Day by day, a fresh start over, a different hand to play...loved that show.

Mike finished the steps over the weekend before we went on vacation, (yes, we've been back from our vacation for a while, but this post has taken a long time to write up).  Notice how I didn't say they were done.  He just finished his part.  We still need to fill all the holes, sand, then paint my little heart out.  Though all that seems like a lot, it's nothing compared to the work Mike did.  He's really my hero.  I sent him so many pins of stairs and paneling, that I thought he was going to block my email.  He took all my ideas, then designed a way to build everything.  He bitches a lot that I'm an architect and he's the engineer, but it's the truth, and it works out for us, although sometimes in the middle it doesn't seem like we'll ever come to an agreement.

The last time I specifically talked about the stairs was way back in November when we replaced all the existing drainage pipes.


It's crazy how excited I was and what an improvement I thought it was.  I mean, it was compared to the set-up we were using:


You may have noticed that since the extra stairs were added, Mike had completed all the drywall and had even built the storage boxes that would be the finished insides.  I posted a picture showing this progress when we textured the ceilings:


There wasn't much that needs to be explained except Mike added new risers and plywood to the stairs and added drywall on the upper part of the cabinet wall and in the closet as well.

You may also notice the beginnings of our built-ins.  Mike started by framing these two new cabinets out.  He also added some insulation between the closet and one of the cabinets.  The reason for this being that the closet will be used to store fermenting beer and wine, (no more first floor fermenting for us!), and we need to be able to control the temperature inside the closet.


For the actual cabinet interiors, Mike built boxes to fit inside the framed out areas.  After sliding the beasts into place, he leveled and added shims as necessary, and nailed every thing in place.  The added piece of plywood to the left of the closet door is the beginning of our faux paneling wall, (see the beginnings of our planning here).


The awesome plan Mike came up with is hidden doors that look to be a part of the paneling, but push open with hidden hinges.  Don't worry, once it's done I'll show pictures that will make more sense.

The hardest part was determining the finishing thickness for all the pieces.  Mike explained it to me a million times, but it was way to hard for me to picture it so I just let me do what he needed to do.  Part of that was routering out the boxes to allow the doors to sit a little recessed so that it matched the rest of the paneling.


The next step to trimming everything out was the face piece along the risers.  Mike had been dreading this piece.  It involves a lot of cuts, and needed to be one continuous piece to look nice.  The best way he determined to start was to cut the easy cuts, then temporarily attach it to the steps with a giant screw to draw the cut lines for the greatest accuracy.


He then got into a dozen different acrobat positions to draw all his lines.  Obviously, I stood back and laughed and took pictures for laughing later.





Once his lines were drawn, he removed the piece double checked the sizes and angles and got mentally prepared to cut it.


Since we were using cabinet grade plywood, we knew we had to figure out a way to prevent any exposed edges.  The only way Mike determined how to achieve this was by cutting each stair piece on an angle.  That way the stair riser would be cut on a 45 as well and no edges would be exposed.  This was the proper way to do it, but also the most difficult, remember this is all cut from one piece so there are no do overs.  Dun, dun, dun.

I wasn't around when Mike cut them, but after I came home I was so impressed with his skills.  I know the man has skills, but when he starts to get apprehensive I get a little worried.  Turns out he's amazing.

For those that have no idea what I was just talking about, here's how it looked after we permanently installed it. 





The angled edges were so sharp that Mike cut himself on one and started bleeding!  He warned me, since I'm usually the clutz that falls up the stairs, and I couldn't help but imagine tripping and falling off the side and cutting myself on the way down.  Needless to say I came up with a lot of excuses to stay upstairs until the stairs were better enclosed.
 
Before finishing the steps and risers he added the base trim up the steps.  We went back and forth on the style we wanted at the bottom, and finally decided on a step pattern, as opposed to angling it with the steps.  To finish the steps, Mike wrapped the risers with plywood, mitering the edges along the exposed side to come to a nice finished edge.  The top of the risers are obviously covered with the step so you can get away with using plywood.


He then placed pre-made hardwood steps on the regular steps using glue and nails, and used wood planks with nosing to create the oddly shaped steps at the bottom and at the landing.  I was out while Mike finished these, so I only came back to the completely finished project, but I have to say I was ecstatic with the work he did.  Not only because there were no longer any safety hazards I had to watch for while walking down the stairs, but they looked so damn good!



To finish out the paneling, Mike added pieces of 1" thick wood to create the "batten".  The doors will be level with the panel in place to create the "board".  If you can't see it yet, you will when we finish painting and installing the doors.  Obviously, we already like and use the additional storage.


The corners came out really nice, and even though it was a pain in the ass, Mike's glad he took the extra time to miter the edges.


We built the paneling to end level with this step.  To cap the paneling and incorporate the steps, we chose to extend the nosing along the wall.  Mike realized we needed something to finish the edge of the drywall, so he cut a really thin piece of molding to cap it off.  


You can see the pencil line from the first draft of base molding.  The typical stair angled base board looked really weird along these bottom steps and we nixed that idea as soon as it was drawn.


Like the rest of the room, the stairs have come a long way, and since they are the first thing you see coming down into the new space, it was definitely worth all the work and inconvenience.

Last week Mike and I traveled to Florida to visit my parents and attend my cousin's wedding.  I could tell you how great it was to be in warm weather while Ohio is firmly stuck in winter, or how nice it was to see my out-of-town family, (and hang out with all my family that traveled down for the celebration), but instead I have much more somber news to share.

While we busted our asses to finish as much as we could in the never-ending basement before we left to go out of town, we were greeted with a 6-gallon-red-wine disaster when we came home at 9pm that forced us to tear out some of the brand spankin' new drywall.

Let me explain, for the wedding Mike's making the beer and we're making our own wine, (would you really expect anything less from us at this point?), so a couple weeks before we left we picked out the three wines we are making, including a awesome sounding Chilean pinot noir.  We made a cute mini-date out of making the wine one night and put it away to ferment.  Red wine needs a warm 72-75 degree temperature so we put in in the dining room closet.  We had a small leakage problem from the spigot when we were making it, but Mike (thought) he fixed it, and monitored it for the next week before we left, (it hadn't shown any more leakage the entire week), at this point I think you can see where this is heading.

When we came home, we checked the house, cuddled the cat, and checked on the wine.  Mike was surprised to see the towel underneath the bucket was soaked.  He was even more surprised to lift the empty bucket.   We immediately knew where it had gone and ran downstairs to be greeted with a scene worthy of a horror movie.  The wine had leaked through the hardwood floors of the dining room closet into the drywall of the ceiling in the beer cave.   Because there was a light there, the wine must have collected, then dropped in large quantities onto our brand new chest freezer because there was wine spatter on all three walls.

Since my first reaction to a crisis is not to grab my camera, but to gather cleaning supplies, I have no evidence of the massacre scene to share.  I think it will always be engraved in my head though. 
 

The ceiling actually didn't look that bad.  I did grab my iPhone after cleaning the walls to take a picture to send to my parents.


While it didn't look that bad, we knew underneath there was 6 gallons of red wine causing all sorts of problems.  The only option we had was to tear out the drywall and replace it.  So, only 20 hours after getting off the plane, Mike had tore out all the damaged drywall.


You can see the wine had soaked the wood behind the drywall.  But the majority of the wine was all in the drywall.


The light will also need replaced since wine and electronics don't play nice.


As for the walls, most of the splatter washed off, but large spots of splatter were stained.  It's hard to see in the photo, but there were large areas on each of the three walls that had dark gray/purple spots.


To get your bearings, the closet is on the right in the picture below.  The left is where the chimney used to be. 


I told Mike it looks like a dead body was stored up here.



Here's the bottom of the floor boards below the closet.


I did get a cool shot looking up into the area where the chimney was.  When we renovate the kitchen, all these walls will be torn out and the floor will be covered.


This photo breaks my heart, Mike never poses for me, so I just snapped around him cleaning up.  He looks so dejected after tearing out the work he completed.   


While it sucked, it showed how great of a team Mike and I are.  When things like this happen, I'm actually pretty calm.  Mike freaks out for a hot second, then we immediately evaluate what needs to be done and jump right in.  It's not to say that we're still not bummed, (it cost us about $78 for the new supplies, and another $100 for the wine), but we'll live.  We've even been able to joke that we didn't have enough practice drywalling and painting, (as if), so this was helpful!

Mike remove the entire ceiling piece, then a small section at the corner also needed to be patched.


Before Mike covered everything back up, I used some Kilz Premium to paint all the wood that had any wine on it.  Was it necessary?  Maybe not, but we weren't risking it.  We let the wood dry out overnight after tearing it all out, then washed everything down, then I painted.  I used some junk brushes and rollers and painted all the floor boards of the closet too.  Our reasoning was to seal the wood in case any mildew formed.  We're confident the wine was mostly just traveling along the wood and was mostly in the trashed drywall, but after something like this you can never to be cautious.

Last night Mike installed the new piece of drywall and the patch at the corner.  One of the worst parts was the corner bead needed to be torn out and replaced to get a perfect corner again.
 

I used the Kilz primer to paint any stains on the walls, and also along the areas that would need to be mudded, (for better adhesion).



Mike plans to mud and sand this weekend.  Which means I'll be able to paint when I touch up the rest of the rooms.

As for the wine, we threw the leaky bucket away and bought a new one without a spigot in it.  The spigot only made it easier to transfer into the glass carboy, but Mike's got enough tools to make it just as easy.  On Wednesday we made the new batch and have already gotten bubbles, (always a happy moment knowing your yeast is active)!

Although we wish we had somewhere better to put it, the only spot in the house is still the dining room closet.  Since the hardwood floor is already ruined, it's not noticeable in the photos, but the boards are all cupped a little, we figured there's no harm.  There's also no spigot anymore, and we're anal about checking it, so we're good.

We've always known we were going to tear out this closet and extend the kitchen, so we're not that bummed.  That's also the reason I've never painted the inside of the closet, you can see what all of the baseboards looked like when we bought the place, eww.


So, there's our lovely vacation coming home horror story.  Hopefully, this is the worst we'll ever have to deal with.  We've also decided that we'll probably have someone stay at the house while we're away, or at least have them check inside everyday, (we have the boys next door pick up the mail and they even take out our trash for us, so they're already keeping an eye on the outside).  Oh, and we'll probably never start a wine batch before vacation, or at least not leave fermenting wine on the first floor while we're away again.  Better safe then sorry.

It's that time again.


Like last challenge, we're in the middle of a large scale renovation, (seriously, when are we not in the middle of a reno?), so I didn't think I would be able to do any small DIY project over the weekend in time.  I thought about doing some wedding stuff, but since most of my readers are probably coming, I didn't want to give away all the details, (I think I'll wait until after the wedding to start sharing all the DIY's and details).

That's when I was perusing my Pinterest boards for some ideas, when I realized I've never shared one of my little hobbies here on the blog.  It makes sense, since this blog is about our house and the (sometimes crazy) things we take on making it our home, and my little hobby is definitely not home related.  And, it's pretty girly.

I like to paint my nails.  There I said it.

Actually, having my nails painted is sometimes counterproductive to home renovations.  I used to need hours for my nails to dry before I would (willing) help Mike.  I'd also freak out when I chipped/broke a nail while doing some DIY project.  I gave up having nice nails and usually would sport the DIY'er mani, that I embarrassingly shared on Instagram recently:


My hobbies finally found a happy medium when I started getting shellac manicures.  As always, as I was getting it done I thought, "I could do that".  So, I did.  I bought the supplies off of ebay and have been doing my own shellac mani's for a couple of years now.  In my area a shellac manicure runs about $20-$25.  The supplies were a little pricey up front, (polishes range from $10-$14 and I got a cheap 36w UV lamp for about $30), but after 3 manicures, I made up for the cost and the luxury of doing my nails at home is priceless to me.  And, the best part is, that shellac doesn't chip when I drop a drill bit on my nails, and a swipe with some regular nail polish remover gets rid of paint splatter without messing up the shellac.

This isn't an infomercial or anything, and I don't want any nail technicians to get angry with me, I'm just sharing another aspect of my DIY projects.  Professionals have to be certified to offer the shellac services, and I'm sure there are things that they know that I don't.  But, just like Mike and I taking on our own plumbing and electrical projects, I feel confident enough to paint my own nails.  (Just to be clear, I'm in no way insulting any shellac certification, and I don't perform any shellac manicures for money, I just like doing things myself).     

So, anyways.  Since I've been shellacking for a while, I wanted to start trying new trends that were popping up on Pinterest all the time. I even created my own nail board to keep track of all the cute things I see.

Follow my boards here on Pinterest

 
I especially like the statement nails, (you know, doing something crazy on the ring finger).  And, even if you don't want to be crazy like me, and enjoy getting shellac manicures done by professionals, I thought I'd share how easy it is to get shellac statement nails by bringing in an extra supply for the technician to add. 

The two statement nail trends that I do a lot are the glittered ring finger and the caviar ring finger, (more for special occasions).

(Uploaded by user and pinned here on Pinterest)

(Originally from here and pinned here on Pinterest)

Whether I'm doing a statement nail, or a regular manicure, the beginning steps are all the same.  First, I get all my supplies together:


I use CND Shellac polishes, but there are a lot more products out there then when I started.

Then, I do a "dry manicure", no soaking in water or using lotions, just a quick file, cuticle push and clip and you're good to go.  I also wipe my nails with some acetone to clean everything off and make sure it's all dry.

First we'll do the caviar nail.  This is a much more trendy look, and I only have worn it a couple of times.  Think a fancy event or special night out with the girls.  Two Christmas' ago, my mom got me some Martha Stewart Metallic Microbeads and I've never used them because they were too fancy to waste on cards and such.  I thought I was a genius by trying them out for caviar nails, but it's all over the internet, so I'm just behind the ball.  Although, a lot of people complain that they only last a day or so when they do it at home, but I found using the shellac makes them stay for as long as you can go without picking it off, (it's really tempting).  Mine were going strong after 5 days, before I decided to peal it off and do something different. 

I decided to do a dark gray mani with a teal statement nail and caviar.  I think you're only limited by the colors you have on hand since the microbeads come in a bunch of different colors, and you could add them on top of coordinating colors, or try mixing for a layered look.


1. CND Top Coat | 2. CND Base Coat | 3. CND "Asphalt" | 4. CND "Hotski to Tchotchke" | 5. Microbeads

I'm sure every salon is different, but I'd think if you brought the microbeads in, they would be happy to add them to the manicure.  You can order microbeads for less than $3 online, so it's only adding a small amount to the manicure price.

I asked my sister to be my model.  I tried doing it myself, but taking pictures and doing one's nails is hard.

First step of the polish is the base coat.  The key to a lasting shellac is thin layers and not getting any polish on the cuticles or skin.  For those wondering, I'm wearing CND Rubble, its a medium gray and goes with just about everything.


Then cure this coat.  My UV lamp cure time is 30 seconds for the base coat.  (Some lamps are different, so it's best to go by the directions).


Next, is a color coat.  To do a statement nail, obviously only paint your ring finger, (or whatever finger you want), the statement color.  It's really important to do thin layers and take your time.  If the layers are too thick they will bubble or crease, (kind of looks like it's melting), after it's cured.  Don't worry if the color isn't opaque since you'll do another color coat next.  Make sure to carefully coat the edge of your nail, as this seals it and helps prevent chipping.  This color coat gets cured for 2 minutes with my lamp.



The third coat is another color coat.  This is where I add the microbeads to the statement nail.  I generously pour onto the wet nail and gently press the beads down.  I usually take a nail stick and clean up around the edges.  Like elementary school, I pour over a folded piece of paper and pour the excess back into the bottle.  If I only used this beads for nails, it would probably last forever since you really don't use that much.



After I've got a good layer of beads, I cure again for 2 minutes.

The last coat is the top coat.  For the dark gray fingers I apply a normal thin layer.  This is the important layer not to get on your skin or cuticles.  If you do, it's likely to peel off quicker.  The beaded nail gets a really thick top coat.  I still keep it away from the skin.  Be careful of stray beads.  One or two may come off on the brush, just make sure to catch them before dipping back into your bottle to keep everything clean.

This is the last cure and is 2 minutes as well.


After the time is up, you wipe all the nails with pure acetone.  This removes the tacky layer.  I've noticed that some of the bead color gets wiped off with the acetone, but it has a metallic color to it, (at least the Martha Stewart ones I use do), so I don't mind it.


And, that folks is an at home shellac mani with a caviar statement nail twist.

To recap: it's a base coat, cure 30 seconds.  First color coat, cure 2 minutes.  Second color coat, add beads to statement nail, cure 2 minutes.  Apply top coat, cure 2 minutes, wipe with acetone.

The glittered nail manicure is really easy and basically the same as above, but without adding the beads.  Like the pin, I like pink nails with silver glitter.


1. CND Top Coat | 2. CND Base Coat | 3. CND "Tropix" | 4. CND "Silver Chrome" | 5. Any silver glitter polish

Like before, apply the base coat, cure 30 seconds, then apply the first color coat.  We did the pink on 4 of the nails and the silver on the ring finger.



Cure for 2 minutes.  Add a second color coat, and cure for another 2 minutes.

Apply the top coat and cure for the last 2 minutes, then wipe with pure acetone.

You're left with a regular shellac manicure with two different colors.


To add the sparkle, I paint the glitter on top of the shellac top coat.  The glitter dries really fast so I usually add 3-4 coats for maximum glitter.  My sister was fading on me fast so I only did 2 coats.


At this point I add a regular fast drying top coat to seal the glitter, or I've even done another shellac top coat and cured for another 2 minutes.  Using regular nail polish doesn't work in the shellac system, but I haven't had a problem with the glitter.

Sorry for being so lengthy, but I wanted to show both manicures, since it's basically the same thing.  I know doing crazy manicures isn't for everyone, but I hope at least one person is inspired to try some statement nails and/or shellac after seeing how easy it is.

I also need to thank my sister since she let me do her nails three different times.  The shellac definitely is a time saver as far as being able to work immediately after finishing, but with the curing time for each layer, it's not a quickie mani.

I thought about stopping here and making her walk around with two different hands, but even I'm not that mean of an older sister.


She chose the pink and glitter mani and we just removed the other polish by cutting up some round pads, pouring some pure acetone on each piece, then covering the nails with the pad and wrapped them with aluminum foil.  Wait 10 minutes and remove, and all the polish easily comes off.

We started off giggling and gossiping about the Oscar's, but by the end, we were both bored and ready to be done.  I caught her zoning out while we waited the 10 minutes to remove the polish.


Hopefully I can con convince her to be my model if I ever need one again.  I thought about asking Mike to model, but then I didn't want people to think I had man hands.

Go check out the host's pages to see what everyone else did for the challenge!


Megan (The Remodeled Life), Katie (Bower Power), Sherry (Young House Love), and Michelle (Decor and The Dog).