Red Brick House

A nice place to eat

No, not a restaurant. I spend the last two days refinishing my dining room set. It is a table and 4 chairs that has been with me since my NYC days. It has acquired a fair amount of wear and tear and the cushions were looking a little ragged. I wanted a new set! Since the budget didn’t agree, I had to get creative.

After a trip to Home Depot (4 cans black spay paint – $2.91, 1 can spray clear lacquer – $2.99) and the craft store where I found some fabric for $1 a yard, score! so I bought the last 3 yards left (assuring plenty to be leftover) and I got to work. I sanded down the table top and edge until it was as light as it could get. I then layered three thin coats of polyurethane (left over from another project) lightly sanding in between coats. I spray painted the bottom sides of the table black.

I also spray painted the table legs black and stood them on end to dry.

On to the chairs!! 

I removed the cushions that were screwed in from the bottom, then spray painted the chairs black.

I then coated everything (except the table top that already had 3 coats poly) with the clear lacquer to seal the paint and make the surface easy to clean since it will be around food. Then I put everything in the garage to dry overnight. =( I hate waiting….

I had plenty to keep me busy though. I still had to make dinner and re-upholster the cushions!

After a break for spaghetti and meatballs, yum, I got back to work. I took my fabric, the cushions, a pair of scissors, and my trusty staple gun into my son’s room and spread out on his dresser.

I laid the cushion on the fabric and cut around it leaving about 1 in on all sides to give room to wrap it. I flipped the cushion over and used the staple gun to secure the fabric to the bottom wrapping the ends like you would a present.

And, TA DA! Brand new cushions! well, almost..

First thing the next morning I brought all the pieces in from the garage and put the legs back on the table and screwed the cushions back onto the seats.. and ….

A nice place to eat. and it only cost me $8.90

Major Changes

Here is a floorplan of our house.. (the bathrooms look larger than real life, wishful thinking, maybe?)

It also includes the hole we cut in the wall. One of our first projects and I am SOOO glad we did it. This is after we cut out the drywall. Next step was to re run the wire that used to run through that wall (we created a ceiling mount light in the living room while we were at it, and connected it to the switch by the door.) then cut the beams and put in new framing for the door and finally finish it off with decorative molding.

TAA DAAA!!

We ripped up some NASTY carpet the day we closed on our house! And then week 2 we had beautiful Hickory hardwoods installed (we left that to a professional!) and in this market, EVERYTHING is negotiatable. We scored our beautiful floor at a warehouse closeout for $1.25/sq ft and paid $1/sq ft yes $1/sq ft for installation, plus the cost of glue,  nails and mineral oil for clean up (that ran us about $100). All in all I am THRILLED with our floors, anything that can stand up to a 15 month old and his black lab, makes me happy.

Daniel’s Room

My project last weekend was to redo our 15 month old son’s room and make it a really fun place (in hopes he will start sleeping there through the night! haha). I wanted him to love it.

This was his room BEFORE

and AFTER

And the other wall of his room BEFORE

and AFTER. I painted a tree mural and plan to add Velcro so I can add fabric leaves that can be switched out with the season or to reflect what he is learning at the time (ABCs, Numbers, etc).

We also redid his closet (Left and right side). We left the doors off for safety reasons.

And after a trip to IKEA (love that place!!) plenty of accessorizing took place

A “sun” light ceiling fixture 

and a star night light

I got this great 3-pc bedding set at IKEA for $4.99

I added some kid-safe (plastic, not glass) frames, and took two shelves that had a lip, flipped the top one upside-down, and used them to hold the frames. I have pictures of our family members that live out of town, so that Daniel can still see them everyday. (My husband actually made the shelves from some scrap wood, but I stole the idea from an IKEA showroom.) Then added the metal pole and buckets (IKEA again…), which has become one of Daniel’s favorite places to put things.

I think it turned out pretty well.

I also took advantage of a few learning opportunities and will share those and some organizing tips later on.

Hello world!

Hello,

My name is Heather and my husband, Ashton, and I recently bought a fixer-upper home in Stone Mountain, GA.

I am 21 and born and raised in West Palm Beach, FL. When I turned 18, I moved to NYC to see the world. I met Ashton and fell in love.  Ashton is 28, was born in Trinidad and was raised in Brooklyn, NY. We got engaged in NYC one night while having a picnic dinner at Columbus Circle. We then moved to Miami, FL to be closer to my family and ended up moving to West Palm Beach to be even closer once we found out we were having a baby! We postponed the wedding and focused on the baby. Daniel Preston was born on May 22nd, 2008 and is perfect. We had a beautiful beach wedding on November 7th and in May 2009 we bought our first home together (more on that later) and packed up our lives into a Penske truck and moved to Georgia.

We are a close family and have been though alot together, and look forward to our many adventures to come!

In this blog we plan to share our adventures and misadventures of DIY home renovation and decoration and hopefully share what we learn with you.

Heather and Ashton

The fixer upper

This is our home, BEFORE. These pictures were taken the day we found out our offer was accepted. We knew we had to return home to FL with more than just excitement to show our family.