The writing's on the wall...

Big...blank...wall...in our newly remodeled basement.
How to fill it? A word or two, in big letters, rescued from signs from businesses gone by the wayside?
Sure, why not?
The local HOOTERS had closed and soon after we saw the sign posted on CL for sale for $2000 (no lie).
Ok, that was not an option...but somewhere, here in town, there's a frat house with some new wall art and some pledges eating only mac and cheese for a few weeks to pay for it. Enjoy, boys.



This time Craigslist didn't really come through, but eBay did. After we decided on our words, my husband got bidding. Metal letters, plastic, foam: it didn't matter. About $150 later, we had accumulated all the letters we needed. Then we repainted each of them with paint I already had.






What I learned from this project:                     
1. There are a ton of letters out there reasonably priced for a fun project like this.
2. Once we started looking for letters I couldn't stop lusting after signs all over town.
3. The "e" kept falling off the metal square we glued it to, so we switched to screwing it onto a piece of plywood.
4. The HOOTERS sign would have been too big for our wall anyway.

Nothing...but the kitchen sink

The first major project we undertook after we moved in was redoing the kitchen. The cabinets were dated and in poor condition and the countertop was turquoise ceramic tile...that's right, turquoise. No change in layout was planned, just replacing the cabinets, countertop, sink and faucet. The appliances were only a few years old, so they could stay. We wanted this project completed soon after we moved in so that it would cause the least amount of disruption.
That meant we really didn't have the luxury of time to look for Craigslist bargains for the big items, but we did find our white porcelain sink on CL. We found a brand new, never used Eljer sink for $65 that retailed for between $400 - 600. The price we paid was actually far less than a dollar a pound. (This sucker weighed over 100 lbs!) The same seller also had a brand new bathroom faucet for $25 that we snapped up to update the guestroom bath.

What I learned from this project:
1. It may not be sexy, but the sink was a super bargain.
2. There is no good reason ever for a  kitchen countertop to be turquoise.

Basement bath...

There came a time when we looked at our sorry excuse for a "finished" basement, and realized it was time to pull the trigger on a major overhaul. The layout wasted space and wasn't configured in a way that met our needs, so we hired a contractor to remodel it. Nothing fancy: no tricked out party rooms with water features or wine cellar. Just a TV room with some office space, a code conforming bedroom, a bathroom, and a storage room.
The contractor ripped everything out including the studs and we sold all the salvageable stuff. The old bathroom vanity, mirror, and beige toilet, the old gas fireplace insert, a couple of doors, and even the drop ceiling were posted to Craigslist and scooped up by several people.
There were a few other things that we couldn't sell, so we donated those items to the Habitat Restore.

For our new reconfigured bathroom, we were able to score these on Craigslist: a brand new white Toto toilet ($50), enough gray porcelain floor tile for this bath and a later project ($11), and the new IKEA vanity ($230).

What I learned from this project:

1. Gray and yellow is my new favorite color combo.

2. Contractors are very skeptical of homeowners making purchases on their own.

3. I respect their views...to a point.

Courtyard Fountain...

My husband felt our newly landscaped courtyard needed a water feature.
I felt we already had a water feature...a garden hose.
I admit I wasn't crazy about the idea at first (so many are cheesy looking) especially when he told me he wanted to place it in the same sunny spot as my 2 precious tomato plants! But he scored this one for only $50 on Craigslist and we compromised on a shady area away from the sunny flower spots, so I'm happy with it now. Its modest size doesn't overwhelm the space and it drowns out some of the noise from the neighbors' air conditioner by adding a nice tranquil sound. Turns out, this exact same fountain retails in our local garden center for $350!

 What I learned from this project:
1. We tweaked the fountain by adding some large river rocks to the basin part because...
2. There's a fine line between a tranquil water sound and a noise that reminds you of someone peeing.

Now you see it, now you don't...

When we bought our house we made a priority of turning the wasteland that was our tiny front courtyard into a space we could enjoy in nice weather. We hired a landscaper to grade the space and install the patio but we did the rest ourselves - stone path, landscaping, drip irrigation and low voltage lighting. And when I say "ourselves", I mean "my husband" (while I supervised and drank ice tea).

At last, I had the courtyard I had always wanted! I already had the all weather wicker chairs but we lacked a table. But wait, wouldn't it be so cool to have a firepit there for those cooler nights? Sure, but our postage stamp sized courtyard didn't have enough space for both.

The answer came in doubling up. The gas firepit was a purchase from Target.com and resting on top of it is a table top courtesy of Craigslist.  My husband found a round metal cocktail table and just unscrewed the top from its base. Then he turned around and posted the unneeded base on CL - and sold it for the same price that he paid for the entire table! We just lift the table top off when we want to fire up the pit.






                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               What I learned from this project:
1. You don't need an elaborate stone built-in firepit. This inexpensive one delivers a lot of heat!
2. I was concerned that an 8' x 8' patio would be too small - I was wrong. It's become the cozy "cocktail hour" locale.
3. There isn't much that beats that toasted marshmallow smell on a cool evening.

Take that, birds...

We had a decent sized back deck that extended the length of the house, but it was a little underutilized. I wanted a seating area that was separate from the dining area. We found a great conversation set (that's what they call them even if you are just talking to yourself) at Target.com that fit our small space and was WAY cheaper than similar looking sets at other retailers. Soon after we set it up my husband realized the seat cushions were prey to falling leaves and every bird with a digestion problem that flew over unless we added some protective cover. The answer was one of those cantilevered umbrellas.
The price for a new one varied widely from $200 to an astonishing $6000! But, for an item that YOU KNOW is going to get pooped on by a bunch of birds...the $85 craigslist find suited us just fine.

What I learned from this project:
1. Having the umbrella over the seating area really defines the space, in addition to protecting the cushions. It's become one of my favorite places to relax. 
2. Once again, my husband had a great idea and made it happen.

Days and Nights of the Round Table...

When I sold my house, my rickety redwood patio table went straight to the dumpster instead of the moving truck. But now we had a large deck and no table.
We settled on looking for a round glass table that could seat 4-6 and started searching on CL for patio furniture in November (go figure).

We found a listing on CL for a patio set that someone wanted out of their storage unit, stat! Incredibly, they were only asking $50 for the dining table, a smaller side table and 4 cushioned chairs. Everything was in great condition, but the table had an attached lazy-susan in the middle, which I didn't really care for. And, we had no use for the 4 chairs which were bulky and looked like they came off the bridge of the USS Enterprise. Besides, I had already purchased 6 nice, trim chairs earlier in the summer just after the 4th of July when they were marked down 50%.  We loaded everything up and figured we would make it all work somehow.

Table after we removed the center lazy susan

Well, we paired the 4 unwanted chairs with my husband's old square glass patio table and sold that set at a garage sale for $50, so our table was basically free. We were able to remove the lazy-susan, which now left the white frosted glass top to be dealt with.
My first attempt of spray painting the underside of the table with black outdoor furniture paint didn't turn out well, so next I painted the top of the table with an outdoor rated hammered metal textured paint by Rustoleum. This was some pretty crazy paint and a little tricky to work with (save some brain cells and try not to breathe while painting with this!) but it gave me an interesting matte textured look once it was completed.

What I learned from this project:

1. There are a number of interesting paints with different textures that I had no idea existed. Go to the hardware store and check out what's out there!
2. Shop off season: we likely got a great deal on this table since it was November and not a lot of people were in the market for a patio set close to Thanksgiving.