautiful and clean that looks.

Cute wall decor from Savers. Each one was $2.99 but I had a 20% off coupon for donating a bag of items. Tip: I always leave a bag of donations in my car, specifically for unplanned Savers visits.

Also, Hobby Lobby had all their wall decor on sale for 50% off. I grabbed these mirrored words for $6 each. They really reflect light from her window and her room doesn't look like a dungeon anymore.

Her room isn't "done" yet. Seriously, are any of the rooms I've started "done?" Will they ever be "done?" I still need to paint her windowsill, fan, door frames, and put in some updated doors and knobs. Little at a time.

Linking up with: Motivate Me Monday, TDC Before & After Party

Tile: How To (Warning - Lots of Pictures)

Back in October of 2010, my husband and I had so much fun tiling the nursery in our new home. To be able to be on your hands and knees, killing your back putting labor into a room you owned (well, will own in 30 years), made the entire experience a boxing match bonding one. When we tiled the nursery, I told you there was no way I could ever explain how to DIY. However, I am nuts really wanted to share with everyone that DIY Tiling is not as intimidating as it looks.

I have tried my best to capture the tiling experience in photos. I couldn't take a picture of everything (hubby would strangle me if I got grout on my new camera), so I will try to explain as best I can. There are far better tutorials out there (even video), so please use this as a "general explanation" of what to do. ;)

Here goes...

I showed you how we removed carpet in our garage. In fact, it was my very first post! I can't believe everything we have done since then. Basically, there isn't any technical way to explain it, carpet is not that difficult to remove.

Once the carpet and tack boards are removed, you will want to remove your baseboards (floorboards? Which is the correct name?) Now, the way you remove them depends on what you plan on doing with them. We are broke wanted to be eco-friendly and decided to reuse our boards. So, I had to remove them very carefully using this tool:

You have to crank the board at the top and bottom, very gently, and the boards SHOULD pop right off.

The boards in our hallway were aged significantly and snapped in half when I tried to remove them. Now I need new boards for the hallway.... darn. ;)

If you will be reusing the boards, like we did, mark on the back of them which wall they belong to.

Tap the nails out of them from the back with a hammer and they should slide right out.

Dispose of these nails. A box of new ones are super cheap at Home Depot. Ask an employee for a box of nails for floorboards (or baseboards?) because if you get too thick of a nail, the wood will split.

Once this is done, you need to scrape off any gunk from your cement. You don't have to scrape off every tiny little drop of paint (courtesy of your builder), but globs of goop need to come off or your tile will be uneven.

For this job, a simple putty knife works wonderfully. Basically, I ran my hands all over the cement. If I found a bump, I scraped it off.

Next, sweep the room really well until it's free of any nails. Go over the floor with a vacuum to suck up any dirt. At this point, there should be a cloud of dust in the room. Haha. There will be things under your carpet you never knew were there.

Disgusting. Once the floor is completely clear of nails, dirt, and debris, mop it with vinegar.

I pour the gallon directly onto the floor and mop away. The vinegar will make a funny "hissing" sound as it makes contact with your concrete. Once the floor is dry, you are ready to begin tiling. Half the battle is already over. No, I'm serious. The prep work sucks.


Now, I live in the desert, so I can put my tile directly onto the concrete without having to worry about moisture. In some areas, depending on where you live, you will need to create a sub-flooring. Sorry, I can't help you there.

The room we tiled was a tiny bedroom so I needed two bags of thin-set (adhesive, mortar). With the thin-set, you don't want to go cheap. The cheap stuff is made of mainly concrete and will break apart in a few years, meaning you will need to re-tile. The bags I bought are highly recommended for tiling.


Also, for about $15 per bag, not as expensive as you would think. The color of adhesive doesn't matter because this stuff won't even be seen. I grabbed two bags of Home Depot's gray thin-set. Follow the mixing directions on the bag. You'll need a 5 gallon bucket, a drill, a mixer, and water.

Here, I have my bucket, my mixer that attaches to hubby's drill, a bag of spacers, and a notched trowel. You will need the spacers and the notched trowel!

Once the thin-set is mixed, you are ready to start laying it on the concrete. We had a three man team doing the tile. One person would lay the thin-set, another person would lay the tile, and the last person would measure corners, closets and do the cutting.

When you lay your thin-set, you will want to use the notched trowel. Use the flat side to push the thin-set into the area you want, and the rigged side to create grooves into your thin-set.

The grooves will help the tile adhere to the thinset. You create the groove by holding the trowel at a 90 degree angle and do a one handed "Wax on, wax off motion." Sorry, that's the best way I could describe it.

The adhesive dries pretty quickly and this is why you will want help. When a small area is ready, your helper can lay the tile while you lay the thinset on the next area. Basically, lay down enough thinset for maybe 3 tiles at once.

This is tile that has set and ready for grout.

Typically, you want to wait 24 hours before laying the grout. If it's humid, then you might want to wait 48 hours. For grouting, I only needed one bag and the color is a personal preferance. I have seen grout in many colors. My in-laws have a near-black grout, my kitchen has a pink grout (we bought the house like that and it's going... trust me), but I prefer my grout to blend in with my tile. So, I like a color called "canvas."


Mixing the grout is much like mixing the thin-set. Follow the directions on the bag. With grout, the mixture will dry out your hands like OMG! Use heavy-duty rubber gloves when working with this stuff. Don't touch it! Mix it in your 5 gallon bucket.

Grouting doesn't take nearly as long as laying the tile, but it's still a bit tedious. Using a grouting tool (I believe it's called a rubber float), scoop a pile and start doing a sweeping motion over the gaps in your tile. Go back and forth and diagonolly. The grout should start filling up in between the gaps. Work one gap at a time and work yourself out of the room. The grout should not be stepped on for 24 hours. Once a gap is filled, put the tool at a 90 degree angle and move and excess grout to the next gap. Continue doing this all throughout the room. My husband helps me with this because it's a bit exhausting. If you have three rubber floaters and two extra friends, you can finish a room in a couple of hours.

After you have waited 24 hours, you will want to seal your grout. First, sweep your floor of any debris or gunk. You will want to apply two coats of a sealer to protect your grout. Just read the instructions on the bottle to find out the waiting time.

Your floor might look a bit gross for a couple of days. After all that grout and sealer, it will look as if your floor was sprinkled with flour!

However, after sealing the grout with two coats and waiting for it to dry, you are all set to mop away. It might take about three or four tries, but eventually your newly tiled floor will look fantastic! Congratulations!

TIPS: Don't step on your tile once you have laid it on the thin-set. You might shift the tile and your grout line will be crooked! Wait 24 hours before stepping on it. So, when you start laying the tile, work your way OUT of the room.

We worked with tile that was 12 X 12. Any bigger tile than this and the job is a bit harder.

When buying tile, buy an extra 30%. You will be doing A LOT of cutting, some tiles are chipped, some may break, and it's always wise to store at least 4 boxes for future emergencies (a tile that has cracked or chipped).

You want to make sure the tile you buy is stone throughout. A lot of tile has the stone at the very surface and then has red underneath. You can see this by holding your tile and looking at the edge. If you get the tile that has red underneath the surface, then be aware that if you drop something heavy on your tile, and it chips, the red will show through. Your call. Budget wise, we bought the red tile for the bedrooms because nothing heavy SHOULD be falling on them. However, when we do the kitchen and bathroom, we're getting the "stone throughout" tile ($$$).

Distractions!

Hi friends!!!

I need to apologize for the lack of posts on my end. I have had two distractions enter my life that have taken a hold of me over the last three weeks.

The first distraction has been COUPONS! I'm sure many of you have seen (or heard) about the "Extreme Couponing" shows. I have to admit, when I saw that show I rolled my eyes and called those people "nuts."

Well, my name is Amanda and I am nuts.

It all started when a sweet friend told me about some websites that had video tutorials about couponing. No need to say anymore. I am a visual learner and once I saw a video on how couponing works, I was hooked. I don't think I have reached the "extreme" level yet, but I'm doing pretty well. Granted, I still try to justify my distraction by avoiding the purchase of anything I don't need. Acne cream for $3 instead of $15 is a deal, but my bar of soap works wonderfully, thank you very much.

I really don't want to turn this blog into another coupon blog, so I just wanted to share with you this once on what I have been able to get these last three weeks.

This week at Walgreens, Right Guard was selling body wash, or deodorant, for Buy 1, Get 1 Free. When you used the B1G1 Free coupon that came in this past Sundays paper, you were able to get BOTH for free. Yup, that was enough for me to ask all my relatives for their coupons and go back for more. No, these aren't for my girls, but my hubby and I serve food to the homeless once a month and the deodorants are PERFECT for care packages. The men and women we serve the food to are always thrilled to receive them. As for the body wash, my husband has to keep one at his fire station and one at home (yes, it's like I share him with another wife), so this helped a lot! In total, I got 10 deodorants and 4 body washes for free. I only paid sales tax, which was $0.54 for each pair.

Next, I found fabric softener and for the two, the total price was 99 cents.

For these I used the manufactures coupon in the Sunday paper, along with a printable coupon, plus a $2.00 Registered Reward from Walgreens. Again, not the brand I prefer, but when washing clothes for 4 people every single day, I'll take any brand for the right price. Two of these for less than a dollar was my kinda price.

This was my very first attempt at couponing 3 weeks ago:

The headache medicine was free (Target doesn't tax medicine), both toothpastes came out to $0.49, both baby washes were $1.28, and the diapers came out to $9.83. In total, I spent $11.60 and saved $30.75. Not bad for my first time. Added bonus: all the items were things we use. I'm trying not to grab items that are no use to us just for the sake of a sale.

This is what I scored last week:

The toothbrushes, deodorant, and feminine products all came out free. The Lysol was $1.00 for both. I use those things ALL THE TIME, so I hope I can stock up on more in the future.

Anyway, I have promised myself that I will take it easy from that distraction and refocus on the projects that need to be finished within our home. Which leads me to distraction #2:

TILE!

I told you about my husband and I tiling our toddlers room months ago. Well, two weeks ago, a friend of ours mentioned she was free on the weekend if we were up for tiling our other daughters room.

Uh... YEAH!!! That left me with 2 days to clear out her room, breakdown her bed, rip out the carpet and prep the floor for the tile. Sorry for the poor picture quality but I had very little time to spend on "before" pictures. Anyway, her room is done and hubby and I will be painting her floorboards tomorrow. So, please look out for my "Before and After" post sometime next week!

Before I go, can I just show you what is underneath your carpet:

GROSS!! Look at all that dirt! We are a pretty clean family but this just goes to show that your vacuum, no matter how great it is, can't suck up everything. Yuck. I can't wait until our home is 100% carpet free!!

I tried my best to document our tile experience, just to show that it is not as hard as it looks, so I might post those before my "Before and After" reveal.

As always, thanks for reading. Nighty-night!

Side note: here are the websites that helped me learn more about couponing, for anyone interested.

wildforwags.com

thekrazycouponlady.com

coupondivas.com

Linked up with: A Vision to Remember



Last Minute Christmas Crafts

Is everyone ready for Christmas? Well, if not, don't worry. You still have 9 days left.


As for me, I am finished!! I finished putting up all my Christmas decorations, finished wrapping presents, finished creating my menu, finished baking goodies. Yes, I am DONE! (letting out a sigh of relief). This is the first year this has ever happened too, so please forgive the pride in me. It's really nice to be able to really enjoy these next 9 days without any fuss. Aaaaannnnd, I have some cute Christmas crafts to share.


There is this local women's group I am part of called MOPS. Maybe ya've heard of it. Anyway, for our December meeting, we made these incredibly cute and easy coasters!

We used tile, yes the small tiles you would probably use as a back splash in a kitchen or somewhere, and we stamped them with rubber stamps. First, you have to clean the tile really well and remove any dust with a baby wipe. Then, once it dries, stamp your design using permanent ink. If the design smears or doesn't look right, you can quickly wipe it off with the baby wipe. Just remember to let the tile dry before attempting again. Finally, spray your tile with shellac to protect it from heat and liquids. Simple. Adorable. Perfect gifts!

The two on the left have my daughters names spelled out (blotted out for privacy) and the two on the right will be used as gifts. I even made one for my daughter's teacher. Some women were creating themes with theirs or making individual tiles to give away. I am definitely going to do this again next year and give away as presents! Also, you might want to put some felt or other protection on the bottom of the tile to prevent scratching surfaces.

Another last minute Christmas idea was inspired by these babies I found in my Christmas storage box...

With a $1 vase from Goodwill and presents that needed something extra, I found a use for them:

I found that gorgeous wrapping paper months ago at Goodwill! It was meant to be used for a birthday present, but I think it looks quite "Christmasy" with some jute and those mini ornaments! Again, sorry for the blotting, but had to erase the names on that present. I tied all my presents like that and for what was left, I filled my Goodwill vase with some of my favorite ornaments passed down to me from my Mom.

The vase, along with some poinsettia votive holders, will be our table centerpiece, but those pics will come later.

And finally, I am halfway done with covering our garage windows!

I did the same thing in this project (with instructions), but these windows are so big that I find myself doing a window once every few days.

With the lights off, you can see across the street to my neighbors home (and people can peek into my garage, no doubt). To the right is with the contact paper. Privacy is a splendid thing when you are in the garage loading the washer late at night.

Once again, from the outside looking in...

Please come back tomorrow as I am posting about our annual Bake Day, with the perfect recipe for a Mexican dessert called Biscochos (or Biscoches).

Major Nursery Redo!

Happy Friday!!

As much as I looove the month of October, I cannot wait for this particular weekend to be over with. As a young girl, I was shown the movie "The Entity" at a sleepover (I'm asking the same thing... where were the parents?). That movie scarred me for life. I hate scary movies. Hate. And I am not one that uses that word often. Now, every night when I am seeking some down time and turning on the TV, what is showing? Scary movies. UGH! Can we hurry up and zip past Halloween already? 

On a happier note...

WE ARE DONE WITH THE NURSERY!

sorta

This is what our nursery looked like when we moved in...

please excuse all my notes. This is what I do when I take the "before" pic. If I write it on a paper, I will lose it. haha.

Anyway, the room, which is small, needed a paint job and flooring redo. We painted the walls "Italian Villa" by Behr which I love, love, LOVE! It is the palest pink without looking white or pepto-bismaly. I am new to color on the walls so this was a safe choice for me and it ended up being such a precious, gentle pink. love.

When you're painting a room, you need to remove all the switch plates and socket plates. This is what they looked like before:

These plates are sold at Home Depot for cheap, but since I have to change every single one in our home, the price was going to add up. So, to save money (!) this is what we did. You lightly sand all the plates, just enough to get rid of the sheen. Then spray two coats of this guy:

and voila...

"new" plates!

So, after we painted the walls (ceiling update is further down on our list), we removed the carpet, tackboard, and baseboards to install our tile.

Here in the desert, where summers reach triple digits, tile in the home is a plus! There isn't any step-by-step I can explain for laying tile. It would be too overwhelming.

Basically what we did is had people give us quotes, and we found that the price to lay the tile was double the cost of what we paid for it. So, we found a friend who has experience in doing tile herself and she showed us the ropes. She had us do most of the work ourselves and that was the best way to learn. Nothing online can prepare you to tackle this on your own. My advice... seek assistance for the first room and then you can do it on your own for the next room. We picked a small room that would be covered with toys most of the time (i.e. hide imperfections). I am amazed at how well it turned out!

Like I said, small room. I was standing on a ladder to take this pic. We installed the tile, which took 7 hours, and put the grout in the next day, which took 2 hours. Word of advice: stick with a light color of grout.. it makes the job so much easier.

I painted the baseboards and windowsill white to update the room and have yet to nail the boards back in. I had a little problem with the board splitting, which I think is because my nails are too thick. Hopefully I will have a completely finished room by next week, with white baseboards and toys and a TODDLER BED! Goodbye crib!

Before:

After:

I am linking this to:

Show and Share Day, Flaunt it Friday, Feathered Nest Friday, Show and Tell Friday