As soon as the kids go back to school, my thoughts turn to fall. The football. The Halloween costumes. The pumpkin spice everything. But, because I live on the surface of the sun (aka Texas) where it’s still 100-degrees, it doesn’t even begin to feel like fall until most of you already have inches of snow on the ground. So, I have to occupy myself with little fall-type projects while I sit in my air-conditioned house.
We’re getting ready to start teaching our DI kids some costume building skills so they can create their own Halloween costumes this year, so I have Halloween on the brain. During a recent trip to Goodwill, I spotted these teddy bear figurines and a crazy idea came to mind.
I set up my HomeRight Spray Shelter so I could give these beauties a coat of paint in my garage. It was one zillion times easier to set it up in the garage than it was in my bedroom (who knew? Ha!). I put down a drop cloth and then covered a little table since it’s easier to spray paint when your items are waist high. You’ll notice that the drop cloth is smaller than the Spray Shelter footprint – we’ll talk about that in a minute.
I gave the teddy bear figurines a good coat of spray paint (I used flat black in a paint + primer variety).
It was so nice to use the Spray Shelter instead of having to drape tarps over everything that I didn’t want to paint. Even though my control with a rattle can is pretty good, spray paint still leaves a fine layer of dust everywhere.
See?
The “clean” part of the floor is where the drop cloth covered. It’s hard to imagine that such a small amount of paint dust can cause a problem, but it can. It gets on everything in your garage (bikes, tool box, lawn mower) and also in your nose and lungs. Always wear a mask!
Once the bears were dry, I used a red paint pen to fill in their eyes. I thought they would look really creepy like that, and I was right! I feel like they belong in Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Zack had the idea of also painting the eyes of the toy bear that the seated bear is holding, and I love it.
Even though I’m not ready to display these little Halloween figurines yet, I’m even more excited for October to get here. There are so many thrift store or dollar store treasures that you could find to replicate the look. I may have to go in search of some more myself.
To help you get started with this project, HomeRight has offered to give away a Spray Shelter (Amazon affiliate link) to one lucky Makely reader. To enter, simply follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter box below. This contest is open to U.S. residents, 18 and older.
Good luck!
As a HomeRight Brand Ambassador, I have been compensated for this post. The review and opinions are my own.
Quick question: is it just me, or is everything becoming smartphone-enabled these days? What’s next, a smartphone-enabled dog collar?
Kidding. They totally have about fifteen varieties of those already. No offense to the gadget-loving tech nerds out there (#fistbump from a fellow nerd of many things), but I personally think I fall a little further down the scale between “Early Adopter” and “Waiting Until the Duct Tape Peels Off” in terms of when I replace technology. It’s not that I don’t think gadgets are cool; it’s just that I hold a much tighter grip on my wallet and am unwilling to part with its contents until something is close to breaking—or completely broken with no hope of repair.
There’s usually only one exception that convinces me to fight my normal instincts: products that make my life a little safer and less stressful.
Did you ever read the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, as a kid? I didn’t, but one of my ex-boyfriends used to accuse me of thinking that way every time I left the house (I eventually looked up the story on the internet, which also means I then spent that evening giving him crap for the analogy). But, I had to admit that he was right: just as we’d head out of my neighborhood, I’d audibly worry about whether the doors were locked. That the dog wasn’t able to get into the trash. That I’d unplugged my flat iron and wasn’t about to come home to a smoldering pile of ashes thanks to my vanity (I’m exaggerating, but he had a valid point).
I first heard about Nest Labs back in 2011 when a bunch of bloggers reviewed their energy-saving thermostat and went on and on about how cool and convenient it was for being able to program it from their phone. I hesitated to buy one, thinking that more than likely, there would be a few upgrades and a new version would eventually come out with added features and a better app (coughcough, every other piece of technology ever). And sure enough, their 2nd generation version was exactly that.
This thought process, of course, clearly only applies to tech gadgets. As the eldest of two sisters, I am not at all applying this to people. (So don’t even try it, Emily.)
Anyway, when the same company came out with the Nest Protect smoke and CO2 detector in 2014, I figured that the same thing would happen and there would eventually be a 2nd generation version. And a year later, there is—and that’s why we find ourselves in a giveaway situation.
Recently, TotalProtect Home Warranty has been running a promo this summer that gives homeowners a complimentary Nest Protect with a qualifying TotalProtect Home Warranty plan (a retail value of $99). And just because they seem to love this new smoke and CO2 detector regardless, they offered to give away a Nest Protect to one of you guys!
I haven’t had the opportunity to install one for myself yet, but given that this thing has some pretty nifty features, it seemed only right to get the giveaway started as soon as possible so that one of you amazing readers could try it out for yourselves. Some of the key features include:
Spoken alarms (none of that annoying beeping at 2am… a real human-sounding voice will literally tell you “head’s up” that your battery is dying)
Battery or wired options available
It tests itself (admit it—you know you forget to do this)
If there is smoke or CO2 detected, it tells you which detector (so basically, which room) it was sensed from
Can detect both slow- and fast-burning fires (as much as I love Ikea, did you know that today’s use of particle board and foam in furniture makes a room burn faster? Yikes!)
Smartphone control (including hushing the alarm if you burn the toast and don’t feel like getting on a ladder) and alerts, even when you’re away from home (so less worrying)
Not to mention: it looks one hell of a lot sleeker than the giant urinal cake design that most of the competitors have.
Let’s get on with the giveaway, shall we?
Prize: One (1) Nest Protect Smoke & CO2 Alarm
Number of winners: 1
Giveaway ends: Wednesday, Sept 2 at 11:59pm
Eligibility: U.S. residents only
To enter: I’m using Rafflecopter to run this giveaway (just because it makes things a lot easier to pick a winner), but since you know how I like to have a little fun with giveaway comments, I’d like to know: What was the last thing you accidentally burned? Your hair… the carpet… the roof of your mouth?
Good luck!
This giveaway is sponsored by TotalProtect Home Warranty. All opinions are, for better or worse, 100% my own.
The day has come where my heart has literally left my chest cavity and is walking out there in the world. Gruesome yes….but true. My little man…my sweet first born…the one with the thousand freckles and the dimple and the heart of gold….the one that taught me how to truly love another human…he has officially started school and I think I am gonna need all the tissues.
I remember the day that he was only about one week old and I was walking to the kitchen in our old house and I looked down at this newborn little squish in my arms and started SOBBING. Not in a cute tear-rolling-down-my-cheek way….no….more like snot running into my nose and my eyelids puffed up to block my vision VERY UGLY cry. And I said to Jeremy “he is so so big and next thing you know he will be in school and then get married and then leave me forever.”
DO YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE PEOPLE!? It’s begun. The next thing. And I am officially DYING. I need a corner so that I can go sit and rock in it in the fetal position.
Pray for me. I am gonna probably need some medication if they ever decide they want to go to college. Heavy medication. And possibly a padded room.
Nextly….I’m making that a word by the way….Nextly I have about a million photos of the beach I need to go through. I know I promised the basement kitchen update and I am so excited to share that but it’s kinda weird to talk about summer vacation once school has started…so I think I am gonna push the kitchen back a little.
Also…if you follow me on Instagram (I’m @bowerpowerblog by the way and I am pretty talented about talking about random things on there…so you should consider following me. We could be IG friends.)….if you follow me, you’ll know that we had the living room and foyer painted…here’s a sneak peek…
I know! Boring, right?! But seriously beige/tan/latte/greige has never looked so freaking awesome. I have waited over four years for this and it is literally like I can breathe in my house now. Imagine holding your breath for that long! I walked in from vacation and it was all done (Bravo to my painter Carlos and his wife who rocked this!) and now I am slowly putting my house back together! I think I am gonna post about this next so stay tuned, mmkay!?
And for those of you that are wondering…the color name is Benjamin Moore’s Stingray. It’s exactly the color we have in our hallway downstairs and upstairs and was the plan for these spaces and I absolutely. love. it.
***Will had his first season of baseball this year and he already has started his second season! I wanted to do a little video for him because…well…this might be the thing he talks about when he gets old. His glory days if you will I made it in iMovie and all the clips were just videos from our phones…some of the photos were with our camera phones and then others were with our DSLR.
Dear Will….
WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! You said after every game that you tried your best and you had fun and hearing that makes us so happy! We loved watching you play! You really improved too and are super fast. Have you been eating faster-beans again?! We are so happy when you try new things and this baseball season was scary and new but you put your brave face on and tried hard and we think that is the best! Our favorite part of the season was watching you hustle and SLIDE and how you shared your treats with your little brothers. They enjoyed that too! We love you so so so much baby!
Late in 2013, I was offered the opportunity to fulfill a fantasy of mine and experience what it might be like to be one of those incredible DIY designers on TV. The chaos, the budget constraints, the extremely tight time limit… all of it seemed both completely nuts and like something no one would ever be dumb enough to allow me of all people to do. So when SheKnowsTV came calling and offered me a chance to be a designer on an online season of Homestretch, I eagerly said yes… assuming that at any minute, they’d figure out their mistake and send me on the first plane back home.
During the experience, I also met a really great couple with a simple need for finding extra space in their teeny, tiny laundry room. It took a lot of hard work, but it became what is still one of my proudest projects to date, and I was very anxious to share all of their laundry room makeover pictures once I got back home.
The thing is, I had to wait to share pictures of all of the final makeover photos until the episodes were cut, so the recap post about it got pushed to the back burner. And once I started moving on to other projects at home again (plus holidays), it just never seemed to fit into my schedule to talk about it anymore… even after doing a second season on a different room with another couple!
Recently, there’s been a new opportunity to look back at this project (and the second season project) and do a proper recap since I don’t want to bore you with my kitchen makeover details until the walls are finished and painted. So for today, I thought I’d start with some highlights and behind-the-scenes details about what it was like to be behind the camera. This post will get WAY too long to cover it all in a single overview once I go over the nitty gritty of all the design decisions, so I’m breaking this apart so that you can first know the details leading up to the design, and I’ll cover some tips about how to cram a lot of organization into a tiny room in another post coming later this week. Enjoy!
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Filming
As it turns out, I was totally right about the nuts part of what it is like to be in front of a camera for two straight days, with nonstop filming, with lots of interruptions thrown in because of things like re-shots, on-camera interviews, and having to stop working with loud power tools because microphones and saws are apparently mortal enemies (#themoreyouknow). It was easily one of the most intimidating things I’ve ever done, and I felt like I was on the verge of tears at least half the time (I may not have made this obvious, but I have a LOT of anxiety about being in front of a camera, which is why I’ve been Periscoping recently to get more comfortable with it). So before I get into the makeover, I just wanted to add that the SheKnowsTV crew was amazing… and despite the growing lump in my throat over embarrassing myself in front of an entire crew of my complete ineptitude, they gave me exactly the kind of help I needed to get through it and keep saying yes to everything they threw at me.
Two days? Sure! Even though I’ve never once completed a project in two days, let alone understanding the start-stop-start chaos of filming the process. And let’s do all of that learning in front of a camera.
Just $2,000? Sure! Even though I have never really ever budgeted for a total room makeover from top to bottom, let’s see what happens.
Point is, as a DIYer, I usually kind of wing it. I do tons of research to feel prepared-ish for whatever it is I’m about to take on, but most of the projects I do on this blog are things I have never tackled before. That’s part of where the fun comes in, but it’s also what takes more time and makes me 100%, without a doubt, completely not an expert. And if you’re going to be in front of a camera and expected to teach other people your DIY skills, the fact that you know you’re not going to fill these “expert” shoes is… well… wholly terrifying. Especially when they are pitting you against another DIYer who, despite being an amazing blogging friend I’ve known for years (which did help to make me feel more comfortable agreeing to it), is a freaking badass builder to boot. And someone I’m sure you’ll recognize.
So, that’s the situation I found myself in. And less than a week later of signing the contract, I was sent off to Scottsdale, Arizona for filming. I was greeted at the airport by a private driver (which I’ve never done before that point, so I thought was pretty neat).
I was sent to an amazing resort hotel (that I got about an hour each night in to enjoy before passing out because of the long filming days).
I sat in a makeup chair like a person who gets their hair and makeup done (what?!).
I wore a mic pack in my shorts and wires had to be snaked up through my bra (and before you go thinking that the mic guy has a cool job getting to stick his hand down women’s shirts, remember that he’s also the guy having to insert, position, and remove the boiling hot battery pack in your shorts/underwear just so in the Arizona heat). I had to do some really bad acting and pretend like everything I said was for the first time because the camera crew needed multiple takes. And, hardest of all… I had to look sane.
Do I seem like the type who can pull that off? Nope.
The Design Process: Setup
It was a long learning process in terms of filming, but they prepared me for the design part as best they could. While it often seems in these shows like the designer doesn’t get a chance to see the space before they jump into the design, that’s only partially true (at least in this case… other shows probably do it differently). Before my flight, I got to do a Skype call with one of the homeowners, Heidi, and get a feel for what her challenges were with the space and what her style is like so that I could start getting some ideas. What I didn’t fully get though was the true size and dimensions of the room… just pictures, really:
Basically, this “room” wasn’t a room at all. It was more like a passthrough closet that served to house the washer and dryer in between the garage and their enormous kitchen (I later found out that they gave Sandra first pick of which room she wanted to take on, and this one became mine after she chose the other house). Which meant that a majority of the things that a laundry room is usually reserved for spilled over into other spaces.
Nowhere to hang, store, or organize.Nowhere to fold!
All in all… not an ideal design plan.
As much as moving walls to give them more ample folding and hanging room would have been nice, it would not have been finished in two days, so anything I did was going to have to be contained in a space where I could literally touch my fingertips from one wall to another (and in the show clips, I actually used my body as a measuring tape to demonstrate how small of a space we’d be working in!).
Before flying out, I did a sketch of what I thought the room could ideally look like—you know, without actually seeing the house and knowing my space limitations and being completely unfamiliar with what I could do in the span of two days with filming interruptions (so, not super realistic). I still have the sketch, and I might even frame it as a fun little keepsake:
The Schedule
Timing was tight. On the day I would fly in town, I was expected to swing by the homeowners and check out the space for a few minutes before shopping for every supply I’d need for the entire project. The next day (Day 1) would begin filming at 7AM with hair and makeup, and the following day (Day 2) would end with final room shots before the crew packed up at 7PM.
Let me repeat the most important part of that: for this project, I was expected to buy every piece of wood, every can of paint, every screw, every tube of caulk, every piece of tile, and every finishing item of decor in a single day. As a DIYer, I’ve never done such a thing, nor could I actually imagine such a concept in my mind without getting a migraine. I was promised that one of the PAs on set would likely be in charge of making repeated trips to the nearby home improvement store if I needed an extra item of this or that, so I didn’t feel nearly as much like vomiting as when I first read those words, but still.
Prior to flying out, they arranged to have the tools I thought I’d need rented and delivered to the home (the homeowners had a handful of smaller supplies as well, but most of it needed to be rented or purchased). It worked out great, but there were hiccups with learning how each one of them worked compared to the brand I was used to using back at home. There were a lot of “D’oh!” moments caught on camera as I tried to unpack everything and figure out where all of the buttons and pulls were (I’m actually still curious as to why the bumbling DIYer film reel didn’t make it to the final cut… I’m sure it was entertaining).
I was also told by the producers that I would have a few interns on hand to delegate smaller projects to (I guess they assumed I had some crafty ideas in the works, which I didn’t), and that the homeowners would jump in for painting and prep (no reveal stuff of course). There really wouldn’t be any people on set with a lot of DIY or building experience (there were a few people in the crew who had done a couple of projects on their own homes, but not to the level that I did, and their job was to actually film stuff), and the rest would be up to me. Gulp.
The Crew
Upon arriving into town, I dropped off my bags at the hotel and then met with the SheKnowsTV folks. After a short meet and greet, they gave me the keys to a shopping van and a production assistant, Vanessa, who would basically serve as my second-in-command throughout the shopping and filming. The theory was that if I wasn’t around to make a decision (which happened a lot more than you would think between camera interviews and working on 6 projects at once), there would be a second person who knew exactly how the whole room was supposed to come together and give guidance (in addition to helping the crew do filmy things).
There would be more interns and PAs joining later on the next two film days, but she would be there for the entire process. When I first met Vanessa (above, left), I’ll admit that I hugely underestimated her resourcefulness mostly due to how young she was and her lack of any DIY background. And I really, really kicked myself for having done it after experiencing that same exact attitude so many times in the DIY world. But folks, she became indispensable—super creative, always on top of things, and could not say more good things about her ability to roll with whatever came our way.
And even though the producers promised that I wouldn’t have a lot of help, the rest of the filming crew turned out to be incredible, too. They were constantly joking around and laughing at inappropriate things, which put me at ease quickly. I mean, if someone starts throwing around potty humor right from the start, you are pretty much guaranteed that they are the laid back sort. As the clock counted down to the finish, nearly every person—including hands-noticeably-down-my-shirt Sound Guy—pitched in to give these homeowners a finished room.
And speaking of finished, part of the intimidation I felt was in knowing that no matter what, this was someone else’s home I was working in. A home they paid for and were proud of and needed to be functional—not something that could be tossed aside as soon as the cameras stopped rolling. So I felt a lot of pressure to make sure that the room was more than just “TV ready”—it needed to be actually done. Paint drips needed to be cleaned up; hinges needed to work. There were things that I wound up running out of time to do, such as sealing the stone backsplash, but I was overall pleased that I didn’t feel I left these homeowners (who were even nice enough to make me beer cupcakes, for shit’s sake) with something that would fall apart the second I stepped back on a plane. The crew seemed to understand this right away, and never once made me feel like I needed to compromise how I wanted to finish the project just to suit their schedule. Even though I was largely supposed to do the project solo (which would not have gotten done with all of the filming delays), they readily jumped in with a wet paper towel or pointed out a splotch. And it really, really helped.
Shopping!
Okay, so enough about the filming, right? This is a DIY site, if memory serves. So let’s get down to the beginnings of the actual makeover details.
My flight landed in Phoenix the morning before Day 1 of filming, so my first task of the first day was to grab the shopping van with Vanessa and visit the homeowners to take measurements. I was hoping to get a real feel for the room before shopping for supplies and decor.
Um, yeah. After taking as many measurements as I could think of, I found out from the homeowner that their laundry setup had the dryer hookup on one side of the passthrough and the washer hookup on the opposite side. The big problem here was that it meant they were forced to take up both sides of the tiniest space in their house with appliances—which left very little room for storage. So, I asked SheKnows if they could arrange for me to have a handyman during the first filming day to move the washer hookup to the dryer side, letting us stack the two together and open an entire half of the nook for storage, folding, and hanging space. They priced it out so that about $400 came out of my total $2,000 budget, and I set that amount aside to be left untouched while I went shopping for everything else. Another item I had to track down: a stacking kit for the washer to sit on top of the dryer (which will come up again in an interesting twist).
One of the first stops for ideas was Ikea. I was hoping to have at least one cabinet with a door to conceal ugly laundry detergent containers and other miscellaneous items that inevitably get shoved into laundry rooms. The other side of the tiny 3-foot-wide space would be for a couple of attached open shelves (see my sketch). But the hard part was finding a ready-to-assemble cabinet that would be deep enough to optimize the space I had (I could have done a standard shallow upper cabinet, but when every square inch is precious, you try to push the boundaries to get something that works better for the space). So, I did the thing that came naturally: I got on the floor in Ikea and started brainstorming for how I could hang a deeper base cabinet on the wall.
I was confident enough in my building abilities that I could have theoretically built a custom cabinet to the size and depth that I needed, but I also knew that the last thing I wanted was to teach myself how to build a cabinet (for the first time) with cameras in my face (and without a Kreg Jig). I had enough room in my budget to simply purchase a cabinet, so my thinking was that I could hand this project over to interns to build the next day and assemble while I did demo and other things. It turned out to be the right move; even though I had a decent plan in my head, I knew all too well how a DIY project can take more time than expected, and I wanted to give myself as much wiggle room as I could by delegating as many projects as possible (and since these even came with instructions, I wouldn’t have to supervise or teach).
As for the other side of the passthrough, the washer and dryer would be stacked (which needed a stacking kit and was thankfully in stock at a Lowe’s nearby), but there was a small 9- or 10-inch gap that would be created on the side if we pushed the dryer to the leftmost wall. I considered building this custom too, but Vanessa spotted some narrow cubbies across from the cabinet section, and I started seal-clapping over the thought that I could again turn this into a handoff project for assembly on Day 1.
The rest of the shopping day was packed with rushing from store to store until they all closed, and Sandra and I met up for a post-shopping-day powwow at one of the few restaurants that was still open to say hello (we ran into each other at Ikea earlier in the day, but we were both in a hurried rush to get our supplies and let the early panic sink in).
I never thought I could actually be exhausted from shopping. I was clearly wrong.
I made it in iMovie and all the clips were just videos from our phones…some of the photos were with our camera phones and then others were with our DSLR.
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