A World Map Cork Board

a.k.a. - My Very Belated Wedding Gift to Eric

Traveling has always been something Eric and I love to do together - I guess you could say it is one of our passions. We love to reminisce about our previous adventures and dream about those that await us. Going off of this theme, I got Eric a world map and map pins as a wedding gift. I included a note saying how I wanted to spend the rest of my life making memories with him, and describing how we can use the map to document our past and plan out our future together, and teach our future kiddos about geography, etc. (I know what you're thinking ...   :)  kinda corny, but I guess that's how I roll)!

Anyway, we had yet to actually mount the map (well we really didn't have a place to put it until we finished the basement). If you remember, our basement was looking pretty complete, but there was one naked spot... above the mantle.

The perfect spot for our map! We just needed a way to mount it. We wanted to be able to add new pins for our future travels, so we figured a cork board would be perfect. We found one large enough at Michaels and used a 50% off coupon, so it ended up being less than $15. I had to trim the boarder of the map so that it would fit, but I think this also gave it a nice natural transition onto the bare cork. (Please don't mind my weird outfit - I had just got back from a run and was feeling motivated.)

The next big question was how to adhere the map onto the cork. We thought about using pins in the corners to hold it down, but we wanted something more permanent and wrinkle-free. That brought us into the glue aisle at Michaels. We ended up going with a 3M spray adhesive which claims to work on a wide variety of materials. 

We waited for a nice day so we could do the spraying outside (since we knew the fumes would be pretty bad from this stuff ... plus we didn't want any over-spray adhesive anywhere in the house). We marked on the cork where we wanted the corners of the map to go. We applied the spray with slow even coverage on the back of the map and then stretched it taut and, starting with one edge lined up on the marks, pressed the map onto the cork. That's really all it took. The spray worked great and dried really quickly. 

Then we added pins to show our previous travels (Gizmo helped)!

It turned out to be a quite good fit!! I really like that you can't see the pins until you get really close. 

We didn't even bother mounting it to the brick after we realized that it sit nicely on the mantle. (Oh, and you'll also notice in the photo below the new fireplace tools we found at Goodwill for $3.99 - LOVE!!)

So there ya have it. My wedding present to Eric is finally finished!! At least I got it done before our anniversary (barely)!! I can't believe I've almost been married for almost a year. It feels both like a very long time and no time at all. I guess I need to figure out a 1st anniversary gift pronto - I've only got about 2 weeks!!

My New-Found Love: Painter's Caulk

I'm still sort of a beginner when it comes to painting, but I'm starting to learn some tricks. Just recently I discovered the wonder of painter's caulk. It all started when I decided to repaint the dining room. If you remember, the dining room started out looking like this (Realtor's photo):

I wasn't a big fan of the white-beige color on the bottom part. This was actually the first room I painted, before we even moved in. I had painted the bottom part a creamy white but left the chair rail unpainted. So for the past six months, it looked like this:

Until we finished the basement, this room was set up as an office. But now that we are finally using it for its intended purpose, I wasn't quite satisfied with the paint job. I decided to try a crisp white on the entire bottom half, including the chair rail.

So I started out by sanding the chair rail so that it would have better adhesion with the paint.

Using painter's tape to create a ledge to catch dust is a trick I learned from another blog (forgot which one).

I used an oil-based primer as a first coat on the wooden chair rail. I let that dry for a full 24 hours (oil-based paint takes a lot longer to dry than latex paint). I didn't bother taping if off because I am now convinced that it is easier to create a straight paint edge free hand. After the primer, I applied 2 coats of latex paint. Here's what it looked like after 1 coat of latex paint:

Clearly it needed that extra coat.

At this point it looked pretty good... until you got close.

See the problem? There was actually a gap between the chair rail and the wall. It wasn't as obvious when the chair rail was dark, but the light color just accentuated the gap. This is where the painter's caulk comes in. I got some pretty standard painter's caulk from Home Depot. I cut a really small hole in the top of the bottle and applied a bead of caulk just large enough to fill in the gap. I didn't try to prevent it from getting on the upper beige part of the wall since I figured I would slop up on there anyway.

I didn't end up with the smoothest surface, so I knew I would have to be very careful when I painted over the caulk. I used an artist's brush with fairly stiff bristles so that I could get good control.

It took quite a while, but I ended up with a pretty good finish. See the difference?

Before:

After:

After taking this photo, I realized it needed 1 more coat to fully cover the caulk. Now it looks really awesome. (Sorry I don't have a final photo yet, but I promise I'll show you soon along with what the rest of the room looks like now that it has actual dining room furniture in it.  :)

So, anyway I'm a convert! From now on, I'm gonna use painter's caulk any time there is a crack or crevice that I want to disguise!! (And I'm going to use it BEFORE painting.. to save myself a lot of work)!

Let's Talk Money

Those that have been following my blog know that we recently finished doing a two-room basement remodel (and when I say remodel, I mean totally gutting everything and starting over). If you missed out, you can read how we ripped everything down (and had an encounter with mouse skeletons and a live raccoon), added stud walls, lights, insulation and drywall, then taped the drywall and added texture to the ceiling, put some color on the walls, added finishing touches, and finally got carpet and blinds installed. Whew, it makes me tired just thinking about all that work.

Some of you may be wondering how much all that stuff set us back. So, here's the breakdown. Remember we didn't hire any of this out (and we borrowed almost all the needed tools), so materials were our only costs.

First was insulation. We added beadboard (kinda like Styrofoam) in a layer around the basement foundation. We also added layers of rolled R13 bats to the center walls in the bedroom to give it some sound-proofing (so the next door washing machine, dryer, and furnace wouldn't be so bothersome). The grand total for insulation $209.38.

Next we have the stud walls and sheetrock supplies and taping materials. This was really the big bulk of materials we brought in for the project. The total for wall-making materials was $581.39.

Lighting, electric, and ductwork are obviously very important parts of a room though you may not think much about them. The ductwork we were mostly able to re-use, but the lights and electric we entirely replaced. To make the room tall-person-friendly, we wanted to make the lighting as high as possible, which meant recessed lights. In total, the 'guts' of the renovation cost $357.55.

Fun fact - it takes a LOT of fasteners (nails, bolts, screws, wire staples, etc.) to refinish a basement. A grand total of $63.26.

Paint and supplies (this includes primer, wall, and ceiling paint and many supplies that can be reused) cost a total of $368.04.

For interior and closet doors (& hinges and a door knob), we opted for 6 panel doors because we think they give a lot more style than a standard flush door. This splurge set us back $156.24.

Finishing touches (baseboard, door casing and window shades) set us back $221.34.

Carpet was a bit of a splurge for us. We ended up with a very soft, high pile carpet that I just love walking around barefoot on. Total cost for carpet was $1,200.34.

In summary:

As you can see, our 2-room basement renovation cost just $3,157.55! I honestly have no idea how much we would have spent hiring someone to do this for us, but I am certain it would have been at least double. So I can definitely say that I am really glad we chose to DIY. We put in a lot of time and sweat, but in the end we have an awesome basement to show for it!!

Bookcase Bonanza - Awesome Ikea Sale

A couple weeks ago, we went to Ikea during one of their free food sales. Basically if you spend over $100 on home furnishings, your food purchase is deducted from the bill. So.... we treated Eric's whole family to lunch and spent $84 on food. (The Swedish Meatballs are excellent if you were wondering.) We planned to get two expedit bookcases (normally $70 each), which put us at $140, but... subtracting out the food, we spent just $56!! For anyone in the Twin Cities, I think the Ikea here has two more free food weekends coming up this month.

Anyway, on to the bookcases.... First, remember what it looked like when we bought the house?

And after adding the bookcases, an Ikea poang chair (we found it in a garbage pile while we lived in Chicago), 2 storage ottomans (wedding gifts off our Target registry) and a sofa (hand me down from Eric's family), a new fire screen ($7 at Goodwill... the old one was too brassy and beat up) and some books and accessories, here's what we've got: 

Not bad, huh? As you can see, the area near the fireplace is set up with a little seating area. We're planning to put up a big world map above the mantle with pins to show the places we've been. We also want to get a slip cover for the sofa (still deciding what color would be best) and some fun accent pillows (okay, maybe that is just me... Eric's not so in to accent pillows). 

The other side of the room is our office area. Eventually we want to get a big wrap around desk to share or two matching desks. But for now, it is working out pretty well. My desk is the one facing the center of the room, and I really enjoy being able to look out the window while I'm working during the day. 

Gizmo likes the new arrangement too! (I think he would sleep on my lap in this chair all day if I let him.)

The really exciting thing about finally moving furniture down into the basement is that our dining room can now actually be a dining room (rather than the office it has been for the past 6 months). I'm just now finishing up painting that room and am on the lookout for a Craigslist hutch for some extra storage. We haven't figure out what artwork to hang there yet, but I'll show you the progress soon!