Spring 2015 mantle

I'm gearing up to change out the mantle for more summery things. But I realized I haven't shown you all my spring mantle!  Happy spring... For a few more days. 

Shower Shampoo Nook

When I was planning out this bathroom remodel I had an incredible idea.  Let's build a nook between the studs! I've seen it done before. Instead of a shelf or one of those hanging things, a nook!  This would be an awesome solution to our small space issues. It looked so simple. I watched MANY videos and read just as many DIY blogs. Easy peasy... I got this. 

Next time I say this, someone should hit me upside the head. I'm glad we are doing it.  It really is the perfect solution to our problems.  But it was not simple, easy or quick!  It took as long as tiling the big wall!  Or longer... It also had some weird issues to troubleshoot. Here's my recap and how to. 

First I cut 2x4's the right length to go between the studs and then screwed them in through the opposite side. So far... Not bad

Next came cement board... Uhhhh... This stuff was not as easy to cut as I thought it would be. Which lead to the first tricky part. I ended up scoring the board where the shelves opened up and then scoring an x through the middle. Then... A good ol hammer to break it out. This worked but wasn't pretty. So I bought a jigsaw blade with very large teeth and that did the job much better. Just go slow. 

Once I had enough cement board cut and put in place to over the whole thing, (again, easier said than done) I used mesh tape and thinset to seal all the cracks and corners. 

I ended up doing two thin layers of thinset to make sure I sealed the tape in well.  

But... There is NO WAY I'm taking chances on anything leaking in this shower. 

So...

I covered the whole thing in two layers of Redguard. This stuff is basically liquid rubber. It seals up any cracks or crevices where water could potentially get in. I feel confident that this nook will not be the cause of any leaks.  

Next came the fun part. (And by fun I mean terrible.). It actually is fun because it's one of the last steps and it's so satisfying to see the tile up.  But there were so many weird parts to this. We are using subway tile. So the corners needed quarter round tile. (This was not fun to cut angled pieces for the corners...) But I wanted to do something different for the shelf. Ideally, I wanted it to be one seamless price of tile. That was not to be. I couldn't find a 14" piece that matched. So, my solution was to use matching edge tile for the shelves. Worked out perfect for the spacing. 

It's not perfect but I love it! 

 I haven't cleaned it up yet and it's obviously not grouted. I can't wait to get all the rest of the tile up!!!

You gotta be brave to DIY

It's true. There's a lot of failure. A lot of projects don't work out and you have to; live with it, abandon it, fix it, or try again. (There's some life metaphors in there if you're feeling deep.)

Tonight was a failure night. I found an AMAZING frame at a yard sale that is perfect for the mirror in the bathroom we are remodeling. Here she is...

It was gold before but I painted and distressed it. Then I went to habitat for humanity ReStore to buy a mirror to cut down and fit inside. In the past, I take the mirror to a glass shop and they cut it. But I thought I'd be brave and try to DIY it. 

This tool is $2 at Home Depot. 

It's exactly what they use in the glass shops. I followed the directions and snapped the mirror after scoring it. It was perfect!  Except for one corner didn't snap straight. DANG!  I thought maybe I could tap it with a hammer and it would snap off...  Then this happened...

So on Monday I will be going back to the ReStore to get another mirror. This time I might go to the glass shop to have it cut.  ;)

The roof... The roof... The roof is on... That is all!

It is finished!  When we bought The Little House, the roof was excluded from our insurance policy. It was that bad... Here's a look. 

The rough patch on the porch was repeated all over. 

We were told that it could maybe make it another two years when we purchased it... And we milked EVERY day out of that promise. But every time it rained I prayed! We never had a leak... Thank goodness!  But we didn't want to take any more chances so Spyman took some time off of work and we went to work. A dumpster was delivered and we started scraping off the old shingles. 

Whew!  It has been such hard work!  I don't feel qualified to give any kind of tutorial on this except that, if you have a couple thousand extra dollars, you should absolutely pay someone to do this. ;)

Here we are... A week later and the last nail is hammered. We are tucked safely inside the little house with no fear of the coming storms!

Here are some before and afters. I can just picture it when we get new siding up!!!