mspicky's Profile

The only problem with the post is that it implies it's easy to get pro results. It's not at all easy. I think that's what people are taking exception to.I tried with the same tools as the article suggests, and I have a very steady hand. I've gone back to letting frame stores cut it for me because the end imperfections such as overcuts bug the heck out of me. Mat board is not cheap either. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. But if you aren't a type-A nut, then go for it! I also don't cut my own hair.

We don't re-use gray water, and that alone in every household is a horrible waste. It can be used for flushing toilets, the first suds in the washing machine or dishwasher, instead it all goes down the drain. We have never owned a car, eat meat twice a week, and generally I try hard to conserve, reuse and recycle. If ONLY the US cared enough about reusing gray water to have readily available options so that households could reuse rather than waste, the combined savings in water and processing would be tremendously beneficial. Water bills would go down too. This bums me out a lot.

boxsprings are an incredible ripoff for what they charge for them. If slats of a bed are too far apart, then it affects how the springs sit and therefore the supportiveness. Same for foam mattresses. Then a board helps. The fabric is to protect the mattress fabric from snagging, especially since mattresses benefit from regular flipping and rotation. For that reason, mattresses with built in pillow tops automatically will age faster since you can only rotate them in one direction and therefore sagging spots will form more quickly due to repeat pressure points. If the slats of your frame are already fairly close, no board is necessary and it won't really help the feel of the mattress.

MissKatieMay has it right. This is a space set up for entertaining. Definitely put the couch facing away from the kitchen and parallel to the island, mount the tv in the southeast corner on swivel. The seating area should be defined by a rug.

I can't tell whether there was pink tiles in the before. If there was, I'd like to object to this renovation. Hahahha, just joking. It's lovely! But the white knobs on the cabinet...well at least you have a lot of storage space and that's great. My favorite change is the floor tiles.

AdaChamoun, I followed a link on AT to Centsationalgirl's blog. Then I followed her instructions (sanding, 2 coats primer, paint/primer, and I'm about to do varnish) on my laminate kitchen cabinets. They look awesome with new hardware. The key is to buy the right type of primer and do not take shortcuts with the sanding. The sanding I did manually, you just have to take off the gloss coat. Bought an 8 pack of block sanders and just used those. Total cost of materials, under $100 (the good stuff is almost $40 a gallon, but you don't need more than one gallon of each). This is the end stage of my kitchen remodel so I plan to live with this for a long time.

It's not an ugly kitchen. It's a messy kitchen. Save the money towards the reno and get rid of all of that surface clutter. Get a NICE dishrack and learn to put stuff away right away. No matter how nice a renovated kitchen is, it's still going to look junky covered with junk.

I would rather live in the "after". Makes me wonder how many arch lovers themselves have actually chosen to buy old homes just to preserve them? My bet is that you purchased because of location, and then made your interior choices to reflect your tastes. That's exactly what happened here! No need to save details just because it's brick or its wood. Especially if it totally contrasts with your personal taste. The green views from the after are beautiful.

My reason for the redo, other than the very damaged tub, was that the previous place I rented in the same neighborhood had the pink tile too. I decided to keep it. Then I realized that I hated being in it, using it, etc. It surprised me because I love retro, and generally prefer to preserve and reuse rather than destroy. I decided this time not to let sentimentality overcome common sense. I too got the $600 quote for refinishing the tub (to last maybe another 6 yrs). Look if you actually LIKE your bathroom, then keep it, being mindful of the cost-benefit. If you don't like it, you are the only one who has to be in it day after day. Let the naysayers preserve their own bathroom museums.

Amaranta, having just totally demolished the bathroom and replaced the tub in a bathroom very much like the one featured (pink with a window in the shower), I can tell you that at first I considered refinishing options. They are not cheap either for a professional to do it, and the at-home kits often result in a peeling finish. My brother and I tackled the reno ourselves but ran into plumbing irregularities with a fiberglass tub. Also, keep in mind removing the tub means knocking out the tiling surrounding it too, and unless the original homeowners kept extras, you might end up needing to rip out everything around the tub or end up with non-matching tiles. It was really the chipped and rusting old bathtub that made me need to rip it all out, I couldn't peaceably soak in that thing from 1950. The original finish was baked on enamel. If yours is similar and in bad shape, best to get a quote from a professional refinisher. Then compare that with how much it will cost you to redo it all. My cost so far is about $300 for new tub, tiles, compound. Labor not included. It's harder to preserve parts of a bathroom than one might expect. I managed to salvage the floor by careful cutting.