Friday and beyond, Flipping Little Blue House

On Friday while a young man fixed the concrete around the foundation where there were cracks, I worked on the front bedroom.  I painted the top half the day before the Icey Waterfall, and had caulked.  On Friday I painted the bottom Pale Wildflower Blue and the trim board running around the room white, the crown white, and the baseboards while, really white.  On Monday when I returned to the house I took a picture of the room, and it is really nice, but I have a new Galaxy s8 and I don't have a usb cord with it so I can add pictures.  I am so angry about that.

On Monday scrubbed the glue goop on the floor of the front room in preparation of sanding it.  When you use the industrial sanders and the sanding pads are $12, you don't want to mess them up.  Having glue on the floor gums them up and you use more.  Oh, it will sand it off, but it will get gummy and you'll lose your ability to sand with that pad.  So I'd rather scrub it off myself.

I use Goof Off or Goo B Gone to spray on the lines.  Then using a sponge scrubber with the green rough side, and steel wool and scrapper, and I work my way around the room.  Its a messy, time consuming job.  I got the middle of the room and up one side done on Monday, along with caulking the 2nd bedroom around the baseboards, paneling and windows. 

On Tuesday I painted the top part of the 2nd bedroom the Pale Wildflower Blue.  Also I was working around the door dude who was putting on the doors. 

He disassembled the door, I mean all the framing, even taking off the glass door.  Then he began on the back exterior door.  I liked him, but he was messy and I really am not sure that all the framing needed to be disassembled.

My other plumber/electrician came by and I showed him everything I wanted to do

Wednesday, I caulked the kitchen and fixed ceiling cracks and made videos of that, but now I find I have a problem and can't put them on here.  I'm going to the T Mobile tomorrow and get a USB cord, because I feel I owe that to you guys, to have pictures.  I've taken so many and so many videos.  My first videos on Wednesday were horrible.  I was trying to hold the phone and work the caulk gun, it was awful, but....I eventually on Friday got it worked out.  More on that later.

After the door guy finished, and I finished all my caulking I was about to leave and was locking the new door when I found that he'd left huge gaps around the doorframe between frame for glass door and the other door.  I had already pointed out the gap in the floor from his tear out, and he'd three times gone to lowers to get thresholds to cover it.  Finally he got it, but he screwed it in where you can see it, and there were holes on both sides where I can see light outside.  I've started caulking that, but I'm not happy with it.  I went to Home Depot and told them about the gaps, and they had no advice, so I bought some thin molding and went back and worked until 6 p.m. trying to cover the gaps.  I eventually glued them and taped them on to dry on one side.  If it works, I planned to put the second piece I bought at Home Depot.

Friday when I got there, I found it kind of worked, but glass door wouldn't shut with it there where the handle turned, so I tried just cutting it out at that point, but in the process loosened the lower half that I had glued the day before.  I eventually pulled it off and used the piece as a shim and will get another piece to shim in.  I'll try and get pictures on here of what I ended up with.  if my plumber/electrician guy shows up I hope he will have an idea.  I also went back to Home Depot and showed them pictures of the gaps and they suggested weatherstripping.  I went back to house and yes, that would fill the gap on the side I hadn't worked on, but for the life of me I can't seem to get it to stay.  Again I need the other guy to help me.  He had said he'd be here today to start all the projects I have for him, but I didn't see him all day.  I guess he didn't finish yesterday's job. I do wish he'd called.

After I finished working on the doors, I did the video of how to load and unload the caulk gun and how to open new tubes.  By propping phone on a chair I can sit in floor, hold the gun and operate it with two hands.  Once I get a usb corn,
I'll post two or three videos I did. 
 
By lunch at 1 when I figured out the worker was not coming, I told my hubby since carpet is being installed in the back two big rooms on Monday, I need to get all that carpet our and tomorrow start tiling the laundry closet and entry.  So he went back to home and got pickup and I went to blue house and started ripping up carpet and tearing it into manageable strips.  My knife was awful so I used a handsaw.  I had more than half  of the ping pong room cut up when he got there , and we switched off sawing and eventually got all the carpet and pad out.  The carpet we were able tor oll up, but the pad was glued in spots so it came out in shreds.  He took a load to the dump of carpet and we left some pad in the backyard.  Tomorrow is suppose to be cold so we won't take another load until next week. 

I was exhausted by the time we got the carpet out, so I came home, chilled and took an hour long bath.  Tomorrow I'll clean those floors in those two rooms and start tiling it.  We found 3 kinds of tile under the carpet.  It was interesting because I had used all three sometime in my history in my homes and rentals.    Funny story, on the way to lunch I kept thinking it was noisy in the van.  When I got to restaurant, I found I had left the hatch door open on the van.  Good thing the restaurant was close.  My van is packed to the gill with tools, paint, etc. and nothing had blown out.  I think the old brain was tired.  This is a picture of the little blue house from two years ago when we tried to sell it when son moved to Perryton.  We ended up renting it for two years, and in that time it now has a new black roof and new hvac.  Since I can't get to my new pictures, I can share old ones.  However, a lot of them are on another computer which is broken and on old phones.  But I'll try and find some to show you so you have an idea of what we are talking about.

This door is now for sale.  We have a white with leaded glass, fiberglass door.

The Little Blue House: Flipping a Second Time

A few years ago, my son wanted to be a homeowner.  He and I went shopping for a home, and he found the one he thought he loved the most.  It was a repo; in a historic area.  A little blue house with a great front porch, original 1942 wood floors in several rooms, and a huge master bedroom added on with a fireplace, and another half bath, laundry and a den.  It had 1420 sq ft, a deck out back with a fort for kids, two storage buildings, but as most repos are, there were issues.

I bought the house as a flip, did all the work, added a lot of special things to say "Bachelor Man who Loves sports".  He was out of town on a job for two months, and when he came back, he got to see it for the first time fixed up.  The biggest surprise was a whole wall mural of the Thunder basketball teams logo which I had painted on it.  I had done chrome as a back splash in the kitchen and hung a chrome light where the table should go.  He had picked out all the colors:  living room and back rooms (which had a lot of paneling) icy waterfall (a soft white blue).  His bedroom which was the front room a turquoise on bottom and white on top.  The second bedroom screaming mint green, and the bathroom that color.  The kitchen was a bright turquoise blue.  I refinished the wood floors in the living room and kitchen but left carpet every where else.  It had older central heat and air and a working floor furnace.  This house had character.  It was a couple blocks from the expensive older plantation style homes, so I was able to get it really cheap and then sell it to my son for what I had in it. 

He moved in, got an exchange student and lived there a year.  At the end of the year, his student went back to Germany and he moved to a small town north of our home town to start coaching and teaching at a school there, where his girlfriend lived and taught.  Later that year they married.  He tried to sell the house, but the market wasn't good at that time, so he ended up renting it.  We had wonderful renters that year, but they got transferred up north the next year and we had to get more renters.  I won't say much about them, but now that they are out, I'm remodeling the house I remodeled 3 years ago.  During the rental period my son put on a new roof (black, love it) and replaced the HVAC.  He'd had a major leak in sewer under deck fixed, which made the house settle, and the deck.  So now I'm flipping this house for him, so he and his wife can get the down payment for a house where they just moved to a new coaching and teaching position, and where she can work on getting her doctorate degree, which should take 4 years since she teaches fulltime. 

So I plan to chronicle the life of a flipper for this house.  A Tale of One Flipper doing it Twice. 

I was in San Antonio remodeling a large 1820 1960's home, and finished it and put it on the market.  I left on Sunday to come home to start this flip.  MONDAY:  Tired from the 9 hr trip, I slept in, called the utility company to get water in my name, and then I went to see the little blue house.  I did a quick walk through to get some idea of what I was facing and called my son with a report.  We made a few plans.  We decided getting the foundation done first was the most important thing, because once you get it leveled again, you will probably get new cracks in walls and ceilings from moving it.  So I called a man I knew who had lifted my house a few years earlier at a really good price, and made an appointment for him to come over the next day.  I also met my plumber who helps me on my rentals, and he made sure we had no plumbing issues.  I decided to stick to Icy Waterfall for the walls, as that's what was already there and would be easier to cover than the gray I brought back from my flip in San Antonio.  (Funny side on water, they told me that there hadn't been a meter in the house for 9 months, and when it was it was in the first renters' name.  For the life of me I can't figure out how the second renters had water!!)

TUESDAY:  I got up early and went to Walmart and bought Icy Waterfall.  I goofed and got Satin, which is what I use usually except in kitchens and baths, and when I got to house, I realize I'd used semi gloss because we were covering gloss and stain on a rough texture.  So I kept it and decided to cover the two back rooms in satin and the front bedroom.  Before I do the living room, I'll buy semi gloss Icy Waterfall.  I then also bought some painting supplies I'd not brought from San Antonio (although my van is completely filled with flip equipment), things such as goof off, tape, etc.  Then I went to the house and painted the two back rooms.  I had to do a bunch of cleaning first, because the renters little 2 year old had decorated the walls with crayon and chalk.  Chalk came off the paneling easily but had to use the goof off on the crayons, and then paint them with Kilz spray so they wouldn't bleed through the paint.  My foundation man came and gave me a bid and said he'd start the next day.  I had sent my hubby to Dollar Tree (he went to Family Dollar) to get a bunch of cleaning supplies, but I found some super clean in my van and a few things I'd bought at Walmart like sponges and blue rolls of wipes.    I also scrubbed every inch of the kitchen because it was nasty, all walls, all counters and all appliances and counters.  there were rodent pills there too, and as it turned out my foundation man was a licensed pest man, so he said he'd deal with that after the foundation was level.  I was having trouble with the locks on the doors, so he said he'd get new ones and fix the doors.  Sounded like a match made in heaven.  I had to leave doors unlocked that night since I couldn't get them to work. 

WEDNESDAY:  The foundation guys were everywhere, in and under the house.  They felt I was in the way, so I left.  I went to Lowes and picked out the carpet I wanted to use, which is the same Cornerstone legendary I always use, but was getting a light beige rather than the gray I normally use.  I paid the $35 to get the house measured.  At this point I wasn't sure how much we'd carpet. I got back to the house later in the day and they were about through with the foundation and one of the men was changing the locks.  He ran into a problem and said he'd work late until he got too tired.  So I left again and went shopping for art supplies because I love art, and the grandkids were coming, and I wanted to do some samples to show them. 

THURSDAY:  The foundation man said the doors were too old to fix.  He suggested I get new ones.  So I went shopping for doors.  I went to four or five places.  I decided on fiberglass for the front door and metal for the back.  I bought the doors at the last Lowes I went too late that evening and borrowed my husbands pick up and Jose at Lowes loaded them for me.  I took them to my second garage and parked them for the night.  I also started painting the white uppers on the front bedroom.  I swept all wood floors.  I used plastic to cover the floors of the front bedroom to protect the floors, as I'd had the foundation men remove all carpet in the front two bedrooms.  Also the man from Lowes came to measure the house for carpet.  I had him measure the front two bedrooms separate from the two large back rooms, as I wasn't sure what part of the front would be left wood at that point. 

I will stop here for the timebeing and when I come back to writing next time, I'll have pictures to show you.  it should get more interesting from this point on.  But I felt that if you watch HGTV, all you hear on the first days is "Today is demo day."  I don't demo.  I maintain the integrity of the home, its historical assets the best I can.  If it isn't broken, I don't fix it.  Walls stay in place.  Cabinets too unless eaten by rodents like one house was.  Usually I repaint them if they are ugly and always get new hardware.  I usually get appliances, but this house doesn't need them.  So this is going to be a much cheaper flip than normal.  Usually I spend from $20,000 to $35,000 on repairs.  I'm hoping to keep this one under $10,000. 

So until next time, have a good time.

Little Diva Table

I'm down in San Antonio for a dentist appointment, and got a contract on my newest flip house, so I'm going to hang out here through the inspections to see if I need to make any repairs.  I'm staying at Tera's house, and we both have had dentist appointments.  I got a temporary crown yesterday, and Tera was going to go tonight for one, and before she left, I bit into some Cheese Bread from Little Caesers, and my new temporary came off in two pieces.  BREAD?  Anyway, I guess I'll go back to the dentist tomorrow, but for tonight I want to share about the Little Diva Table.  I planned it for a little girl's bedroom.

I picked up four items at the Ladies Center one day, and two of them were 1950's Mid Century lamp tables.  Much smaller than we use today, and two tiers.  Both were brown wood, and Tera wanted one to make a block table.  So loving folk paint, I kept one to make the little Diva Table.  Not a lot of planning went into it.  I let the creative juices flow and looked at a lot of pictures of other tables at the website Decorative Paintbrush (love these gals' furniture) to get ideas.

I first covered the table with chalk paint (my last time to use it) so that I wouldn't have to sand it.  Then after 2 coats, I put my semi gloss white I keep around the house, several coats for depth.  Then I let the creative juices start.

I started at the bottom of the table with the curved legs and the cross bars, and chose four colors to use.  I painted them solid and then later started designing some designs for them.   Then I moved up to the big shelf and did some designs around the edges and painted a big butterfly (stenciled it on and then painted it).  Next I painted the legs of the upper tier, and finally the top tier which is half as big as the bottom shelf.  My daughter had made me buy these tables because they were identical to ones my Mom had.  She's now deceased, but we both had feelings for these tables, even though this one no long resembles Moms.  While I was painting this table, and it did take weeks, as I was letting artistic juices work when the urge hit - so I had the table sitting in the kitchen for a while, - my granddaughter, who was 2 at the time, loved to use it as a ladder to stand on to get up to the bar to see what was up there.  Anyway you will see from the pictures that the top tier I used a sponge and dabbed on a blue sky,  and dabbed on butterflies using stencils and using a brush put black lines to make them to appear to be flying.  I use acrylic paints from Michaels for all artwork, and the stencils from there too.  I used a lot of painter's tape to get the lines straight where I stopped colors.

Taped off the area where butterfly went.

Stencils were used for checkerboards under top tier.  Hand painted the little flowers and hearts down the sides.

See the thin pink line around top tier.  It's little things like that which make it unique.

After all the artwork was finished, the table was sprayed with clear gloss Rustoleum from Lowes, to set the acrylic.  You could not brush it on as the acrylic would smear.  Once I got the gloss over the acrylic, I added several layers of polyurethane with a brush for protection from wear and tear, and then one more coat of spray gloss.  Remember these last layers add shine and protection. 

This table has traveled with me to San Antonio two times as staging tools.  The lady who bought my first house wanted me to include it in the sale, but I wouldn't.  I'd sell it for $75 to someone, but I'm not throwing it into a sale.  It is now serving as the sidetable in the little girl room of the house I got a contract on today!!!

 

I think I had more fun painting this than anything I've ever painted.  I just had fun putting lines, hearts, checks, butterflies, just anything I wanted.  Folk art for sure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Brick Wall to Tan Brick Wall

Judy writing again today, early in the morning, as I haven't been asleep since 3 a.m.  Taking my thyroid meds in the evening is NOT a good idea.  lol. 

Anyway thought I would share a quick post today.  Several years ago I was remodeling a rent house for a neighbor of mine.  He decided to sell it rather than clean it up after his last renters left it a mess.  We went in and retextured the walls, stripped the floors and refinished them (I posted pictures of those in a blog about wood floors), we painted the walls, the cabinets, and changed a den into a bedroom by removing a bar that separated the dining room from the den; and then adding a wall there; and then enclosing that wall with semi walls and doors to make a closet.  This turned the house into a 3 bedroom rather than just a 2 bedroom.  He would not have been able to get $55,000 for this house before the remodel and he sold it for $75,000.  The appraiser who came was astounded by the house, as he said he had preconceived ideas based on the address.  He was very happy to find a completely redone home.

When freshening up the kitchen, we removed the doors of the cabinets and painted them white, and we were going to change the hardware but there was a size problem. so we painted the handles and pulls and reused them.  We did nothing to the counter but clean it.  We stripped the floor of several layers of linoleum and filled in some rotted areas with sizing cement, and then laid a nice neutral multi-toned "peel and stick" vinyl tile.  This is easy to do.  It goes fast, and I'll do a blog on it sometime, as I've done it several houses, rentals and flips, and my own in the past.  They are pretty durable, give a room a fresh feel and are cheap.  The ones used in this kitchen were like 33 cents each.  I believe I was able to do the whole kitchen/dining area for about $75. 

Dining area in process of being tiled.  I started at most visible side of room and worked my way forward and sideways.  This way all cuts are on one side of room, the least visible.  Saves tiles when you cut only one side rather than starting in middle and having to cut both sides like I did with ceiling tiles in San Antonio.  What  a bummer that was!!
 

This had a fake brick wall behind where the range would sit.  After we did white cabinets, cappuccino white walls, and multi-toned beige tiles, the red brick stuck out like a sore thumb kitchen .

You can see that even when red, not any ONE brick was exactly like the other.

To change that problem, I brought my acrylic art paint over and some brushes.  I cleaned the brick first as they were greasy due to being over a range for years. 

  I chose several tones of beige and brown and began to paint the brick.  I poured these differing colors into a palette so I could have access to all of them.  I do believe I used four different ones, but it might have been just 3.  (remember this was several years ago).  I took my brush and started painting the bricks with slashes of the darkest color.  I did NOT fill in the whole brick,  just slashed some of the darkest color across the bricks, all in different places.  I did not want a uniform look.  Bricks are NOT uniform.  Go outside if you have a brick house and look at the bricks.  Each is unique and different unless just a solid colored brick like mine at my house.  So after I did the dark color, I did the lightest, also just slashing it over the red, but not the darkest color.  Then after all had both colors I filled in those areas not covered with a third color.  And the last steps was to take the 4th color and just slash across all three other colors in a random way.  I was very pleased with the outcome.  When I compared the bricks to the floor, they matched. 



New floor and brick wall, newly painted cabinets.

After the house went on the market, my real estate office came to do their tour, and I had several ladies ask if I had installed that new brick wall to match the floor.  When I told them it had originally been a red brick wall,  they just shook their heads.  Unbelievable, one said.  I also had prospective buyers ask the same thing.  I do NOT believe anyone would guess that the wall had been a grimy greasy red brick wall before this.

Cat Bed/House Out of Side Table

It's the night before Judy's birthday, and she's writing another blog. 

I worked on this project for several weeks without posting on facebook anything about it, or writing about it on my blog, because it was a surprise for my son and daughter in law who live out of town, and I wanted to get it finished, send them a  picture and then give them a chance to refuse it in case it wasn't something they liked.  I had a picture of my son's living room, so I knew the walls were pale green.  He had a white piece of furniture in the hallway, and wood bookcases, and a black/glass side table so I wanted to make it fit in; however, now that they have "accepted" it; its going into the bedroom, so I have no idea if it good for the décor, or functionally better in the bedroom. 

I started out with a hexagonal lamp table, covered in brown laminate to look like wood, with heavy doors.  I got it at the Ladies Center like the zebra cart.  The day I got it was a marvelous shopping day  I got this table, two mid century side tables, and my round book table that's posted about, all for $35.00.  I've had it in the extra garage for almost 2 years waiting for someone to need a cat bed/house.  I've seen them on pinterest and really wanted to make one.  My son just got a new kitten, so it seemed like the perfect time.



The first thing I did was remove the doors.

Now what do you think I could do with this?  The doors.

Then I removed the laminate.  I just pulled it off the top.  But when I got to the sides, I needed a little heat, literally.  So I held a hair dryer blowing on the laminate as I used my other hand to pull it off.  Had it all off in less than 30 minutes.  Piece of cake!!  Much easier than removing wallpaper. 

Just pulled this off.

Had to use a hair dryer.

Laminate all gone.  Pressed wood all over!  That stuff can't get wet or it crumbles.

Then I got a can of 99 cent spray paint (bad idea, you get what you pay for) and sprayed the sides with a coat, but the pressed wood just soaked it in and you could barely tell it had anything on it, and I realized at that rate, we would use tons of cans of paint. 

Next I got my great Rustoleum paint and did two coats.  I Wasn't real satisfied with that though as the gloss was kind of hit and miss and the top of the table just looked weird.  I tried painting it with my interior semi gloss, but it left brush strokes.    So I decided to use my Walmart exterior white semi gloss, and I applied it with a small roller, so there would be no brush marks.  But before I did that, I noticed as I moved the table from the kitchen to the garage and back, every where I went there was weird dust, looked like mouse droppings.  Upon further checking, the bottom of the table was crumbling into tiny flakes.  Can't have that happen.  So I remembered buying some white duct tape at Home Depot.   I put the table on a rug in my living room upside down and I covered the bottom of the table where it sits on floor and the ridge that you can see with the white tape, and I really think its great for protection and I don't think you can tell its taped unless you look really close.  Now I move it around and no dust particles, plus no damage to wood floors.

After spray painting and using interior semi gloss.  I've got table upside down, and the part at the top is where I later added the duct tape.

After applying numerous coats of paint, went to  Joannes and shopped for material.  You will be amazed at how many kinds of "cat themed" materials there are.  I finally found the perfect one.  Keep in mind my son and his wife are both school teachers, so I found a pale green (remember living room wall color) with cats, and pencils and words like math, science, etc.  I thought that was perfect;  at this point they could still refuse the table, but I figured I'd find a teacher somewhere who wanted a table for her cat. I bought 2 yards of this material and when finished, still have a good piece left.  I could put in curtains. I measured the inside walls (5) and they were 11 inches wide each and 16 inches tall.  So I cut the material 55plus 2 (for overlap if needed)   x 16.5.  I had already painted inside the cat house in case no one wanted it covered or if cat ruins it.  Then I got table on counter so I could get into the table easier.  I started stapling it, stretching, staple, stretch, at the top all the way around the inside of the table.  It was so easy!!  It fit so well, and where it was too long because of what I had added, I turned it under for a nice edge.  After I had the top all stapled then I pulled it down taut and started stapling the bottom, making little waves so it looks like drapes rather than smooth and straight. Then I cut a piece of the cloth for the bottom and turned it under at the doorway and stapled it down all the way around.   After that I took a pillow form I had bought at Joannes and covered it with the same material.  I just hand stitched it together.  It fit in there perfectly.  So this kitty King Simba will have a nice soft bed.  I also bought a ceramic rectangle and painted it and press on letters at Michaels to make a name for the bed.  I was going to put it under the edge of the opening, but if I did, kitty might not get in without hitting it.  So I'm just going to give them the name plate and they can do with it what they want.

Cute kitty material, "teacher or school themed".  Its sort of a flannel.



The too large name plate

The final cat house before trim on edges.

After I finished with the interior, my son, Jeff came over to cut my wood trim I had bought at Home Depot to cover the edge of the table top as it was rough and unprofessional looking, and around the opening of the interior.  I didn't cut it myself because my miter box doesn't have a 30 degree cut.  (360 degrees divided by 6 is 60, half a 60 is 30 so that's the cut you need for your miter cut.)  Jeff had my electric miter saw that you can set for any angle, as he just finished laying laminate in a almost 4000 sq ft home.  So he came over and in about 15 minutes had all the cuts made, and nailed  the trim on with my nail gun; he even caulked the trim so it is seamless.    Then I painted it with two coats of white exterior paint, (I had already brushed on 2 coats also before he cut the 2 8' pieces) and while I did that, I put two more coats on the whole table.  I imagine by that time I had 7 coats of various paints on it; but if it gets hit, it is now less likely to chip.


The final step was covering it with Rustoleum clear gloss for further shine and protection.  I really loaded it on the top.  And who knows, before Sunday when they come to get it, I might add another layer on the top.  I don't think you can ever get too much on a surface that might someday have cups setting on it.  And the good news:  They loved it and want it. 

Final, see that trim.  Doesn't that add a professional touch?

Can you see gloss, shine?  Do you think King Simba will enjoy this bed?

But further good news, I found 2 more tables just like it at the Restore, and I may go back and buy them, and do two more tables as I have almost a full gallon of exterior paint left, and coupons galore from Joannes for material, and I just might be able to sell these tables for a little spending $$$.

Zebra Drink Cart

The zebra bar cart used as staging that I will tell you about in this blog.  This fireplace was a solid white when I bought the house, and the floor was blonde laminate,  yellow walls now gray with new texture and new 5 inch baseboard.  This is what I do for $$.
 

Judy here again.  I've been busy on a project this week, making a cat house/bed out of a hexagonal side table. HOWEVER, that is not what this is about. 

A few years ago, I discovered that the Ladies Center here in Amarillo takes donated furniture, clothes, baby supplies, art, purses, lamps, almost anything, and sells them really cheap.  I forget what I went in looking for, but I found a cute little book cart.  I had been watching Flea Market Flip a lot, and I had seen a lot of bar carts being made out of lots of different pieces of furniture, and when I saw that book cart, I thought:  bar cart.  Not that I needed one, as I don't drink; but I knew it would work for staging (and I'm using it right now in my house in San Antonio that's for sale) or I might sell it. 

I also knew that I had been wanting to do something in zebra print.  I found a small zebra painting on line, and got myself a canvas and practiced doing a zebra print on it, and yes, I could paint zebra print.

Needless to say, I bought the book cart, and took it home. 

As you can see it was wood and brown.  This was my first attempt at chalk paint.  I bought white at Michaels and started painting the book cart.  The reason I chose it was that it said you would NOT have to sand, and if there is one thing I hate doing, it is sanding.   Let me tell you that it was not a good experience for me.  I hated it.  I hated the look it created, all bumpy, dull and looked as if it needed sanding, which defeated my purpose of using it.  I read online that you are suppose to buy a wax to put on it, and I didn't feel comfortable with that.

So I lightly sanded the chalk paint which I had put 2 coats of on the book cart, and I then repainted it with my  white semi gloss paint I keep on hand for touch ups on my trim.  I liked that look much, much better.  I put several coats of white.

Chalk paint.  Yuck.
 

Semi gloss interior paint

Next I looked at my zebra canvas and copied that on both sides of the cart. 

Just before I tried the paper, see it on bar.

 Then I bought zebra wrapping paper and tried to decoupage it on the shelves, but that was disastrous.  Too flimsy; wouldn't stick, didn't go on smooth like wallpaper would have.  SO I TOOK IT OFF.  I had a carpenter over working outside, and he had seen what I was doing  While he was outside, I decided to just paint the zebra print onto the shelves like I had the sides.  I looked at the paper and my canvas while doing it.  Took about  thirty minutes.  My carpenter came in and said the paper looked good on the shelves as he saw the paper hanging off the bar.  I told him I had painted it, rather than using the paper, and he was so surprised.  He said it looked just like the paper!!  Success!

Just the top painted, but see how I tried to get stripes on sides and top to look like they are continuous.



Close up of how the zebra painting looks.

Next I painted the edges of the shelves black.

Next I spray painted two coats of clear gloss (Rustoleum brand) on all of the cart to give it shine.  Finally, I thought I was through, but someone told me they'd be interested in buying it from me if I added some "BLING".  So I went to Michaels and found some little strips of tiny rhinestones that are self sticking and came back and scattered them across the top and down the sides.  Since that day, my littlest grandson got hold of it while it was holding my t.v. in the converted garage I stayed in while remodeling the house in San Antonio, and picked some of them off before I saw him, so it is now missing some of the rhinestones, and if I ever decided to sell it; I'd have to get some more and put on it.  I never did send the new picture of it with rhinestones or bling to the lady.  I think I just wasn't ready to part with it.

This is it in the converted garage I lived in while remodeling it. 



Black front


 

All in all, I probably spent less than 3 hours working on this project; one of the quickest and cheapest I've done.  I got the book cart for $15 and I used paint I already had on hand.  I bought the wrapping paper and glue for decoupage, and I bought the rhinestones.  That's it.  That's all that I spent.  I think its elegant.

Go Thunder! Wall

Well, this Judy on a very sad day.  It's 9/11's 15th anniversary, and I've been watching all the tv specials about that day.  I must say I've cried a few tears today, and my heart goes out to all those who were affected by a loss of a loved one.  It has to be a life altering event. 

But I have a short post tonight.  If you have a favorite sports team, and want a fan's room or a man cave, this is the post for you.  However, if you've always wished you could paint vines weaving their way down your staircase, but HATE stencils (which I hate for large projects), then this is the post for you.  Or if you ever have to paint a scene for your child's choir project at school, again, this is the post for you.  When my daughter was in 5th grade she was in a Disney program and they did all the music from many Disney films and I was asked to make the backgrounds because the year before a friend and I had painted the background for Surfing Santa.  So I learned this trick then.

Later as a fifth grade teacher, we have the word silhouette in our vocabulary each year, and I wanted something to set this word into their brain.  So I posed each child in front of my chalkboard, but had it covered with black paper, and I shined an overhead projector at them, and traced their profile onto the black paper using chalk and then each child cut theirs out and glued it to a white paper.  We made a display without names and had the parents come in and find their child.  Later they got to take them home. 

So I've given you a hint.  You will need:  a projector, whatever it is you want to project on an overhead film sheet, a pencil or something to trace, and the paints to use later (acrylic is best as its washable if you make a mistake).  Plus brushes and drop cloths. 

To entice you to want to do this, let me show you my finished man cave for my son after he moved in.

He put programs from all the Thunder games he'd been to all around it.  This was a surprise for him, and I have pictures of unveiling it to him, and the surprise on his face.  I have to tell you it was a sad day when I had to paint over it to please renters, after he got a new job, a new wife and moved to another town.  Boo Hoo. 

Here's the wall pre painting.

Pretty plain room, huh?
 

 

1.  Decide your design and have an overhead film made of it.

 

2.  Get a projector ( I borrowed one from my church for this, but now I have my own as my sweet daughter got it for me at an auction).

 

3.  I put my projector on the fireplace across from this and positioned the picture onto the wall the size I wanted and the location and just left it on while I traced it.  I did turn out the lights so I could see all the details I needed to see.

 

4.  Trace the picture on to the wall.

 

5.  Be sure to put down drop cloths, as you may be messy like me.

 

6.  Then get paints and brushes and go to work.  It took me about 2 or 3 hours and after it dried next day I did some touchups.

 

7.  In the meantime, I wanted standout letters for THUNDER.  I found them all at Michaels, but they were missing U so I did an O and cut out the top.  Then I painted them all white (too bad I didn't buy prepainted ones like I see now)  and attached them with those stick on picture hangers that pull off without ruining the wall.

 

And that is all there is to it!  So easy.  You can do small designs and large designs. 

I'm not happy with the placement of the U as it looks too low or else N was too high.