Yesterday, with Hurricane Sandy approaching New Jersey, my husband and I managed to clean out the garage enough so we were actually able to park both of our cars in our two-car garage. Getting the cars in our garage is a major accomplishment, since this is the first time we’ve parked both cars in the garage since we moved in more than nine years ago. In the garage is so much stuff – boxes of stuff for storage, bikes, ladders, a lawn mower and plenty of recreational items like beach umbrellas, folding chairs and athletic equipment. We were able to make space in the garage by stuffing lots Continue reading...
Organization Spree: The Kitchen
I've been on an organizing kick lately. This year, I've blogged frequently about how I'd like to create a fun, but clean basement playroom for my kids. (Check out my posts on my plans for fixing up our unfinished basement on the cheap). My kids currently have a play space in our unfinished basement, but the toys are stored in open storage, which makes the basement playroom space look messy. Plus, since the basement is unfinished, the only color in the space (besides the toys) is the drab gray of the basement floors and walls. I like what the folks at mom blog, My Blessed Home, did for Continue reading...
Updated Entry Hall
I should be working on a freelance story I have this week, but the mess in my home’s itsy-bitsy entry hall has just been irking me! My home is almost entirely filled with carpeting. (I would LOVE wood floors, but I know I will never have those, unless I won a home makeover contest or something.) Wood floors are just so beautiful and are much easier to clean! I hate vacuuming and tend to destroy my vacuum cleaners! So in my house, we take our shoes off before coming into the house to keep the carpets clean. I wasn’t used to it at first, but now I like taking my shoes off when entering a Continue reading...
Keeping the Stove Clean
If there’s one thing that drives me crazy about my kitchen, it is how there are spaces between the stove and the countertop. The spaces are just big enough to allow particles of food and spices to slip between the cracks, making it difficult to keep the kitchen clean. I cringe to think about what’s probably accumulated between the stove and my home’s kitchen cabinets! (I am afraid I’ll rip the laminate flooring in my kitchen or cause worse damage if I try to move the stove to clean behind it.) I’ve thought about caulking the space, and have kept a large cutting board over one of the Continue reading...
Sprucing Up a Storage Shed
With the weather so nice the other day, I decided to get some much needed home improvement work done. I posted way back in June about how I planned to get several DIY projects completed, including staining a weathered wood ramp that leads to our outdoor storage shed. My husband and I had the ramp for the backyard shed installed more than a year ago, and unfortunately, we never got around to staining and weather protecting the wood. So with the kids back in school, and the weather bright and sunny, I decided to tackle that project last week. I started out by purchasing a gallon of Continue reading...
Shade Garden Complete For Now
Thanks to my setback, where I accidentally sliced through a Verizon cable while preparing my side yard's shade garden, it took me longer than I expected to complete a new shade garden for my home. The garden is nearly complete now, except for a small patch that I've left exposed, without a covering of red garden stone, because I am still waiting for Verizon to come in, take out the temporary cable that they installed, and bury a new permanent cable . But, I am happy with what I've been able to complete so far. I've lined my shade garden with a red gravel, and have planted the bed Continue reading...
Day 1: Digging a New Shade Garden Bed
I while back, I posted about my plans to put in a shade garden on the north side of my home. Well, this past weekend, I got started earlier on the garden than I thought I would. Saturday morning I drove past a garden nursery that was having a 30% off sale for all of its plants. I had to take advantage of it! So, I wound up purchasing three boxwood plants for about $11 each. So, later that day, while the kids were playing outside, I decided to try to get started on the bed. I started digging up the sod, and the grass came up easier than I thought! I guess I have all the rain we've Continue reading...
Pallet Furniture
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with pinning images of DIY wood pallet furniture. Just search “pallet furniture” on Pinterest, and you’ll find really creative ideas for homemade wood pallet coffee tables, patio furniture and even home theater seating. The pallets most DIYers are after are made of wood and are used to pack goods while being shipped. The wood pallets can be often picked up for free in parking lots or dumpsters – just be sure to check that the pallets are being discarded before you start loading them into your car! Repurposed Pallet Furniture One pallet furniture piece I Continue reading...
Finishing Unfinished Business
Walk through my home, and you’ll find a bit of unfinished work. In the garage, there are the unfinished stairs the builder put in that could still use a coat or two of stain. Outside, there is the ramp that we had built for our backyard shed that now, two years later, could use some stain. The wooden perimeter (at the bottom of the shed) could also use some stain. Then, there’s the unfinished pine stairs that lead to our unfinished basement. The stairs have never been stained and are now a bit dirty. Because I hope to improve my home's unfinished basement this summer, I Continue reading...
Finishing a Basement on a Budget
*This post contains affiliate links. I still haven't gotten around to clearing out my home's basement (or at least, moving all the junk to just one area of the basement), but I am excited about new DIY finishing a basement on a budget ideas that I've found online. At the moment, my basement is mostly used for storage. My husband installed a wall of shelving in our basement for me. The shelves do a great job in containing our stuff! My dream for the basement would be to create a fun game room for my kids, complete with a TV, ping pong table and mini fridge! I have even put my own Continue reading...
Chain Link Privacy
As I’ve blogged before, I’ve been obsessed with creating privacy for our chain link fence. For the past several months, I’ve been thinking about how to add privacy to the chain link fence, either through planting shrubs and trees or through adding a fence screen of some kind. The fence drives me crazy, because there is a schoolyard with a playground behind it. Kids are out in the playground throughout the day, and even after school for after-school care. The kids are nice and friendly, and always want to know what we are eating, etc., when we try to have our dinners out on the Continue reading...
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