Ready for some Euchre and beer?

One of my most favorite features of my house is my carport. We are the only house in our neighborhood with an attached carport. Everyone else got a garage.

I know. I know. Many of you are saying to yourself “I would prefer a garage!” But for me, I am so happy with the carport I do not miss the garage at all. Plus, to be honest, I have rarely had a garage in my life so it’s hard to miss what you have never really had.

I adore my carport. Really.

And should we get all technical and all, we do have TWO garages. A detached 2 1/2 car garage behind our house and an attached one car garage directly underneath the carport. True. We don’t have a driveway for either, but heck, that’s an easy fix!

So year one in our house has taught us one important thing… We spend a great deal of time outside and in our carport. You can see by the picture that it has a great 2 feet overhang around it which provides great shade. It’s also situated so that we almost constantly have a breeze. Park a car in this thing? Oh hell no!

May I also take this moment to remind you that we do NOT have Central air. So this carport came in handy last year. We ate out here. Did crafts out here. Played cards out here. And basically just chilled out here.

However, over the winter it started looking like an episode of Sanford and Sons. Really. It definitely became a catch all.

Ummm. YUCK. So spring has sprung and that means time to get this place whipped into shape. We started with the floor. It had some wear and tear and some oil stains from previous resident.

We chose a Rust-Oleum product again. A product I had used in a previous home. I just like their stuff what can I say?

I chose the blue grey color because my house is pink and pink and grey always work well together. Plus, the paint chips gave the finished floor a VCT/ Linoleum floor feel to it.

If you follow the instructions, this stuff is fairly easy to apply. But please. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. It does help to have two people though, because if you have never worked with Epoxy, then you might want to know it starts to dry quickly. So I did the rolling and Brian came behind me with the paint chips. You have to work in sections as well.

This was a two-day process for us. The first night we prepped the carport. Swept, applied the concrete etcher (Included in kit) and rinsed the floor. This took about an hour.

The next day we applied the epoxy and the chips. This probably took a total of 3 hours. This is an excellent, inexpensive way to update your garage/workshop/porch floor. Our kit cost $107 at our local Home Depot. We did it in the evening, as the instructions said afternoon is better. Allowed it to dry overnight and it was ready for LIGHT traffic the next day. We let it cure about a full 48 hours before we did anything more than tip toe over it though. Just to be safe.

We had plenty of product and even had some left over to do our front porch as well.

We then splurged on an outdoor rug, a new table we bought at the end of the season last year for FIFTEEN dollars, again, from the Home Depot, and 7 new chairs from Big Lots, and a $69 work bench from HD. And VOILA!!! We are now ready to host some outdoor dinners and some Euchre parties! (Yeah, it’s a Midwest thing!).

While it’s not Mid Century at all, it does look nice and fits the house well I think. Some day I will have all vintage outdoor WHITE wrought Iron furniture to match the posts on the carport, but until that magical day arrives this will do just fine. (Don’t think I am not scouring craigslist weekly for those bad boys)

The before and afters:

Oil and dirt and gross stuff OH MY!!!

ALL GONE!!! Yayness!!!

That splotchiness is my doing…I did not mix the first batch so well…But I knew the rug would cover it so I was not too concerned.

Once more before:

And now……………………………………

I will paint the work bench eventually. Just not sure what color yet. It will be my planting station AND double as my buffet when I have cook outs.

This entire project cost just about $400 dollars. Not bad for what has essentially become a three season room for us. We are on the hunt for an outdoor heater. And don’t think I haven’t already thought about an outdoor t.v. But I fear I would never go inside if I had one of those.

Thank you Rust-Oleum for yet another fabulous product!!!

Happy Anniversary House!!

Well, we just passed our one year anniversary in our home. The love affair is still going strong! At least on our side. We have no idea  if our House really likes us or not. Ahhh. If only she could talk!!!

Our Realtor gave us some very sound advice when we moved in. “Don’t make ANY major changes until you have lived here at least a year. For your thoughts and ideas will change greatly”. This truly is great advice. And sadly, we promptly went about ignoring it. Kind of.

When I think about my list of projects I have yet to complete I get very discouraged. My list seems endless and my pocketbook grows tighter. On the other hand, when I break down every little project we have done in the last year, I feel quite proud of us. I KNOW we have done more in a year then some people do in 10 and while we kind of ignored our realtors advice. We kind of listened as well.

We STILL have not painted the exterior of our house  because my thoughts have changed drastically! And since I can’t decide what color, if any, I should repaint my home, I have decided to sit on that project for now. You can read more about my paint dilemma here at one of my other favorite blogs:  http://offbeathome.com/2012/01/paint-my-house-pink

We have reached that time of year when our projects move from inside to out. Last year we didn’t have the funds or the full plan to do our landscaping. This year, we plan to start tackling that. It will take time to get the look we want. Years even. No way about it. You can’t landscape 1.2 acres cheaply. But we are going to try!

We also want low maintenance. Period landscaping. Pet friendly. And a wow factor. No problem, right?! Right!

I am excited to move outside and I will keep you posted of course. After the kitchen reno I am a bit burned out on the interior.

First up, THE CARPORT. The carport has quickly become our most favorite summer hang out. She is getting a complete makeover in the next few weeks, weather permitting, so please check back!

So one of our last little projects we did was to replace our side door. Which is actually the most used door in our home. We NEVER use the front door.

This would seem a perfect little transition from the inside out. Replacing this door was NOT an easy decision. I LOVED the door that was here. Original hollow wood door, ¾ view, louvered glass window. It let great light into our room, allowed us to see who was coming up our drive, and let full air flow in when the storm door was off.

However, it was unsafe. No deadbolt. No real barrier between us and them, it was NOT energy efficient. And it definitely was not meant to withstand two big dogs constantly jumping on it. The glass louvers started falling out over the summer, and the mechanical device no longer worked to open the window.

One night this winter I came home from work, shut the door, and the entire glass insert fell to the floor. Did I mention the temp had dropped down into the 20’s? Oh, and that my partner Brian was out of town? I had NO clue what to do. So I popped the window back in place and covered it as well as I could with duct tape and blankets. Yeah. The answer to every broken thing in the world. DUCT TAPE!

Hey, it worked. Anyway, it was abundantly clear we had to replace this door. I looked and looked for months on Lowe’s website  and The Home  Depot for a mid century type door that would fit my decor. Mission style was as close as I got.

I ended up finding my door at The Home Depot. We went with the Rochester design by Feather River. I chose this door for many reasons. The design is craftsman-esq. The half door allows light in, but is solid at bottom where the dogs jump. And the beveled glass eliminates the need for curtains or blinds.

(The cat was NOT included!)

We had to do a lot of adjustments. We had to drill for a deadbolt. We had to use heavy duty weather stripping to forgive the crookedness of the door and some missed sizing. And we had to give up some of our original look of the house.

The boys finished it in about 5 hours. Whew. What a mess! But it’s up!

Now that its up, I cant say I love it. It’s not the doors fault. It’s a lovely door. And from the outside it looks fine. But from the inside its so. I don’t know. WHITE?!

I miss the look of my old wood door. So now I am debating painting the interior side of the door. Either red to match my red couch, or a chocolate brown to match the kitchen cabinets and to better blend with the wood tones in the house.

Sometimes you have to choose safety and energy efficiency above keeping an older relic. This is one change I do regret a little. Maybe over time it will grow on me. But just in case it does not. I have kept the old door!

Holy Smokes! The find of the decade!

To say that I am stoked is an understatement.

It probably comes as no shocker to most of our friends and family that Brian and I are slightly obsessed with antiques, retro and Mid Century anything.

That book above we picked up last year on a whim on one of our many excursions. It was published in 1956 and is a delightful read (It’s especially amusing to read about how the man is the expert on grilling!)

The section on “Canned Meat” is especially appetizing!

The funny thing is, when we read it last year, a little tiny booklet fell out:

I remember saying to Brian “Man…It sure would be cool to find an old grill someday”

Well…That day was today.

It is quite beautiful today in Central Ohio. Especially taking into consideration that it’s MID MARCH! It’s sunny and 60 degrees!

So we loaded ourselves in the car today and took off on grand adventures. We traveled the country roads. Stopping here and there. Just basically enjoying our one day off this week together.

We found ourselves at one antique store. Then another. Then we stopped to say hi to the parents and they told us about a new place in Lancaster Ohio. Rush Creek General Store. So we loaded THEM up in the car (I mean, they DO qualify as antiques themselves, right?) and off we went to store #3.

The great thing about this find is that it was totally NOT expected. We weren’t out looking for anything in particular today. Some spoon jewelry maybe for my niece. Some antique bar ware. Nothing major.

Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw something special. I think it was the color that got me. A copper, but not quite copper. I saw a wheel. I saw a grate. I walked around and saw it was a grill. I could tell it was old but it looked BRAND NEW. Okay. Maybe not BRAND new but it was DEFINITELY only slightly used.

I very cautiously turned the tag over. I was expecting $100 price or more. I mean, it was ALMOST NEW!!!

And I gasped…$59.99…It had a rotisserie. It had the owner’s manual. It had the original box the rotisserie came in. Oh, and that little book I mentioned above? Yeah, it had that too!

It was like FATE brought us to this grill.

The instructions are dated. 10/29/1958.

I had to have this grill.

This grill was in fabulous shape. It is 54 years old people! FIFTY FOUR! And the rotisserie basket has NEVER BEEN USED.

We loaded it up in the car and brought it home. We love it. And the best part? We plugged in the rotisserie when we got home. AND IT WORKED!!!

So load up the kids, bring over the beer, and lets throw some meat on this new old grill of ours. I will supply the canned meat if you bring the Jello!

This. Is. My. Happiness.

The now defunct Lazarus Company.

Look how clean that charcoal area is! Unbelievable!

A completely metal wheel. No rubber here! Never seen such a thing!

My new pride and joy!!!!

 

Did someone order a new kitchen???

I DID!!! I DID!!!

We are calling this KITCHEN RENO PHASE 1. There will be 3 (Phases, NOT kitchens!!).

This was the lighting/cabinets/and wall paint phase.

Phase 2 will be flooring. Phase 3 will be counters and backslash and god willing, NEW APPLIANCES! I hope to have the entire thing done by years end. Pray for me!

Okay. Follow me back to phase 1!

The cabinets are D.O.N.E. Oh my freakin goodness! Was this ever a nightmare I will NEVER repeat again.

Okay. Okay. Let me back up.

We decided to keep our 1959 cabinets because they are simply awesome. They were, however, extremely dirty, and layered in about 5 decades worth of stain and gloss.

We put a ton of thought into stripping them, re-staining them the original color, painting them, or re-facing them. Then I heard about Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations.

I was hooked. This seemed like a BRILLIANT solution for us. Now, what color? I wanted to keep my gorgeous kitchen, the set up, etc, but I wanted to “Modernize” it a bit. We have a TON of woodwork around the house and the front room is completely paneled. We were very worried how this would look.

I first fell in love with the “Espresso” but after a weekend of looking at a sample on my wall I decided to go one shade lighter to the “Chocolate”. I am glad I went with my gut. I think the Espresso would have been too dark.

I used Behr paint on my walls because I LOVE their paint. I used “Buttercup”

We replaced both lights as well. I believe both were original to the house. And we re-used all the original hardware, we just spray painted it. With Rust-Oleum again!

Okay. I won’t go into to much more, because I want to get to the pictures but I DO want to tell you about the Rust-Oleum product.

Over all I LOVE THIS PRODUCT. BUT…And I do mean BUT, there are some flaws. I do believe they are overall minor flaws.

First, the “Kits” are horribly missed proportioned. Really. Not just mine, but reading through reviews I can tell a lot of customers have this issue. I ended up having to get an entire second kit just for ONE can of bond color (Two cans come per kit). I had TONS of deglosser left, both cans of the “decorative glaze”  because I wasn’t using it on my cabinets. And I had the perfect amount of “top coat” left.

I do think this is something the company is aware of and something I HOPE they correct in the future.

So I want to give this little tip to others out there. Thank you to the Home Depot employee who assisted us. She suggested we only tint ONE can of the bond coat when we got the second kit. This gives us the freedom of getting the second can tinted at a later date in a different color for a different project if we want.

So, whatever you “THINK” you are going to need, just be prepared to go buy more because you can NOT buy the parts individually, which I think kinda stinks, but I understand from a business point of view it would defeat the purpose of a “Kit”.

Other than that, I love the product. I mean, BOTH kits cost me less than $100. So one can not complain too much, can they?

New cabinets would have cost me a small fortune so I consider this a win.

If you are still with me, THANK YOU, I promise to get to the pictures!!! But…I do want to give others who want to try this product some pointers. Please learn from my mistakes!

*However long you “Think” it’s going to take, double it. This is a VERY lengthy process. I mean, seriously. It took FOREVER. Be prepared!

*The kit says two coats of the bond coat (The color). I easily could have done 4 and I think that’s because of the shape of my cabinets.I did two, as suggested, and I had a TON of problems with my protective top coat. More on that below. I ended up touching up a lot of spots. So I should have done three or four coats.

*When they tell you to use the deglosser liberally and that it’s the most important step, BELIEVE THEM! If you don’t, your paint will NOT adhere well.

*As mentioned above, I had a LOT of problems with the protective top coat. Every time I put it on, LIGHTLY over what I thought was a COMPLETELY dry cabinet (24 hours of dry time!) I would come down the next day and see the bond had come up in spots. I could see brush strokes! It was WAY frustrating!

I think this was a combo of my technique, and my cabinets having sooooo much varnish on them. I probably should have sanded them. Period.

*Using a brush, which is the recommendation, is a pain in the rear. It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to avoid a brush stroke or overlapping look with the top coat. Like this:

This looks much worse in this picture then it really is, but the top coat is kind of hard to work with. This was me taking my time even and using one long brush stroke. GRRRRRRRR!

Overall, I would use this product again. However, I personally would not do the work myself! It was far more detailed and time-consuming than I ever thought possible and it made me super grumpy!

Oh, and I had NO issues with fumes. I have pets and I am in Central Ohio and so I couldn’t open doors and windows and we were all fine!

ENOUGH TALK!!! SHOW US THE PICS!!!!

Okay folks. Here you go!

Cabinets before (note the doors under the sink. They were in BAD shape!)

And the same cabinets AFTER:

 

Here is another angle BEFORE:

And another AFTER:

Here is the old light (I think it contained 5 decades of dead bugs!):

 

And the new light (Thank you Lowes!)

And the fridge wall BEFORE (Don’t mind Ozzy Cat there, he is FOREVER stealing the lime light!):

And the fridge wall AFTER:

The kitchen sink area AFTER:

That blue pitcher was given to me by my mother and belonged to my Grandmother. I am so glad it now has a place of honor in my home!

So that’s that! My semi new/old kitchen!

Next up will be “Fake” cork floors! We are very excited. Our floors are in horrible shape!

YUCK!

Anyway, thanks for stopping by! I am off to go cook dinner in my spiffy “Chocolate” kitchen…Now…If I could JUST lick the cabinets and have them TASTE like chocolate…That…That would be BRILLIANT! (Someone at Rust-Oleum needs to start on that invention! Hah!)

 

The Electric Slide!

“It’s electric! You can’t see it…It’s electric! You gotta feel it It’s electric! Ooh, it’s shakin’ It’s electric! ” ~Electric Slide/By Electric Boogaloo

 

Yeah. So there isn’t a whole lot that’s exciting about electric. Except for the fact that without it my world comes to a halt. It’s the silent necessity.

But none the less, I thought I would do a quick blog about it, because, after all, IT’S ELECTRIC and without it my little pink abode could not function.

So we knew when we moved in that our electric would need updated. It was original 1959. Fuses. Not breakers! We BARELY made it to closing with our insurance company. Who made us PROMISE to get it updated. We had several estimates done via the good folks at Angie’s List. And after I grabbed my heart up off the concrete we decided at this time we could not financially afford the full 10k make over.

Yeah. $10,000 to bring this electric up to code. Apparently, in 1959 they did not care if wires were grounded or not. They did not know about three-pronged outlets and they certainly did not care if an outlet was directly above a base board heater. Apparently by today’s standard this is a no-no.

Whatever 2012! I do not care for your fancy codes!

So we had them do a mini make over. They converted us from 100 amps to 200 amps and switched us from fuses to breakers. Fancy, eh?

That’s just how we roll folks. Cutting edge we are!

So Mr. Electric arrives at 8 a.m. (No, I am not being sarcastic, that’s the company name!) Electric went down at 9 and I had to go find something to do with myself until work. I chose to go shopping. I mean, I had too, right?

Out went the old, which he said was actually in very nice shape for its age:

And in came the new!

Holy Cow! It’s the mother board Batman!!!!!

Isn’t she pretty?????

$1800 dollars later and we now have lots of room to grow. We will eventually re-wire the entire house. But not in the immediate future. That’s for sure.

He also took off the old wires from the outside of our house that were simply imbedded in our stucco. He replaced them with this lovely metal pipe! Brilliant!!!

The old:

And the new:

I LOOOOOOVE IT!!!

So yeah, there is not much exciting here. No brilliant transformations. No lovely before and afters to wow ya with.

Oh, yeah, there is this:

Mr. Electric did not head our advice to NOT pull his truck around back. Our yard is deceptive. It’s very wet, very steep. We know this because we almost toppled our moving truck and still have ruts left over from a year ago! (They are a joy to hit on the riding mower by the by!)

But alas. He did not listen…And now my yard looks like a Motor Cross track!

Well. He looked miserable and clearly felt terrible. I found it hard to even be upset with him. He was here until 9:30 p.m. finishing up and cleaning up his mess. I was about to hand him a sleeping bag and invite him in for a sleepover!

It took three attempts to get his van unstuck.

He gave us about $350 dollars worth of free upgrades. An electronic surge protector and a nice grounded outlet for Brian’s man cave. He also said he will return to fix the yard. We hope he does, but if he doesn’t, we aren’t too stressed about it. It’s just grass!

And now we have a little more peace of mind as he did do a fantastically thorough job on our electric!

Dun dun dun…THE MAN CAVE!!!

I really tried hard to think of a clever title for this blog. Somehow bringing together craft beer, sports, man caveness and mid-century. But, well, it just DIDN’T happen.

If there were man caves in the 1950′s, I sure as heck don’t know of them…I mean, technically, if I get all feminist on you, one COULD say every room in the house belonged to the man, right?

I kid. I kid. (Kinda!)

If I had been blessed with a bottomless checkbook, I would have done 1960′s Rat Pack Martini Lounge ALL THE WAY.

But sadly, or not, my guy is firmly rooted in this decade.

Having a Man Cave/Beer Cellar was always on the table for us. How could it not be? We were brought together by our mutual love of craft beer via the online community of www.ratebeer.com.

And as much as I love my girlie pink pin-up girl bathroom, I also love to throw back a great beer and watch an awesome football game. So even though “Technically” it’s a man cave, well, dang it, I am gonna hang there too!

So where to put this room of ours? Well, when there are two of you living in a 3800 square foot house, you might think its pretty easy. It wasnt!

The original room we had picked out was a single car garage that sits under our car port and is accessible ONLY by going behind our house. There is no driveway, so it’s not really usable as a garage. But it makes AWESOME storage!

It’s a fantastic space, but, well, its COLD!!! No heat what so ever gets through, so this is NOT a good place for beer. Or to hang comfortably.

So we decided for now, this is NOT man cave material. Some day we will actually lay a drive way and use this.

Then we thought about this room which is NOT a room. Its more of a pass through if you will between the above mentioned garage and the main living area of our semi finished basement:

Now this. This could work!

Now, I should probably let you know that ALL of this is really just a “Temporary” Man Cave/Beer Cellar. It is our intent to finish the basement completely in the next few years, adding a fourth bedroom, a full bath, a kitchenette, and yes, a FINISHED Man Cave. But that is several years down the road.

In the mean time, we wanted just a cheap fun quirky place where we could display our beer collection. We had quite the combined collection.

And the fact that we were missing walls was NOT a problem. Brian had managed to snag some corrugated Yuengling cardboard from one of his many contacts. And I decided to use it as wall paper.

A tad college dorm like I suppose, but hey, it works!!! Its not entirely done yet, we need to hang our tv. Put another shelf up to display a bottle collection and what not, but for now, we are kinda digging it.

Our little man cave under the stairs…Here are the befores, durings and afters!

This is how it’s looked for the last few months. A collection of JUNK!!!

Time to whip this little spot into shape!

These were a Christmas present from my mom. Does she ROCK or what???

Digging the PJ bottoms Brian!!! (Hey, he is actually working, I can NOT criticize his clothing choice…Actually, we are lucky he is even WEARING clothes!!!)

Ozzy Cat thinks its great fun to help us unwrap 5 boxes of beer!!!

We scored this FAB Rolling Rock sign at a local antique store for 20 bucks. WOOT!

Way to NOT move the step stool out of the picture Dawn. LOL!

Ozzy Cat has decided its a man cave/kitty cove!

Quick historical note: That sign is a real city on route 66 in Arizona, and it happens to be Brian’s last name. Very cool!

Now…How about dropping by and helping us drink some of this?????

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like…1959!

Or a modern version of a retro Christmas.

So it’s been awhile since I posted. It’s not that I have been too busy. It’s that I haven’t been busy at all!

We have been here 7 months now and if I had my way the entire house would be done. And with each reno would be a lovely blog with pictures for you to enjoy. Unfortunately for me my wallet is NOT bottomless so I have only done what I have done so far. I remind myself frequently that I will be here for years, and years are what I will have to finish up my renovations. God willing of course!

So this will be our first Christmas here in our Mid Century home. We are very excited. I knew immediately when we moved in that I would buy an Aluminum Christmas tree. I have always liked them anyway, and well, now I have the perfect house for them.

If you or your great Aunt Ida have one of these things lying around, you MIGHT want to consider selling it. These things have become HIGHLY collectible and can go as high as $500 dollars on Ebay or at antique malls.

I lucked out. I got mine over the summer. From Ebay, for about $50 with shipping. As with all Ebay purchases, I had no idea what I had.

Turns out even without instructions, it was a decent purchase. It’s old. Some of the aluminum had come off, but hey, it works for me. Eventually I will get a nicer one, but for now it will do!

At the same time I bought the tree I bought an assortment of 1950′s Christmas Greeting cards. I decided to use them to make some ornaments for the tree.

I don’t have a color wheel yet, maybe next year, but for now I have a red can light on the ground up lighting it. I don’t know. ALl and all I like the look. I think all the sliver and red really helps to blend the newer pieces of our home with some of the older pieces.

I also purchased a German glass antique tree topper over the Summer. Unfortunately, it was ugly. I was duped! Someone had tried to “Fix” it by painting it with what appeared to be nail polish. Goodbye $15 bucks. You win some you lose some.

I was able to find this LOVELY red glass topper today at Kroger though, and it was on sale for $5.99! YAY! I think it’s lovely and looks quite retro!

And because my partner is Jewish, it’s only right that I represent his religion as well…Ignore the missing candles please…They are on my grocery list!

And we can NOT forget my beloved pink bathroom. It remains my favorite room in this house. But I felt obligated to get her, her very own PINK aluminum Christmas tree.

So we are ready for our FIRST Mid Century Christmas! THank you so much for stopping by. I hope by the first of the year to have a kitchen renovation to report on, but who knows. Kitchen is up next, then some landscaping and house painting in the Spring.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures and I hope you and yours have a VERY happy holiday season no matter what decade you live in!