STAINING BRICK- THE FINALE!!

     Part 2:  Brick staining


   So before we could finish staining the brick we had to take care of some pesky(not sure if that is a word) things-aka the roses!!  I have never loved roses- the plants ( I love the flowers and getting them!) and I never wanted rose bushes at my house, but guess what- they came with the house!!  So we need to get rid of them!! Hey I let them bloom once while we lived here, and loved everyone of those beautiful pink flowers.  Now they are gone and the plants need to go too!!  The beautiful purple Iris of plenty has to go too!! They had their turn to bloom once as well!!  So here are the before pictures with the flowers and then without-you be the judge which looks better.  As for myself -less is more ! I love my empty dirt for now!

                                         Yes that is a camoflauge suburban-don't judge me!!

                
                         So now on to more important things- staining the brick!! I finally finished brushing the very last brick and the very last piece of grout.  HOORAY- one brick at a time is the best way to get the very best results.  It only took me 4 mornings to do the whole front of the house.  I just had to make sure I finished one half , so it wouldn't have a color difference.  So I stopped at the front door and then did the other half another day.  I also did the cap (top) on a different day then the rest of the brick and it turned out fine.  So an new roof and $100 of stain and  here she is in all her glory !!

 

                                                    Here's a BEFORE and AFTER
                                                  (sorry can't figure out side by side)

Exterior House Upgrade on a BUDGET!

                So- here it is, I finally have gotten to the front of my house projects!!  Remember my peach of a house(literally the whole house was peach!)- I am finally taking control of the 70's peach brick.  After doing a lot of research  on the internet (mostly pinterest) about my options and talking to my contractor, I came to the conclusion that what I would like to do was not going to happen. Mostly because A) it is not in the budget. B) it is not in the budget! 

             What I wanted to do was to put stone over the brick and paint our siding.  That however is going to be a few years away!  I was told that we would probably have to knock down the existing brick to do the stone-ugh!  I was also told by my cute husband, that if we are going to pay to put up stone - we are getting rid of the siding and putting stucco up.  So hopefully it will happen sometime in the near future!! I am saying 5 years- we will see!  The list continues to grow -  new windows, pull out the front porch 5-10 feet, pour a front porch- so like $15k later!! One thing at a time I know!!

                 Here is a picture of what I would love my house to look like;

So onto plan B :

STAINING OUR EXISTING BRICK( ya I know- who does that? We do!!)

          So here is what I did- more research online!! We didn't want the look of painted brick so after seeing on a couple blogs  about staining brick I thought- why not?  Although the only thing I ever saw stained was a few fireplaces ( never an exterior of a house ) I figured it would work the same - right?  Anyways- anything has gotta be better than peach brick and if it looks real bad, then I guess we are painting our brick!!

           So off we go to the HomeDepot once again to the paint dept. where no one has ever heard of staining your brick-lol!! It's very experimental I guess- oh well it will be fine!!  So we find our stain color -a dark brown and have our semi-transparent concrete stain tinted.  I went home and tested a spot that was under our carport ( now garage ) by the back door.  The brown just turned the peach a darker color.  So back to HomeDepot for a new color!  We added the darkest grey to our brown and I went home and tried that - it will do, it will do!

           We started with the back of the house -since we didn't know how it was gonna turn out!   Here are some pictures of our first attempt.

           We rolled it on and it was so runny that it just dripped everywhere!!  The dark spot is where it looked like there were drips and I went over again to even it out- apparently it was dry and made it much darker than the rest !! Good job me! The key is one coat!! So now that I have a blotchy house - I am back to considering stone again!! We went back to HomeDepot to see if there was anything that would remove it - acid we tried a extra brick we had and it didn't work! Great there is nothing I can do to fix my house!! The picture makes it look waaay worse than it really does! My mom came to visit and I asked her what she thought - she said it looked like my house had been on fire!! That made me feel real good!

           After a few months literally looking at it we decided it wasn't that bad-besides who will ever see the back of the house but us? No bbq's here- haha!  So we then stained the other half of the back of the house which is here ( do not judge me for the junk in the backyard or on the patio- we haven't had a garage for 6 months)

                                                 (that is not blotchy-shade from the tree)

                     So after a month of having the back of the house and the side stained, I decided the only way I would do the front of my house, was if I brushed on each brick and grout one at a time so there would be no blotchy crap!!  So I had to get myself motivated -cause I thought it would take me a week to do one half.  I had to wake up at 6 -ugh so it would be in shade since its you know like 100 degrees here!! So I did it we power washed it and I started on Monday, and I got the one half of my house done in one day!!! Hooray!!  Here it is:  DAY 1

                                           Notice the beautiful landscaping -soon to be gone!!

                   DAY 2:
                 I finished staining the cap and was so happy how much better it looked, I decided to rip out all the Iris that I cant stand so below notice how much better it is already looking!  I cant finish staining the other half until my sweet husband cuts or pulls the delightful roses away from the wall.  So I'm going to my moms for a week and there it will sit half peach, half brown/grey!! oh well, better to have half the house looking better I guess!!

 It turned out much lighter then the back of the house,

but its even and that makes me happy happy happy!

 

So now I have done my job, discouraged any of you from staining your brick!!haha -I do think it looks better than it did and that's really all I was going for- I wasn't expecting miracles!!

 

So here is the color of the stain

 

crazy how dark it is!!

 

 

I will post the rest of the house when I finish along with our new garage- almost done!! We are picking out paint colors to paint the garage and house -good times!

 

Spray Painting Light Fixtures

                   So to finish updating the bathroom, I chose to change out the silver and go with oil rubbed bronze.  With a very small budget to work with I decided to spray paint anything I could to save some bucks!! I did some research on were else but pinterest lol !! I found what I was looking for- how to spray paint metal without it scratching off.  Its on my my pinterest page under new house ideas( I don't know how to link directly to that pin!!).   The secret is spraying a clear coat over the color after it is dry!! Seriously I would have NEVER thought of that on my own- thank you Pinterest!!  So all my hours are not wasted- they were hard work that paid off! lol-that's what I 'll keep telling myself!! 

 

Here's the before -

Lights and outlet plates

 

The light fixture I painted, was actually donated from my friends husband.  It was silver just like the one that was in the bathroom, but it had the light covers with it.  I also sprayed the silver towel rack that I had with the same oil rubbed bronze paint.  My sweet little brother donated a brand new TP holder  and a hand towel rack that he had extra.  We bought the new faucet at walmart-who'd have guessed !! 

 

So far my cost is :

 

Cabinet redo- $0

New TP & hand towel rack (donated)-$0

New and Newly painted  light fixture (donated)-$12 paint and clear coat

New and Newly painted towel rack(craigslist)-$5

Outlet plates - $0

New Faucet -$65

New knobs on white cabinet-$4

New shower hooks -$6

New hanging basket for towels $20

 New Rug - $8

 

Total spent: $120

(doesn't include a new toilet and stuff to remove and redo grout on tub-that's another day of fun!!)

 

Here's the Reveal :

 

That's all for now!!

 

Still to do:

Frame mirror-I'll definitely post how that goes!!

Bathroom Cabinet Redo

                           The fun stuff we (mostly me) did in the bathroom were to redo the cupboards. 
                                                                  Here's a before:

 

                              Not a very good picture, but the color is builder grade oak
                                        ( you know the yellowish color ones)

            So I decided to make them darker using GelStain, I think its by Minwax.  This stuff is great because you DON'T have to sand down to bare wood!!! That means a lot less work-which means project done quicker, that's what I love!!  So you lightly sand then wipe on with an old sock and when it dries put a coat of poly on top and whala- it's like new cabinets!! But it only cost me-$0, since I already had the stain and the poly !! 
                                   
                                         Here's the after ( I wish the pictures were better- just believe me,               they look  100 times better !!)   It's like going from the 90's to the 2000's!!

                                                    BEFORE        AND             AFTER

             

 Ain't she a beauty?? I think so!!

Bathroom Overhaul

                  The upstairs bathroom - a work in progress!!  So here's the first room to see the transformation that has been done.  So remember when I said our house was really nice it just needed a lot of elbow grease, well - here is exactly what I meant. 

           When we bought our house we had 3 weeks of remodeling on our bedroom that took place before we moved in.  During that time, I spent pretty much all day every day scrubbing our new house.  I say scrubbing lightly!! So here are the before pictures of what took place.

                       So here's the tub area( majority of work took place here!)  So if you ever have the great idea that you should put clear silicone over your grout -PLEASE DON'T!! That is unless you would like to see the mildew growing under it, and have dark black gross around every corner of your bathroom. Oh wait that was our bathroom!!

                  So ya, around the entire tub, the corners of the wall on the tile, the floor next to the baseboards, around the toilet on the floor (everywhere) was covered  with clear silicone.  So that's were I began, I started with a razor then moved on to needle nose pliers and after days of working on removing the silicone(mildew intact)  someone at  my favorite store HomeDepot told me to try mineral spirits.  That helped but I still kept on with my razor and pliers, I even recruited my friends to come help ( I know they loved it!)  Finally it was done- no more silicone.   Only to discover the purpose of the silicone, cracked and braking grout!!

                     Now we have to remove the grout - we got a special tool at you know HomeDepot.   Me and Adam both got to work on that project - and the fun we had !!!  So 3 weeks later, we moved in and had no grout in our tub - that meant no showers upstairs.  It only took a couple weeks till we (Adam) put the grout in and we had a working bath/shower upstairs - HOORAY!! 

"One mans trash is another mans treasure!"

This is definitely the truth in this case!! I picked up an old dresser out of a neighbors dumpster (with their permission of course!)  I couldn't help myself- I saw the legs and could see its potential!!  So I got this old dresser for FREE and also a nightstand for $1 at a yardsale .  They both have been sitting in our old garage , then to the storage unit for lets say a year!!  Their time finally came - to go from drab(a.k.a. garbage-as Adam calls it!!) to fab.  So here are the pics and how they came to be.

                                                  BEFORE

                                      Just look at those legs -that's what won me over!!

                      Yes that is paint, along with stickers and pictures scratched into the sides!!

                      Here's the good stuff!!  The top was covered in nail polish, lipstick, and
anything else a teenager could possibly get on the top of a dresser( why Adam called it garbage!)

            I sort of forgot to take a before of my $1 end table- this is all you get!!
                      Just picture it with doors and awesome hardware.

         So  now the process begins!! Lots of sanding ,much easier with my ROBI power sander (you see in background) that I got for Valentines day -best present ever!!  Next day, more sanding - In my front yard of course for all to see!! Welcome to the neighborhood - yes we are the ones with the junky furniture in our front yard!!  Once they were down to bare wood -they were  beauties, in all their natural glory!

        Next, I sprayed the end table with some Ivory spray paint I had left over from another project. Total spent so far $1!!  I figured if I screwed it up, I wasn't out anything!!  Sorry no pics of that.  After it dryed (next day) 
        
          I then glazed the bottom with Martha Stewart pretinted glaze.  This glaze is not my favorite, it didn't seem to cover well.  If I did it again I would use Ralph Lauren tintable glaze.  I've used it before and prefer it much better.

         For the top I chose to stain it a dark brown called Jacobean by Minwax.  This was my first attempt with regular stain, ( I've only used gel stain prior) so I was a bit nervous.  I was surprised how easy it went on.
          
          Then came the polyurethane- that's  a different story-ha ha !!  I first brushed it on, then could see the brush marks - so back to sanding we go!! Then I tried wiping it on like the stain, that was a BAD idea- it looked terrible!! Back to sanding we go (Hi Ho, Hi Ho!!) -actually back to HomeDepot we go!  Oh how we love the HomeDepot -or so you would think since we are there every other day!!  I found spray polyurethane (awww!)  and convinced my sweet husband (the professional painter)  to spray it for me.

             At last, it was complete!! put the doors back on and the old hardware looked awesome!! So here it is  after way longer than it should have taken !! My $15  (stain and spray poly) project!!
                                                                    Taa Daa

           So then I was super motivated to finish my dresser right??  Ya, not so much- it sat in the front yard for a couple days before getting the energy to start again!!  At one point my sweet husband asked when the yard art was gonna be gone!!

         Back to HomeDepot for more paint, they don't have the same brand as the end table. So I got the color that I thought was the same in another brand DONT EVER DO THAT!! Especially if you plan to put them near each other .  This color was Rustoleum Heirloom White. 

        I got it sprayed and glazed and then on to staining the top, I was moving right along until.....  well this dresser doesn't have drawers(hence the dumpster) so my plans were to make it a bookshelf.  It had wood cut out of the center of each shelf that I now needed to find something to fit.  So off to you know, HomeDepot I went to find -NOTHING in the size I needed (3/8 inch)!!  So here's what she looked like at this point.

                         So we tried the other HomeDepot with my husband intact to make sure it measured right.  We found something that was gonna have to work- a plywood type beadboard sheet.  We had it cut there (they will do that for you there- for FREE!)  Super excited to go home and put it in, and get this project finished -3 weeks later (now moved into my half finished new garage)  So they don't fit-not a single one!! 

           I tried sanding them down to fit and after hours of sanding that didn't work!  So I made Adam teach me how to use his circular saw. ( I think its called!) WOW!!  That was amazing!! I know why they call them power tools!! You feel so powerful when you use them!!  So I cut them  and it was easy, and they fit at last! 

         I stained them the same as the top and they look great-heres a look:

Almost there- just needs a back, (didn't come with one )  I used the same bead board stuff as the shelves.  I decided to paint it Heirloom white as well and glaze it, to tie it into the rest of the dresser.

 

Here is the final reveal:

I've started decorating, still more to go!

 

so here's the side by side

 

BEFORE   AND    AFTER

 

 

Our New House- Before

So just as I promised here's a look at the inside of our new house.  Keep in mind- I'm not the best photographer in the world!  Hopefully you can get the  general idea of what it looked like.  I will break down each area we have been working on later and show what we did and didn't do.

That is the upstairs- which we were really lucky to have gotten a house in such good shape. We did not have to replace any flooring in the house -what a relief!! For the most part with some cleaning supplies and a little (ok, a lot)  elbow grease, it was livable.  We have been updating things as we have a chance -it is our weekend activity!!

 

Here's the Basement:

 

I know the 70's are rockin in this room!!

There you have it- the beginning of our new life in our new house!! We definitely scored on this house, we ended up with a lot of space inside and out.  The best part is where we ended up, I could not ask for nicer neighbors.  We are continually blown away how great everyone is that lives around us.  The fact that my kids have friends all around is amazing!! The other night, they were actually out playing night games with all the neighborhood kids.  It was just how I grew up, and that makes me sooo happy!!