Whitten Propety: DIY Light Fixture Makeover

At the beginning of the Whitten renovation when we demoed the house and removed things for remodeling and upgrading I decided to upgrade this little bathroom light fixture.  I thought it would be way cheaper than buying a new one and less wasteful than just throwing this one out because I didn't like it's current looks....Here's how the project went.

I removed the light fixture from the bathroom and took it to my garage.  After buying the spray paint and new modern style globes from Lowe's it was time to make it happen.  

I painted the fixture and installed the new globes and WALL-LA! It looks so much better.  I don't have a picture of it reinstalled in the bathroom but it looks awesome and matches the rest of the house now.  Although I did reuse the old it wasn't cheaper than buying new.  The globes were $10 a piece and I needed 4 of them so I had $40 in just the new glass plus the spray paint but of course I didn't use it all.  I still would go this route though to keep from throwing something good out!  

Whitten Property: DIY Board & Batten Shutters

As I mentioned in THIS POST Hendrik and I bought the Whitten investment property back in September of 2017.  As soon as I saw the house I feel in love and new I was fixing to make all my HGTV dreams come true.  I immediately started brainstorming and creating mood boards.  I new I wanted to paint the brick and I knew I wanted a specific look.  Part of that specific look was adding shutters to the house to really bring it to life.

My inspiration was exactly like this picture of board and batten shutters so I set out to make it happen!  I looked up several tutorials found through Pinterest and I watched several Youtube videos as well making sure I had as much knowledge as I could get about the project I wanted to complete.  After reading and watching up...I knew I could complete this.  I decided on my materials and measured my shutter space on the house and set out to make it happen.

shutter inspiration

I got all my supplies and set up my work station in my garage early one Saturday and got to work.  I finished all the shutters in one day doing all the measuring, cutting, nailing, gluing, and staining by myself.  I was/am super proud of myself!  Not because I thought I couldn't do it but because they turned out EXACTLY as I planned and look so professional!  That doesn't happen in life too often!

What you will need

• 1×6 poplar boards
• 1×4 poplar boards
• compound miter saw
• wood glue
• nail gun and nails (1 1/4″, 18 gauge finish nails)
• tape measure
• sanding sponges
• stain  (We used MinWax Dark Walnut.)
• rubber gloves and cloths for staining
• paint sticks to use as spacers 

Once my work station was set up and complete I got to work.  My first step was to cut all the wood pieces I needed in the proper lengths.  

Next I put 3 of the 1x6 boards together to make my shutter width and then measured and marked where the 1x4 cross pieced need to go on either end.

Once marked I first glued the cross piece on using wood glue.  The only reason I used this glue was for added support and connection to the other boards.  More of a safety but not necessary unless you really want to do it. Now that I've completed the project in the future I probably wouldn't do this step.

When I had the cross piece semi tacked on I used a paint stick as a spacer and then nailed the cross piece into position on either end of the shutter using a nail gun.

After gluing and nailing every piece together I had fully built shutters.  Now it was time to sand and prep for the stain I was going to later apply.  I used a small hand sander just to knock off any burs or splinters that would make staining harder.

After I sanded all the shutters I broke out the rubber gloves, rags, and stain and got my color on. I was so excited to see them come to life with the stain.  After staining they laid in my garage to dry and cure a bit while we worked on the outside of the house before installing.

When we installed them we used little brackets on either side of the shutter like you would a picture but they are locking brackets so the shutters are hung securely on the house but there aren't any screws or anything going through the front of the shutter into the brick of the house.  Not only does this look better it does less damage to the brick and allows for the shutters to be removed for cleaning, maintenance, or a change of the decor one day if needed.  

before anything had been done

in progress- paint on but no shutters yet

shutters on!!!!!

another view close up of new shutters

This was really the first project that I felt so good about from beginning to end.  Driving by the property daily now that it is complete I still love it as much as I loved the inspiration a year ago.  So glad I went this route and I'm also so glad I completed the project myself. These shutters were truly very easy and I recommend anyone to do it themselves.  This entire project cost me only $250 and a day of easy labor.  My cousin is a contractor and he said he would charge someone at least $1500 for the same work!  DIY may not always work out the way you want but on the times it does it's really so rewarding!

Apartment Remodel

One of my friends had graduated high school and was ready to branch out on her own.  We happened to have a little apartment available but it needed MUCH work!  Mainly it needed cleaning desperately and just refreshed with paint on any surface that it would stick too.  The apartment wasn't much to start but I think it turned out so cute and for what it is and the price it was pretty nice.  It is no mansion but it is a place to live and had a ton of potential.

Total amount spent was $2100 and that went towards:

• 2 window units with a/c and 1 with heat
• 2 new light fixtures- 1 LED fixture and 1 new ceiling fan/light combo
• new paint on every surface-walls, trim, ceiling, doors, cabinets, and cement paint on the floor
• appliances- stove and refrigerator
• painting supplies
• contact paper in marble finish $20 to do all the kitchen counter tops and had extra left over
• garage sale finds: medicine cabinet, area rug, wicker basket and wicker shelf unit

My friend and I did all the cleaning and painting ourselves.  I did a few DIY projects to fancy it up a bit.

One of the projects that finished up the apartment once we had painted and she was ready to move in was adding contact paper to the counter top in the kitchen.  The current counter top was just plywood so I bought 3 rolls of faux marble contact paper from Lowes totaling $20. 

Idea from Pinterest found HERE

It was easy to apply as the width of the roll was exactly what we needed so we didn't have to make a lot of cuts and such.  It took maybe 30 minutes to get the counter tops covered and it looked fantastic! It is wipe proof so easy to clean and is WAY better than plywood.   This was a Pinterest win for sure!!!

finished counter tops

Another DIY project I did was creating a fancy light fixture with materials I already had on hand. Another Pinterest find and another win!

Idea from Pinterest found HERE

I had the hanging flower basket on hand that I never use, silver metallic spray paint from Lowe's and some crystals in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby to make this light fixture come to life.  

Here are all my supplies

cheap!

I had a vision of turning the hanging basket into a true chandelier but it didn't work as well as I thought.  It looked DIYed!  Once I got it in the designated bedroom and tried separating the three strands to hang it chandelier style it looked cheap.  So I went back to the original idea.  I took off the chains and rearranged the crystals and mounted the basket to the ceiling around the light fixture flush to the ceiling using little eye-hooks.

finished product

It turned out SSOOOO cute!! I love it and the renter loves it too, it is the perfect touch for her bedroom.

Both of these Pins happen to come from the same place http://industrystandarddesign.com so I am going to definitely check out more of their featured DIY projects in the future.

For the master bedroom we painted walls, ceiling, floor, and installed new light fixture.

Before (left) After (right)

Garage sale wicker shelving unit that we spray painted white to give it a refresh for bathroom storage.

Before (left) After (right)

The kitchen, dining, living room we painted walls, ceiling, floor, cabinets, and applied the contact paper to the counter tops.  I don't have great pictures of the after on this but you can see the clean refreshed look that paint gave. 

Before (top) After (bottom)

The second bedroom was a horrible shade of Pepto pink and it looked amazing after.  The window still needed to be repaired at this point but all surfaces were repainted.  My friend used this room as a glam room/ closet.  

Before

After

A couple more of the before and after of that living area before any appliances and furniture were moved in.

I don't have any picture of the bathroom but all we did in there was a deep clean and some paint on the walls that were no tiled.

It took around a full week of us working day and night cleaning, painting, cleaning more for her to move in. She is on to Dallas in the next month for new adventures and so in honor of that I thought I better get this post up! LOL

Whitten Property: DIY Refinishing Hardwood Floors

September of 2017 Hendrik and I purchased our first investment property together and I had big plans of being an HGTV star! LOL. We planned on renting the property out after doing some updates and things.  I have a ton of posts of the before and after process in my drafts to work on but one that deserves its own is refinishing the real wood floors that were still intact in all 3 bedrooms.  I had never done any sort of refinishing or any sort of DIY renovations before so this entire process was a learning process.  I took advice from a carpenter that told me all the tools and things to use but I did ALL the work by myself and it was WORK let me tell you!  

left was after 1 sanding right is original 

After pulling the remaining carpet nails and things up around the edges the first step was sanding with a coarse grain sanding pad to get the old stain up.  

After I did the coarse pad twice I went back over it with a finer grain pad to smooth out the raw wood and finish cleaning it up.  Using the big sander was fun and I loved watching it just eat away at all the old stain.  The part that REALLY sucked was taking a little round sander and getting all around the edge of the rooms.  It was dusty, noisy, and hard to control not to mention it didn't do the same great job as the big belt sander.  I powered through though and did get it done.  You can notice in the picture below the outer border is a bit darker that is because of that one sander that I had to bend over and operate!

all done sanding and floor is ready for new stain

Once the sanding and clean up was all done it was time for new color!  I applied the stain in two coats to make sure the color was even. 

after stain but before sealer

After color went on I applied the sealer that protects the wood, the new stain, and also makes it a bit shiny.  I didn't use a super thick sealer as I wanted the farm house feel and more natural look not too shiny.

all complete and beautiful

The color of the floors ended up so rich and went perfect with the laminate floors that were going throughout the rest of the house.  I'm glad that I learned this process and also that the floors turned out so great.  It was such hard work and a long process.  For an impatient person like me it was aggravating because I just wanted it to be done but there are so many little things that go into it.  I would definitely redo original wood floors in the future because now that I have done it once I understand the process.  Not only does it help preserve the house but it is also cheaper than installing new flooring of any type in my opinion.  

More to come on the Whitten Property...soon!