Retouching Frogs

I found these guys in my front yard when I first moved in. They were scrap metal worthy but I wasn't going to give them up that easily. The first thing I did was look around the house to see what we already had. We had gem stones for a different project perfect for the eyes, pink paint perfect for those cute little tongues, and plenty of masking tape. I bought a primer based spray paint for about 5 bucks and me and my little man got to it.

We covered all spots we didn't want spray painted green with masking tape. We spray painted one side at a time and after one of the frogs fell...I realized using a stone to anchor the lily pad feet would have avoided that issue.

Next time!! 

The pink paint was from a spray can, to make sure that the whole mouth wasn't plastered with paint I used a cup cutting it to fit around the tongue, then went at it. Any pink paint that went off the tongue I brushed up with a grey/off white paint that I also used to give a more textured feel to the instruments. 

Old eyes out. 

New eyes in.

And this is the final result! I plan on re-purposing them in the front garden area once it's done.

BEFORE

AFTER

Choices...paint choices

I knew I wanted grey walls. I thought classy....stylish, the new modern version of the super light hot chocolate that's become a little too popular in my opinion. Yes, I wanted grey and thought I'd know it when I see it. Except.....well ten paint choices later and I have no clue. Meeting with the painter on Tuesday. lol

I've consulted a few friends most of them are leaning toward C and D. A few have said A and B. 

The outside colors I'm pretty set on. This should be interesting.

Changing The Flapper....And The Kitchen Faucet

I was up reading America's Cheapest Family, by Steve and Annette Economides and as I began reading the chapter about household consumption and water waste my toilet began to run for a minute or so, then turned off. It had been doing that a lot lately, and as I read through the chapter I was enlightened to find out what was often wrong with a constantly running toilet was a simple fix for less then five dollars and didn't require a plumbers professional skill to fix. 

The Economides even gave an example of putting food dye in the tank of your toilet once it was full to see if the dye went in to the bowl before a secondary flush. If the food dye moved from the tank to the bowl you had a slow leak, which can typically be caused by the flapper being dried out leading to a poor seal. My son and I used a bath fizzy, because we were out of food dye. Low and behold, the dye was showing up in the bowl. 

We bought a new flapper for about two dollars at the home supply store. I turned the water off to the tank, flushed to empty the tank, and removed the old one comparing old to new. The old one was stiff and felt a little brittle. The new one was bouncy and gave back when bent and released. All of a sudden I understood why there wasnt a good seal. It's recommended you change your flapper every year or two, and especially if you get the occasional toilet fill noise when no one has used the toilet recently. Funny, I remember a neighbor telling me the previous occupants of the house had complained of high water bills.....

 After I flexed my plumbing muscles in the bathroom I decided to move on to the kitchen. The kitchen faucet  had a nasty leak....it cost me about 20 dollars for a very generic fixture, and after watching some youtube videos I felt I could do this myself. Except the bolt underneath was rusted in place.  The store I purchased the faucet from offered third party installation set up service. I decided to go with this for 100 dollars. This led to a huge cost savings. My normal plumber charges a 100 dollars to show up, and 25 dollars for every 15 minutes afterward, plus parts. Eesh!!!Here are the before and after pictures. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Between both changes, I'm saving a lot of water. It feels good to fix things. Both fixes combined cost me roughly 122 dollars. Not too shabby considering the cost if I had called a plumber to diagnose and fix everything. Of course, that's part of the intimidating part of owning a home, when you aren't handy, you know how much things can cost to have people come out and fix them. It's intimidating and daunting. What I would tell any new home owner is to slow down, get different quotes, ask someone you know who is older than you and has a home. Tell them what's going on and ask them what they would do? I dont know the Economides personally, but know they are a wise couple with great ideas and lots of knowledge. Their one small section about changing out a toilets flapper led me to not only fix my own but inspired me to do more by changing a leaky sink in to a properly working one. Little steps all add up.

-Ashley

The Power of Craigslist

My house is a little different than everyone else's... we dont have tv. Well, we dont have cable anyway, we do have tv's. They're the large clunky older ones and they date the space. When moving in to our house I knew the wobbly old wooden bench I had the tv on wasn't doing it for me anymore. I didn't have extra money to spend on furniture, but I kept my eyes peeled and a television hutch in the free section of Craigslist appealed to me. 

You have to have a little vision when seeing it for the first time. 

I bought a can of chalk board paint and got to it.

Cue my friends making fun of me for the Diet Coke cases used for edging material.

Spraying on the chalk board paint. It needs a few layers sometimes.

Pro tip - put something down in front of where you'll be spraying.

Mom tip - give your kid the camera. 

He gets some really good photos.

The finished piece. 

In it's final destination! What an upgrade! 

This was such a win. I paid less then 10 dollars for the paint, and nothing but my time and talent to transform an old tv hutch in to something a little more modern and useful again. Inside is a behemoth television, and underneath the tv shelf is storage space we use for toys and things. It's great to be able to shut the tv off and put it away. One day I'll upgrade to a flat screen, but for now I'm keeping what works and making the most of what we already have. 

May there only be a shower in the bathrooms

When I first bought this house I knew the soffet on the roof's front was worn. I knew we'd need to have that redone, so I did it. Then, a month later, there was an active leak in my living room. >.<

I had done some research on the house, the only time a permit had been pulled on file with the city was in 2009 for a roof permit. Well, the previous owners said there was a new roof, it was actually just a second layer of shingles. It was time to get the whole roof redone.

Every time it rained I looked at the crease in the ceiling in the living room with disdain. I didn't know how old the original roof was, and the second layer of shingles on the roof didn't fix any underlying problems. It was time for a new one. I did my research and found a great company with a competitive price. I told them I was going to wait for tax time and then pull the plug so I could pay them in cash instead of taking out a loan. Well, they came back to me after Christmas and asked if I were still interested in getting the roof done. I said yes, but again told them I wanted to wait, I was short a few thousand dollars, but if they could come down a thousand bucks I'd do it.

Well....a week later I had these guys at my house. I'm glad I haggled down the price, the cost of wood replacement past what they contract in to the sale drove my price up about 700 dollars. They also told me if I had tried to make it through the rainy season this year, there would have been a shower in every room of the house. There was just no knowing how old that original roof was, but it was bad.

They are laying down black paper that goes under the shingles here.

I posted this on Facebook and my friend thought I painted the house pink. It's just the reflection of the tarp. Doesn't look bad though...

The packages on top are the new shingles placed and ready to go.

The little Royal Palm in front of the house was getting awfully big. They usually grow 40-50 feet tall, way too tall and big to be 10-15 feet from the house. Palm fronds falling from 50 feet on a roof can cause damage. I gave it away to someone for free on Craigslist, the tree was re-homed, and the service was done for free. Win win for everyone!

This is what it looks like right now with the new roof and no palm tree. It's a little naked right now, but I'll fill in the rest soon. Next step, paint the house. You have to dig back the dirt to paint the house. So no putting the rocks down for the landscaping in front until the house is painted. All these steps!!! Moving forward!