Tag Archives: tips

diy lesson learned the hard way {primer before painting}

  By Karah | May 7, 2013 - 7:08 am | , ,
22 Comments

Because I begged and pleaded and told them about my secret crush on them, Kilz is my primer sponsor for our Key West conch home remodel.  I love them to pieces and am excited to share with you why.  I will never write a word about their products I don’t believe 100%.  You can find my full disclosure here. Confession time. I’ll go first. We bought our first house in 2001.  A cute, cute little brick ranch in Indianapolis, Indiana. That had been owned and lived in for over forty years by the same old couple … who were smokers. The house was literally stained with smoke.  There were squares on the wall where pictures had hung and the ceilings were more of an ashy grey than the white they had started out. It sounds so prehistoric now, but we hadn’t jumped on the digital camera bandwagon yet so we don’t have any digital photo evidence and I can’t even find our old photo albums to try to scan some pics for you.  (I can’t imagine why.)  But here’s the outside, hiding all of that smoke stain and stank inside. Cute, right?!?! Well, what is not cute is my personality after painting the same ceiling 5 times. Yep.  It was our first house, and we were young and ambitious and bought a little bit of a fixer upper, in the form of all-smoke-stained-surfaces-needed-help.

how to paint over cracked paint {spackle the crackle}

  By Karah | May 3, 2013 - 7:08 am | ,
21 Comments

Have you ever been known to do something?  Something that seemed weird to others?  Or may not even really seem like a good idea to some?  Something that you yourself even question at times? No, I’m not talking about frequenting strip clubs.  Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about spackling over cracked paint.  I will admit that this is a technique I’ve used since we bought our first house and has always seemed just a bit … I don’t know … like more of a shortcut than a real solution.  Even though it always works. Don’t feel like stripping that cracked paint?  Just spackle it. Don’t feel like working out to get rid of that extra inch around the waist line?  Just put a sweater on. Those two solutions seem like a similar approach.  You know?!?! So when I recently went into our local home improvement store to inquire about the best way to paint over cracked paint (not chipping or peeling) on our newly uncovered Dade County Pine ceilings I was flabbergasted to hear the suggestion. Just spackle the crackle.

dumba$$ disclaimer {some common sense required}

  By Karah | April 22, 2013 - 7:08 am | ,
11 Comments

Hey y’all!!  Happy Monday to you!! I hope you had a great weekend.  We were finally able to dive head first into living room demolition around here, and man did it feel good. Well, not the stepping on staples after taking down the drop ceiling because I was walking around with bare feet, or getting debris in my eyes as I was trying to tear down drywall because I wasn’t wearing safety glasses. Those things really didn’t feel good. And as I was taking a few ‘action shots’ of some of the steps of our demo … a thought occurred to me.

my man is making a yardscape

  By Karah | April 16, 2013 - 7:08 am | ,
12 Comments

I want to start with a note to express my deepest concern for everyone affected by the events yesterday at the Boston Marathon.  Many of you know I am originally a New Englander and part of my heart will always reside there.  I had a dear friend run in the marathon who, thankfully, finished before the explosions happened. And I’m incredibly grateful that two of my cousins who were at the event are safe and sound … and proud to say one was able to stay and provide help to the injured.  That sports medicine degree is already coming in handy, Taylor. Seriously, my first post title thought was ‘my yard is manscaped’.  As in, my yard was put in order by my man … but we all know that’s not really what that collection of words says, now don’t we.  :) But, to refocus here, I really need to brag on my man for just a minute.  Usually I’m more about mocking him, that’s no secret.  But for anyone who knows us in real life there are a few things that are for sure.

real simple garden tool storage

  By Karah | April 10, 2013 - 7:08 pm | , , , , ,
11 Comments

Hi there!  How are you today? I am doing great.  To say that Joel and I are like kids in a candy store settling into our new space is an understatement.  We thought we had an understanding about how much we really missed tinkering around a house and yard and creating a space we love.  But seriously, even we didn’t realize exactly how much this little move would fill us up. AHHHHHHHH! Yeah, that’s pretty much what it sounds like inside my brain on a regular basis right now. But that’s not to say it’s all warm and fuzzy all the time.  I am constantly oscillating between unpacking more boxes and then organizing the madness that has been unpacked. One of my personal priorities is the shed/tool storage and getting everything in order so there is at least a little sense of order when we start tearing apart every room around here.  And getting everything out of order.  :)

how to get rid of mold {for $2 or less} no scrubbing required

  By Karah | April 5, 2013 - 7:08 am | , , , ,
29 Comments

Now, that title doesn’t really leave much to the imagination.  I was trying to come up with something fun and came up with squat.  :/ Because seriously, when I think of mold it’s hard to be all fun and jokey and hahaha.  That stuff sucks!  There’s really no two ways about it. But lucky for us (I’m not sure in what world this situation constitutes lucky exactly) we’ve actually had to deal with mold on more than one occasion.  So I’m going to give you a little play-by-play of what has worked really well for us in the how to get rid of mold category of DIY. I’ll start by saying that we’ve never had to deal with mold inside.  So, in that arena we are lucky.  And that means that everything you are about to see is specific to how to get rid of mold on the exterior. A not really interesting point of reference is that I have pretty severe asthma.  As in have been hospitalized a few times … once I was in the hospital at the same time as my 96-year-old great-grandmother and my situation was so bad she was the one who had to come visit my room.  So I’m pretty sensitive to breathing concerns, and you might know I’m a huge fan of upcycling ideas, so I’m always looking for ways to stay green.  With all that said, sometimes you just have to go with what works.  

ever wonder what makes something popular? {top posts from a few faves}

  By Karah | March 29, 2013 - 10:58 am | ,
13 Comments

Hey there!  Happy Day to you! If you’ve been following along on Facebook you know we didn’t close on the house yesterday. #whatchagonnado?  We’re pretty much (meaning totally, 100%, without a doubt, nothing we can do at this point, they’ve got us by the cajones) at the whim of the bank who seems to have no sense of urgency around actually finalizing the process. So, I’ve been busying myself during this little transition period of ours working on this blog’s backside back end inner workings. Being a part of this post actually got me focusing on what are our top posts, analyzing what it is that you guys like to read about, tend to pin and in general have the most positive reactions to.  Which also got me thinking about what the top posts where for some of my favorite reads. Aren’t you ever curious about what has been someone’s biggest hit and why?  Is it a drop dead gorgeous room reveal or an informative tutorial or super simple quick tip? I am, so I thought I’d ask … and you have got to check out these great posts!

if by blue you mean grey {exterior house paint ideas}

  By Karah | March 25, 2013 - 7:08 pm | ,
41 Comments

Well, it seems as though this week is the week.  Our closing is scheduled for Thursday.  Can I get a knuckle bump?!?! We’re pretty darn excited to get this new chapter in our journey started already.  And somewhat cautiously optimistic that this closing date will actually happen.  So maybe it’s best to hold off on the knuckle bumps until the weekend.  :) #nojinxiesplease But if you’re in need of a little refresher about how we got to this point be sure to check out how we moved from one island to another in 23 days, how we decided whether to rent or buy knowing that we are only going to live here for a few years and see some ugly fun before pictures of our soon to be house.