Doing My Best DIY

One of the biggest puzzles I needed to figure out was how to make the hallway appear cleaner and more finished in the lowest maintenance way possible.  The hallway is extremely narrow and when moving furniture up and down the stairs, the walls constantly get scuffed.   The entire hallway wall up to the ceiling is really difficult to paint because of the masking required at the top of the stairs and the ceiling.  I plan to use this property as a rental in the future, and I didn't want to have to repaint the entire wall every time a tenant would move in.  My solution was to do a tall trim along the hallway and paint below the trim a more durable paint that could easily be repainted without risking my life painting the top of the wall over the staircase.  This definitely isn't the best looking feature of the house, but it has been functional and given the house an overall more polished and clean look.

The first thing I did when I moved into the house, before I moved my furniture in because I knew it would be a mess, was removing the wall between the "den" and the living room.   Disclaimer: the only reason I knew it was safe to attempt this and the wall was non-load bearing is because every other house on the street was built the same way and this wall was added by a previous owner.  It was still framed as a cutout with drywall in the middle.  Don't attempt to remove any wall that you are unsure if it is load bearing. This was my first ever DIY attempt at anything, and I did not go about it well.  I should have bought the proper tools, but instead, I demolished the wall with nothing other than a hand saw I purchased from Dollar Tree and a razor blade.   First I cut into the drywall with the razor to look inside and see what I was working with.  It was nothing more than a couple of 2x4s to hold the drywall in place, so I used the saw/razor blade ...

The front of the house was an eye-sore.  There were mixed metals, the mailbox was a little rusted, and the house numbers looked so trashy, it was embarrassing.  All of the houses on my block were built at the same time, so I looked at what the renovated houses, the primary differences were the modern house numbers, cohesive fixtures (handle, lock, mailbox, etc.) and a painted door.   I decided that I wanted to give the front door some personality, so I chose the color Moscow Midnight by Behr, and I loved the final look. It is a striking color when the light hits it, but subtle enough it's not in-your-face.  I love it so much, I am planning on painting the front door of my new house the same color. I also spray painted the door knocker, handles, and mailbox with Rust-Oleum Metallic Spray Paint, in Oil Rubbed Bronze.  I have had this for over a year, disclaimer: it on a covered porch, so not totally exposed to the elements, but it has held up really well. The...

  Covid was the first time that I had to spend an extended amount of time in my house, and I set up my home office in the kitchen and I realized how much I hated it.  I had always planned on painting the cabinets, but the catalyst to take action was staring at them all day for 9 hours and no social plans to distract me.  I had read that painting cabinets was more difficult than expected, and that definitely proved to be true.  It took so many hours, I lost track- at least a few weeks of continuous work.  The wood grain on my cabinet doors was very prominent, so it took a lot of wood filler and sanding to remove the grain enough to paint.   I started by removing all of the cabinet doors, applying wood filler, then sanding.  I did 3 rounds of this per cabinet, then I painted with primer and the wood grain was still too prominent.  Then, I wood filled and sanded, primed, wood filled and sanded again.  By that point, I was done. If I had to ...

I travel a lot for work, and I've always loved lighted mirrors in hotels, so I knew I had to have one in my home.   I had a lot of trouble finding one of the light up mirrors that was also a medicine cabinet.  I eventually found this one on Wayfair, and I absolutely love it. I bought this mirror in 2019 and there were not a lot of affordable options for lighted mirror medicine cabinets.  However, now they are more popular and many more options out there and this one is no longer available.  On the wall behind the mirror I decided to put these herringbone peel and stick tiles from Amazon for an accent wall. Herringbone Peel and Stick Tiles They were really easy to cut with scissors, and apply to the wall.  However, the adhesive was VERY strong.  Once you put it on the wall, it's not coming off easily. I lightly placed all of the tiles and made sure that they were in the right spot before fully pushing down.  I read some reviews on Amazon ...

 The bathtub when I bought this house was so disgusting, it even came with an unknown pair of underwear in the tub. I read a bunch of reviews on different products online, and I settled on Ekopel Bathtub refinishing kit.   Ekopel Bathtub Refinishing Kit This was an original cast iron tub that had been refinished badly in the past, and the old coating was bubbling and peeling up. I took the lazy way out and I partially sanded down the tub, just enough to smooth out the transition and remove the peeling coating at the bottom of the tub.  The product did a great job leveling out some of the defects. I also removed all the caulking around the tub.  One thing I didn't realize was that I would need to scoop out the excess material as it self-leveled every hour or so for about 8 hrs.  I did this pretty late at night, so unfortunately I fell asleep for 3 hrs and in that time I wasn't monitoring the self-leveling, I did get a weird drip mark in the center. I called ...

  When I purchased the house, the kitchen wall had a wrap over the plaster and due to a previous flood, the wrap was peeling.  I consulted with a contractor and he said it would cost $3,000 to remove the wrap from the entire kitchen, drywall and repaint.  I had seen some posts on Pinterest about using brick panels from Home Depot to make a faux brick wall.   https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-4-in-x-48-in-x-96-in-HDF-Kingston-Brick-Panel-KINGSTON/311316427 In Baltimore row homes, it is very common to have exposed brick interior, so I thought it might be a little more believable.  I used a jig saw to cut the panels and installed them on the wall with screws.  I did not use glue, which is recommended by the manufacturer of the panels, but I wanted to make it easier to re-postion them if needed.  Once the panels were installed on the wall, I used spackle to completely cover the panels to give the brick texture to make it feel more real and hide where the ...

One of the main selling points of the house was the front porch. I've always dreamed of having a front porch to sit out and watch the rain.  The front porch also happened to be one of the most neglected parts of the house.  If the overhang of your porch does not extend far enough out from the floor of the porch, then the wood on the edge will start to rot.   The first thing I did was create a gate because I have 2 dogs and live on a busy road, so I was very paranoid about the dogs running out into the street.  I also wanted to be able to sit out on the porch with the dogs without worrying about a leash.  The next thing that needed to get repaired was the floor of the porch.  One night I looked out the window and saw a big Baltimore rat climbing into the hole in the porch, and the next day I needed to do something about it.  There was a subfloor under the boards, so I used a circular saw to just cut through the layer of boards, without cutting into...

I felt like my wall was looking a little bland, especially with my sofa about the same color as the wall and I thought it just needed a pop of color. I was a little concerned because as a rowhome, there are only 2 windows- at the front, then at the back of house, so the middle room can feel a little dark. I was worried that adding a darker color on the wall would make the room feel cave-like, but luckily that was not the case.  The wall is not entirely symmetrical to the ceiling medallion due to the duct work along one side of the wall, so it took me a little while to come up with a trim design that was symmetrical but would not look completely off.  To make sure everything was even, I laid the trim against the wall and cut a template for the widths to help keep the installation consistent without having to remeasure before installing each piece.  I purchased a nail gun to install this trim, but I wish that I had just stuck to finish screws due to the solid walls, and it ...

The powder room was a major embarrassment any time I had people over. I still cringe whenever I look at old pictures, however it was not as bad as the upstairs bath.  When I first moved in I immediately had a plumber change out the toilet and faucet. I always see design pictures of small bathrooms with funky wallpaper, but I’m more of a traditionalist and was nervous to take the plunge myself. The Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore is known to be eccentric, so I thought if there was a house to experiment on design-wise this was it.  I love geodes and rocks so when I saw this wallpaper it was love at first sight.  Arthouse Agate Wallpaper This was the first time I’ve applied wallpaper, and I was surprised how easy it was. I had also painted the kitchen cabinets in the meantime, and because the bathroom is off the kitchen I decided to paint the vanity and medicine cabinet the same color. The color is Behr Riverdale, and I used this paint, I used the same type of paint o...