Is there ever a good time to be sick

There is never a good time for virus whether it is you or your computer. But this time its my laptop that is under the weather.

So I will be MIA until my computer is better.

Thanks for reading,

Our Weekly trip to Lowe’s

My husband and I can’t seem to get through the weekend with out going to Lowe’s or Home Depot and this weekend was no different.
But when we pulled up to Lowe’s these amazing boys were selling popcorn for their Wolf Cubs pack.  Their fund raiser started today and I got their last box of low butter popcorn.  Since I am working on losing weight I passed on the Triple Chocolate Chunk popcorn but it sure did look good.

I just love buying things from kids and helping the organizations that provide activities for them. 
So if you see your local Wolf Pack out selling popcorn think about throwing a little business their way.  And if you try the chocolate popcorn let me know how it is.
Thanks for reading,
Traci

Get A Handle On Your Toilet

If you are a regular reader you know that we bought this new and rather expensive toilet for the redo in our half bath. 

You would think that a $330 toilet would come with a decent handle.  Instead it came with an ugly plastic feeling handle.  Yuck!  So I have to change it right now.

This should be easy but the directions read like they were translated from an other language by a computer,  they made no sense what so ever.


The inside of our new toilet is a bit different but it is basically the same idea that toilets have used for years.  I don’t actually know how many years, I think I looked inside my first toilet when I was in my teens.

The handle causes the valve between the tank and the bowl to open and the toilet flushes.  When the tank is empty a float goes down and releases water into the tank.  As the water fills the tank it moves the float up and the water is shut off.  The handle is attached to the arm which is attached to the valve by a chain. 
Now that you know more than you probably ever wanted to know about how a toilet works lets change the handle.
Start by unattaching (is that a word?) the chain from the valve.  It is small clip.
Next unscrew the large nut on the inside of the tank.  It is the white round piece in this pic.

Then simply maneuver the handle and arm out of the tank.

Now put the new handle in the same way and tighten the new nut on the inside of the tank and attach the chain to the arm.  The handle should be in the position you want it when it is not flushing and the valve should be closed and the chain should have no slack in it.
If your toilet is constantly running it most likely is because the valve is open.  The chain may be too tight not letting the valve seal,  something is not letting the valve sit in the seal or your valve has gone bad.  Toilet bowl cleaners are notorious for dissolving the plastic valves.  
You may have to adjust the arm so that it doesn’t rub against the tank wall or the valve.  If your handle has an adjustment for this it is on the arm where it connects to the handle.  Just loosen the wing nut and move the arm and then re-tighten it.

If there is no adjustment nut just bend the arm a bit until it is not touching,

Flush it to make sure it works and put the lid on and admire your new found talent.  Then go directly to the mall and buy yourself something stunning with that arm and a leg the plumber would have charged.

Thanks for reading,
Traci

Spray paint Guest Post

I was thrilled to be asked to guest post by Tiffany at Living Savvy.  Every Wednesday she has a post for all of us spray paint addicts. 

I hope I am not breaking any unwritten blogging rule but I wanted to share the post for any of you who did not make it over to Living Savvy.

So here is my guest post as it was published.

Hello, my name is Traci, and I am a spray paint addict!  Admitting you have a problem is the first step toward a beautiful home. 

When we moved into our current home 6 years ago we had a ton of updating to do and the first thing on my hit list were all the brass fixtures.  They were everywhere.   So what is a girl to do?  Break out the spray paint of course.

After moving into the house we changed all the exterior door hardware.  We choose an Oil Rubbed Bronze finish.  Now I don’t know about all of you but I have a thing about all my metal finishes matching.   I had 15 interior doors.  It would have cost me a fortune to replace them all.

But I didn’t have to because I knew I could paint them.  Six years ago the paint companies had not jumped on the ORB band wagon yet so I had to create my own from a can of black, a can of brown and a can of copper spray paint.  It was fun but time consuming, so now I usually use the one can method now.

The question I get most frequently is “do your painted door knobs last?”

And the answer is that they wear very well if you paint them correctly.  The are not indestructible but they hold up very well.

This is one of the few knobs I have not painted and is still sporting its original finish.  The brass coating is scratched in a few places and it simply looks worn.

Here is one of the first knobs that I painted and it has no scratches or any other flaws in its finish after 5 years of frequent use.

If you pay for brand new door hardware you expect the finish will last at least 5 years.  So let me show you one of the ORB lock sets that we purchased.  It started out looking like this.

And after 6 years this is what they look like.  Disappointing isn’t it.  And just one more reason to paint your own because now I have to paint this one too.

Here is the one of the door knobs in my laundry room. I use this knob to hang up laundry as it comes out of the drier and in the last 5 years all those hangers, some of them are wire, have only caused one scratch.   And I can touch it up.

So what is my secret you ask?  It is my six steps to long wearing painted knobs.

1.  Proper prep-First wash the knob really well to remove any grease, oils and dirt left from all the hands that touch it.  Let it dry well, water will ruin your paint job.

2.  Sand lightly.  You are just dulling the shiny surface.  I use a fine sanding pad that is less than a 1/2 inch thick.

3.  Prime-Use a primer for clean metal.  I like Kyrlon. Let the primer dry thoroughly.  Because it is so hot here I usually leave primed metals in the sun for a few hours.  You just have to remember to let it cool off before painting.

4.  It is finally time for the paint of your choice.  Use several really light coats.  Because the knob is round you can’t get all of the knob in one pass.  It may take up to 10 different coats because each coat will not cover the entire knob.  May sure you have covered all of the primer.  I poke my knobs into a piece of Styrofoam so I can get all the angles.

5.  Finish with a clear coat, either satin or gloss.  This is like the clear polish over your colored nail polish, the clear coat gets the wear leaving the color looking great.

6.  Let the paint cure.  Even when paint feels dry it still needs to cure before it is completely solid.  Uncured paint is still soft and easily damaged.

 

I put this knob back up the day that I painted it.  That might have been okay if this knob was not where I hang my purse.  I tried to remember to hang my purse on a different hook but old habits are hard to break.  You can see where I moved the still soft paint with my purse handle. 

Painting your door knobs opens up one more place to express your creativity.  While I have not seen one yet I doubt turquois door knobs are far off.  Let me if you decide to go bold and paint your knobs a bright color.

Happy Spray Painting,

Traci

Beadboard In The Bath

The last time we visited my half bath it looked like this:

Simply put it was a mess.  But that all changed when the wood floors were laid and the walls were painted.

Now it is starting to look like the room I am envisioning.  And we are over the moon happy with the wood flooring.
Now it is on to the fun stuff.  Beadboard!
 
I was so excited about getting started on the beadboard I forgot to take a picture of the product we used and I could not find it on the Lowe’s website.  In this case a picture would be worth a hundred words but I will try to keep my description short and sweet.
The beadboard product was made of MDF, it was primed, and they were tongue and grove.  They came in two different sizes, three feet and eight feet.  Of course we needed 4 feet lengths to cover up all that nasty sheet rock  so we purchased the 8 ft lengths and cut them to fit.
I painted them in the kitchen and had them spread out every where.  I think I do more painting than cooking in my kitchen but that makes sense since I like to paint much more than I like to cook.

When they were finally dry enough to install we started with the trickiest piece.  And by we I mean my husband.  I did help to mark the location of the pipes by covering the edges of the pipes with pink chalk and then my husband simply pressed the first board up against the pipes marking the places to drill holes for the pipes to fit through.
We used panel adhesive and then tacked the boards in place with the pneumatic brad nailer. 

After that we added the base boards, quarter rounds and the chair railing.   All that was left to do was to use a ton of caulking to fill in all the cracks between the moldings and the beadboard.

Caulking will cover up a multitude of imperfections.  I should know because I used most of three tubes of caulking and wore off the nail on my index finger smoothing it all out.  But you will never know any of those gaps were ever there.

This went so fast and it made such a difference in the look and feel of the bathroom I can’t wait to use beadboard in the kitchen.
My next post will be all about those expensive fixtures and how I should never have doubted my husband.
Thanks for reading,
Traci

Heat Stroke And A Bright Idea!

As we start to put the guest bathroom back together we discovered that this cute little cabinet was not going to work in the new space.  We had two new problems, or shall we say challenges.
First is that the new and somewhat costly toilet is longer than our previous toilet.  Second, the new beadboard, moldings and quarter rounds pushed the cabinet toward the center of the room.  As a result the cute cabinet is way too close to the toilet.  Making you feel like you will bang your head on the cabinet when you stand up.
This didn’t work for us.  I shopped around for a littler cabinet or table and soon discovered that if I like it I couldn’t afford it. 
But I still need some storage in this bathroom.  So what is a girl to do?  Why she cuts apart the old cabinet  and makes a newer more appropriate one of course.
Well I didn’t actually cut the cabinet apart, I just took it apart.  It was put together like furniture from IKEA and wasn’t to hard to take apart.


I separated the top from the bottom section.  Then I removed the piece than was once in the middle.  It was a very plain piece of wood that kept the top and bottom together.
Next I removed the top of the upper cabinet portion and placed it onto the lower portion of the cabinet.
Voila!  The new resized cabinet fits right between  the toilet and the pedestal sink.

All I had left to do was replace the shiny chrome knobs with something that would match the other metals in this bathroom.
It didn’t matter that it was currently 103 degrees, I needed new knobs and I needed them now.  Suddenly the whole bathroom project hinged on replacing these knobs.  Yes, I was probably suffering from a mild case of heat stroke. 
But despite the heat I found the perfect knobs that repeated all the rectangular shapes in this room and a disaster was averted for the rock bottom price of $4.82. 

Hopefully I can finish showing you this bathroom makeover this week.
Thanks for reading,
Traci

I am Guest Posting Over at Living Savvy!

Today I am guest posting for one of my favorite new blogs, Living Savvy.

Each Wedsneday Tiffany from Living Savvy has a "meeting" for all of us who are addicted to spray paint.  So please hop on over there and take a look.

And make sure to check out her personalize subway art.

Thanks for reading,

Picking A Style To Light Up My Life

This is my laundry room piled high with rejected lighting choices.  Lighting has turned out to be the most challenging part of our bathroom makeover.  Part of that challenge has been the limited shopping here in Bakersfield and the other part has been compromising with my hubby.

This Ballard Designs light is the style I had in mind.

Or maybe this one from Pottery Barn.  I wanted something open with a bit of cottage charm.  Over the course of a week we brought home five different lighting options.   And that doesn’t include the styles we rejected or disagreed on while at Lowes or Home Depot. 
Why didn’t I just order one off the internet you ask?  Because I was having difficulty with the scale of the fixture and I could not get a feel for that over the internet.
As you can see, I wanted a hanging light.  My husband didn’t think the ceiling was high enough for a hanging light he thought someone would hit their head on it.  Apparently he felt guests would be jumping up and down while washing their hands.  Except for the picture of our friends jumping up and down in the bathroom that flashed through my mind I did not find this to be funny.


This was never an option as far as I was concerned.  I just gave in and agreed to see it in the room.

I liked the idea of using an outdoor fixture for this room the scale was all wrong. 

I “kinda” liked this one while we were at Lowes but I think that was only out of desperation.

My husband brought this one home again out of desperation.  And yes it is almost the last light, just a lower hanging model.

I finally found this one at Home Depot during what I am sure was my hundredth visit to the lighting department.  I kept hoping some new styles would just magically show up.  And it did and I was thrilled.  I had great hopes for this one.  Unfortunately when my husband opened the package it was broken.  Back to the HD one more time.
Thankfully they had one that was not damaged and I loved it!  Hurray!
This is it!

I want to show you more but you will have to wait until the big reveal to see the entire bathroom.  Hopefully that will be later this week.
Thanks for reading,
Traci

A Cat in the Dog House

Two years ago my daughter moved to a small house where she could finally have her cat.  Her name is Miss Kittems and she is  famous for getting into cupboards and sleeping on the clean towels and folded bedding and leaving fur covering everything  She also loves sleeping on the furniture and leaving a ring of soft white fur.

She is a really sweet cat but I was doing the extreme happy dance at the thought of one less animal to clean up after. 

Fast forward to the present,  Miss Kittems is evicted.  The new land lord doesn’t like cats, he says they are very destructive.  So we received a frantic call from our daughter asking if Miss Kittems could come home.  Of course we said yes.

But in those two years I had forgotten what a little mess maker she could be.

I got this lovely black and white comforter for my daughters room after Miss Kittems left for her new home.

After just two days this is what I found.  I was not doing the happy dance at this point.  I had almost forgotten how much hair she could leave behind after a simple nap.

But then I had an inspired idea.

This is a doorway monitor from Radio Shack that I bought for about $20.  It has a motion sensor and alarms when it detects movement.  I bought it when Zoey was a puppy and I was training her not to go into the dinning room.  It worked then and it works now.

Miss Kittems has chosen a more appropriate place to sleep, the corner of my closet on top of one of my old robes. 

And I am doing the happy dance once again.

Are you wondering how the dogs feel about the return of the cat?  They are thrilled to have her back and they are acting as if she was never gone.

Thanks for reading,

Traci

Demolition Surprises

I have hinted to the fact that we are experiencing technical issues here at “Three Dogs At Home” I have spent the last 10 days trying to correct all the issues and recreate the posts that were lost.

So I am restarting at the beginning.

It all started with replacing the toilet and sink in the hall half bath.  If we were going to take the toilet and sink out we might as well take the wall and floor tile out.  That meant replacing the flooring.  And because we wanted the wood flooring to continue down the hall and into the bathroom maybe it was time to replace the very worn hall and dining room wood flooring.

And the next thing you know we are renovating about a third of our home.  And that was before the surprises.

After we ripped up all the old wood flooring in the dining room and hall it was time to demo the bathroom.

The tile contractor on this house must have been the general contractors family member.  Tile was every where in this house and the hall bathroom was no exception.  Both the floor and half of the walls were tile.

Under all that tile was thin set and concrete.  All of which had to be broken and pried up and dumped in the garbage.  I thought we would never see the end of the demo.

We were spending so much time in the bathroom that even Zoey came to check out what was going on.  Tasha was not far behind.

Next came removing a small amount of sheet rock to move a valve about 4 inches.  This ended up being a very costly 4 inches that probably saved us from tearing up this bathroom again in the near future.

When my hubby removed that small amount of sheet rock the back of it was covered in mold.  Yuck!  And the insulation was slightly wet. These were not good signs.

 

This is what we found after removing all the moldy materials.  Can you see the daylight coming in from the outside wall?  Apparently when the house was built 25 years ago no one noticed it and they never sealed around the drain clean out.  This was like leaving out the”Welcome” mat for water to come in.

Next the plumber came to move the valve.  It has always bugged me that you could see one of the valves behind the pedestal sink.  There is no reason they could not be closer and hidden behind the sink.

But after the plumber moved the valve and told me how to seal around the drain clean out he noticed some corrosion on the back of the hot water pipe.  It turns out that there was a pin point hole in the pipe and it would have eventually caused a really large leak in our new bathroom.

It was a good thing I wanted that valve moved or we wouldn’t have discovered any of this damage. Crisis diverted.

Next the outdated mirror came down and I was pleased to find that the wall had been wallpapered.  The mirror came off easily and the wall was undamaged.  All I had to do was peel off the paper and I kinda like peeling wallpaper.  It beats removing tile any day.

Next came replacing the insulation and moving an outlet.  Boring stuff.

Any time we open a wall we take pictures of what is behind the wall for future reference.  This photo came in handy when it was time to mount the sink.

After more boring stuff,  sheet rock and taping, this is what the bathroom looks like.

Check back soon, the fun stuff is coming up.

Thanks for reading,

Traci