It’s been so fun working on a project I love so much. The 1905 Cottage is a little home I fell in love with years ago and bought about four years ago. You can read all about it here. A couple of years ago I started an addition and now I’m sharing the projects from the addition. Today I would like to share the 1905 Cottage Addition: Dining Room.

This is the outside of the home. The bigger window is the window in the kitchen and the smaller window at the back is the porch which was turned into a room and is the south side of the dining room.

Here’s a picture of the old kitchen and the wall which we took out. The green carpeted room is the room which is now the south part of the dining room.

This is the side of the wall we took out that opened the kitchen to the dining room.

The dining room is one of my favorite rooms at the 1905 Cottage. The south side of the room was a porch when the home was built in 1905. A long time ago that porch was enclosed into a room. When we did the remodel on the original home we took out a wall between the kitchen and what is now the dining room and found one of the long original windows. And in the center of the room is an opening under the home that was a root cellar.

So when the addition began we knew the dining room would be the gateway to the new part of the home. So in the center of the room is a beam where the original outside walls of the dining room were. And it was a little tricky trying to decide how to decorate the room with a beam in the center.

So what I did was I decided to get two long light fixtures to go above the dining room table and have them mirror each other on each side of the beam. I was going to make a light fixture but I ended up finding  a light fixture from World Market that was almost what I had in mind. I painted it to make it blend in a little better with the room and I used chain to chain the two fixtures together and help them hang straight over the table.

I put a rug over the opening to the root cellar. Because….. zombies!! LOL just kidding. But it is a little creepy down there. I’m not going to lie. The rug is the Sierra Paddle Rug from RugsUSA.com.

On the north side of the room I did a simple board and batten treatment to add a little interest to the wall and then hung some Ikea shelves above a garage sale dresser that I turned into a buffet. I like to keep my collection of cake plates on the shelves. But they are fun to decorate for the different seasons!

I made a little bench to put on one side of the table. It’s a little rickety but I love it.

And under the window I put another bench with some cute pillows.

One the north side of the room is a nook that used to be a closet. I took out the closet and put in a tall banquette bench from Overstock. And the table is an antique table my mom gave me when she moved to California. It’s a cozy spot to eat breakfast or do homework.

And on the west side of the room is the door to the cottage’s courtyard. I hung a little gallery wall there above my grandmother’s table. And underneath is a place where the kids can put their shoes when they come in. They like to use the courtyard as their entrance as they come home from school.

Probably my favorite part about the 1905 Cottage’s dining room is the fact that there are windows on both the west and east sides of the room. So it’s always light and a very happy space in the home!

I hope you enjoyed this room. I plan on sharing all of the rooms of the addition. It has been such a fun project to work on and a labor of love!!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog – I really appreciate it!! 

xoxo

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1905 Addition: Pergola/Trellis Update. I’ve had so much fun working on the 1905 Cottage addition. We love living in our “new” old home. And this year I’ll be talking all about the addition and sharing all the details – including the good and bad of turning a vintage home into a modern home on a budget.

Today I am sharing how I used a lightweight and inexpensive pergola to tie the old side of the house to the new addition. It’s a decorating solution.

(before)

When I was exploring the idea of adding an addition onto the existing 1905 structure of the cottage, I knew I wanted to maintain the integrity of the original structure while creating an addition that visually complemented the original home. I think we achieved that mainly through painting the whole home and addition the same color and using materials on the addition that reflected the time period of the original 1905 home.

(after)

After the addition was done, I wanted to add a pergola/trellis over the top of the main window in the original home. And originally I was going to build a trellis. So I researched doing that. I knew it would be costly and if I built the trellis out of wood, it would have to be repainted every couple of years and be kind of a high-maintenance perk. While researching the project, I also looked into vinyl options. And vinyl would have been a great solution since it’s no maintenance once installed. The cost of a vinyl trellis was actually more expensive than building a wood pergola/trellis.

And while we are on the subject – I’m not sure if this is a trellis or a pergola. I’m thinking pergola is more accurate. What do you think?

A little while later I discovered another option for my pergola/trellis dilemma – an aluminum pergola . I found that I could order an aluminum pergola through Amazon. And the aluminum pergola was pre-painted with weather-proof paint. And the price could not be beat. For around $200 I was able to get a beautiful pergola for the cottage. It came in two days all painted. All I had to do was assemble it and hang it up with brick anchors.

And the pergolas come in different lengths. There’s also a size that would go above a garage for under $300.

I think the pergola updates the older facade of the original home and ties it into the addition. I am really pleased with it!

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo

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About four years ago I fell in love with a tiny little house in my neighborhood. You can read all about it here- 1905 Cottage Remodel! 

Working on this little house has really been such a labor of love. I don’t know that I believed that houses have hearts or souls until I found this one. While we were working on it we found out so much about the history of the settlement where it was built. The home was on the site of what was the general store when the settlement was a mining town. And after they heyday the Justice of the Peace turned the general store into his home in 1905. During the renovation we found some arrest warrants from the late 1800’s and some other things.

Here’s the 1905 Cottage kitchen before:

and the 1905 Cottage Kitchen after:

Last year I started an addition on this little home so we could live at this happy little house.

I really tried to stay true to the original home with the new section of the home. And now that the addition is complete, I am so excited to share the projects and details with you!! It’s still feels like a small home but now there is room for my little family.

I have shared a few of the projects like, Ella’s Tween Bedroom:

And My Bedroom Office Nook:

I spent the summer working on building four huge DIY Barn Doors and the hardware too. Those tutorials are coming up this month.

Some other things I’ll be sharing in this series are:

• How I transitioned the new and old parts of the home together
• Modern Planked Walls
• Picking out timeless tile
• An Indoor/Outdoor Fireplace
• When plans don’t turn out exactly how you want and you have to start over
• A small courtyard
• Things I wish I had known and changed before I started the addition
• Storage solutions for small spaces
• Things to consider when designing a laundry closet
• Designing rooms with multi functions — one room that is a guest room, office, teen hang out room
• Vinyl fencing designs and decisions
• Installing skylights in your home
• How to tie an old home’s exterior and new addition together so it doesn’t look awkward
• DIY Lighting soltutions
• And more!!

I hope you might follow along with how the addition came together and see the progress. It’s been such an amazing journey. I really didn’t think I could love this home more but I really do!! And I know the world of blogging and Instagram can be depressing with the “perfect” life that is portrayed. So I hope you don’t mind if I share some of the imperfect moments from this project and from my life. I’m a very private person and I have a hard time putting myself out there in fear of getting hurt and rejection. But I would like to share some real moments with you. Being real and meeting readers and bloggers is what I fell in love with when I started blogging. And some of my strongest and most dear friendships today are with people I met through my blog – readers who became friends in real life. I really want to go back to that place in blogging where we share and are a community of imperfect people, lifting each other up. I’m certainly not perfect, I struggle every day to be a better person and mother. And I appreciate the support and want to give support back too.

Have a Beautiful Day!! 

xoxo

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I am so thrilled and thankful. And everyone knows how cool Project Life is to document memories. I thought it would be fun to create some ways to use Project Life in our homes too!!

So every day this week I will be sharing ways that I have used my Project Life kit in my home at the #1905Cottage.

This first idea is a way to take inexpensive picture frames and turn them into a gallery that is easy to change out. Here’s how I made this gallery art:

• I took inexpensive frames and put some of my scrapbook paper inside the frames.
• Then I took some gold clips and attached them to the glass of the frames with glue dots. You can also use hot glue if you want.
• Then I clipped some inspirational Project Life cards to the frames.

That’s it – so easy!!

And I love that I can change out the Project Life cards whenever I want. I put the frames on the shelves in the family room at my #1905Cottage.  And I also made up this smaller version to put next to my bed and give me some inspiration each morning.

You can buy my Home+Made Project Life kit through Michaels.

And you can get the papers I used, the paper flowers and the gold clips or any of my Home+Made and new DIY Home lines through Pebbles in My Pocket online or in their store

Have a HAPPY Day!

xoxo

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And I have been having a great time arranging things and decorating. I thought it might be fun to share a little sneak peek of my master bedroom.

Of course, my favorite place to be is relaxing in bed! I’ve been loving my new Yogabed mattress — more about that in a minute.

I love my little office nook!

It’s such a friendly and inviting place to sit!

The light is great in there, and it’s always so bright and cheery! I also love how the wall decor turned out:

It’s a fun mix of shapes, featuring some of my favorite quotes, sayings … and my kids!

One reason the light is so good is the skylights … I love how they bring the outside in!

While we were building the addition, I knew I’d want light by the side of my bed, so I made sure to wire electrical and switches for wall sconces!

I put in dimmer switches so I can adjust the light to read comfortably!

Possibly my favorite thing in the whole room is the ceiling light. I wanted something that didn’t hang too low and was close to to the ceiling, but had the look of a chandelier. I love it!

And thanks to the folks at Yogabed, I’ve been enjoying an awesome Yogabed mattress.

It’s hard for me to find one that I like — the regular memory foam ones are too soft, and sometimes even a pillow top is too firm. I don’t know what the secret ingredient is in this Yogabed mattress, but it’s just right! (Makes me feel like Goldilocks!)

Here’s how it’s built:

It ships all compressed and rolled up – so it’s delivered right to your door (free shipping) for a 101-night free trial.

Look how cool it looks when the Yogabed expands after packing! (Just double-click the short video below to watch.)

I love that it’s built in the USA, and that you can unzip the cover and machine wash it. I was a little worried as the weather turned warmer that the mattress would be too hot – but it’s not: it’s ventilated and comfortable. And, of course, I wake up feeling great.

Each mattress even comes with two Yogabed pillows (one for twin mattresses). It’s hypo-allergenic, too (no latex-based foams).

I love it, and I love my new master bedroom!

What’s your favorite feature in your master bedroom?

xoxo

I received a mattress from Yogabed for review for this post; however, the opinions and contents (and cottage) are all mine. See my disclosures for more details.

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The garage is still in progress, but my DIY work couldn’t wait! I was so excited when Troy-Bilt invited me to participate in the Troy-Bilt FLEX Face-Off! Here’s what I got to try – not only a Lowe’s gift card but also a full Troy-Bilt FLEX system. I have never, and I mean never, been this excited about yard care tools in my entire life.

This is how it looks in my garage project in progress. I’ll show you a little more later, but the Troy-Bilt FLEX system includes a power base – like the engine piece – and then attachments that snap on the front. In the picture you can see my power base next to the lawnmower. Then, on the shelf of my cool FLEX storage rack is my leaf blower and power washer attachments. (I have a snow blower that just arrived. I’m not anxious to put that to use — summer just got here!)

That mower made amazingly short work of my overgrown lawn – yes – the lawn with grass as high as my waist in a few places where I’d neglected it during construction. It just ate it up.

But here’s the best part: You can win a full Troy-Bilt FLEX system, too! That’s an over $1000 value!

I’ll show you more about my garage makeover project below,
but here’s how to enter to win RIGHT NOW: Just vote for me at the Troy-Bilt FLEX Face-Off site!

When you vote, you’ll get a chance to win a Troy-Bilt FLEX power base, two attachments (your choice!) and the awesome FLEX storage rack. – and get another entry every time you vote!

Here’s what I did in my garage so far:

You might remember the little garage attached to the 1905 cottage. It was added on after the main house, obviously, and it was falling apart. When I started the cottage expansion, it had to be the first to go.

So when I started the garage makeover, the garage looked like this:

My addition is almost complete, but the garage was the last to be usable, and even now there’s still more to be done. But I couldn’t wait. I have too many projects to do to have the garage full of debris and with nowhere to work! So first, I cleaned the garage …

… and got the workbench going!

One of my favorite tricks is to get built-in shelves sized for my plastic storage containers – and then I buy them all the same size!

So I knew I’d need storage on the workbench, so while at Lowe’s I picked up some of my favorite storage supplies: pegboard and adjustable slot storage.

I love the metal pegboard – it’s durable and looks industrial chic. Plus, the pieces are spaced perfectly to go right into the studs – and they interlock!

Once I’d assembled these above the workbench, I added

hooks onto the pegboard – so I can fit the tools I use most. I’m sure I’ll end up moving them around as I use them! Some people even like to outline the proper tool on the pegboard. I’m not ready to commit (LOL).

Next, I added some reconfigurable shelves above the pegboard with this cool GearTrack system:

I’m still unpacking supplies, but I love the way it organizes my tools and the new workbench gives me somewhere to actually work!+

It doesn’t take weeks of work to make a major change in your garage. From the renovation, I had tools scattered all around in tool bags and boxes. With sturdy metal pegboard and flexible shelving, I’ve organized my tools above the workbench so I can still finish DIY and décor projects without the mess. One thing I love about these flexible storage options – I don’t have to commit to the exact way I want to store my tools until I’ve lived with it for a while and adjusted the storage to fit what works best!

Perhaps my favorite, fastest and least expensive addition: bike hooks.

Just like yard equipment, bicycles can take up a LOT of room in your garage. Especially for adult bikes – like my cruiser – getting them off the ground makes a huge difference in storage. Lowe’s has several options for bike storage, including a reasonably-priced pulley hoist, but my favorite is still the $2 large bike hook. Just pre-drill a hole into the rafter, screw the hook in and lift the bike up, rear wheel first! Suddenly I regained a bunch of garage floor space and made use of the “dead space” by the garage door.

Then, even while we’re getting things organized all around the cottage, we were finding piles of coats and shoes around the house. Even though something super complex and fancy would be fun, sometimes the best solution doesn’t take a week of work! I got a sturdy coat rack from Lowe’s and brought in a bench and galvanized bucket I already had.

Voila! A right-next-to-the-door coat and shoe station to corral the clutter. Some houses are lucky enough to have a mudroom – but most don’t! It’s pretty easy to create a mudroom area by your back door to give you a landing place for things that would otherwise end up on the floor. Here, I rescued the bench that used to be on the porch, found a sturdy, stud-mounted set of hooks, and a nice galvanized container. Like the pegboard, I can live with this arrangement for a while and adapt it to what works best.

Finally, my favorite element of the garage makeover: the Troy-Bilt FLEX system. Yes, I know – they’re seriously powerful. They’re Troy-Bilt, so they’re a cut above the equipment with which I was making do before.

I love the new Troy-Bilt FLEX not only because it’s nicely built and powerful, but with the storage shelf I can store my equipment in a fraction of the space. (Look at how nicely it fits between storage shelves and the workbench!)

I’m still moving construction supplies around inside the garage – it was a mess! I think I’ve swept it out about 20 times. This last time, I even used my new Troy-Bilt FLEX with Leaf Blower attachment to sweep the sawdust and dust out. (Yes, I wore eye protection and a mask!)

Each attachment just snaps on the power base – it’s super easy. And as I said, the lawnmower was amazing. It not only tackled a seriously overgrown lawn, but did it without even flinching.

You can win your own Troy-Bilt FLEX System!

Here’s how to enter for a chance to win:

Just vote for me at the Troy-Bilt FLEX Face-Off site!

When you vote, you’ll get a chance to win a Troy-Bilt FLEX power base, two attachments (your choice!) and the awesome FLEX storage rack. – and get another entry every time you vote! (Check out the site for complete terms and conditions.)

And visit Troy-Bilt:

on the Web

on Instagram

on Twitter

on Pinterest

on Facebook

(and if you’re sharing this be sure to use the #flexfaceoff hashtag!)

xoxo

This post was sponsored by Troy-Bilt. The content is all mine. See my disclosures.

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Hopefully these ideas will help when you go shopping for new windows for your home.

Here’s how I think about what’s important about new windows: when you might need them, why you may want to get them, how to install them and what benefits they provide. When, why, how and what — that’s easy, right?

When we lived in California several years ago, we lived in a Brady-Bunch era house. In that house, it was easy to decide when we needed new windows — immediately after we moved in! The originals were single-pane (meaning only one sheet of glass) and had aluminum frames. You didn’t need any measuring tools to feel the cold or heat coming right through the drafty frames and thin glass.

I ran into the same issue when remodeling the #1905Cottage, and now that I’m working to replace some windows there, I learned that I have a lot of options for replacement windows. For example,

I was used to looking at only vinyl windows in white and beige. But quality window manufacturers like Pella offer window frames in several materials. I had thought about only vinyl frames to match the existing, fairly new windows in the cottage. However, if I were going to replace the ones in the front of the cottage, I would have considered a more decorative and classic frame material like wood or fiberglass. And in the #1905Cottage, both my new projects and some lingering replacement windows needed to match.

I knew it was time to get new windows in our old California house because the old, ’70s-era windows were drafty. And we did more than just replace windows. Our family room was dark, so we used some decorative windows designed to fit between wall studs to add more natural light to the room, much like these:

So remember that you can add windows as decorative elements to bring light into your home — windows can be decor too!

If you want to play around with different window styles and imagine how they might look in your home, Pella has a fun window design tool you can play with to imagine how different window styles might look in your room.

Why might you want new windows? Well, if you’re building a new home or addition, or remodeling, you obviously want new windows. And choosing highly energy-efficient, quality windows will cost a bit more initially but will provide energy savings and easier maintenance. (I’ve had a few less-expensive windows over time, and they never quite work properly.)

You’re also going to want to look for at least double-pane windows. If you’re in a particularly noisy area or one with major temperature extremes, you may even want to consider triple-pane ones! Also look for:

• Windows with Low-E insulating glass help keep the sun’s damaging UV rays from damaging your furniture, floors, walls and shelves. (For example, Pella says their Pella® 350Series blocks 86% of UV rays.)
• Windows with a Low-E rating that meets ENERGY STAR® certification. The lower the U-Factor and Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC) ratings, the better — for exceptional energy efficiency.
• Windows from a trusted brand — so you know you can rely on them for years of use.

(And for more ideas, check out Pella’s cool DIY Pinterest board!)

How you install your new windows is nearly as important as choosing the windows themselves. If you’re paying someone to install your windows, make sure they’re certified by a respected manufacturer like Pella. (And if you can, see if you can visit homes where they’ve installed windows before.) If you’re doing your own installing, that’s awesome too. We’ve installed several over the years … and we’ve just about gotten good at it! Some things to remember that I’ve learned from my experience:

• If you’re replacing windows, take your time to carefully remove the existing windows. Try not to damage the interior and exterior walls and sills. We got really good at using a circular saw to cut through exterior stucco, although it was messy and ate up saw blades!
• Note that replacement windows are often sized differently than those for new construction. The frames will usually be bigger to cover the opening from the old windows. Be sure you choose the right kind. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from your local home improvement store or Pella window dealer.
• Even if you’re replacing your old windows with ones that are more energy-efficient, that energy efficiency will be compromised if you don’t provide a good seal when you install them. Make sure you seal any openings into the walls with a good non-expanding foam. And buy your quality adhesive caulk by the case, seriously. Caulk everything in sight to get a good seal inside and out!

Once you have your new windows installed, here’s what you’ll find: your house will be quieter. It’ll be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. You know when you walk by a window and can feel the heat or cold radiating through it? You’ll likely have much less of that. And, if you’ve chosen a particularly fancy style, you’ll also enjoy having your windows complement your decor — instead of feeling like you have to hide them.

And while my cottage enjoys a relatively mild climate for being almost a mile above sea level, we do have to combat some dust. Something I didn’t even realize until I replaced windows was how much less dust I had to battle once my house was better sealed!

Some windows are even removable or tilt in for easy cleaning — something I didn’t even realize existed. Those would make cleaning my upstairs windows so much easier than the extension pole acrobatics we have to do now.

I’m so excited to share my upcoming cottage projects with you — and hopefully these window tips will help you in your remodeling!

* * * * *

Thanks to Pella for sponsoring this post — you can learn more about Pella, and even request a free, in-home consultation and quote, by visiting Pella.com.

You can also follow Pella on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest!

xoxo

This post was sponsored by Pella; however, the content and opinions are all mine. See my disclosures.

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I was in Crate and Barrel last month and really liked this industrial shelving — but it was $1499!

But I didn’t have time to learn to weld, and  I knew I wanted to put my own spin on the project for the #1905Cottage pantry:

You’ll love this easy to assemble industrial shelving project. There are slightly less expensive options, to be sure, but I chose this way because it makes a very sturdy shelf unit and it’s super easy to assemble with pre-cut and pre-threaded pipe segments. No cutting!

I told a little of the background of this project on Monday … and then I’ll show you how I made it and how you can adapt this to your project, too! (And check out the 14 inspirational industrial shelving projects I featured on Monday!) When we bought the #1905Cottage, the only way to access the laundry room was from the front porch. Sometime in the 1950’s or 1960’s the then-owners had taken part of the porch and turned it into a laundry room. So it had no heat and the floor was the concrete cement porch. When we remodeled the house, we cut a hole in the west wall of the kitchen and opened up an entrance to the laundry room. We also closed the doorway on the front porch and replaced the door with a window.

I love the large pantry/laundry room that is acessed directly from the kitchen now. And in my mind I always envisioned a row of shelves on the right-hand side of the room for a large pantry area. I had seen industrial pipe shelving projects and I thought it would be perfect to compliment the beadboard walls in the laundry/pantry room.

(Image above: former door being turned into a window — you can see the former window cut into an arched door inside.)

So when Lowe’s gave us the option of creating an “Organization” post for January, I knew it was time to tackle this project. Here’s how I built it: Before I bought supplies, I carefully measured my wall. I knew I wanted deep shelves and I wanted them to be fairly tall so that I can use them for serving pieces, vases, and so on. I also knew that I was putting the shelving against a wood-paneled wall — so I could depend on anything I screwed into the wall staying screwed in.

With that in mind I drew a sketch of my shelves, and I could see that I had just enough room to make about four shelves between the floor and the ceiling. I have to sketch these out so I can keep track of what I have in mind — it’s OK to sketch! I realized I wanted shelves that were 4 feet long and as deep as I could get them — like 16 inches or so. I knew that I wanted two supports per shelf because I was going to buy the sturdiest wood I could find (and I solved this problem in away I’ll show you in a minute). So I sketched two supports, each with four cross pieces. From the floor, I used four sections, the bottom three pipes joined with Ts and the top one with an L connector (yes, look at the picture and it will make sense).

So, for this project I bought

• 16 x 18″ sections of 1/2″ black iron, threaded pipe (Southland Pipe 1/2-in x 18-in 150-PSI Black Iron Pipe, $4.92 each)
• 6 x T connectors, threaded, 1/2″ black iron pipe (Mueller Proline 1/2-in Black Iron Tee Fitting, $2.06 each)
• 2 x L connectors, threaded, 1/2″ black iron pipe (Mueller Proline 1/2″ 90° Black Iron Elbow, $1.62 each)
• 2 x end caps, threaded, 1/2″ black iron pipe (Mueller Proline 1/2-in Black Iron Cap Fitting, $1.40 each)

for the frames. To attach the frames to the wall, I also bought

• 8 x 1/2 galvanized floor flanges (I couldn’t find them in black iron) (Mueller Proline 1/2-in Dia Galvanized Floor Flange Fitting, $6.61 each)

  I wanted to buy a thick sheet of wood, but had hoped that I had remembered wrong: that I could buy a board that was more than about 12″ wide. Unfortunately, those don’t exist, but I found some cool “panel” sections that were exactly 72″ (6 feet) long and about 16″ wide.  So to my cart, I added:

• 4 16″ x 72″ x 1″ shelf panels (1-in x 16-in x 72-in Paint Kiln-Dried Kiln-Dried Elliotis Pine Panel, $15.95 each)

And just to hold the shelves in place so they did not move around, I also bought:

• 1 package 3/4″ two-screw pipe straps (see pic below) (AMERICAN VALVE 3/4-in Dia x 2-1/2-in L Galvanized 2-Hole Pipe Strap, $2.17 for package of 10)

Even when I chose the best panels, they were still not 100% straight … so I knew I wanted one more thing to make the shelves stay rigid. By the galvanized metal sheets, I found cool, L-shaped trim pieces (you’ll see them below) that I decided to use on the front edge of the shelves, so I bought:

• 4 3/4″ x 3/4″ x 72″ aluminum pieces (Steelworks 6-ft x 3/4-in Aluminum Solid Angle, $6.63 each)

For my finish work, I also bought:

• 1 can Valspar black matte spray paint ($3.98)
• 1 can dark walnut stain (Minwax Quart Wood Finish Dark Walnut, $7.77)

I had plenty of screws, rags, and so forth from other projects. Total cost: $220.92, assuming I can actually add.

How to assemble it:

First, about two days before I was ready to assemble it, I stained the shelves and let them dry for a couple of days. This is the most time consuming part of the whole project! The day before I was ready to assemble the shelves, I took the metal edges, the floor flanges and the galvanized pipe straps and took them outside to paint them. In the snow.

I painted all of these black to match the black iron. While they were drying, I took a rag and cleaned off as much of the excess black stuff from the black iron as possible. It got all over my hands! Each of the pipes also had a price sticker attached with packing tape on it. While this is an acceptable aesthetic choice for a plumbing project, it would not do for me. I used a utility knife to get off the tape and then the blade, sideways, to scrape off the adhesive from the price stickers. I then used acetone and a rag to clean off the remaining gooey stuff. This was the second most time-consuming part of the project.

Early one Saturday morning, I gathered all of the pieces at the cottage to assemble them. First, I took the four metal edges and used my chop saw (miter saw) to trim them to match the board length. They were a bit longer than the boards, and I needed to put a new blade in that saw anyway :). Then I marked three spots on one side of each metal edge with the first about 14″ in from each side and the other in the middle. I used my trusty chamfer bit after I drilled a tiny pilot hole in each to taper the holes so that the screws would sit flush with the edge of the metal:

I used short, 1/2″ screws and attached each to a wood shelf.

Next, I assembled the pipe supports.

Pro tip: put a few drops of machine oil on the threads of each end before you screw them in. They’ll be tons easier to screw in, and, since you will likely be adjusting the length of each section a bit to match the other sections, you will appreciate your foresight later when you’re making everything nice and square. Above: 1. Shelves with metal edges ready to go.   2. Oil, ready to be oily.  3. Tees, “els,” and caps. 4. Assembly station on the kitchen island, covered with a cloth dropcloth.

I assembled each shelf section using the 18″ metal pipe sections, the tees, the “els,” and the caps. To protect my wood floor I put a felt furniture protector dot on the end of each of the two caps – the bottoms of the legs. For a last step, I attached the painted, galvanized floor flanges to the back of each shelf. I then estimated how far in I wanted each support – I ended up putting them in about 18″ from each end.

Because the wall I attached them to was siding/paneling, it was easy to make sure they were level – -they just had to line up with the paneling. I attached the first support to the wall using the floor flanges and 3/4″ screws. See below: Above: 1. An assembled support piece, 2. My camera failing to focus on the tee junction — note how you can adjust the length of the section by screwing or unscrewing the pipe? 3. The floor flanges ready to go. Note the slight rust and wear — I wanted the supports to look a bit worn, so I left them this way. 4. Shelves under way.

Next, I measured down the wall and put the second support in place in the same way.

Note: make sure you have room to put your shelves in — don’t get the supports screwed into the wall and then find out you don’t have enough space to get the shelves put in — if you have to, screw in the supports after you’ve laid the shelves across them. If you have to do that, you will definitely need a minion lackey helper.

Then, I just put the shelves in place and secured them underneath on just one support with the painted, galvanized pipe straps and short, 1/2″ screws.

That’s it! Total time — about 30 minutes to stain the shelves (and a day or so to dry, although I allowed extra time because of cold weather), about 10 minutes to paint the galvanized metal pieces black, about 30 minutes to get the regrettable price stickers off of the pipes. (Confession: in these directions I am telling you to take the price stickers off before you assemble the shelves. I did mine after, which was harder, I think.) And finally, about an hour to assemble and affix the shelves. Total time: a little over two hours.

*****

You can also follow  Lowe’s on Facebook for more great ideas and sign up for their FREE Creative Ideas Magazine with TONS of great DIY  ideas and instructions!!

Be sure to check out my friend Rochelle’s Industrial Pantry too! It’s amazing!!

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How might you use industrial shelving? What’s your spin on the trend? 

xoxo

Thanks to Lowe’s for providing materials for this post; the opinions and content are mine. See my disclosures.

PS: I’ve linked up this post to these fabulous blogs this week!

The post Super Easy Industrial Shelving DIY [#LowesCreator] appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.

We knew it was going to be one of the biggest projects. A bathroom is a major project in any house, but in this nearly 110-year old house, it was extra exciting. We knew we’d have some unpleasant surprises, but we didn’t expect what we found …

So here’s what we did to renovate this bathroom from top to bottom, some of the surprises we encountered, and some of the unique pieces we did that might inspire your bathroom DIY renovation!

Here’s my short video tour … and then read more about it!

Here’s what the bathroom looked like when we bought the cottage:

Everything worked, but it was very dated (pink!). It had a drop ceiling and unfortunate carpet over a spongy floor. There was a strangely placed sewer vent through the  corner cabinet. And the door cleared toilet by about 1/4″, not to mention the toilet paper dispenser on the back of the door. And you couldn’t open the door all he way – it ran into a cabinet at the end of the room – whoops!!

Tearout and Unwelcome Surprises

Clearly, like the rest of the house, it was time to tear this bathroom down to the walls and see what we could find.

We ripped everything out of the bathroom — everything down to the brick on two walls and the drywall on two sides. The first thing to go was the dropped ceiling — it went from less than 7 feet tall to 10 feet! We learned that the bathroom had been carved out of a larger room in the house, and had a window covered over in the wall that opened into the small back bedroom. The small back bedroom was the original porch on the house, so this window must have overlooked the porch.

Here’s what it looked like after we stripped it to the walls:

Then, since the floor was spongy, we knew we needed to put in a new subfloor, so we took the floor out. We discovered more than we wanted to discover — we found out that the house’s sewer pipe was cracked, and had even collapsed in some places. It was kind of like an open Roman sewer! Yuck. Obviously we had to replace it. We have an excellent plumber who has done some great work for us over the years, and we had asked him to help with plumbing in the house. He took one look at that and said, “That has to go … and let’s run a scope down it to see if there are any other problems.”

Guess what: there were. The iron sewer pipe in the crawlspace underneath the house led outside to a larger clay pipe leading to the curb … and the beautiful, large pine tree in front of the house had insinuated its roots through the seams in the pipe … and there was barely a finger’s width of space left in that pipe. So, this was an expensive surprise we could have done without, but we had to replace all of the sewer line all the way to the street. Our plumber wisely suggested that we spend just a tiny bit more and run a full new water line to the house as long as we had to dig a big trench in the front yard, so we did!

To save some money, my husband, father-in-law and nephew dug out part of the foundation to let the new pipes in, and then took the old pipes out and filled the hole with concrete to keep out any curious critters. We also figured out that the foundation is made from the same granite that the Salt Lake City LDS Temple is built from — since the quarry is just up the canyon from us. I have more history on that I will share another time. They said that digging through a granite foundation from a crawlspace is inconvenient to say the least.

We even found some newspapers from 1919 and 1927 underneath the bathroom floor! (“Have you been neglecting your home to assemble your Easter costume?”)

So something you’ll never see in the house now is that it has all new water and sewer lines, just like it has all new electrical wiring (a subject for another post).

(As an example of the gift that keeps on giving, we still haven’t quite gotten the sprinkler lines figured out since we had to dig them up in the trench — even though we tried to be careful.)

Rebuilding

But once the water and sewer lines were all done, we could start building this bathroom the way we wanted. We moved the horrible giant sewer vent pipe from the corner of the room and hid it in the wall, venting out the roof. We moved the water lines to accommodate the sink moving closer to the door, the toilet moving between the sink and the shower, and for a walk-in shower.

We of course used all of the right waterproof/resistant boards and subfloor around the shower. We made sure the subfloor was extra sturdy, adding some supports underneath as well. Note that we did not keep the old window, since we couldn’t figure out a good way to make that architecture work. We filled the former window with insulation to help block noise.

I wanted to stick with a modern, white look to this small bathroom to help it look bigger, and I love subway tile, so we tiled the shower and the largest wall — the one you can see from the door — all the way to the ceiling. We put in a wall-mounted vanity and modern lights on each side.

I couldn’t find a vanity that I liked, so we ended up building one from an inexpensive kitchen island I found. We used a vessel sink and adapted the vanity to accommodate the plumbing, including adjusting the height and rebuilding the drawers. (I’ll do a separate post on how we did it.)

You may even notice that not only did we raise the ceiling, but we cut out the door to be a larger, standard-size door with a glass transom above it — both echoing period architecture and allowing more natural light into the bathroom.

I added some touches like the towel rack and the sunburst mirror, too.

And possibly one of our favorite features is the bath fan (the bath fan!). What makes it so cool? It has a Bluetooth speaker in it. The folks at Homewerks were kind enough to send me a fan to try — it’s a Homewerks Bluetooth® enabled ventilation bath fan. Not only is it a quiet, high-capacity bath fan, but it includes a Bluetooth speaker so you can enjoy your tunes in the shower! How awesome is that? And you can turn the speaker on without turning the fan on.

It’s easy to install as long as you have attic access, which we did. We replaced the smaller fan we had in the bathroom — and cut a larger hole through the drywall and the lath and plaster on the ceiling. We just measured it first, tried hand-cutting and gave up, pulling out the RotoZip (as you can see in these pictures):

Once you have the hole the right size, the rest is super simple to put in — it’s an easy DIY project. For us, the hole took about an hour (including cleaning up all of the dust) and the fan installation took about 15 minutes! Yours would go much faster if you weren’t sawing through so much stuff (see the top picture).

Then, once it’s in, it’s easy to pair with your phone:

You just find it in your Bluetooth settings, pair it, and then play your favorite songs!

The girls think it’s a perfect excuse for a bathroom dance party, even without taking a shower:

You can find out more about the Homewerks Bluetooth bathroom fan on the Homewerks web site — and it’s available at home improvement stores, too! (It retails for about $149.)

Plus, you can win your own Homewerks fan! 

Like Homewerks on Facebook for a chance to win a Bluetooth Bath Fan. Homewerks will be giving away one fan per week through October 15, 2013.

So, what’s next for the bathroom? Well, we want to put a light tunnel in to add more natural light. And we think we have figured out how we can put in a barn door … along a curved wall! But I’ll save those for a future post when I figure them out.

What’s your bathroom renovation story?

Share YOUR ideas in the comments!!

xoxo

This post is sponsored by Homewerks Worldwide LLC; the opinions, content and bathroom renovation stories are all mine. See my disclosures.

The post #1905Cottage: Full Bathroom Renovation [Reveal!] appeared first on Tatertots and Jello.