FIRST: Crab Shack Update
It’s electrical work time. My experience in this field is minimal, but I love it. I installed a dimmer not too long ago and I think anyone can pull that off. I can’t quite articulate why it’s so fun for me to tie wires together, flip a switch and see light beaming, but it is. The crab shack has a light switch in the bedroom that accesses the light and the fan for the crab shack… with the barn doors hung I won’t have access to the switch anymore, so I had to move it.
**As a disclaimer, make sure you have an idea of what you’re doing BEFORE starting electrical projects AND SHUT OFF YOUR BREAKER before you do anything. I mean anything. Electrocution sounds terrible, I think we can all agree.**
Because the load bearing wall is staying as a partial separation my plan was to swap the light to the other side of the wall. These pics show the process of removing the box, swapping sides, the hole where a light used to be and the almost-finished product:
Since I am not an electrical by any stretch, I’m sharing my favorite electrical tip: Label all your wires with tape and even take “before” pictures before taking everything apart. It makes the process of reconnecting the wires much faster.
SECOND: Sherwin Williams announced their color of the year, it’s so pretty! Coral Reef 6606:
(Sherwin-Williams image) I truly love their paint and they were my first major sponsor on this blog, so I love them even more.
THIRD: Thanksgiving is around the corner! I am starting to think of it as the forgotten holiday, which is so sad. I am all about Black Friday… when it is actually on Friday, NOT Thursday! I wrote a post on some survival secrets last year. I have an entire shopping spreadsheet this year, maybe my organization will help me survive the mayhem. Good luck and stay safe out there shoppers!
FOURTH: I am officially HALF WAY stenciling my room! I’ll have it done soon, stay tuned.
LAST: On a personal level, check out this adorable reason why I am happily distracted these days:
His name is Fiyero and he’s a Shih Tzu puppy. I have never had a dog in my life. Neither has my husband. Growing up my family had one cat that we didn’t see for weeks at a time. It’s crazy we actually got a dog- this pet thing is a whole new world to me and so far we’re loving it!
Happy Creating!
I just spent hooooooooooours trying to solve technical issues on the website. Apparently there was a lot of “malicious code”. Whatever that means. Remind me never to be a computer coder! Yikes!
The crab shack is coming along. I haven’t been this excited for a project since the tree house. Last week my awesome bro Cody helped me take down the random sliding glass doors that were literally in the middle of my bedroom (don’t fret, there are three more in the crab shack itself!) The next step, drywall.
Now, it’s confession time, as much as I love DIY I have an achilles heel… it’s drywall. For the sake of full disclosure I have never tried any stone masonry and that looks pretty intense, but I have tried drywall and it looked, well, it looked like a 1st grade art project. Only I would never take a picture of it and hang it on the fridge. There are some really great tutorials out there for dry-walling, but for me it was easier to call a professional. It started like this:
After the drywall and texture mud:
And then painted:
Doesn’t it look amazing!? It’s incredible how taking down the doors and finishing the entry opened up the master bedroom so much. HGTV style, really.
The next steps are to work on hardware and procure doors. I am having a huge debate on whether I want big, brown, rustic feature doors, or if I’m going to go a little more conservative/modern and match the doors with the rest of the home. As far as hardware, I am happy dancing around these days because the blessed hardware arrived! National Hardware sponsored this project’s barn door hardware and door expense. Huge thank you to them! The moment I opened the boxes I knew the project was going to be awesome. This hardware is the real deal and I can’t wait to put it up and tell you all about it. Some seriously good times ahead people.
Happy Creating!
Okay, we didn’t exactly bust down double doors. It was more like a sliding glass door and we didn’t really bust anything at all. You may remember my big plans for the crab shack. Well step one of about a zillion is complete. Check out this glorious gaping hole in my bedroom!!
I haven’t seen anything so spectacular in a long, long time. The random sliding glass doors that separated my room from the add on (lovingly called the crab shack in these here parts) are out and ready to go to Habitat for Humanity. Good riddens! If you are at all sad, don’t worry, there are three more sliding glass doors in the crab shack itself.
Honestly, this project intimidated me. I know, I know, everyone calls me hardware, but something about the large glass-ish doors in my pretty room scared me. So I called in the big guns. My bro Cody. He’s a contractor and he builds homes so pretty they make you cry. If you need a contractor in Southern Utah, he owns Rising Star Construction and you will thank your lucky stars if you get to work with him.
I fully planned on learning the ropes in this project, but ended up doing super amazing tasks like cutting the caulk and finding a step stool. Cody did all the work with his skilsaw and sawzall. And my step stool.
With the doors down the next task is ordering new ones for the barn doors. Wahoo! The hardware has just arrived and it’s aaaaaaamazing… more on that soon. I also need to figure out how to case the door, find flooring, decide on paint…. I love these kinds of projects. (I’m completely serious!)
Happy Creating!
Am I the only person that neglects my personal space, working on the rest of the house first? It might be because I feel like the only time I spend in the space is sleeping or showering. It’s funny, I consider myself a read-in-bed-at-night kinda gal, but I get like 2 pages in before I’m totally asleep. I am excited to say, that is changing. My 2014 project list has several projects outlined for the master bedroom. I’ve only finished three of the ten and and I’d like to complete them all before the holidays.
First, thanks for the votes on the accent wall, after many comments and emails “Cascade” won hands down. And guess what just arrived:
I am so excited about the stencil, that projects is going to be started this weekend…
Remember the crab shack? Well the sliding glass walls separating the master from the add-on are about to come tumbling down:
Well, hopefully not tumbling per se, but down for sure- making way for some FABULOUS barn doors, I can hardly sleep at night I’m so anxious!
I have a few other things up my sleeve. So we’ll see you all soon!
Happy Creating!