Our basement outhouse

We have a weird toilet room in our basement.  I know it's not uncommon, but it still always freaked me out and I never went in there, even though the toilet is pretty new and it works fine.  A couple weeks ago I decided to fix it up on a random week night.  

The 'room' is really just some wood planking that is to the floor on the left side, and raised up off the ground the other two walls.  Plus, some yahoo had cut a big hole in the wall that actually went to the floor.   At butt-level.

My goal was simple.  To make this outhouse more like an actual bathroom, and use only materials we already had in the house.  I decided the easiest way to fill in the heiny hole was to use some super thin tongue and groove planks we had laying around from an abandoned project.  I measured, got my materials together (which included wine, and my miter saw) and got to cutting.  

I'm not sure you should drink and use big saws, but I did it and all my digits survived.  Of course nothing happened, check out my concentration.  

The planks needed something to attach to on the bottom, I really didn't have the tools or resources (or patience, time, desire, the list goes on) to attach this 2x4 to the concrete, so it is just resting there with the planks to anchor it down.  

And here are the first few up.  Not bad!

To nail them into the 2x4, I had a very scientific method.  Shaun pushed on it from the other side while I nailed the planks.  When I got to the last one, I used almost the full length of the plank to fill in the entire open area.  

What you see here is a space that wasn't filled with a plank in between the original board and the new plank.  I don't have a table saw to rip these, so I just nailed another full one up to the other side, which is just a paint room and workshop, anyway.  It fills up the hole, you know?  The final step that night was to add a piece of trim to the meeting of 'old and new' and use leftover Behr Aqua Smoke (our master bedroom color) to paint everything.  

Then I hung a mirror I didn't have a place for.  Yay!

And I also hung a little framed photo I already had (seen behind me) and replaced this little gem: 

Oh yeah, previously, you had to turn the light 'on and off' by screwing the lightbulb in and out.  I don't pretend to know the wiring in this house.  I solved the issue by replacing the classic ceramic bare bulb fixture (which is sad, because it is cool) with a globe fixture that has a pull chain on it.  It works!  I'm an electrician!

I painted the inside of the door bright white to mirror the white cinderblock and break up all the aqua.  

And here is the final product!

That little piece holding the TP is on loan from my mom, my aunt made it and I think it's so cute! 

And on the outside, I hung up this little sign I found for $5 on Amazon.  I find it funny because it really is just a toilet inside. 

The outside doesn't look very inviting.....

But the inside isn't so bad!  I cleaned the heck out of that toilet, so I would be happy to take a ladylike pee in here now.  

I don't think I will spend the time to paint all the horrible yellow ductwork and outside of this outhouse, but as long as the inside isn't scary, I'm happy.  I did spend $9 on the light, $4 on the TP holder, $10 (with shipping) on the toilette sign, so I guess I failed at doing this fix up with only materials I had at home.  Oh well, it was worth it! 

Walkway is finished!

I can't believe we got it done ahead of schedule - one day shy of 3 weeks from start to finish.  It seemed impossible to get the puzzle finished with the stone that we had available, but we got it done. 

We do have a couple of stones in the middle that are a bit higher, but the shape of them was great, so we decided to work with them.  One important thing was making the stones perfectly level with the sidewalk, and the curb.  We did a great job with that!

Once we got halfway through, I stopped using the previous stones as my 'level' guideline, and instead moved the the curb and worked backwards.  This ensured that I was level with the curb, and I could adjust the middle of the walkway to match up with both sides. I was very happy that we got to use this enormous stone I bought, it had a big flat edge to use against the (wrecked) curb.  I was worried they would wait til we had this all done, then rip out the curb for repair...but it appears they don't give a crap! 

It would sure look a lot better if the curb was fixed, but at least my stones match up with the gap.  Once we got everything set, we placed (and leveled) a bunch of small stones into the bigger gaps, and swept in the polymeric sand.  A quick pass with the hose, and we happily called it 'done for now.'  If you haven't used polymeric sand before, it is wonderful!  It dries so hard, you have to chip it out....great for applications like this.  A big bucket from Home Depot was $20.

I got some grass seed down asap, and I'm happy to say that it's already growing!  I was worried it was a little too late in the season to plant it (put it down Sept 29), but luckily the weather has been cooperative.  

We are going to put a bit more sand in the low spots between the stones, and then I'm washing my hands of this project.  Happily, the inspector stopped by and gave us the stamp of approval.  More specifically, he wrote 'Replacement carriage walk is OK.'  Um, it is clearly better than 'OK.'  

This project cost us:

$85 for flagstone

$100 for leveling sand, traffic bond gravel, edgers (and stakes that come with)

$20 for polymeric sand

For about $200 and some physical labor, we got a walkway that fits with our house much better than new concrete.  I am happy!  My only tip for you is to avoid buying anything from Home Depot unless you absolutely have to.  We don't have a truck, so it's not easy for us to run to the stone yard for more sand, gravel, etc.  You will spend WAY more money buying that stuff bagged from Home Depot, always buy in bulk and buy MORE than you think you will need. Sand and gravel is cheap, give any extra away or find another use for it.  Many garden centers carry sand and gravel, too...so find a place to buy in bulk!    

I lost my battle

A couple weeks ago, I came home from work to find this. 

After begging the city inspector, my alderman, the mayor, and everyone else who would listen, nobody gave two shits about saving my walkway but me.  And rather than try to grind through the high edge or cut off the offending portion, I lamely decided that maybe they would forget about it and leave me alone.  Dumb.  I especially love how one of the concrete guys left their lunch plate in the hole.  

So, I hastily crafted a note to stick in the dirt that said DO NOT POUR CONCRETE IN HERE OR I WILL CLAW YOUR EYES OUT.  Or maybe it said, NO CONCRETE - WE ARE PLANTING GRASS.  One of the two.  Then, because I'm not a normal person, I didn't plant grass.  I did this.  

When my dad and I got the supplies back to our house, Shaun started unloading the truck, muttering about what a stupid idea this was, and that we should just plant grass.  

I cried in frustration because I knew it was going to suck to do all the work, but I just felt that my house DESERVED another flagstone walkway.  It was a part of this house, and I wanted to give it back.  So, after another run to get more gravel, we did this. 

Then I gave my baby foot long stakes to play with.  

Like the heaviest puzzle ever, we have been busting our butts with these stones.  So far, we have sunk $85 into replacement flagstones, and $80 in gravel, edgers, stakes, and sand.  Luckily, we have a nice supply of flagstone in our backyard, so we were able to 'shop at home' for this project.  At the end of one full day, this is the progress we made:

I WAS PLEASED.  Of course nothing is ever easy with this crap, the ground on the left side of the walk is much higher than the right, so we will have to chop some earth away to level it out.  We also have some very large gaps in between the stones, so we are going with sand in the joints rather than mortar to avoid cracks and things like that.  One plus side to doing all this work is the big sand box we had for a couple weekends!

The simple 'how to' we followed was:

Insert combination of 3/8 and 1/4 inch traffic bond gravel into hole until you feel you have enough.  This is very scientific.  

Tamp with hand tamper (we are cheap, but a rental works much better!)

Measure out 39-inch-wide walkway and stake edgers in place on top of gravel.

Add a layer of sand and start picking stones - we used the ones with the more uniform thickness and straightest edge on the sidewalk and curb ends.  Those are the ones the inspector will check for level. 

Add and take away sand until massive stones are level with previous ones. 

The END.

jk, we are not done yet.  Not even close.  But it is going to be worth it!

Closet in...progress?

I'm finally doing something with this closet room attached to our bedroom. I've started marking where the closet rods and shelves will be with blue and green tape.  My tape is NOT level and the exact measurements aren't set, but it is a start.  Figuring out how to plan the closet was a challenge due to the window being 10 inches from the long wall.  

Since I can't mount the rod to the wall on that side, I can't use traditional closet organizers, and I don't want to pay for a freestanding system, I am going to experiment with closet rod brackets that can be mounted to the wall slightly before the window, like this shelf/rod combo from Hardware Hut...   

I will need three brackets to support a rod on that 67 inch wall.  When the clothes are hanging, they will cover half of the window, but I consider that more protection from my neighbors seeing me naked.  Which I KNOW happens on the regular.  Good thing I'm working on my fitness these days!  Yeah right.  So, on the short wall opposite the window, I'm doing the same setup with the brackets to keep things consistent. 

The green tape represents the closet rods, and the blue tape represents the shelves.  The thing I'm slightly worried about is that clothes/hangers will stand out from the wall about 22 inches, so things are going to get tight in this 4' x 5.5' room!  I plan to find some chrome shelf supports for the two 26" shelves on the short wall.  On the little blank wall to the left in this pic, I'm probably just going to put some decorative hooks like the ones in our other closet.  

Of course the first thing I need to do in here is remove the offensive boob light.  Then I can paint the ceiling and walls, and start putting up the closet hardware.  That have yet to be purchased.  

I'm leaving the base trim for last because I'm not sure if I will build in some floor shelving for things like shoes.  If I'm being honest with myself, I will agonize about it, then never get around to it.  Classic me.  I also got my DIY Chandelier project started, but I'm forcing myself to get the important things done before adding any 'fancy' to the space.  

I think tomorrow is the night for me to remove the light and paint the ceiling.  It will be a miracle if I can get that little bit done!    

Die, walnuts

We have a situation.  Our back neighbors have these horrible, horrible black walnut trees that tower above our yard and drop crap all over our grass and planting beds.  Up until this summer, it has just been annoying...but now, it is a straight-up hazard.  

The biggest tree is dropping huge branches in our yard just about every time it rains or is windy.  One morning we woke up and there were two big ones laying there.  Not to mention all the stupid ass walnuts everywhere!

Our grass is an absolute minefield, and the walnuts break down and turn into sharp little pieces so we can't even let Ash walk barefoot.  These things are like old wrinkled balls that terrorize us daily.  

We have been throwing the nuts back over their fence for years, so I'm absolutely mortified to go over there and talk to them about this problem.  Yes, we are very immature.  I have actually taken videos of Ashford back here and you can see huge walnuts falling inches from his head.  And if you can tell in this photo, there is a dead branch just hanging by a thread.  

Now that we have a little guy playing in the yard, we just can't have this happening.  I have no idea how much it would cost to have these trees cut down, but I'm sure it will be hundreds.  Does anyone have any advice for me?  Should I stop being an idiot and just go over there?  Drop a to-the-point but nice note in their mailbox?  Introduce a walnut-tree killing insect?  Find a recipe to use all the dropped nuts?  

First Time Fancy Guest Post

Hey friends, I have a guest post up on First Time Fancy!  Kerry asked me to share my favorite parts of my wedding, and I think I chose some great ones.  Check it out here!

Sorry for the extended blog break, but I've been a 'single mom' this month. Shaun is traveling every week in August....so I've been doing a lot of baby wrangling, laundry, and a little (ok, a lot) of this:

Nothing like sips and showers from the hose in the last days of summer.   

I got a new camera

For my birthday this year, I decided to treat myself to a very expensive present.  I've been looking to switch to a full frame camera for about a year, and when I heard about the Canon 6D, I pretty much had to have it.  I'm no photo expert, and I don't pretend to be professional, but I do love taking good photos and learning how to improve.

Considered an 'entry level' full frame, the 6D has photo quality equal (so I've heard) to the Canon 5D Mark III, but with less frames per second, less focus points, less weight, and about $1800 less dollars out of my bank account for the kit with lens.  The sacrifices were easy to make to save all that cash, and I am beyond thrilled with the photos I'm able to get with this camera and my favorite 28mm lens!

ISO 100, 1/40, f/5, 28mm

I took this one and was impressed at the clarity in his face, so I zoomed in...

...and peed myself.  I could see all the little drops of water in his hair, which just blew my mind.  The only editing I did was the white balance.  Most of the photos I take with this camera are super sharp. 

ISO 1250, 1/4000, f/2.8, 28mm

The best thing about the full frame is the amount of light that hits the sensor.  It's a crazy difference looking through the viewfinder of this camera compared to my crop-sensor Rebel XSi.  It also has amazing ISO capability, up to 25,600 where my Rebel's limit was 1600!  In the one above, I set the ISO higher at 1250 because we were shaded by a tree, and there is no noticeable noise in the photo.  Win! 

ISO 4000, 1/3200, f/3.5, 28mm

In the above shot of our friend's 1 year old, it was overcast so I started playing around with the ISO.  I loved this shot with her kissy lips, and there is just a bit of noise at ISO 4000 in this photo.  She is so adorable! 

ISO 100, 1/250, f/2.2, 28mm

I took this photo of our friend's son Sammy at a festival, it was a lucky shot because he was making all kinds of funny faces.  I regret the people standing in the background, but I'm not good enough at photoshop to edit them out, and the large aperture makes them nice and blurry. 

ISO 400, 1/250, f/9, 28mm

I snapped this one at a cool Alterra coffee in Milwaukee, it was blazing hot and Ashford would've jumped into this awesome fountain if we let him!  I love the lines in the photo, and the way the baby is looking at the camera while eating germs off that random water toy.  I chose a smaller aperture to make sure the scene behind him was in focus.   

ISO 100, 1/160, f/3.2, 28mm

I set the camera on a little table outside to try to get a couple nice photos of me and Ash....good luck!  I think I look nice, but he was not interested in photos that day.  I still think the quality of the photo is really good for being a remote shutter pic.

ISO 100, 1/80, f/2.5, 28mm

I also had to share this sparkly-eyed shot of little Sammy, he is just a beautiful boy and the light from the window was doing awesome things for his eyes.  I thought about warming up the color a bit, but he really is a pretty pale kid so I left it!  One thing that I always marvel at with the 6D, is the slower shutter speeds I can get away with.  This one is 1/80 and usually I would get a softer photo, but this one is very sharp.  

ISO 100, 1/250, f/2.5, 28mm

This pic was obviously Ashford's first haircut.  He was not pleased.  And I must admit, I am not pleased that my little baby now looks like a 4 year old! 

ISO 250, 1/160, f/5, 28mm

I can't wait for that hair to grow back!

ps - Hmmm...looking back at this post, I seem to spend entirely too much time taking photos of 1 year olds.