I've wanted a chalkboard for ages and hunted high and low for a long skinny frame that would suit the space I need the chalkboard for. I searched thrift stores and regular stores. And then I gave up and asked Warren to make me a frame.  While he was doing that, I painted a piece of particle board (like MDF) first with 4 coats of magnetic paint and then with 2 ...

Owning a home is great, until maintenance is required. Replacing fence posts was on the task list today because the post had rotted at the point where it met the concrete and the fence was starting to fall over into our neighbour's yard. Unfortunately for us, the posts holding up the fence that we share with our 3 neighbours are in our yard so the job of fixing lands on ...

I've gone all Martha Stewart on myself and have been making pillow covers. I re-covered all the existing and boring pillows in the house and today I needed to finish up 2 more but I'd run out of pillows. I already had the pillow stuffing and didn't feel like journeying to Joann's to buy a yard of cotton fabric so I went through my husband's closet and found an old ...

The fireplace remodel started almost a year and today the last of the stone veneer was put in place. Warren started the project last summer but had to put it on hold when we started the kitchen remodel. Then I got him to make me a window seat to finish the kitchen off so the fireplace has been waiting for months for it's final skin.  The fireplace sat like this for ...

Its taken many weeks of blood, sweat and tears but the kitchen is finally finished. The final piece was the lighting.  This is the 'before' of the lighting in the kitchen. I intentionally kept the picture dark to show the lighting. We considered keeping the fluorescent light and painting the trim around it the same colour as the ceiling. I'm glad we didn't.  We had the recessed lighting installed (there is one in ...

We needed a new kitchen table for our window seat and so I went hunting. I wanted an oval table, preferably with a pedestal because of where it will sit in the kitchen area. Legs would get in the way.   I found a new one at a furniture store for $250. I found the exact match at the thrift store for a whopping $30. Sold! I brought it home and ...

Building a window seat is pretty straight forward. That said from the person who hasn't built one!  Before he got started, Warren need to address the flow of air from the vent in the floor.  Warren build a box to move the flow of the air to the front of the window seat.  This is how it works. He blocked off a part of the box to get the air to ...