MD Skis Building Projects

What the heck?

2010-07-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11443252@N07/sets/72157624524787026/

This is the link to all the photos of the sink that fell off the wall. Was the weirdest thing--I went into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth before bed--I sort of leaned on the sink--just your average sink leaning procedure--and the whole thing fell right off the wall and into my arms.

Weird, weird, weird.

A NEW DOOR IN OUR BEDROOM

2009-09-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day weekend, Bob knocked a hole in the wall in our room--on purpose. He did it to create a door from our room into the bathroom. It is just one thing on our long list of home improvement and remodeling.

He moved the laundry room to the utility room with the intention of creating a large master bath by combining the old laundry room and the current bathroom.

So, here are a few pictures for you. One is of him finding the stud. Then a gradual change from hole in the wall to actual door. Now, all he has to do is finish the bathroom!

Accent wall

2009-09-13T16:40:00.000-07:00

Bob painted the fireplace wall in our room and created an accent wall. Here is a before and after look at it. Before, the whole room was painted in an off-white. It looked nice, but Sarah suggested making the fireplace wall an accent wall and suggested we paint it brown. I love it. Our next step will be to paint the rest of the room a slightly darker color than what it is now. This room used to be a family room and we are slowly turning it into a nice master suite.

Right now, Bob is putting a door from our room into our bathroom. As I said, this room was originally designed to be a family/living room and to get to the bathroom, you had to go out into the hall. Well, since we are making this a master suite, we would like to be able to go straight from the bedroom into the bathroom. So, Bob is putting the door in. Once that is done, he can remove the door in the hall and put up dry wall.

His next step will to work on the plumbing and put in a new sink and then slowly do all the rest of it.

ONE MORE TOUCH ADDED TO SHAWN'S ROOM

2009-08-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

Bob finished the dresser he was working on for Shawn's room. This is the dresser we bought at the flea market for $20. Bob sanded it down to get the scratches out then painted it. His room is looking good!

As you can see, I added a side view. The photos in the background are photos I took with the exception of the sunrise photo on the left. That one was taken by Doug when he was visiting Russ and Mei-Fen. He toook it from the kayak. It's of Russ's sailboat.

We put my old Toshiba computer in the room for Shawn's use.

SHAWN'S ROOM DESCRIBED

2009-05-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

As you can see, we went with a very pleasant, light blue for the ceiling. The walls are a nice brownish-gray, a light to medium shade. The window shades and curtains are brown and the comforter has a mix of browns and blue. The trunks on either side of the bed are being used for storage as well as end tables and the rugs blend in niceley. Since these photos have been taken, I have added a couple of other touches--bongo drums, a candle and a vase with bamboo poles.

We have one water photo hung and framed. Eventually, we plan to frame and hang some of our other water photos. All the frames will be black and when it's done, I think it will have a very nice look to it. I intend to have Bob hang Shawn's guitar on the wall and I plan to get a keyboard and piano bench in there. We already have a dresser that Bob needs to refinish and put in there. Eventually, I plan to add a small TV/DVD player.

I'm so glad Shawn likes all the little touches we've made to his room.

I think I have been successful in my goal of creating a nice, comfortable space for Shawn to use on weekends and it will be a nice plac for company, too.

PHOTOS OF SHAWN'S ROOM

2009-05-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the new look in Shawn's room.

IMPROVEMENTS CONTINUE IN SHAWN'S ROOM

2009-03-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

We made a few small changes in Shawn's room over the weekend. We put a new comforter/sheet set on his bed and put up our first water photo.

A few weeks ago, Sarah and Keith suggested to me that we use our own photos of water to hang up in Shawn's room. I thought the idea was a great one. We are going to frame our photos of sunrises, waterfalls, beaches and so on and hang them in his room.

I'll keep you posted with pictures.

My Animal Kingdom towel

2009-01-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Several years ago I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. While there, I purchased a fantastic towel--with animals from a wide variety of Disney movies--including, of course, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.

The towel is beautiful--the colors are vibrant and go perfectly with my Disney themed sewing room.

Bob built a frame for it and hung it up today. It looks fantastic!

Another touch added to Shawn's room

2008-10-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today Bob and I bought two large wicker trunks for Shawn's room. They are just right for the room and go with his new rug perfectly.

Next steps for that room are to get the dresser repaired and into the room. To figure out what kind of art to hang, to get a real bed and a bench that opens for additonal storage. The bench will als be handy for guests to have a place to sit or set their luggage.

new shades

2008-08-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Bob put new shades in the kitchen window! They look great. They match the other bamboo-type shades he put in the eating area before our trip. Now he is getting ready to finish painting the trim in Shawn's room. He will be hanging a new shade in the dining room, too.

New window shades

2008-08-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, Bob hung new window shades in the kitchen. Back in 2004 he took out the big window we had, and added two small windows and a door and the deck off the door. We never put window treatments on the windows because we love the view out to the back yard of the flowers, trees, and little animals. But, the late afternoon sun is terrible. So, today he bought 3 of the bamboo type shades and put them on the windows and door. It will be perfect to block some of the sun, but it won't wreck the view since we can still see out the shades.

When we put new curtains on our bedroom windows, he took the old blinds off and set them aside. They are nice blinds. Not wood, but kind of a wood look and they are sheer. They help block the sun, but let in lots of light. We didn't throw the blinds away since they are so nice. So, now we found some use for them. We had three windows in our room. Bob put one of the shades on Shawn's new window. He's going to put another on the window over the sink to help with the sun problem. The last blind will go in here, in the dining room. Once we get them all up, it will have more of a uniform look between the rooms out here.

I love making little changes to the house. And, it's nice to be able to use things you already have. There's something about little changes that lift your spirits.

Another change we want to make are the stools at the kitchen table. The ones we have are pretty. However, none of us anticipated that the hooky things that hang over the back would be "dangerous." By that I mean they hook your clothes as you try to walk away. They make it harder to walk around the room.

In the garage we have some old bar stools we had in one of our other houses. I told Bob he should just fix them up--repair the rungs--and so on and we can use those. They are nice stools and it would be a shame to buy more if we already have some we can use.

Painting Shawn's room

2008-08-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

As I write this, Bob has moved Shawn's furniture to the middle of the room and will begin painting the ceiling shortly. I believe he has gone to get his supplies. I can't wait. I love the smell of fresh paint and am anxious to start making that room look like a nice room for Shawn/guests. Shawn is going to be doing some house sitting for us while we are on vacation. He will be surprised when he gets here and his room is at least started and the blinds are up.

Once the painting is done we will be able to start working on the rest of it. I'm really looking forward to shopping for the trunks and the rest of it.

8/17/08---the ceiling is done!

Shawn's room gets a new window

2008-08-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

As I write this, Bob is installing a new window in Shawn's room. Finally the old, hard to open window is gone and in it's place is a new one that matches the others in the house. It's the kind that is energy efficient, you can flip the windows down in front for easy cleaning and it is easy to open. I could never open the old one myself. It was always stuck shut. Bob or Shawn had to pry it open. And once it was opened, it wouldn't stay that way without being propped open.

Once the window is installed, Bob can hang the blinds we already have for it.

The next step in Shawn's room is to paint it. We already have the paint. Once we get it painted, we can move on to finding trunks I want to put on either side of the bed. I want to store Shawn's stuff in the trunks and use the tops of them for end tables. We also want to get a new bed. Right now we just have an air matress on top of a futon matress. I'd like to keep those for company, but, I want a real bed in the room.

A few months ago we found a dresser at the flea market. It was in good shape and only $20.00
We bought that and put it in the garage for now. It is in good shape, but has some scratches in the wood. Bob wants to take those out. Then we can put the dresser in Shawn's room. Again, I want to use it for storage. I want to put a TV/DVD player on top for Shawn/guests.

The final thing we want to find for his room is a bench that opens. I can store blankets, etc. inside and the bench will be a great seat or place for company to set suitcases.

We have a lot of plastic bins in there now with Shawn's stuff. I want to get those out of there. Eventually I hope he gets his stuff out. But, in the meantime, at least we will have better looking storage stuff in the room and it will be a good looking room for Shawn/guests.

Once he sorts through and moves his stuff, the storage space will be good for me. I can save some of the drawers for guests. I will be able to put all the Christmas overflow in there instead of having it stashed all over the house. I will also be able to put some of the older photo albums in there, pictures and so on.

Once we get it done, I will post some pictures.

Sewing cabinet and cutting table

2008-03-15T11:01:00.000-07:00

My sewing cabinet and cutting table

Here is the sewing storage cabinet and cutting table Bob made for me. I use it to store yarn, cross-stich thread and other sewing supplies. I can open it up when I need to for cutting fabric.
The bi-fold doors on the front pull open and the top opens and rests on the doors.
Bob used solid bi-fold closet doors. "As you look at the photos, the basic project is made out of bi-fold doors with some 2"x2"s," Bob said. "....very inexpensive to build," he added.