Category Archives: Current House

current-house-category, red autumn mapleOn this section, we show you the projects we’ve worked on and the ones we’re working on – sometimes more than one at the same time – on our current (and hopefully last) house. The goal is to share our progress and ideas, hear and learn from your opinions and have a friendly discussion about our different home improvement and do-it-yourself projects.

Spray Painting Vent Covers To Match Floor Color

spray paint cans

Choosing the right spray paint color for our vent covers

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 even though your flooring is a really nice travertine tile.

Does anyone really think they look nice like that?

We don’t. In a perfect world, they’d be completely invisible. However, since that may be next to impossible, we believe that spray painting them is one of the best alternatives you can try to hide, blend or disguise them as much as possible.

On this post, we show you how to do it.

Continue reading →

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

DIY Home Office Desk Top

The lumber we used to build our 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. And finally, we moved on to the last part of the project, building a wood desktop.

This was not your typical desktop, though, but one that is long enough for a double desk, so both of us can work at the same time. It is 11 ft. and 6 inches long to be exact, and on this post, we show you how we did it.

Continue reading →

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

Building a double home office desk

The old desk we bought to built our double 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 important part for us. It made sense to take care of them before moving on with the rest of the project.

So, right after putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls and deciding the new office’s layout, we started looking for desk ideas. We came across many different options, but at the end of the day, for several reasons, we decided to try something similar to what we found at Young House Love.

Obviously, we like what they did. When possible, we like recycling and reusing stuff. It seemed like a relatively easy and inexpensive project for us to do, and most importantly, we had most of the supplies we needed to work on it.

Continue reading →

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

Small Home Office Desk

The small computer desk we used until now

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 for years. It is the one I have used to work on many projects until now, including the creation of this blog. Later on, we added a day bed, which we use to read and as an extra bed to accommodate friends and family when they visit.

Continue reading →

Our New Porcelain Tile Garage Floor Installation

Garage floor prior to porcelain tile installation

The garage floor right before we started this project

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 did it last because we didn’t want to get our new nice porcelain all dirty while working with drywall, primer, and paint.

As you have read before, in our previous two garages, we used epoxy, however, as you have also read, I was not very satisfied with it. So I decided to try something different in our new garage.

After looking at different options, I decided to give porcelain a try, mostly because as you may know by now, it is one of my favorite flooring options. We went with a two color, white and gray design.

Continue reading →

How We Primed and Painted our New Garage

Priming and painting our new garage

Priming and painting 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. Well, I can’t stand an unpainted garage either.

As I’ve mentioned before, a coat of paint is an easy and inexpensive way to transform any room, in this case, our usually neglected garages, into a more comfortable and pleasant place to be or work in.

I definitely recommend everyone to finish and paint their garages, believe me, you will not be disappointed.

Continue reading →

How We Insulated and Drywalled Our New Garage

Unfinished garage

This is how the walls looked before starting the work

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 around our neighborhood, we see that most garages look just like they did on day one (except they’re full of stuff now). I have counted only one or two that have been drywalled. It was about the same in our previous two neighborhoods.

Unfortunately (or is it fortunately?), as you may have realized by now, I cannot stand having an unfinished garage. Before we even moved to this house, I agreed with Carla that the garage was going to be one of the first things we would work on after moving in. And so we did.

Continue reading →

How to Fix a Toilet Leaking from the Tank Bolts

new-toilet-tank-bolt-washer-and-gasket

New toilet tank bolt, washer, and gasket

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 tank a few days ago. It was not the first time I had to deal with one either, it is part of being a homeowner.

Continue reading →

How to Add a Gate to an Existing Wood Fence

putting a gate in an existing fence

Adding 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 first priority.

Luckily, it is very easy to add a gate to an existing wood fence. There are obviously different ways to do it, but, assuming you do not need to somehow modify your fence (add an extra post for example), this is a project you can complete in a couple of hours.

Continue reading →