Simply DIY 2

Finally, I'm getting to this last part ( Part 1 and Part 2 ) of the bathroom floor.  So sorry to keep you waiting!  So the last thing that I needed to do to finish my  tiling project  was to put new quarter rounds on the bottom of the baseboard.  I measured the perimeter of the bathroom (I can use this as a real-life example in my class this year !) and went to Lowe's and picked up three, white, eight foot long quarter rounds.  I made sure they were already white so that I didn't have to prime them. My neighbor came over with her trusty manual miter saw and we got to work. She helped me to figure out which way to cut each quarter round so that the corners matched.  Each end needed a 45 degree angle cut so it fit in the corner.  She actually did the measuring while I watched and held the wood so it didn't slip.  I'm a bad DIY blogger since I can't quite explain how to cut the quarter rounds for the corners. We did have...

School and traveling back to Pennsylvania for tailgates and baby showers has been keeping us pretty busy.  However, I had some time to squeeze in a quick update last week while Kerry was out of the country.  I hadn't planned on changing the shelf liner in the linen closet in the hallway...until I saw this cheap liner at Marshalls: It was only $5.99 (who doesn't love a good deal?!) and such a cute and simple pattern that I couldn't pass it up.  I couldn't resist so I purchased two sets of the liner. Our old liner was actually pretty cute - little pink flowers - and there was nothing wrong with it.  But it was a little bland, so like I said, when I saw the new liner, I got it since I thought it could definitely update the closet. The old liner came off easily.  I just found a corner and pulled it up a bit.  Once I got a good hold, I pulled at an angle and off it came. I measured the shelf and then cut the pieces of the n...

Earlier this week I posted about the first part of our new bathroom floor.   It's been a bit crazy with school starting and all, but I'm trying to get all the posts done before it gets real crazy. Now on with the bathroom floor expedition !  Once all the mortar dried (we let it dry over a weekend) it was time to grout.  My college friend Mal was visiting and helped me out during this process.  I mixed the grout up with water according to the directions, and we started.  We used a putty knife to spread the grout into all the cracks.   Make sure to get the grout into all the cracks.  You might have to keep spreading the grout over the cracks until they are filled, especially if you see little air bubbles. We worked on sections of the floor, as to make sure that the grout didn't dry before we had a chance to wipe it off. Once a section was grouted, we waited about five minutes for it to set a bit and then began to wipe it off.  M...

Kerry and I finally decided to get new carpet downstairs in the basement.  The old carpet had stains from the previous owner...and from Stout, too.  We were going to wait another year or so, but I just couldn't stand the carpet anymore. So, along with the carpet came two changes to the basement as well. The first is the bathroom floor.  80's linoleum. Ew. It had to go.  If we were going to get nice, new carpet, the bathroom needed to get a nice, new floor.  We couldn't leave him out of all the fun.   Our new neighbors tackled the job of tiling their bathroom as well.  They still had the exact same linoleum as us.  How lucky!  As I watched her tile, I figured I could too.  So I went and got the exact tile as they did (still matching floors !) and got to work. First, I got a screw driver to pry off the quarter rounds at the bottom of the baseboard.  Once all those were off, I used a hammer to take out any nails that didn't ...