Raised Garden Bed

Ladies and gents, it's that time of year again! We've moved out home improvements to the outside of our humble abode. If I'm scarce around these parts it's because I'm in the garden.

This weekend on Le Jardin, we'll show you how to build your very own raised garden bed.

We have a bathroon door!

The carpenter came over yesterday and spent the whole day working on it. He trimmed the door, cut and installed all the wood work needed for the opening, and hung the door. Keith installed the door knob and lock hardware.



From the inside.


More "During" photos to come...

How to Paint a 5-panel Door

Today, I painted the door I found in the attic for the half bathroom. We found a carpenter who would do all the door trim and hang the door for us. It works out and costs less than a brand new pre-hung door. Since he's coming tomorrow, I had to finish painting the door today. It's much easier to paint a door while it's down and with no hardware. MUCH easier!


Finished first coat.

For a How-To, use this from This Old House. I LOVE this tutorial!!!


First, clean the door with a damp rag and give it a light sanding. Get in all the crevices.


Using an angled paint brush, paint the "molding". Get in the corners and make sure you don't have any excess painting drips. You want the molding to be defined.


Using a small paint roller meant for doors, paint the "panel" (center rectangular piece) and then the "rails" (the horizontal panels).

Allow the rails to dry a bit before finishing by painting the "stiles" (the two vertical panels on each side). It sounds tedious and you might be wondering why bother? I learned from experience that the results are just better if you paint the door in this methodical manner. The stiles will camouflage any brush/roller marks made from painting the rails.

Maybe tomorrow we'll have a bathroom door! Yay!

The House That Got Away

Listing here.

I was browsing and stumbled upon this house. To my surprise it's up for sale! Keith and I put in a bid for this house when we were house hunting 3.5 years ago. I can't believe the price too. It was priced at $255K when we first saw it. It's only $239K now. I wonder why the owners are selling. The owners had a larger down payment than we had so we lost the house. I was so down when I found out. I loved the kitchen and living room. It was HUGE. I mean HUGE. And it had a garage and stamped patio.

Le sigh

Viva Las Vegas

Okay, so I know this has nothing to do with home improvements but just in case you were wondering, I was in Vegas doing this!



If the flowers look familiar to you it's because they were in my half bathroom! So it has a little to do with the house.

See more at Mariko's website or blog.

Half Bathroom: Cost Breakdown and Resource List

Here's the break down as requested. I budgeted $3,000 for it including labor. If we had done it all ourselves, I budgeted $1500 for materials. Also, a half bathroom like this will add $7,000 to the value of our home in this area.

Cost Breakdown:

Sink Vanity (includes granite counter top, sink & knobs)=$425 Lowe's
Faucet=$60 Lowe's
Toilet=$159 Lowe's
Mirror=$27 Ross
Roman blinds=$20 Home Depot

Door: Using the old one we found in attic

Floor tiles=$75 Lowe's
Grout=$13 Lowe's
Ceramic threshold=$25 Lowe's

4" Crown molding=4x$11 Lowe's
Crown molding corners=4x$5
8'x4' Bead board=6x$23
Chair rail=4x$7.50
6" Baseboard=4x$11

Gloss Paint in "Swan Wing" by Behr=$12 Home Depot
Semi-gloss paint in "Rejuvenate" (green) by Behr=leftover
Primer & Ceiling paint=leftover
Paint Brush=$8
Rollers=$10
Trays=2x$0.69
Spackle=leftover

Nails=$0.50 for a jar of long nails at a yard sale
Box of plastic anchors and screws (only need 2 to hang mirror)=$4
Electrical Outlets=3x$1.00
Outlet Covers=2x$0.65+$1.90
Ceiling light (we did this a while ago)=$10
Caulk=3x$3

Towel Rack=$10 Home Goods
Toilet paper rack=$10 Home Goods
Brown towels=2x$5 Ross
Green patterned towels=$4+$7 Home Goods
Glass pedestal jar=$1.99 on Clearance at Ross
Floor vase=$7.99 Ross
Silk ranunculus=3x$2.69 AC Moore

Things we used that I didn't include in the cost, but you would need if you had to do this yourself from scratch:

• caulk gun, drill, level, taper measure, ladder, spackel knife, spackle, sander (for spackle), nail gun, coping saw, flashlight, shop vacuum, brooms, rags, drop clothes, painter's tape, cleaning products, paper towels, mop.

Materials Cost: $1,156
Labor Cost: $1200 Plumber, $300 Tiler, $120 Electrician = $1620.
Accessories: $40.

TOTAL: $2,816 We just made it!

The tiler was obviously a splurge since we could have done it ourselves as we did the kitchen, but we have NO regrets. It was worth every penny spent and every minute saved! He also leveled the floor for us. The electrician was unexpected, but I guess necessary. His pricing was LOW. I googled plumbers. On HGTV, a girl paid $500 a few years ago. Another company my coworker uses quoted like $3000! Assuming a union worker gets $30/hr (which is low), he was here for 6 days which is $1440, we still made out. Wiki answers this question here. We also upped the ante with a better sink vanity. We could have gone with a cheaper stock cabinet for $200, but we really wanted this bathroom to have a better cabinet since it's the focal point and will be the main bathroom for guests.

My only issue is with the toilet. It's a good quality low flow toilet, but it has a PLASTIC seat cover and lid. I HATE plastic seats and lids. I just don't like them. I didn't think to look for that in the description before we bought it. It doesn't use a lot of water and the tank does fill up quickly. It's a little noisy in my opinion but it's brief so that's ok.

Any questions? So who's inspired to do their own bathroom now? Or did I just scare you away?

Half Bathroom: The Unveiling!

After 11 days, we are ready to unveil the new half bathroom! It's so surreal. We've been talking about doing this from day 1. This room was advertised to be a future half bathroom by the seller and it was always on our mind. For a while, we just didn't have the funds to do it but a second bathroom on the first floor of the house was so crucial.

Before we reveal the bathroom, let's revisit the before picture. I took this picture during our inspection of the house.


Before: Linoleum floors, wood paneling nailed over dry wall painted baby blue, beige colored molding and trim. Old cabinetry and particle board counter top. Curtains, need I say more?

....

Wait for it....

....

....

AFTER!


Picture from the same view.


Sink console, mirror and toilet


Accessories


Floors


Silk ranunculus


Bead board and trim


Basil likes it too.

I'll be back with a resource list.