Building a DIY Storage Shed from Scratch

Wow! Time really does fly! A little over a year ago, I posted the first part of this project. In that post, I explained how we built the foundation for this DIY Storage Shed (my apologies if you’ve been waiting for me to show the rest of the work before you start working on your […]

Building a DIY Porch Swing Using Pallet Wood

Building a DIY porch swing was something Carla asked me to do since the day (or soon after!) we moved to this house. But, we finished the garage, painted almost the whole house, built an office desk, finished part of the basement, remodeled our master closet, and completed many other projects, some of which are […]

Walk-In Master Closet Remodel

We had been wanting to “fix” our walk-in master closet since the day we moved to this house. We believe that whoever designed it thinks that people only use their closets to hang clothes. He or she forgot about shoes, towels, bed sheets and other everyday items, there was no space for them! The shoes […]

Building DIY Floating Bookshelves for Our Kid’s Bedroom

Organization takes priority in our house! When we notice something that needs organizing, it immediately goes to the top of our to-do list. A good example was the books in our kid’s room. He loves reading and has been getting a lot of books. At first, the books were organized on top of his dresser, […]

Decorating the Foyer with a DIY Floating Shelf

  First impressions… We all kind of want to make a great first impression. Not that I would care a lot about everyone’s opinion about me, but especially in situations when you like someone, it’s nice to feel you have left a good impression. Translating that to house décor, we have been intentional when coming […]

Building the Foundation for a DIY Storage Shed

I never considered building a storage shed before. I always thought that if we kept the clutter down, we could live without one. On the other hand, I’ve never liked storing a bunch of landscaping tools in the garage. They look ugly and take a lot of space, In my opinion, there’s no easy way […]

DIY Basement Finishes: Painting, Tiling & More

When working on most projects, we are the most excited when we first start, full of energy and enthusiasm, and when we are almost done and can’t wait to see how our project will turn out. This basement was no different. After a few weeks of hard work doing all the framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation […]

DIY Basement Drywall

Right after finishing our basement’s framing and insulation, it was time for the third major phase of our project: hanging the basement’s bedroom and bathroom drywall. This phase was a DIY Basement Drywall project because I hanged all the drywall.  But, at the same time, it was not DIY Basement Drywall project, because we paid […]

DIY Basement Walls and Ceiling Insulation

As you learned in our previous post, the first part of our basement finishing project included a few phases. Some plumbing groundwork for the bathroom, the framing of the walls, a soffit, rough electrical, plumbing, and our rough-in inspection. Right after passing that first inspection, we moved forward with the next phase: Insulation. Or in […]

DIY Basement Finishing: Walls Framing

Finishing our basement was something we had been wanting to do for a long time. We had discussed different layouts, ideas and changed our minds many times since we moved into this house. One thing we knew for sure was that we didn’t want a bunch of bedrooms and bathrooms that we don’t need. We […]

How to Build a Fun Bunk Bed For Kids

Growing up, I always wanted one of those fun bedroom sets pictured in magazines. At five, my mom gave me the chance to choose one. When we made it to the store, I fell in love with one they had in the showroom (similar to the ones in the magazines, and not the one she […]

How to Refinish an Old Wood Dresser with White Paint

As you read in our previous post, we became the foster parents of a very energetic four-year-old boy almost overnight. We had to make some very quick changes to our house to make it more kid-friendly. We had already started building the wooden play table and chair set for him to play before he got […]

How to Build a Wooden Play Table and Chair Set for Kids

Months ago, they hosted what they call “Orphan Care Weekend” at our church. They had different activities and speakers trying to raise awareness of the needs of orphans and foster children in our community. As you may expect, one of the very important topics they talked about was the unfortunate, but desperate need of adoptive […]

Building Your Own Floating Shelves

Have you ever wondered how those apparently “magic” floating shelves work, coming out of walls, while something “invisible” seems to be holding them in place? Well, I did for a while. And I loved how they seemed to blend so well in spaces, with no obvious support. So one day, while my husband and I […]

Fixing a Dripping Delta Single Handle Kitchen Faucet

A few weeks ago we went visit my sister in Texas. Not long after we got there, I realized that she was having a hard time making sure that her Delta Single Handle Kitchen Faucet would not drip after closing it. She kind of had already figured out a way to do it, but it […]

How We Built Our Own Wooden Coffee Table

I have always had a particular taste. As a child, my mom and dad would tell me that I was going to have to make my own clothes & shoes, because it was really hard to find stuff that I actually liked (it’s funny now, but it wasn’t back then). Going shopping was a frustrating […]

How We Made a Flower Bed in Front of Our House

If you’ve been following this blog, you should know that our house is always a work in progress. Although it has pretty much everything we need and want, there are a few areas that we would not mind changing or remodeling. We’ve been trying to take it easy though, so we’ve been focusing on the […]

How To Make Framed Wallpaper Panels

Do you also think wall art can be really expensive? Well, I had been looking at stuff online for months, probably a year, and everything I liked came along with a big price tag… I thought that there had to be a cheaper way to decorate our walls. I have always loved wallpaper. Not over […]

We’ve Been Busy Exploring Colorado (And Painting A Few Rooms)

It is summer time! Well, it has been for the last month and a half or so! Or, at least, that is for how long we’ve been trying to enjoy it and have fun. We decided to scale back a bit on our projects so we could have some additional time to enjoy the amazing […]

DIY Ruffle Lamp Shades

After finishing the dining room set reupholstery project, I went after the chandelier in our dining area… I had set my eyes on it for a while; I just didn’t know what to do with it. The modern style of the lamp was a plus to me, but the shades seemed just too plain. I […]

Reupholstering Dining Room Chairs

Before we moved to our new house, we decided to replace most of our old furniture. As a result, the dining room set was one of those things we were missing. After browsing a little (online and in the stores), we decided we didn’t want to pay full price for one, so we started our […]

Spray Painting Vent Covers To Match Floor Color

Is it just us or wouldn’t it be better if vent covers didn’t stand out as much as they usually do? In our area, chances are they are beige, even though your flooring is a dark walnut (our case). They may be white, even though your carpet is beige. Or they may be dark brown […]

Turning a Bedroom Into An Office Part 3: Building a Wood Desktop

As you may know by now, this whole “turning a bedroom into an office” project idea started when we decided to resolve the lack of desk space in what was then our home “office”. We started painting the room. Then we went ahead and used an old desk from craigslist to build our new desk. […]

Our Porcelain Tile Garage Floor Has Been Featured At All Garage Floors

Our porcelain tile garage floor has been featured at All Garage Floors. Please, check it out to learn more about: Why we decided to use porcelain tile The tile selection, and installation processes Our 7th-month review!  

Turning a Bedroom Into An Office Part 2: Building a DIY Home Office Desk

As you learned in our previous post, the main reason why we decided to move forward with this home office project was the need of additional desk space for both of us to work at the same time. While the walls color had nothing to do with the lack of desk space, it was an […]

Turning a Bedroom Into An Office Part 1: Changing The Walls Color

Even before we moved into this house, we knew we were turning one of the bedrooms into an office. Then, the day we moved and started organizing our furniture, we decided which bedroom it was going to be. At that point, what made this bedroom an “office” was a very small computer desk I’ve had […]

How to Do an Oil Change

Changing your engine’s oil is perhaps one of the most common maintenance items we have to deal with. Long term, it can also be one of the most expensive ones, because, depending on how much you drive, you may need to change it often, at least several times a year. Fortunately, though, it is also […]

Our New Porcelain Tile Garage Floor Installation

This is the third and last part of our new garage finishing project. On our previous two posts, we showed you how we insulated, dry walled, primed and painted our new garage. With all those projects out of the way, it was time to move on and install a nice porcelain tile garage floor. We […]

How We Primed and Painted our New Garage

This is the second part of our new garage finishing project. Just like when we worked on our previous garage, right after insulating and drywalling this new garage, our next step was to prime and paint all the walls and the ceiling. You all should know by now that I can’t stand an unfinished garage. […]

The Least Popular Posts Of 2016

The end 2016 marked the end of our first full year blogging. In case you have not realized, this blog went live on October 20th, 2015 the day I posted My First Project Ever! So on December 31st, 2016, the blog was 1 year, 2 months and 10 days old! Exciting huh? When we first […]

How We Insulated and Drywalled Our New Garage

From what we’ve noticed and our personal experience, most builders do not finish garages. They usually just finish the one or two firewalls because it is required by code. Other than cost cutting, the reason may be because, as far as I can tell, this is not an issue for most people. When we walk […]

How to Fix a Toilet Leaking from the Tank Bolts

Fixing a toilet is perhaps the last thing a homeowner wants to deal with. It is one of the reasons why renters enjoy being renters and the most common argument against land lording you read about on the Internet. I agree with both of them. Unfortunately, though, I had to deal with one leaky toilet […]

How to Add a Gate to an Existing Wood Fence

Right after we started working on our low maintenance, low water, no grass landscaping project, it was obvious that an extra fence gate on the east side of the house was a must. Unless we really wanted to carry all of the materials the long way around the house, adding the gate was actually our […]

How to Set Up Your Own Blog

For as long as I’ve had an Internet connection (I can’t believe it has been for almost two decades now), I’ve enjoyed reading online content, participating in different forums, and for the last few years, following and reading a few blogs. Blogging has become a great avenue for regular people like you and me to […]

Our Low Maintenance, Low Water, No Grass Landscaping

When it comes to landscaping, well, pretty much everything around the house, actually, I’m one of those neighbors that tries to stay on top of its maintenance. Pulling weeds, mowing every week, picking up leaves in the fall, in other words, always making sure it (and the house in general) looks nice. However, the fact […]

How Hard is it to Install a Garage Door Opener?

When I tell people that we installed our own garage door opener, they look at me like I’m some kind of genius. A professional installation costs about $500 depending on the unit, so it must require some special tools and skills, right? All I will say is that if you have the time, some basic […]

Installing Hardwood Flooring in the Living and Dining Room Areas

This project of Installing Hardwood Flooring in the Living and Dining Room Areas was completed right after the kitchen’s Travertine Tile flooring upgrade and the White Quartz countertop installation. However, to keep some kind of sequence, I decided to present the Kitchen’s Backsplash Wall Preparation and Installation first. When we finally started working on this […]

Installing a Mosaic and Subway tile Kitchen Backsplash

A Mosaic and Subway tile Kitchen Backsplash? Absolutely! They’re not as common as all mosaic or all subway tile ones, but we believe they look amazing! So when we chose the materials for our kitchen backsplash, we did not go all mosaic or all subway tile, we decided on a combination of both, and the […]

Wall Preparation for a tile Backsplash (No Sanding)

Tired of looking at it, and thinking about how ugly it looked (after removing the old tile and installing the White Quartz countertops) it was time to work on the kitchen’s wall preparation for a tile backsplash. If you’ve ever looked into it, you’ve most likely come across different techniques to prepare a wall for […]

Upgrading from Laminate to White Quartz Kitchen Countertops

Moving on with the kitchen improvements, and with the Travertine tile flooring installation out of the way, my wife and I chose, ordered and got new White Quartz Kitchen Countertops installed. Just like the last time, when working on the previous kitchen upgrade, this countertop installation was planned weeks in advance. It takes a long time to choose […]

Improving the Kitchen: Laying Travertine Tile Flooring

Up until this point, I had neglected (if you can call it that way) some areas of the house, the kitchen was one of them. It is not that it was not important to me, actually, it is very important, because of this house’s open floor plan, the kitchen is visible to all visitors as […]

Remember how to put things back together when working on home improvement projects

When working on home improvement projects or repairs, at some point, inevitably, we will have to disconnect, disassemble, move around and replace stuff before we can complete, or in some cases, even start our work. More than once, I have been ‘scared’ to move forward with a project, thinking that if I disconnect, disassemble or […]

Tools a homeowner needs for home improvement projects

If you’ve been following our blog, perhaps you may be thinking that to complete all the projects we’ve presented until now, we must have spent a fortune on tools, and that for you to be able to do the same, you need to spend a fortune as well. How are you saving money if what […]

Laying Travertine Tile in the Bathroom Floors

If you’ve read my previous flooring or tiling posts, I’m sure this one does not come up as a surprise, Laying Travertine tile in the bathroom floors was planned since day one. Well, I didn’t know it was going to be Travertine tile, but I was completely sure I was replacing the existing flooring with […]

Finishing Garage Part 4: Getting, Assembling and Installing Storage Cabinets

As the title suggests, the last part of this garage finishing project included purchasing, assembling and installing storage cabinets. As I’ve said before, I do not like anything ‘stored’ on the floor, I’m not a big fan of open shelves either, cabinets are a must for me. I considered many cabinets from Home Depot, Lowes, […]

Finishing the Garage Part 3: Priming and Painting Walls and Ceiling

With the walls and ceiling insulated, drywalled, taped and mudded, and the floor wearing a fresh and shiny coat of epoxy coating, the most difficult parts of this garage finishing project were out of the way, that meant it was time to move on to the next task: Priming & painting the newly finished garage […]

Finishing the Garage Part 2: Applying an Epoxy Floor Coating

After insulating and finishing the walls and ceiling, the next step on this garage finishing project was working on applying an epoxy floor coating. To be honest, after doing the exact same job in my old garage (I did not document that project), I was not completely sure about doing it in this new one. […]

Finishing the Garage Part 1: Insulating and Drywalling Walls and Ceiling

This is the first post of a series in which I will show you what I did to finish the Garage in my Second House. As the title suggests, this part includes finishing the garage walls and ceiling (insulation and drywall installation). On my previous Laundry Room Storage Cabinets post, I mentioned that the lack […]

DIY Home Theater Installation

This is one of those projects you don’t even think too much about, I was looking for some kind of shelf to set my Receiver & DVD player. I came across at many different floating shelves online, but, they were either too small or way too expensive. On top of it, I wasn’t sure they […]

Wood or Rock Mulch Around the House? For me, the answer is Rock

After settling and living at my second house for a couple of months, spring was rapidly approaching, for me, that meant answering the following question: wood or rock mulch around the house? As you may have read before, when I decided to buy this house, I knew what I was getting into. I knew about […]

Evening project: Installing some Laundry Room Storage Cabinets

The day I went look at the property that ended up being my second house, there were a few things I noticed immediately. One of them was the lack of any kind of laundry room storage cabinets, shelves or similar to store any laundry supplies. Why did I notice it right away you may ask? Because just […]

My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 2

This post is a continuation of My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 1. As you learned on it, this kitchen remodeling project was basically a multi-project in which I pretty much used almost every skill I had learned on previous projects until then. On top of it, it also allowed me to learn a […]

My DIY Kitchen Remodeling Project – Part 1

Having already completed a few projects in the garage, backyard, bathrooms and laundry room, I felt so empowered by the results and what I had been able to learn and accomplish that I decided to embark on the most ambitious of all my projects, to date, a DIY kitchen remodeling project. This was basically a […]

GE dryer starts, then stops as soon as the start button is released

My dryer was about two years old when it decided to stop running. I remember putting some clothes in it, closing the door, pressing the start button and going away. A few minutes, or perhaps hours later, I went back to check up on it just to realize that it was still on. The timer […]

Replacing Vinyl Flooring with Porcelain Tile

One thing I’ve never liked about most houses’ finishes is the flooring selection. Unless we are talking about higher end homes, most home builders only offer two flooring options, carpet and vinyl. I specifically want to talk about vinyl, because I understand carpet has its place, especially in colder areas of the country, where you […]

Backyard Landscaping Makeover

As you learned from my garage improvement post, I do not like eye sores! Unfortunately, this house had a few of them. As you’ve also learned, though, I was determined to do something about them! Next on the list was the small backyard, full of all kinds of weeds, uneven, dry spots and an improperly […]

My First Project Ever! Garage Improvement and Organization

Right after moving to my new place, I felt the need to start improving it, not only because I wanted my new house to look nice, but also because I wanted it to be functional. I’ve always been very organized. I didn’t want anything scattered around or laying on the floor, but I also didn’t […]