We've done a lot around our place since the last time we posted a DIY project. We even changed places to do a lot around. In the coming weeks I'll be sharing the projects we've finished so far.

Over a year-and-a-half ago we moved from our first Florida home into our second. We had always kept an open mind about finding a house that fit us more, we just hadn't found the right place. After a couple years of casually browsing Zillow and a few months actively searching, we found what we were looking for. In fact, this house is what pushed us into actively searching.

The top items on our list? A house with a pool and one that had some high priced projects done but allowed for a bit of updating. At just over 10 years old, this house offered what we were looking for. The entrance to the home needed to be more inviting as well. Our last house was just kind of awkward. You'd walk directly into the formal dining room with basically no entry. I'll post sometime on how we tried to solve that problem.

The first big project we embarked on was a bit aggressive. But, of course, at the time it seemed manageable. Even with Steph being 9 months pregnant with Penny.

When you walk in it's pretty open and the entry and the family room both have two-story ceilings. There's a wall with a landing on top that separates the two areas but it was... dated. We're not fans of the wall alcoves that are as rampant in Florida as the alligators. Also, mustard and chocolate don't go well together in a food dish OR in paint color.

We knew what we wanted to do with this wall from our first showing. It was something we wanted to do with a wall in our last home—and that's shaker panel. So, right before Penny was born we decided to tackle this project in Dec/Jan of 2015. Penny didn't wait for us to finish.

The first task was to get rid of the alcove and cover up any of the "elegance" of this wall. Notice on the outside of the arches, there's a little embellishment at the top. Instead of knocking that out we had to add an addition under it so that the arch remained level on both sides.

The 2x4 frame to the far left had to be added instead of just knocking out the notch that sits above it. Removing that notch would have made the arch crooked.

As you can see, the alcoves wrapped around the wall to the other side. It all needed to be closed up. We patched up those parts with sheetrock to make it a flat wall.

Next was the hardboard. We used 3/16, 4x8 sheets of hardboard to cover the entire wall. I had to move the ac vent as well so that it wouldn't interfere with any trim boards.

Are those gray walls in the background? We painted most of the house during the same time. What were we thinking? I think Steph and I were both nesting.

9 months pregnant and gettin' things done!

After the hardboard came the trim around the arches. 1x6 boards for around the arches and 1x4 boards for the paneling. It's important to put the bottom board on a few inches above the ground (aligning the bottom of the board a quarter inch or less below the height of the baseboards) so that the baseboards can sit on top of that. I put a 1x4 behind the baseboard to give it something to nail into.

Baseboard and bottom board overlap about a quarter inch.

The arches were the most time-consuming and difficult part of this project. Kind of complicated but hopefully this makes sense.

First, since we planned on trimming the inside of the arches, I used 1x3 PVC boards for the inside top of the arches. You can see them in the picture above. PVC boards are more flexible than wood. But, still not flexible enough for these pretty tight curves. I found out the hard way when my first attempt snapped the board into multiple pieces and smashed a couple fingers in the process.

So, the key was to set my sliding miter saw at a depth to cut about 2/3-3/4 through the 1x3. I then "scored" the board every inch or so along the width. It required dozens of little slices but it took the boards to a whole new level of flexibility. It's like the different between me and Steph doing yoga. Actually, my flexibility is more like the wood but that's beside the point.

Once the board was scored it was easy to position it. Note: don't shoot nails through the score. It'll snap the boards. I also found that out the hard way. Shoot nails through the un-scored part of the board.

It was important to get the inside of the arches in place before the doing the tops of the arches because you have to use the inside measurement to cut the top piece. I used a rectangular piece of 3/4" mdf roughly the size of the arch. I nailed it to the wall using finish nails and traced around the 1x3 that I had just added to get the curve of the arch. I jigsawed along that line. To get the matching curve around the top I used a combo square and slid it along the first curve with a pencil at 5.5 inches on the ruler. Then, I made the second cut to complete the arch.

I also used PVC board for the cross pieces on the inside top of the arch and scored those along the length of the board to get some bend from them.

The thing that makes this whole process work is to diagram it beforehand. Seriously, do all the math to scale before starting. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have noticed that the arches were different widths that needed some serious calculations to figure out. My basic math skills were really put to the ultimate test.

I used a biscuit joiner for all my joints. Pocket holes would have been too time consuming. If you don't do something for tight joints you'll have boards popping up all over the place. You don't want teenage, pubescent panels because once they're up, no amount of acne wash or growing up is getting rid of those things.

After adding crown molding it was time to paint everything but that would have to wait. The above picture was taken on the night of January 18. Penny came the morning of the January 20, 2015. So, construction was done but painting waited until the end of March.

We were more than willing to wait.

After a couple months with that little angel, we went with classic white satin (straight from the can) and semi-gloss on the baseboards and it turned out great. See the before and after.

Before, during our first showing.

After

Back of the wall.

Now the question is, do we hang something on the wall or just leave it blank? Thoughts?

So it's been a year. Steph, Jack and I moved to Tampa last January and we're loving our experience. Part of that experience has been spent making changes to our house. Yes, it's brand new but it was bear bones stock. Nothing fancy added. We bought it during construction so adding options wasn't actually an option. We probably wouldn't if we could though. Man that stuff's expensive.

We started with four relatively small jobs to help make our house a home and we began with the facade.

The exterior when we moved in.

As you can see, our house didn't look bad. In fact, it actually looked fairly nice. Good structure just not a lot of character. But with just a few tweaks we really made it stand out in a neighborhood with strict HOA rules.

First, we got rid of the generic numbers. Who decided that a: these look good and b: they should absolutely be the default numbers of every house in Florida, possibly the country? I'm fairly certain it's just a big prank. And you can feel the care that they took on aligning these babies. We replaced them with numbers that are from a more geometric typeface. I'm sure you've seen these Home Depot numbers before but they're quite nice and it's one of those little, easy to change details that can really have an impact. I used a clear silicone to attach them so that we can change them later without any hole filling.

Old numbers.

New numbers.

Our house didn't come with exterior sconces. It didn't come with most lights in fact. It didn't come with lights in any of the bedrooms but did come with lights in the closets. Cost effective, maybe. Logical, not really. Fortunately it was prewired for exterior lights. We found a light that we loved at www.lightingdesign.com. It's based in Utah but our neighbor from Spanish Fork works there and took care of us. We also added a couple of spotlights that shine on our two palm trees. Yes, we now have palm trees.

Matte black sconce.

Use a clear, globular bulb for more stark light and shadows.

At night with sconces and spotlights on.

The third project was the largest of the four and made the biggest impact. New shutters! Say you're a home builder. You decide you need to cut cost. How would you do it? Paint the shutters directly on the house? CHECK! It's like a forest printed on wall paper; seemingly such a great idea but when you get it up you realize it's not actually a real forest. Thanks for the design tip, Floridian Grandma. We needed to cover them up with "real" fake shutters like normal people.

I did some measuring and found the painted shutters to be quite wide. 25 inches actually. And if you've ever shopped for shutters you'll know that 25"x62" is a VERY custom size. Anything over 15 inches wide is hard to find anywhere. At least affordably. I did find some but the cost for each pair was over $200. We needed three pairs.

Our DIY sensibilities kicked in and that monster called "cost" once again demanded that we do it ourselves. And it just so happens that I love building stuff. Win win.

We opted for a board and batten style because they look great and are very simple to build. It's quite easy to see how to put these together. Lay the vertical boards on a flat surface, use construction adhesive between each, clamp it all together, and screw the two horizontal slats in place from the back. Use screws that will hold but not go completely through the front. Now, of course it ends up being harder than this description because laying the horizontal slats under the vertical boards and getting them straight isn't a cake walk but with a little attention to detail and precise measurements/markings it isn't rocket science either.

After assembling a couple shutters, Steph and I both realized that, from a distance, they looked like a sheet of plywood with a couple boards attached. Trailer park shutters. Not ideal. So I used my table saw at 45º to cut the edges of each board to make a nice clean groove between each. This can also be done with a router and appropriate bit or even a circular saw with a guide.

No grooves. Not ideal.

Cutting grooves halfway through the boards.

Post groove-making. Much better.

After a few coats of black I fastened them to the house using cinderblock anchors and filling the holes in the stucco with silicone sealant before attaching the shutters. That's a must-do step.

Lastly, we painted our door. It went from a dark forest green to the most lively color we could choose; a mustard yellow. In fact, it's called Cut The Mustard from Sherwin Williams. It's a fun color and goes great with the Florida weather but we have some new plans for our front door coming in a future post so stay tuned.

Well there you have it. Four pretty simple things that really transformed the look of our exterior. New landscaping is its own beast but that will come with time and will help transform the exterior even more. Numbers, sconces, shutters and a fresh new color on the front door. That's it and the results are pretty remarkable. See the before and after.

Before.

After. (Taken January 8th. I love Florida.)

Watch for our next project as we move indoors.

When we got married, we didn't have the option of buying new furniture and trying to make our apartments look cute.  We just combined the things we had and made it work.

One example are these tables Brandon had in his bedroom before we got married.   Awful right?

Well somehow the long one ended up being our TV stand and the square one was an end table. (You can imagine I was more than thrilled to get rid of these when we moved. We just sold them on KSL and my shoulders are lifted!!)  The openness of the TV area with this table made for a daily battle with a one year old. He would pull on every cord, stuff anything he could into the VCR, and push every button he saw. He would open all our DVDs and scratch them. Needless to say, we knew we needed something more baby proof and we wanted a more sleek look.

Family room when we first moved in.. Feb. 2012

We shopped a bit at Ikea and loved their options of making your own TV stand. We opted for ALL closed doors.. and no drawers. That way Jack couldn't open anything! We put together all the pieces, then drilled a few small holes in the back for our cords to come through.

Back of TV stand

We then installed some baby proof latches so Jack couldn't open the cabinet doors.

Option of having them on or off without having to remove them completely.

Baby Proofing

*If you're looking into baby-proofing or hate the latches you have, we HIGHLY suggest these ones. They have been amazing! It gives you the option to have them "locked" or "unlocked." So if you don't need them, you can simply "unlock" them! So when Jack is old enough and we don't need things baby proofed anymore, we can simply "unlock" these ones until our next baby comes. No removing! We also unlock them after Jack goes to sleep so we don't have to deal with them at night.

Safety 1st Pivot Position Baby Proof Latches

Here is the family room with the new TV stand.

With new TV stand

But we didn't like having the TV so low. Jack would touch it and it was so low when we watched it. We decided we wanted it mounted. But we felt like it being mounted on the wall would be kind of plain looking. So Brandon came up with the great idea to mount it on wood!

We bought the wood from Home Depot and stained it ourselves.

Ready to be stained

We got this rub on stain from my grandparents and the color was perfect. We rubbed the stain with a rag and gave the wood several coats.

Staining TV Mount

 We then mounted the wood to the wall using two 2 x 4 wood planks.

Wood planks for mounting

Then we mounted the wood to the planks.  We also cut a hole in the wood for our TV cords to go through so the cords weren't showing from the front.

TV Mount

And vuala! The TV is mounted!

 And all our electronics and DVDs are covered and out of harms way!

Walmart frame, Apple TV, and Ikea plant

Our simple but sleek TV set up is complete in our new family room! We added a plant from Ikea (atop an Apple TV!), and a framed photo of our favorite little boy (frame from Walmart). We plan on putting these decorations on some shelves soon. So those will also be out of harms way!

Family Room

Now let's remind you what it looked like before we moved in. Here is a picture of the family room and dining room (view from the kitchen) after we tore out the carpet.

Family Room/Dining Room before we painted

And here is a before and after since we have lived here.

BEFORE                                                                                          AFTER

We still have some work to do. We plan on making some shelves to the left of the TV to help with the empty space, so stay tuned! Those should be completed in the next few weeks!

When we first looked at our house, we didn't notice a lot of the small things. When we came to look at the house right before we accepted the counter offer, we started to look a little closer. We noticed things that were gonna need fixin'. Some of those things are our sinks and faucets. Let's just say our sinks are a bit of an eye soar. And we're embarrassed by them. 

So we did a little bit of fixing up on the sinks as a temporary fix right now. But we have decided that new sinks and faucets are in the near future. WE CAN'T WAIT!!

First check out our kitchen sink. From afar, it doesn't look that bad. A white cast iron sink could be a nice addition to someone's home. But from our experience, it will never be an addition to one of our homes again. 

Kitchen sink

When we moved into our house, the sink looked completely white and wasn't that bad. Then we started painting (adding some paint to the sink.. oops) and using it frequently, and the sinks true colors started to show. Literally.


Now take a closer look. See all that discoloring? That isn't rust, nor stains. That's the porcelain coating that's come off and is showing the under layers of the sink. You can even see a few black spots where the white coating has chipped off and the black cast iron is exposed.

 

And that faucet is gross too. And don't even get me started on how inconvenient it is to do dishes with a faucet that is only 4 inches away from the sink wall.

 

People comment about our sink when they use it.. and it's very embarrassing. I noticed I do dishes with a grossed out look on my face every time. 

Left side BEFORE

Right side BEFORE

So I googled some remedies I could do to help our sink look like it did when we moved in.  I first tried baking soda.

Do you see a difference? It worked well to get the paint off as well as dirt and soap scum. But the discoloring didn't change.

After Baking Soda

Left side after baking soda

Right side after baking soda

Next I tried a bleach water bath. I filled each side of the sink with 16 parts water, 1 part bleach. I let it sit in the sink for at least an hour. This worked! I'm pretty sure this was done right before we moved in.

After bleach water

Left side after bleach water

Right side after bleach water

 Overall, the kitchen sink looks a lot better. But it still isn't good enough for us. We've made room in our budget for a new sink, new faucet, and new disposal. We've been researching and will purchase them this week! Check back next week to see our NEW KITCHEN SINK!!!!

 Also...

 A small fix to our bathroom sinks happened as well. All the sinks weren't sealed well, and it was ugly.. and again embarrassing.

So we removed the caulk from the sink, and re-caulked around the sink.  Now it looks a lot better! What do you think?

AFTER re-caulk

Thanks for reading!