DIY – Page 14 – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

Gettin’ Spicy!

Published on January 30, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

As a hobbiest chef, my husband has LOTS of spices. We’re talking more than the tiny spinning thing on the counter can hold. In our old rental, he filled the cabinet above the stove and even had some rows double stacked!

So I knew that our new kitchen needed to have some way to organize this stash of spiciness and of course turned to trusty Pinterest, where I found this DIY pantry door spice rack. I then promptly had a Gru ‘light bulb’ moment. I showed it to the hubs, who was definitely game to build something that not only put his spices within easy reach of the stove, but also gave them a dedicated space to stay.

Please just ignore that tool pile on the counter behind the door. With all the on-going projects I’ve lined up for the hubs, I have set aside my twitchy OCD ways and agreed to keep tools in the kitchen for quick access – that is UNTIL the major projects are done, which should be fairly soon!

He followed the building plans with a slight modification. He used freebie paint stir sticks from the orange box store instead of dowels for the front retaining rungs. Told ya, he was smart! And he’s becoming quite the thrifty DIYer.. of course not counting the tools he’s recently acquired. 😉

I will probably paint it white at some point, but for the time being it works just fine a’ natural. Now if only our measuring spoons had cutesy little holes to be hung on the side! Mental note: be on the lookout for clearance heart measuring spoon sets after Valentines Day.

The Easiest Pinterest Project To Date

Published on January 21, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

Remember that pretty copper pot I thrifted a little while back? I finally got around to converting it into my cache pot for the kitchen and it was seriously so easy I barely really don’t have much to explain. I followed the steps I found on this DIY post and I think it took me all of 10 minutes! So without further ado, here’s the how-to in just 4 easy steps.

Gather the supplies: container and charcoal filter. — Step 1: Gather the supplies – container and charcoal filter.

Step 2: Cut filter in half and prep with glue dots.

Step 3: Attach filter to underside of container lid.

Step 4: Put lid on container and sit back to appreciate your handiwork!

And that’s it! My pretty kitchen scrap pot is ready to collect trimmings for a future compost pile. Until then it holds the things I’d rather not put into our new septic system. For now, when it’s full I wander out into the woods on our property and dump the contents in random places so if wildlife do sniff it out, it’s never in the same area and they don’t become accustom to eating scraps.

I could have saved the other half of the filter for when this one wears out in 3 months, but instead I put it on the underside of our regular trash can lid to help with the odors that tend to accumulate there and I’m pleased to report that it seems to be helping!

So there you have it. Easy Peasy, Cache Teesy! 🙂

See Dog Run

Published on December 22, 2013December 24, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

The last critical move in project was a dog run for the girls, who have a doggie door at the deck. We had planned to install a fence near the clearing line, but now that winter has frozen the ground solid that isn’t an option until spring. Instead, we created a temporary dog run along the back of the house from used kennel panels I scored for just $100 on a local buy/sell page and free pallets from companies around town.

We closed off two sides of the deck by layering pallets on top of and next to the deck, screwing them together and then to the deck itself. A design the Klampets would be envious of! LOL

We tied the kennel panels together to make the main area of the run, from the deck to the hot tub, which also ended up acting as a portion of the run’s barrier since it’s so close to the house. It’s not ideal, but it gave us a place to strap the kennel panel and a single pallet to, to complete the enclosure. As you can see the girls don’t much care what it looks like, as long as they have toys to play with in the space.

It’s certainly not pretty and it’s not a big space, but it allows them to go outside during the day to go potty and play when we’re not home, so it accomplishes the goal.

We open the gate when we’re home so they can wander in the woods and explore a bit further, which they are totally enjoying. They are pretty good about sticking close to the house so that if they are out of sight it only take a few moments for them to reappear when called. Sangria has also learned that she can go out the gate and around to the front of the house when she hears someone working in the garage, so she quite often ‘shows up’ to help if you leave the garage door open! That girl is one smart cookie! Tequila on the other hand, apparently doesn’t care enough to leave her toys to see what’s happening, because she rarely follows Sangria around to the front.

Unfortunately, the snow on the roof slides off right into the run, so we’ve had to be vigilant about keeping the area shoveled so it doesn’t accumulate high enough to block the gate, or encouraging anyone to jump over – either the girls to the outside or critters to the inside!

I’m not sure how moose proof the run is as we haven’t seen any on the property since moving in, so I’m guessing that the girls make enough noise to keep them at bay. I’m certainly ok with that, especially if it means I don’t have to shoo a moose out of my garden come summer!

Gold Dipped Toes

Published on October 18, 2013October 17, 2013 by Jenna2 Comments

I’d been itching to update my wardrobe for fall when I spotted this post by one of my favorite bloggers and realized I had the exact same pair of shoes! I don’t wear them that often and figured this might make them more versatile. So, a quick trip to Michaels with a store return gift card in hand and I was ready to make it happen.

I’m not going to do a tutorial, since it was as simple as getting my supplies together, taping off the section I wanted painted, and well – painting. The hardest part was making sure I made the gold section the same on both shoes! Here’s a few shots of the before, during and after.

They turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself! And unless you inspect them closely, you’d never know that they were painted. Now I’m thinking I should also paint the wedge part gold or do a similar pair of flats with polka dots! It might also be a way to fix the scratch on the top of my favorite pair of kitten heels…What do you think? Good idea gone bad or worth a try?

Well Worth the Elbow Grease

Published on October 16, 2013October 14, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

Yesterday I recounted all of the freebies we’ve scored on Craigslist, so I thought I’d give a little progress report on our biggest find – the hot tub. Here’s what it looked like after the hubs gave it a good cleaning and started working on the plumbing.

After he got the guts fixed, he scored a super deal on supposedly ‘oops’ paint at the box store and started updating the exterior as well. Here’s a few shots of the difference.

And here’s the finished product, looking pretty darn good for investing less than $100 when a new tub this large would have run us $10-15,000!

Unfortunately, it’s sitting in the garage unused until we move to the new house since there isn’t an outlet for it at the rental and we learned it’s illegal to have a hot tub in your garage in Anchorage! Who knew?! Ironically the 220 plug at the new house has been the most expensive part of this venture, bringing our total to approximately $450. Now we’ll just have to see what it costs us to run! Wonder if the hubby can rig a generator to a treadmill the dogs run on.. wouldn’t that kill two birds with one stone? 🙂

A Few More Freebies

Published on October 15, 2013October 14, 2013 by JennaLeave a comment

These old wood framed windows are my latest Craigslist freebie score! I don’t have a specific plan for them just yet, but I’m thinking several might be touched up and enhanced with holiday themed vinyl cutouts!

As I drove home with my new treasures, I contemplated all of the things we’ve found for FREE since moving to the mainland and having access to the genius of Craigslist. Let’s recall some of my finds. There was the massive hot tub, the fruitful raspberry plants and wildflowers, a future fire pit drum, next season’s strawberry planter/compost barrel, an interior door that will become a new desk top for my office, NEW Christmas decorations that came with a large heavy-duty wheelbarrow in need of a new tire, 2 chairs for photo props, shutter style bi-fold doors for craft fair booths or photography backdrops, and of course a delivered load of used tires for my rain garden!

As you can tell, I’m a regular in the free section. It’s kinda addicting – I’ve even got my hubby scanning the list pretty often! 🙂 I actually get all warm and tingly reclaiming and reviving something that would have otherwise been added to the landfill. But I’m apparently not the only one, as someone did beat me to the vintage metal lockers I was hoping to snap up for the garage a few weeks ago! It’s amazing what’s offered up – free for the taking if you put in a little effort.

Yet even with all these amazing finds, there are still things I’ve passed up just because it’s just better to wait until we’re in the house and ready for that item or project – like free chickens or an old fridge the hubs can convert into a smoker (luckily not in the same ad!). And the fact that the garage is starting to feel a bit cramped… But, that’s the beauty of the Craigslist free section – there’s always more to choose from! So I’m sure there will be another old fridge available when we’re ready to hunt and in need of a large smoker next year. And I bet there will be an old chest freezer for free or nearly too! As you know, I’ve also found several great deals like this and this on Craigslist that were low-cost albeit not free.

Are you a Craigslist freebie hunter too? What treasures have you found and restored? I want to hear about them!

A Master Closet Case

Published on July 29, 2013July 31, 2013 by Jenna2 Comments

As promised, here’s my plans for our Master closet. We decided to forgo having the builder install any shelving in the closets because we didn’t want to have to ‘work around’ the builder basic shelving or worse rip it out to make it functional for us. So without further a’do here’s the grand plan for our closet!

We will each get one side of the closet – of course mine is the bigger side – and my full length jewelry cabinet mirror will hang on the back wall. There is a funny little indent into the closet at the back because of our toilet being in a separate room in our Master Bath which is next door to the closet. At first that made me worry that it would be difficult to design around, but in the end it worked out pretty well for what we needed.

My side will have double bar space, laundry baskets like this, a couple shelves and a tall hanging space. Here’s the drawing of the layout. I still need to measure everything out, but since it’s a simple design I figure we can move things to fit the materials and space.

Matt’s side will be much simpler with just two rods for hanging and a top shelf along the entire space. We don’t really use the shelving in our rental’s closet so we figure we don’t need much in our house.

The funny little pop out wall will hold my high heel shoes with something like this and my boots will sit in a pretty copper boot tray at the bottom of the wall. I plan to add some sort of hanging space for my larger costume jewelry that doesn’t fit well in the mirror cabinet above the shoes.

Then the back wall will hold the mirror cabinet, which we plan to mount in the wall. Based on our preliminary measurements of the framing it should fit between the studs with just a slight shaving of the boards.

The crawlspace access is almost smack dab in the middle of the floor of our closet so we plan to put down an area rug to cover it. I figure you usually come into the closet from the bathroom to get dressed and thus want something soft and warm underfoot while choosing an outfit anyway.

Since it’s a fairly simple layout we should be able to get it set up the first day we’re in the house, especially if we measure and purchase the materials before hand, so they’re ready to be installed. The simple design also means we won’t be spending oodles on some fancy closet kit either! I think that might just be the best part of the whole project!

So that’s the master plan. What do you think?