Phase 1 of our "Big" Kennel Project is completed...Day 116 of our Productivty Project

A few days ago, I left Superman a hair raising status update on FB detailing how I'd spent the afternoon and evening in the garage playing with just about every power tool we own, plus paint.  I think he nearly had a heart attack, especially after I wouldn't tell him what I'd been working on.

Phase 1 - Finished!

I've finally done the last of the painting, so I can say we've finished Phase 1 of the Big Kennel Project and I'm ready to share the pictures of our progress to date.

This is where we began:



Dog kennel:  Unfinished dry wall, exposed insulation (thanks to Lucy!)
Unfinished fence boards to protect the drywall from the chewer (aka Lucy).
Basically, it was a terrible eyesore.

Honestly, the dog have never complained, but it was certainly an eyesore.  I've been promising Buttercup that I'd do something about it for more than a year and my productivity project seemed to have been the perfect motivation.  Still, we had the self-imposed constraint of using stuff we already had laying around to manage our transformation.  This had to be a completely free project.

Step 1 - Buttercup was itching to get painting, so I handed her the "mango madness" left from our formerly "Macaroni & Cheese" basement and set her free.

Buttercup makes quick work of the painting.

She made quick work of it, even with it needing two coats.  (We didn't primer first.)  After that, I got to work with the "construction" part of the project.

This wall needed to be insulated, so I used a box
cutter and a knife and cut a piece of rigid insulation to fit.

Since my plan was to use the leftover wainscoting from our bathroom project, I added 1x1 for structure.  The nails needed somewhere to go, right?

After that, I pieced together the wainscoting and installed it all.   The fiberglass insulation was fine, it just needed to get tucked.

It was hotter than heck in that get-up, but those are my "grungies", so that
is how I geared up for this project.  (Plus, I used my nifty work gloves my
sister sent me...they really project your hands, but your exposed fingertips
make working in them a breeze!

This is how the wainscoting part of the project turned out.  Doesn't it look fabulous?

Finished wainscoting and trim board...

After that, I added some trim boards and moulding, painted the fence boards, and added a decal for fun.

A few coats of paint did wonders for these boards!

 Phase 1 finished and we did it all with scrap materials we had in the garage.  It was a great way to get more familiar with all of our power tools.  Phase 2 will be astroturf, a new food dish holder, and a new dog bed.  Oh, as I'm looking at the picture, I'm thinking ceiling paint should be added to the list, too!

Phase 1 is Finished, but Phase 2 is bouncing around in my mind.

116 Days and counting til Superman comes home.  I'd say we get to count this one as productive, too, wouldn't you?

Lots of Irons in the Fire

When you read DIY blogs with any regularity, you are presented with beautiful "before and after" pictures of amazing projects.  These blogs make it appear that these talented people live their lives sequentially, going smoothly through one project start to finish before they begin their next amazing project.

My life doesn't work that way.  Not even close.

Right now, I have a lot of irons in the fire.  If kept a photo log of them all, I would present them in nicely laid out progression of completed projects.  But I don't...I'm lucky if I can remember to snap ANY pictures along the way.  Still, I'm doing some fun stuff, so I thought I'd share some of it with you.


Finishing the garage gave me space to start working on others things.  In addition to the bathroom off the laundry room, I've decided to tackle the red bathroom.  Yes, red.  Learning to put on make-up with a red bathroom was quite a challenge, let me tell you.  This bathroom is the only room in our home that hasn't been painted in the five years we've lived here.  Why?  Because the paint was so horrible (it bled red every time I wiped it down), I was just sure that I'd have to use oil-based primer and it would be a horrible job.  When I was at Home Depot earlier in the week, though, the girl at the paint counter encouraged me to try Behr Ultra, Home Depot's new paint with primer included.  Painting meant the weird chair rail needed to be removed and, look, there is a strip of wallpaper that needs to be removed.  Yippee! 

Why did they leave this when they put up the chair rail?

  A lot of work needs to be done before I can think of actually painting, but still I am thinking about it.

For $2.50, I brought home a "flat" sample of the color I'm thinking of using.  She promised it would cover and I think she's right. 

There has been no bleed through. I'm so jazzed!  Maybe this won't be the horrific project I think it will be.  Yeah, I know, it will still be a big project.

While I was upstairs, I decided to add this shelf to our closet.  I love it.  It finishes the closet perfectly and gives me some much needed storage (which, you might notice, I already filled).

Love this shelf!  Only $12 and some effort!

In between all of this construction, I've been raising this cute girl...

and turning her into a crazy cat lady.

Should I be worried that Valiant took this pictures of his sister and the cats?

One of my cats thinks she's a dog and sleeps on the dogs whenever she can.

Cat-Dog?  (She's certainly big enough!)

She also heard that I'd decided to add pictures of my shoes to their respective boxes to make my closet more organized and wanted to be in on the project.

Needless to say, the project isn't done yet.

Oh, and Buttercup and I started volunteering at a local animal shelter two days a week.  (Valiant says he can't do it because he'll want to bring all the animals home.)

Still working on the laundry room and the attached bathroom.   So, here's the truth...I don't think anybody's life actually flows neatly.  I think we can make ourselves crazy holding ourselves to those "after" standards.  Life is messy, even when the pictures aren't.  The fun starts when we embrace it all. 

Yep, a lot of irons in the fire.

Remember these?

I made these tiles a few weeks ago, remember?  They were quick, easy, and gratifying because they turned out well.

I was talking with Gail at My Repurposed Life as I was thinking about how to frame some of them.  (If you don't know her, you should get to know her, she is super handy, super creative, and super resourceful.)  She was worried that I'd do something that my be ill-advised.  (I wouldn't have, but she doesn't know me IRL, so she couldn't have known that.)  I decided making a frame was going to be more work than I wanted to do, so I ended up cutting pieces of wood to size and gluing my tiles on them.   Plus, I had a deadline, since I wanted a bunch of them to be gifts.  This is what I ended up with:

Then I added hangers to the back and put them on the walls. 

I think they turned out pretty cute, don't you?  (Sorry for the crummy photos...I just snapped them in a hurry.  They're hanging up in my home.)

Gail, thanks again for taking the time to answer me.  Don't worry...I'll be back with more questions, but not on this project! 

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

...so Lilsista will completely understand why I pulled over and bought this for $5!


In case you all aren't aware of what I'm talking about, look at this gorgeous planter that Lilsista made, complete with step-by-step instructions. It is so awesome that even Superman gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up!

(This is her photo, too! I totally "borrowed" it to show it to you all.)

Guess I know what we're working on this weekend!

P.S. We still don't know what is wrong with our Lucky Baby. As I type this, we've already dropped her off for a kitty ultrasound and we're just waiting for the call to pick her up and take her back to the animal hospital. Sigh...

How I store unfinished projects...

I almost always have a few projects going simultaneously. It just seems to work out that way. With my "craft room" being a corner of our family room, I've found it vital that I clean up my projects if I walk away for any length of time. It took me awhile to find a system for cleaning up my stuff that allows me to dive right back into the project when I have a chance. Now that I have a system that works well, I thought I'd show you what I do.

First, I have the flat Ikea storage boxes (the ones you assemble yourself). I know they're cardboard, but they're tough. The boxes I'm using were originally in Buttercup's room to help her store pictures she drew, small little toys she'd collect, etc. I'm guessing these are about 7 years old and they still look pretty good, so the boxes really are terrific (and inexpensive!). The great thing about these Ikea boxes is that they come in a variety of sizes and colors, so they work well for different types of projects.

When I'm not working on any project, the boxes are in a nice little stack on my shelf. (I know I should probably label them every time I begin a new project, but I don't seem to have projects going long enough to make it worth my time.) Each project gets a separate box that I can pull out when I have time to work on the project. In each box, I place everything for that project...all in one place and all together!

Currently, I've got Buttercup's pajama pants, the Valentine's wreath from Little Birdie Secrets, and some Valentine's bar towels I'm embellishing. As you can see, all the stuff for each project fits in its box, so I never am scrambling for the elastic for the pajama pants or the glue when I have time to work on the wreath...everything is right there. When I am done working for that session, I just pack it all back up and slide it back on the shelf. By doing this, my projects are ready for me whenever I have the time to work on them...I don't spend a lot of time looking for missing elements, etc.

Maybe this was obvious to you and you already do this, and if it was, good for you! For me, however, doing this has made it much less stressful to work on my projects. For all you moms, this is a great way to lead by example...how many times have you heard your children protest that they can't clean up because they're RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF whatever it is they are doing? If they see you do it, too, they'll be much more likely to follow your example.

Do you have any clever ideas for keeping your stuff safe and organized when you aren't done with it? Do tell!

P.S. Have I mentioned how much I miss Ikea?