From Hardwood to Carpet

When first looked at this house, one of our favorite features of it were the hardwood floors throughout.  That's probably because were living in an apartment that had its fair share of carpet.  Fast forward a year and a half, and we were sick of hardwood.  Sick of the area rug sliding all over the living room.  Sick of floors being so cold.  Sick of the ottoman flipping the rug up whenever we moved it.  And after some discussion, we decided carpet would be nice.

So we stopped a few local stores, compared prices and quality of carpet, and settled on Albany Carpet Warehouse. The salesman there was the most helpful, and seemed the most honest.  Yeah, we know that's like saying, "Hey,  that hyena to the right of seems super nice compared to the other one!"  Pick your poison, I guess.  Don't get me started on salesmen. 

After deciding we definitely wanted the living room done, we liked the idea of having the master bedroom carpeted as well.

Here's the living room before:

And the living room after: 

Master Bedroom before:

Master bedroom after: 

What about you? Do you like the smooth, modern look of hardwood? Or the do you prefer the plush, comfortable feeling of carpet between your toes?

Our Feathery Neighbor

A Red-tailed Hawk.

Wine Cork Coat Rack

We love to drink wine.  I love anything sweet and white, and Kris prefers red and bitter.  But after we popped open a bottle, we usually threw the cork away.  Then we thought about saving them for something.  For what? We had no idea at the time, but we knew we’d think of something.

This summer, while building a small deck (you’ll see that later), I was easily persuaded into buying this miter saw, and I really wanted to use it.  So, I thought, why not build a coat rack with wine corks?  Besides, the only coat closet was on the opposite side of the house from the front door.  

So here's how to do it:

I set the miter saw to the 30 degrees, cut the edges from a small piece of wood that was left over from our deck, and stained it with Minwax.

After the stain dried, I choose 4 corks from our stash…Blue Newt wine corks to make it pop, and found 4 black screws that were long enough to make it through the the cork and the wood. I settled on 8x3 drywall screws. 

I drilled them into already-marked spots, and that’s it. I just screwed the base of the coat rack into a wall a bit closer to our front door. 

Of course, you can use any size wood, any type of cork, and any stain color that fits your house.  And below is how it looks on our wall.  Have fun!  And please share any suggestions and ideas you have in the comments. 

Welcome, non-existent readers!

My wife and I have muttered the phrase, “Stupid House,” dozens of times since moving in to our new home in May of last year.  Whether it was because I couldn’t plug in my flat screen TV in circa 1940 outlets, or because the only vent in the spare bedroom is in the closet, there were/are so many things wrong with this place. 

But being a bit ambitious (read: naive), we’re always willing to try new things to add style, functionality, or a bit of both to our home.  We can’t wait to share past and future projects with you, and look forward to hearing your ideas, and seeing what you’ve done with your places. 

This should be fun.  Painful, tiring, frustrating at times - but fun.