Project Mama lessons for the Christmas Season

I so love that it has been 20 days since my last post.  Ha!  Turns out a little bit of water in a house can really affect your lifestyle....

Anyway, we had that giant flood in our house and we have been all but turned upside down.  Project Mama is not all that pleased.  So now with one bathroom not functioning, one bathroom with only a toilet working and the other bathroom taken over by workmen - Project Mama is not feeling so festive.  However, I have learned a TON of interesting things that I feel need to be shared with other project rookies.

#1.  Get a Costco card.  My friends are all addicted to Costco - but here is why I remember my love affair with Costco.  I renewed my membership on the urging of my sister-in-law and a few darling friends.  The day I went in I should say that my youngest spent a good while lying flat out on the concrete floor (Project Mama had to use her kindest, most restrained voice...), but we survived as a family.  Anyway, as I was wandering in that special Costco haze, I found a single vanity for my destroyed ensuite.  Espresso wood, 3 drawers, and a granite counter top.  All I have to do is find the tap.  All that gorgeousness for $350!  I know this sounds high for my talented friends who could make the same thing out of egg cartons and wax candles - but this is a smokin' deal for the beginner who wants a good quality piece at a reasonable price.

#2.  Don't do any sort of project that requires outside help over the Christmas season.  Just don't.  No one is giving any love away over Christmas. Everyone is busy, and most people seem to be trying to get previously started work done in time for Christmas.  Every person has called me back (oh Merry Merry!), if only to tell me that they will get in touch with me in the New Year.  I am currently expecting about 15 calls on January 4th.

#3.  When you have a big disaster in your house and you know NOTHING about these kind of things, start asking questions.  Lots of them.  Ask your mom, your neighbour, your friend.  Mention your question at the grocery store.  So many people have very helpful things for you to consider - from the cost of flooring, types of paint, what to do with your stuff, even how to cook while your house is a disaster (barbecue).  It amazes me the amount that everyone else other than me seems to know about home restoration/renovation.  Really.  It's impressive and the resource shouldn't be ignored.

Well, I wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I am going down to throw some food in front of my children (playing the Wii) in the hopes that those little wild animals might smell it enough to throw some of it in their wee gullets.

Blessings to you.

Love,

Project Mama

Craig's List? Love it? Hate it?

I have to admit - Craig's list freaks me out.  Hubby and I once bought a new wall oven (well - new to us) that NEVER worked.  Never.  What did we do about it?  Well, we're Canadian.  We did nothing - of course.  Instead, we went out to Sears like we should have in the first place and bought what we really wanted and paid for it a year later.

ON THE FLIP SIDE....  I have recently been converted to being a seller on Craig's list.  It's super recent, but people will buy anything - and they shouldn't be faulted for doing so.  Here's why: there are people in the world who are way more talented than me.  They can take something that I will never use - like the coffee table that I am just about bloody well finished with and turn it into some shining piece of glory.  Honestly, I know that this aged wonder will be turned into a piece of art.

In the future - that will be me (of course....) - but until then, things that are grinding me down are destined for the Craig's list chopping block. 

Here's what I started with.  I got rid of a big bag of toy clutter.  I put up three old Leapfrog leap pads that were just festering in my house - and you know what - it was about 2 hours before someone wanted them.  2 of them ended up not really working, so I sold 1 and gave a questionable one away.  The one that is really fried will be discarded.  I might even see if I can recycle it - go green!  Yay!  It wasn't much, but it was my addictive start.

My kids are even on the bandwagon.  You should see one of my boys - now that he knows cash is involved - he's pretty excited to sell just about anything.

I was intimidated to set up the account - but it was just about the easiest thing I have ever done technology-wise. 

If if keeps stuff out of landfills, if it makes my home more clutter-free and peaceful, if it buys a few new cans of paint - then Project Mama likes.

If I can do it, you can too.

Project Mama

For the Bathroom: KITCHEN cabinets??

Here's something this rookie do-it-yourselfer did not know until this weekend. Having to shift gears slightly because of our toilet blow-out this weekend, we are now considering what to replace all of the damaged parts of our home with. We took a wee trip to Home Depot looking for a new vanity for the bathroom.

I have to say straight out that I was disappointed with the products that they had in stock; although they have some cute-ish items online. I asked in the store if they had anymore vanities that I could maybe chose from - something that could be ordered in and the associate I was speaking with didn't think so.

However! This is the fun new thing that I learned: you can just pick out a kitchen cabinet maker or style that you love and can afford and have the appropriate pieces ordered to go into your bathroom as a vanity! Who knew? Apart from making sure that the materials used can withstand the added moisture of a bathroom - the appearance of a vanity done this way seems to be of a higher quality standard (one of the ready-made vanities that we were looking at already was broken and you could see how thin the particle board was that the whole unit was resting on - not promising).

At this point the associate gave me not one or two brochures, but SIX to choose from mostly differing in quality and price from one another. How happy. Obviously, any other cabinet maker from any other store would very likely be able to do the same thing!

I am hoping that price doesn't kill this idea. I can't imagine a small bank of their pieces killing us price-wise, but you never know. I found a style that had that beaded board finish in the centre of each door. It really is so sharp-looking and I don't think it will date all that fast, although who would have ever thought that everyone's solid oak cabinetry from the 80s would look so,.... well - 80s??

Well, I am off to figure out what and how much, and when, and where to order this stuff from.

If I can do it, you can too.

Project Mama

Just when you think you're getting ahead...

Early morning hockey practice.  Kids up at 6am.  Trying to snug up hockey pants when I hear a splattering sound coming from our main bathroom.  I think that my littlest has left the tap on (God knows why I thought that - I have to berate my children to wash their hands....), so I ask hubby to go turn the tap off while I am snugging up said pants.  He doesn't hear what I say, so I head up stairs to find 3 inches of water standing in our main bathroom and drifting out onto the hallway carpet.  How does a room act like a wading pool?  I really have no idea - except to say that it actually doesn't. 

As it turns out, water has a way of following gravity and heading down.  My husband had to turn off the water, but it was WAY too late.  We put every single towel we own, which is a significant number, on this puddle, and then went downstairs to see if there was any coming through into the family room. 

Our family room has the only significant updates in our house.  Last year, we (not ourselves!) did the flooring, the walls, changed the door, and have been loving it.  Well, the room that we love now has gallons of water pouring through the ceiling onto the brand new bamboo flooring, the furniture (who cares), and of all things - through our light fixtures.  Really.  Our light fixtures? 

My six year old was running around with the equivalent of tissues trying to stop the deluge.  It's like putting a pebble in a leaky dam.  He kept saying that he just wanted to help his house. 

Meanwhile the ceiling is turning from white to grey as the water is slowing finding it's level. 

Clearly this is not a job for a do-it-yourselfer.  I called our insurance people (lovely), who told me all the things we needed to do (mostly not to get electricuted) and now we are waiting for the lovely emergency contractor to come over and dry 'er out.

I guess this is the "hold-on-to-it-lightly" blog today.  Admittedly, this sucks.  What a crazy mess.  Yet, really - our lives - where I can write and read blogs, watch movies, play with my kids, make nice dinners.  It's good. 

Now, I'm going to get changed so I don't frighten the nice man who is coming to the door to dry out the house.  It's the least I can do.

I'll be thinking about a little verse that encourages me, I hope it encourages you too:

Colossians 3:15


Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.


Project Mama

Encouragement for the weary do-it-yourselfer....

I was at the hockey rink with my little laddies yesterday talking to my dear friend about my do-it-yourselfer plans (which she is SO encouraging about) when I realized that perhaps I have not been altogether upfront about how hopeless I really am being a do-it-yourselfer. 

The entire point of my musings is to make even one person realize that if someone as unschooled as me can get going and create something amazing - then they can to! The fact that I talk about doing these things in my home is super important to me - what better place to add beauty and art than the place that our favorite people live?

So here are a few gorgeous failings of mine that will hopefully make you laugh and feel, well - hopeful!

Curtains.  We don't have curtains.  This is our second home.  We didn't have curtains in our first and we don't have them in our second.  I personally believe hubby has something against them.  Our first home was so bright that you couldn't actually be in the living room for about 4 hours of the day - especially in the winter when the sun was lower.  Now, hubby went off to work - and me and the children, like little worms, just kind of shrank away from the sun.  It was ridiculous until I ordered giant curtains from Sears.  The kind that we all grew up with - shiny, cream-coloured drapes: sharp hooks and all.

I seem to remember that hubby had ripped out the curtain rods in his renovating fury (all done while I was not present...), so that when I asked, with my most charming eyes, if he would put them up it was quite a grunting, sweating, swearing kind of affair.  The kind where the children have to be in bed - for a long time.

Now, in our second home, I have bought some kind of panels for our dining room windows which our beloved neighbours have to look straight into day after day.  It is also by far the brightest room in our house and can bump the temperature up through the roof in the summer.  They are brown.  They are bad.  My youngest has tugged on them so that the seam is now pulling apart, making them look (if you can believe it) - worse.  From the outside, the dark brown against our green house is atrocious.  So when they are shut it is actually an offense against our darling neighbours who we love.  Inside, they aren't - quite - big enough, so they look kind of gangly and weird.

My dear friend said yesterday - "Oh honey, can one of your projects be curtains???" 

I should say that she kindly offered just to make them for me - but she is semi-professional in my mind - so I feel guilty about taking her up on it - it seems to be cheating.  I have to decide if being a DIY-er means being smart enough to let someone more talented than you get 'er done.   (Probably)

Furniture.  All of our furniture with the exception of our kitchen table is a hand-me-down.  When hubby's grandfather died, we inherited his furniture.  Solid - but the pattern is disturbing.  The pattern reminds me of something anatomical that once you've kind of looked at it that way, never quite looks the same again.

That couch is in my living room.

The furniture in our family room is a sectional set that my friend's husband's mother gave to us.  It was her's from the time that we were all babies.  That's some serious time ago.  Just to give you a feel for how old this thing is - it came with a giant, round, padded, upholstered, circle that you could pull apart into 4 pie-shaped ottoman's that I think were once the right height for putting your feet up on - but over time as the springs in the rest of the couch sagged, seemed ridiculously high.  The circle went to the dump - but the couch still lives with us.

I say lives with us - because with the amount of people and creatures that have been on it - I think all of those particles have formed a new life.  Needless to say, that couch is destined for departure.

My dining room table came from my mom.  My boys have destroyed the table.  Thankfully, Project Mama's Mama is artsy by nature and holds on to things EXTREMELY lightly.  She doesn't give a fig.  One chair they pulled apart in about 5 minutes of knocking it over (not super sturdy evidently), so now we don't have all the chairs and the rest are on their last legs.

Our bedroom is a hodge podge of pieces.  We actually did buy the bed - a pine slatted frame and a mattress.  The rest is great furniture from Grandpa again - but does it match?  Do you need to ask?

The boys' bedrooms are furnished with hand-me-downs that are my age.  I'm sure that they are bomb proof, but is that always a good thing?  They were made before safety features were considered important.  So now the top bunk bed has a big, unfinished 2 X4 railing that my dear uncle put in place for me, and the captain's bed is backwards so that the edge board, that would normally go against the wall, keeps my son from falling out of bed.

Hmmm....



So you see -

If I can do it, you can too!

Project Mama

It's like a modern day miracle...

Check it out: it's like the heavens opened with a little sunshine just to show you how great not being intimidated by a job can be. Getting it done - who knew how great this could feel? I have been walking past this pile of leaves and yard since October. Every morning on the way to school and the way home - I have been feeling bad for letting my leaves just go a little crazy. What was I thinking? That some leaf fairy might come and save me? That my 70-year-old mother might? By the way - she totally would if given the opportunity....

So donning my new "do-it-your-dang-self" hat, I grabbed the rake - see bottom pic for proof that the yard fairy didn't do it, put on my Timex chronometer, and got busy. a grand total of 30 minutes later the job was done. 30 Minutes.

I would say 'tsk tsk' to myself - but what's the point of that? Feeling bad just gets overwhelming. Instead I took a picture of my lovely, clean lawn and have been glancing at it every now and then through my front window. So. Much. Better.

I have a favorite website that any Do-It-Yourselfer who is a little behind the 8-ball should check out.

The woman who started it - and clearly there is more than one woman now - calls herself "Flylady" and she's all about breaking down big jobs into bite size chunks. She's about house clutter and cleaning - but the ideas apply to EVERYTHING! It's a must view for the modern-day DIY-er.

It's a little bit like having a nice auntie give you some pointers. You'll love it.

http://flylady.net

If I can do it, you can too.

Enjoy,

Project Mama

Do-It-Yourselfer finds new happiness in....Recycled Paint

http://www.rona.ca/shop/shop?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&page=1&langId=-1&keywords=recycled+paint

This is a link to something I saw with the nice paint man at Rona the other night.  It caught my attention because I worry unendingly about the world....  BUT before you get down about this warm world we live in - THIS is a good news blog - and this is a good news product!  Check it out: it's recycled paint.  It comes in 16 colours that you will actually like a lot, has low VOCs and produces 4X less greenhouse gases during the manufacturing process.

Now that's getting somewhere people.  I don't see any of us signing up to live in an unpainted mud hut and until then - this is a good start.

I tried to find it at Home Depot or the other American giant, Lowe's and I couldn't see anything so far (at least not on the website).  So the sweet little Canadian chain Rona gets an A+ today.  Good work children.

Here's another super reason why I have put this product in my arsenal of weapons with which I plan to attack the ugly in my home - it's very reasonably priced.  A 3.78L (I think that's the equivalent of a gallon) can of it is only $14.99.  Which fits one of my do-it-yourself definitions: financially accessible. 

So great!  I need things to be financially accessible because - as we all know - I learn things the hard way.  A $14.99 oops is a whole lot different than an $80 oops....

If anyone has ever heard of or used recycled paint, I would love to hear how it went!

Project Mama

I love this paint job so much, I eat dinner in this room - yes, on the floor.

I can not believe how much I love the change that a teeny tiny bit of paint has done to this room! I adore it. I want to eat it. I come into this room now - now that the Chinese New Year red has gone - and I just turn on the lights and look at it. Then I turn off the lights and look at it. Then I turn them back on - this whole process goes on and on - I'm just so pleased with myself.

Let me confess, this transformation did NOT happen overnight. I posted the murder-scene-red picture only yesterday - but this room has taken me a bit of time. I do have three little boys and a fourth boy that I mention every now and then as "hubby". They require inordinant amounts of time - so this room has taken a bit to get at. I say that because I didn't want anyone to feel bad. Feeling bad is the enemy of being a Do-It-Yourselfer. Guilt can crush a project. The truth is DIY takes time when you have a life - and that's okay. I just did bits and pieces - mostly an hour at a time.

Here's my experience. After the whole "Barley" yellow incident - where I purchased an entire gallon of paint based on a 1 inch sample - and the small fortune I spent at Benjie Mo., I decided to go get some paint chips at Home Depot. I needed a fresh outlook on this room if I was ever going to finish it. Having learned my lesson, I did buy a little tinted jar of paint and discovered that it too, was the wrong colour. Then, back to my old ways, I found a much lighter paint chip called "Eldorado Tan" in the CIL line and just went for it. CIL also makes a paint and primer in one paint, called CIL Smart, for a fraction of the cost of Benjie Mo's product. Truthfully, it didn't cover the brilliant yellow colour that the room had turned into, but it was super easy to paint with and after 2 coats is beyond lovely.
I need to confess: I hate painting cedar paneling. I am hoping to never do it again, but I know what the family room holds. I am not finished with this paneling yet. If you look at this pic, you can see that the edges are super bright and the body of the wall is still in need of another coat. That's because this is just primer/sealer paint to cover the bare cedar panels that were in here. I still have to prime the edges of all of the cedar paneling one more time and paint around the NEW light fixtures that hubby installed (good boy). Then I am going to paint again with a regular white paint - semi-gloss. The nice paint man at Rona (I'm a bit of a store trollope - I just go from place to place) told me that I needed a semi-gloss on the wood to brighten it up against an eggshell finish on the smooth walls.

So there. I've tackled it. One hour at a time. I'm going back in to look at it.

If I can do it, you can too,

Project Mama

All I want for Christmas....

See this weird picture? Look closer - if you can NOT stand painting edges in a room then quite simply this little $2.60 beauty is the tool for you! You can't actually see the name of this gadget because, of course, I have painted all over it. It's called the "Dynamic Painting Trim Guide" and I bought my little 15 inch beauty at Home Depot not knowing the hours of time it was going to save me.

Hubby is beyond talented at the edging - and proudly does it free-hand; however, my hands don't agree with corners and I have never been able to cut in a straight line all on my own. This little gem does all of that for me. You just hold it up to whatever edge you need straight, paint a bit away from it (to make sure you don't have globs of paint near your edge - it will seep under) and then paint right up to it for a beautiful edge with zero taping and zero talent required!!!

Which is so part of my definition of a Do It Yourself project - pretty much anyone has to really be able to do it themselves... even me.

If I can do it - you can too!

Enjoy,

Project Mama

If you think your house needs updating - this picture will make you feel better - really!

So here is the promised picture of our storage room - soon to be extra bedroom for son. Beautiful colour right? Maybe - just not in this room. As you can see, this is the burgundy wall colour that I had chosen in a baby-raising mental haze a few years ago. It certainly goes beautifully with the vinyl floor and the cedar ceiling...

So - if you are like me and have NEVER done anything yourself - this would be pretty intimidating. As in most areas of my life; however, I just dove in. Hubby gave in about the ceiling and agreed that it would need to be painted - white. We also agreed that the 'gorgeous' flourescent lighting would need to find a new home, and that the flooring was not bedroom-worthy.

Here's what happened next. I worked out with my son a theme for his room. He is crazy for all things to do with boating, so we decided together that the walls would be sand coloured and the accents would be a cottage white (including the every-lovely cedar ceiling). I went to Benjamin Moore and was told I needed a sealer-type paint for my ceiling, and that I could use this special new paint of theirs called "Aura" that primes and paints in 1 coat for the walls!!! Yay! More money than I would have thought possible was spent on these two cans of product - but I felt confident that I would be thrilled with the results.

Then I foolishly left the product in the room downstairs while I wondered around my house avoiding the task at hand. It turns out that after the initial "dive" into this project I felt less than inclined to swim...

My mother - who is a work warrior at the brave age of 70 - found these items and cheerfully went to work to 'do me a favour'. Within about 4 hours she had the entire room painted - no kidding. Giant problem #1: I had chosen "barley" from Benjie Mo. Guess what colour that turns out to be? Yellow. Actually a fairly bright yellow. Grrr....

So now I have a new boys bedroom that is now a cheerful kitchen yellow colour. Some tears of frustration must be allowed here.

There. Sniffling done. Yellow? What??!??

So here is lesson #1 for painting that I learned - like everything else in my life - the hard way: Benjamin Moore, Home Depot, Rona, and pretty much every other home building centre sells these little tiny paint pucks (cheaply) that they will tint to the shade that you are ordering. You then go home, slap a little on the walls and see if your colour is anything close to what you thought the little postage stamp sample would end up being. It's well worth the extra trip to save a LOT more time and a LOT more money.

I will say this though: while "barley" is certainly not for this room - I am fairly impressed with Aura. It didn't quite cover the burgundy to perfection - but it's pretty dang close. Impressive if somewhat expensive.

Stay tuned - see what I can do with the yellow.

If I can do it, you can too.

Hope you are enjoying,


...a project by Mama

Tackling the untackle-able!

Well, the kids are all in full day school this year and I have 10 years of living to deal with.  We moved into our home 6 years ago - a house we bought for it's potential - not for it's style...  So now, with those 6 years under our belts the whole zone is wildly outdated.  We went on holidays this summer and I stood at the magazine racks and realized that if I bought one more 'food' magazine I was going to gain yet another 10 pounds.  So instead, I let my hand stray to a pile of Do-it-yourself home renovation magazines that promised amazing, cheerful results done by none other than mostly me. 

Where to start?  We have all of the usual disasters to deal with: an overgrown garden, in-home clutter, 3 children in 1 bedroom, and a general sense of irritation instead of peace when we walk in the door to our home.  That being said, I really believe that our home and many homes like it, have tons of potential.  Can it be done?  Certainly!  By me? Well.... 

One of the boys piped up this summer that he wanted his own room this year and I realized that 9 years have gone by and that his request was more than reasonable, it was maybe a little belated.  We have a 70's/80's style split-level home with a room off of the family room on the lower floor.  He asked if that could be his bedroom.  He asked while it was still our storage room.  Floor to ceiling pine shelving from IKEA.  We made the commitment to him regardless and so now I am going through the painful, yet exciting process of learning how to make a house a home.

First, we had to deal with years of clutter.  Things that I was holding on to.  Hubby loves the dump.  If you put something down, it's likely to disappear - but I still admit that me and the children have let the mountain grow beyond what even hubby on his keener days could manage.  We went through the storage room and assessed each and every item.  Basically, each item had to prove that they deserved to stay in the house: did we use it, did we love it, did it add to our life or did it suck energy from us just looking at it?  If, as my mother likes to say, it didn't bring me joy - I turfed it, recycled it, or gave it away.  Bags and boxes of things have marched right out of our house.

I used to find decluttering stressful - now I find it lovely.  I have a friend who says it's better than sex.  Better than sex?  Maybe, maybe not - but I will say - it's pretty close and the feeling sure lasts longer.  The only treasures I kept that have no use at all were one little baby outfit each that I bought for my babes the moment I knew I was pregnant. 

Now the room is empty.  But I have to deal with the issue of the walls.  I took some before pictures that will make you gag.  My in-laws had kindly painted the room a deep DEEP burgundy colour for a foreign exchange student who ended up being afraid to stay downstairs alone.  She ended up in the 3rd bedroom upstairs (thus all of our kids have always shared a room) and we ended up stuck with the burgundy storage room.  Well, I'm going to download our 'before' shots so that you can see exactly how rookie we are. 

If, and I believe it's true, even I can do-it-myself - then really ANYONE can!