Extra door turns into a headboard

We have some doors lying around in our basement. They live in what I call the 

"treasure pile". 

Treasure pile with 3 doors and 1 door frame

Treasure pile #2
3 more doors :)

Half of Treasure pile #3....couldn't fit the rest into the photo!
Not pictured -
one more door in its own Treasure pile #4

Most folks would call it a garbage pile. If they were being generous they might call it a scrap pile. To me- TREASURE! There are all sorts of projects just waiting to be done with our old doors, windows & pieces of wood. They all hold bits of our home's history - which is probably why I want to hold on to them. Or maybe because I am my father's daughter & I hate to throw anything away......could be a combination of the two!

This post (which I found on Pinterest; no one is shocked by that) sparked my interest since we have a glut of cool old doors. I love when I find tutorials for DIY projects that seem do-able. Projects that don't require a shit ton of tools or equipment that I don't have, or have a bazillion steps so I know I'll never motivate to complete them. This project seemed like a pretty good fit for my low level skills! Having my Dad participate was incredibly helpful too - working on projects with my Dad is like sleeping with my baby blanket & teddy bear (who is named Teddy): I don't NEED to do have those things to sleep, but having them makes sleep SO much easier. Same goes for any DIY project I've tackled thus far. I don't bite off too terribly much - so I am fairly confident I could do them on my own; but having Dad come to help makes the entire process not just more enjoyable but quicker & easier too.

I started by washing the door with what I imagine to be a horribly toxic substance called TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate). 

See the difference the TSP made on the sunporch walls?

Happily scrubbing away.....

It was recommended to me by a woman who does a lot of home painting projects for her interior decorating clients; so I knew I could trust that it would work. If you caught me washing our sunporch walls you would've noticed I was using the same product for that job. It cuts through grease/grim/dirt/smoke with ease. Between the door & the sunporch walls I had all 4 of those nasty substances!

I forgot to take a "before" washing photo - hence showing the
power of TSP above!

Next I had a pretty good time making a "custom" paint color. By custom I mean I dumped a whole bunch of leftover samples of blue paint into my tray & mixed well. We spent a stupid amount of money on paint samples for the house; so I figured I may as well get some mileage out of them!!

Mix mix mix!

I like how the colors swirled together

I taped the plate on the door so I wouldn't paint over it. I think it is pretty & reinforces the fact that we recycled a door into a headboard in our 2nd guest bedroom!

Then I painted the door; two coats to make sure the color was as rich as possible - but I didn't bother to paint or wash (as I sadly discovered when we put the headboard on the frame) the back of the door. I figured no one would see it which is true- though I could've washed it for God's sake. Its pretty gnarly back there.

Dad & I had some purchasing issues for the bolts that would connect the door to the 2x6s that hold the door up (they also connect the metal bed frame to the 2x6s). Dad went to the hardware store once & I went no less than 3 times before we finally had the right bolts. Oops. What a giant waste of time!!

Once we had the materials we finished the project really quickly- probably only an hour or so to get everything measured (to be sure we had the door centered) and connected!

Using our TV box to protect the mattress,
Dad is lining up the 2nd 2x6 support. We
bolted both supports to the metal frame
near the floor before moving up and bolting
the headboard to the 2x6s

No yet secured - notice the scrap wood between the door
and the TV box? We're making progress though!

We love the new bed! I still need to touch up the paint near the plate & also paint the
 2x6 where it is visible; but that will happen another day :)

Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did! We are really quite pleased with the final product! We have also had our first overnight guests (my sister & niece) so the bed was tested & worked! Special shout out to my Mom who gave us the pretty coral pillows and my sister who gave us the Euro sham cases!  It takes a village to decorate a guest room!

Update February, 2017:
Dad helped put the finishing touches on this project this week! I am so thankful that Dad has a bazillion tools & knows how to use them & is willing to teach me!

I have wanted to add lights mounted on the door headboard since we started the project.....but the lights, cords, switches, etc sat in boxes under my desk (which lives in this guest bedroom) for 7 months before I admitted defeat and finally asked Dad if he could spearhead this part of the project. I bought wall mounted fixtures that are intended to be hardwired into building power; but I wanted to add switches & cords so the lights can function like a reading light/bedside lamp.

I didn't take any photos during the project, but here is the final result:

Yipee! Lights are on the headboard!

I am THRILLED! Finished just in time to have friends visit for President's Day Weekend!!

May 20- Thank you treats & 1st night in our new old home!

Happy Friday May 20, 2016!

This was our first night sleeping in our new old home!! 

Hip hip hooooooray!

The day dawned with a "thank you so
much for your help" surprise party for family & friends

I went to 2 of my favorite bakeries to pick up
treats for everyone. Yum.

The lovely Kearney, Platt & Kramer ladies posing in front of
our freshly installed fireplace mantle.

Tara brought the Kearney kiddos for a Friday morning visit-
made the morning feel very festive!

Literally a perfect night for a fire in our new fireplace! 

Cheers to burning the extra wood leftover
from the renovation

Moving day is finally here!

Wednesday May 18, 2016

Hip hip hooray! It is MOVING DAY!! At least for our belongings :)

The movers came to my parents' house for 2 pieces of furniture, then onto our storage unit and then to our forever home.

Thank goodness for the help of my sister, parents and Chris - I threw my back out on Tuesday, so was totally and completely useless Wednesday. My Dad continually reminded me to "just point" or "the only thing you should be working is your finger" to point where boxes should go :) 

Double thankful that my Mom has had issues with her back in the past and had prescription muscle relaxers I could use before bed for a few nights. Not that I'm advocating using someone else's prescription meds, but if it is your moving week & you throw out your back for the first time ever; you may want to consider it.

Here are some of the highlights (and comical low lights) of the day:

There is only 1 mug appropriate for moving day while you
are in quite a bit of physical pain. This is the one.

Just another day at storage.....caution tape & safety cones
are not typically signs that your move is going smoothly.....

Moving is stressful, right? At least it is for me. Things like
this......the driveway just adjacent to our unit being torn up for
new electrical service......do not help my stress levels.

Despite the chaos at storage, the movers (with help from Dad, Marg & a tiny bit from me)
emptied our storage unit in a hurry!

Fast forward - this is  the last layer of boxes
and furniture in our moving truck! Busy busy busy!

Yes, my superhero sister wore my niece on her back while
moving boxes out of the truck. Unreal. 

Now to the mass chaos inside the house!

At least we had Hennie to keep us smiling :)

Lunch break! Note the boxes in the background :/

Hennie had been working hard - she was hungry!

  

Technically the day after moving - but H was very
helpful as we unpacked!! 

Well, we did it. With epic amounts of help from our family and friends! Our stuff made it in!

Breathing new life into an old dresser

If you have never tried chalk or chalked paint, I highly encourage it! It is NOT chalkboard paint; it is regular paint that can be slathered onto any surface with little or no preparation! This dresser is destined for use in our bedroom closet (it came out of my parents' old basement; but by the time Chris & I snagged it, it was my brother & sister in law's basement!) so the chalk paint look was perfect.
It is matte finish, it is NOT perfect - I didn't feel like doing a 2nd coat!
It is quite forgiving and can mask blemishes on the surface you plan to paint.
Give it a whirl - you won't regret it! I bought this can at Home Depot.

Before Paint (but after power sanding)

Before paint

After paint

Drawers before paint

Drawers after paint

Old drawer pulls

New drawer pulls - basket weave design

Final product! We use it inside our closet under our short hanging clothes.

I would love to hear about any painting projects you are tackling! Tell me about them in the comments!

A new driveway & LOTS of machines

 When we embarked on the planning phase of this project with our architect, Tom, we had a few requests about the exterior of the house: lose the side porch on the west side of the house, build a new one on the east side (where the driveway is), keep the driveway for off street parking but shorten it to make way for a hefty (aka hardworking) side porch.

Just too tempting not too. My father-in-law
wondered if I have a new career path!

Too tempting not to....Chris driving the Bobcat on
Sunday

Welllllllllllll, the City of Evanston Zoning Department had other ideas. As it turns out, a driveway (in Evanston) must terminate a parking pad. The parking pad can be no more than 30 feet from the rear lot line. In our case, this puts our parking pad smack in the middle of our backyard! We didn't realize it, but we had a parking pad already - it was hiding under an awful lot of gardening paraphernalia and had a layer of weeds growing on it.

May, 2015: in the background of this photo you can see the area
that is our "parking pad" it was covered by a lot. I was
in no way exaggerating!

So, the good news? After the Zoning Department rejected our building permit application because our plans were in violation of the above referenced zoning code, Tom did a quick redraw. The new (& thankfully approved) drawings show our driveway being rerouted around our slightly narrower porch. Chris & I have been calling it the "S curve".

The bad news? Since this was a change made after we signed our contract, none of it is included in the price we planned on paying! Wah wah. 

It was fun to watch all the machines work on our property though! Check out the photos to see the progress they made starting Saturday April 16 and wrapping up by Wednesday April 20! Any toddler in your life would've loved these work days! The neighborhood kids sure did! We had the bobcat, mini bulldozer, dump truck, pumper truck (to pump concrete from the mixing truck into our crawl space which was also getting finished), cement mixing truck, along with an equipment truck & 3 pick up trucks. Our street is small. Our yard is small. We were overrun with giant vehicles!! Honestly though? It was really entertaining.

Bobcat delivery on Saturday

The old driveway before the demolition
got started

The old driveway with the planning of the
new driveway. You might be struck by
how similar the old
and new look :)

Here is a video of the mini bulldozer 

working with the bobcat to pull up the old driveway piece by piece!

Lots & lots of heavy equipment in the backyard!

I didn't think things in the backyard could get any worse.........and then a 4.5 foot high dirt pile rose up in the
middle of all the chaos. That was decidedly worse!

Old driveway is gone - bobcat is
grading out the space to make way for the new

Chris is admiring the concrete forms that are
part way put up. The forms require an
inspection by the City of Evanston. I
guess it is easier to adjust the forms than
the concrete once its poured!

Finished forms

Dad checking out the fancy new driveway...
or is he wondering why it looks nearly
identical to the old driveway?!?

We are for sure the classiest house on the block. The crime scene caution tape is
really sealing the deal!
But- here it is! The final product!

Of course we did :) Though not in the driveway, we
put our initials in the sidewalk that was patched on the
other side of the house. Because concrete is forever......
or 100 years or so!