Patio Updo: Painting the Wooden Swing

I rain out of my Minwax Polyshades "American Chestnut Gloss 475" before I could even get 50% of the swing done; however wanted to post what the difference in shades look like. The swing came with the house and seems firmly planted into the ground. I sanded the cajolla's out of the "legs" of the swing. This is what the swing looked like yesterday... and all the times it's been around not being used....

Yeah, dull, boring, looks about as ugly as the rocks below it. Arizonians love rocks. Ugh! Why?! Oh yea, NO maintenance. But they tend to look kinda ugly and boring. Anyhow, this is what I'm doing today and probably tomorrow if I can get more stain.

The color is much richer and more appealing to the eye. Once the whole bench is done, I think this will look very nice and finally be used! Let's cross our fingers and hope that somebody besides me will sit in it! Now I know to mix the minwax paint too. Ha, oops. 

DIY Patio Chairs and Updating Private Panels

A new summer is around the corner and it's time to update the patio. You want friends and co-workers to come over and be impressed, not shun in disgust because your chairs have rusted over the winter season. I know mine have. I don't mind the metal chairs though since I can re-use them almost ever summer. I would love to have wicker but I have learned over time, wicker is prickly. When I sit in other people's wicker chairs, I remember exactly why I don't like them during the summer; however, in winter, I think they are great because you're wearing jeans to cover your skin from being poked around.

I have four (4) metal chairs, (1) table and (1) side table that is used for drinks. It would be great to find a circular tray to seal to the surface but I will have to keep an eye open for any ideas on how to make it more accessible.

Here are the photos of today's spray-paint job. I am using Rustoleum Gloss Enamel in "Smoke Gray".

The others are still in progress. 

As for my private panels..I don't really like them but there's not much I want to really do to them right now since I have no image in my mind of what they should look like. However, I did decide that since I had one too many fake plants, I am trimming them with wire cutters and placing them in and out of the panels; the way vines would look if they were growing on them. Below you can see the before and after image. I am also putting my christmas white lights within the vines so at night we have some extra patio light (since it is super nice out lately!). 

The bottom planters will either be sanded and stained or sanded and painted a certain color, possibly light blue to match the patio decor. Not sure yet. I stained the bottom planters (3/25/2013 update) and they look like this but I realized that I had not actually used the colored stain in the bottle as the stain was not mixed with the paint (oops, my bad). Probably going to re-do this! 

  

DIY Patio Cushions (Part I) - Fabric Choice

It took me forever to finally settle on two different color choices for fabric! I shopped at fabric.com and while browsing through their large catalog of fabrics, settled for Richloom Solarium Outdoor Carmody in Kiwi and Navy. I had thought I was going for a gray/yellow/blue pallet for the outdoors but my husband went to our local grocery store, Fry's... that also sell some basic patio furniture items, and purchased a navy umbrella at $39.99 + the insanely high 9.1% tax here. While navy was not in the pallet of initial choice (blue was going to be like sky blue) ... I decided to look online for navy fabrics to match the umbrella and found the Richloom design. I purchased two (2) yards of each. I may need more but this is my first time upholstering cushions so I will need to spend lightly before I get the hang of it.

KIWI

NAVY

Aren't they nice?! Everywhere I look all i see are nature print red and green fabric as the design for patio furniture. I think that is so 10 years ago still so I decided instead of dishing out on things I don't like, I'd attempt to make my own with the help of other bloggers DIY tutorials and youTube users. I am spray painting my (four) metal chairs and (one) metal table with Rustoleum Smoke Gray spray paint that is supposed to keep the chairs and table from rusting so easily. I think the gray / blue / green pallet will look really nice and sociable once it is all done! 

Will get back to you when it's all done. Not sure how long it takes for fabric.com to ship their product, but once I get it I will surely be ready to begin the task of making my patio awesome! 

Paid off the Vehicle

Oh hurrah! My hubby stupidly bought a used 2004 Nissan Titan in 2008, with an $18,000 price tag. I'm never quite sure why he needed or wanted the truck but we had it and were stuck with it since the market collapsed right after that.

About two weeks ago, he put his Mazda RX-7 for sale on Craigslist and finally had one viewer two nights ago. He wanted to sleep on it and see other cars but came back and said he wanted our car since it was in great condition (meaning, not roached!). Why is it that Americans treat their expensive or classic cars like garbage? My dad did that with his ancient Austen Healey and Viper. Yes my dad had old cars. He never drove any of them but it did collect dust, had oil leaking issues and piles of newspapers in it. It was quite gross, even I admit. Such a nice car just trashed. I also find it funny when people store their $10-60 items in the garage and their $40,000 cars outside. Ha! Good ole Americans we are!

Anyhow, this guy who was pretty large for this small car bought it. Guess he really liked it. We used 67% of the funds to pay off his loan on his 2004 Nissan Titan. Now we can save $310 every month and use it for ... oh... fixing his smurf step which I swear is gonna break someone's ankle soon as it pops off, fix his rusted muffler (yeah, florida cars)... and I dunno, put $150 into savings. Either way it's totally fab! I was ecstatic that he was willing to put all that money into paying off something! I didn't think he would but he totally came through.

I think it helped for him to talk to his co-workers about their car payments. One guy makes $1,100 in total car payments, $700 for his wife's Lexus and $200 for his and $200 more for his sons!! His son doesn't pay for his own car?! That is totally wack. Talk about teaching kids to be dependent on their parents for paying off their debts. When my hubby heard the $1,100 number, he felt this immediate relief when he sent the final check to the lenders. Of course they are going to say you owe us $5 in interest that accrued from the time we posted pay off amount on this date to the time we actually received your check, but that is okay! No biggie. So what if we owe an extra $5.00. We don't owe $310.79 anymore! We can live more comfortable and within our means now.

Our monthly loan repayment amounts were $832 and now they are $521. It's a huge drop. We still have his dad's $400 to pay off that we borrowed from him and IRS Taxes. After that it should be like $200 in Student Loans. Then we can tackle that and pay that off as soon as realistically possible. It's in the 110,000 range and slowly growing because our minimum payment isn't even covering the principal yet.. we've paid $9,000 or so in interest alone since 2012... nuts. Oi vey. But... save that for a new day. Not today. I'm just so happy we get our Title soon and can finally spend some money on fixing the poor truck. It really is in excellent condition despite those two issues I mentioned earlier (muffler and smurf step).

Okay well this was the easiest way to pay something off... you gotta sell something big in order to reap the reward later. Selling small items work too but they take so much time and effort it's almost like a second job. Best thing to do is open a separate account (from your spouse) and put all your selling profits into that account. Wait for it to add up to a certain number that you are willing to pay and it will help. That or you could just use those extra funds as a savings account. It all depends how you want to tackle (and if you really want to tackle) your finances.

Also when you pay off your vehicle, other costs are reduced. Our car insurance on the vehicle for 6 month term is $258. Once we show them the Title I will advise what the new insurance cost is. The car insurance cost has already been reduced by $30 by selling his Mazda convertible. So paying off the vehicle really does help, especially if you have another one that you can sell to pay off (or pay down a large amount) of the own that's owed.

DIY Hang Your Guitars

I had two guitars that were constantly in the way, I spent more time moving them than actually using them. I had them in my closet and that proved to be dangerous for the guitars since my clothes would often move them. Fortunately no damage sustained but I finally found the missing guitar hangers we had and got them up on my office wall. I had to put them away from window view since I have no blinds or window treatment up right now. The natural light in here is quite nice but I do need some sort of privacy. That will have to be next month or so since the budget is maxed right now for "upgrading home". I want picture frames in peach and blue all around it showing good "success" and other "office" quotes that are inspirational.

Here's a pic of the guitars hanging. The upper one is a kiddie guitar which I haven't been able to sell lately since people keep asking for a practically "free" price. I decided to keep it for a while and just use it as decor now that it's out of the way (meaning off the floor). The one below is a rare 1990s Di Giorgio Brazilian guitar made out of Rosewood. It's illegal to import that type of wood into the US now since Brazil keeps cutting down their forests so this one stays.

Tada! 

I will probably move the black filing cabinet. I am figuring out a way to convert some of my files into binders so that I have some binders on my desk instead of too many files stuffed into my drawers (only have 2). And then maybe convert the filing cabinet into a basket holder in entry way or something. I'm not sure yet how I can convert it into something else. I will figure it out soon enough though. Thanks for looking. 

Artwork for the Office

Started this today. I have a crappy white wall.. the primer just won't turn white like the other side. I had brown on there but Base 2 is as if there's no pigment in the primer. I don't have enough to do another round so I need to put artwork up and just get some other things on the walls to avoid the trouble of priming the entire area and only the non-covered area. Need to return extra primer from Walmart tomorrow or Monday. Probably will return on Monday. Don't think I needed to buy that right now.

Anyhow, this is sort of what my artwork is going to look like. My theme colors are aqua, coral, dark gray and sky gray.

Any how, the project is slow going since the stencils take forever to dry underneath. I can't get more paint on the canvas. It already has one spot I need to recover with the dark gray. This will go over my white walls. It's a 3 x 3 canvas (meaning 3 foot) so it should cover enormous space. The sides of the canvases will have to be painted gray too but that will be last. I am have the design meet in the middle and the only design on the other corners will be the leaf. The stencils were $3.88 from Walmart and if you shake them to dry... the paper starts to crease which I know will lead to a tear in the stencil... so I gotta wait. I'm alternating colors on each stencil and each side so the pattern is reflective of the other side. The aqua or should I say "China Blue" ... looks a bit too light but it is doable for artwork. The Enamel paint was $0.57 at Walmart for each bottle (I got four, two of each) and $6.67 for the primer which again, I'll most likely just return. Don't need that right now. I didn't think of making the base color gray until I left the store... how typical. Ideas always come at the wrong times. Any how, hopefully this will look really nice on the walls and less "manly". The entire house is dark colors with rich colored furniture and while I admit it looks great ...  I would like the upstairs to be bright and happy colors. Should be a cool transition, right? Yeahhhh... also the office is the first room anyone sees. I want it to say "wow, that's really nice" or "wow, that's so awesome"! and of course "your wife rocks." That would be great. However, that time is not now. Maybe by Friday next week it will be. I can't do too much though since we're on an extraordinarily thin budget for each month until things are paid off. I have to be creative and shop at Goodwill for my supplies (like curtain fabric). Okay.. well tata for now. I gotsta go watch some TV and relax. I'm a little tired today so gonna rest up. 

Redoing the Office...Still

I don't know if I can get this done in just one week! I have so much in mind to finish! I need something over the windows... since there's a road RIGHT THERE !! People see cute little me! Oh by the way, listening to Alphaville and their hit song, "Big in Japan". Great song. I recommend Spotify for anyone who doesn't want to spend over $10.00 a month on music. They have pretty much everything, even that gosh-awful song by Britney and Will.I.Isn't. Yah, that song is the worst I've heard. Doesn't even sound like Britney, sounds like a  machine that you'd find at those high-tech airports that talk to you when you pass them by. So gay.

Any how, the office is ... still going. I don't think I'm going to get done by tomorrow. I got no blinds on there either. Poo. I have extra curtains but I really have curtains everywhere, gets kind of old to see curtains. And they are just blue, nothing super fabulous. I am about to put a shelf up over the window to allow for extra storage space. Not sure what I'd put up there but I have a shelf laying around and have no idea where else to put it. The shelf is like King size and the kids rooms have twin size windows. Know what I mean? They're tiny. And the shelf would be too overwhelming for them. It's too high too. Here in the office I can at least put up some random things we own for no apparent reason and make it look like they have a real home. That may be cool. We'll see. Anyhow these are the images of the office... and it's amazing how a camera can make the room look like total crap but it's really not. I can't get a picture of the whole room... unless I use the panoramic on my hubby's phone. I may do that... but when it's done.

This is the office and that's actually the computer I'm on right now, ha! That's my desk and I know the wall above isn't painted all the way through. I can't reach (only five foot) so I gotta figure a new way to reach it or just put pictures there... not sure. Anyway, yes we have rockets. I really don't know why either. They just collect dust but the hubby likes them. At least I got his plane collection situated. The heaviest one crashed off the wall today ... gotta figure out how to make it stay there. The 5 lb adhesive tape is apparently not enough even though I had put some on each engine and the flattest surface that would touch the wall. Still crashed. None of the others have though. May have to work with this one. 

BEFORE

AFTER... well, so far...

The wall has been painted white... it was a poopy brown but that clashed with the gray too much. I really wanted navy blue walls but it's $30 for a gallon at Home Depot and I can't afford that right now. The wall needs an extra layer in a few spots but I'll wait until its super dry. The window is so bare, I'll have to see what works ... that we already have. I don't want to buy any more things for this room. There will be pretty cool lithograph golf frames up on the wall on each side. They are large so they will take up most of the space. If it's too manly once they are up though, I think I'd sell them for something else. I don't want it to look ALL man here. Most of the house already looks like it's all man... except for the guest bathroom which the idiot renter beforehand used cement paint on the walls and ceiling! It's truly the ugliest color for a small bathroom... I just haven't gotten to it yet. Oh, btw, the color is like peach puke. Yah. Terrible.

I think the doors need to stand out the most and match the window treatment. Looks like it just needs that boom boom. I may be able to figure out a cool pattern for that. The black office chair needs to go. It's so big for me. It's made for a giant. Seriously. It's not even something I could DIY upholster. 

PS. The Dyson vacuum cleaner stays in the rooms I work in since I vacuum the carpets daily. It's so I'm not breathing excess crap. 

Okay, time to rest and save up energy for tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by on my oh so wonderful work. It's a pain to paint white... so many layers. Fo shizzle. I used to hate white walls... but I think if it is accented correctly with cool stuff on the walls.. it turns out very nicely. Keeps it light in here too... the dogs are actually in this room. They love sun spots.