Vintage to Modern

The Piano Bench

We were given this piano after my wife's grandmother passed away. It is a 1954 George Steinbeck. It isn't very large but with the solid brass plate in the back it is super heavy.  It has been used lovingly for 60 years and the bench shows it. Although I haven't refinished the piano itself A quick way to update it is to refinish the padding on the bench.

I'm not sure what the stains are from. I will leave that to your imagination but they need to go. 

Yuck

The wifey and I went to Hobby Lobby awhile back and grabbed this fabric.  It was a small project so we only grabbed 1 yard.

I found this 1" foam at Joanne s. I cut it to fit the wood base. I put the fabric on a flat smooth surface , in my case my counter top, I set the foam on top and allowed 3 inches  all around then placed my wood base on top. I then pulled the fabric up starting in the middle. I only pulled it tight enough to pull out wrinkles. This left sharper looking edges on the corners. I did the same thing for the opposite side then did the two short ends. I folded the corners so that they would be square down the corners. I did that to minimize any wrinkles. 

I then put it back into the bench. This bench didn't have a hinge or anything so it just sets on top. It did however have a really loose leg. So I tightened up the leg. 

Although its a small and simple update, it changes the entire look of the piano. It also doesn't clash with all the other things in our living room. 

Thanks for following along on with the projects in our house.  Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for sneak peaks into upcoming projects

Shed The Final Episode

Shed Soffits

Finally this guy has done something around the house. I have slowly been working on my shed but have had so little time at home. With this strong market having time to breathe doesn't seem to exist.

Awhile back I had purchased the fascia for my shed but it has just been sitting in my shed. I also had a ton of short cut offs of tongue and groove cedar from a project. I finally had a second and decided to get on it and get this done.

I was originally going to paint the cedar soffit white, but now that it is up I love the look of the natural wood.

I still have a little bit to do to get it finished but it wont be long now. I have to take another break because I have a staircase that I am going to be rebuilding because the original contractor didn't really know how to build staircases.

Leave a comment below and tell me if  would you paint the soffit or leave it natural.

Thanks for following along on the slow remodel of this house. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for sneak peaks into upcoming projects

Last Month

 We have been really busy around our house. We had a wedding that we made some decor for. We had a freak cold front that caused our furnace to come on, then it didn't. I also have a fence post that was sagging making my fence not close properly. We  have been making crafts to sell on the Facebook yard sale pages, and replaced the insides of two toilets. I don't know if I will ever understand how so much can done in two weeks while working full time. Somehow we are able to make it work.

We live in a great area with a little clubhouse that is commonly used for weddings The issue is if you don't live out here its easy to get lost. My favorite part is all the roads being named country club or lakeview.

After we moved into this house, we started having issues with our furnace. We had the home warranty and was able to get them out to check it out. The coil that runs the A/c was leaking all over everything. The coil was replaced and a relay had to be replaced from all the leaking. 

Fast forward a few years. This is the Control panel. It shows signs of corrosion on many of the parts and had a few broken welds .  I was able to pick up a new one and take out a few screws and swap some wires.  Quite simple really only took maybe 10 minutes.

With fall present my wife had found some things on Pinterest that she loved.  I decided that I would try it out. Note: I didn't make the wreaths that credit all goes to the wifey. The little pallet pumpkins and and tall pumpkins I cut out painted when I get home at night.

Have you ever had to leave the lid off your toilet so you could pull the chain to flush? Or you just use a different toilet? My mommies house had this issue. I stopped by there the other day and realized they had not been functioning properly for a while now. Just like any good son would do, I fixed my moms toilets. Instead of changing out the toilets I just upgraded and changed the insides of the tank.

Although its been busy, we have been having fun with all the little projects and making new friends.

Thanks for following along on the slow remodel of this house. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for sneak peaks into upcoming projects.

I'm not afraid of the dark

I'm afraid of whats in the dark

Remember that night I decided to pour concrete super late because I was busy all day? I have had a fence post that has been sagging for a while. I finally decided I should try to take care of it so I can close the gate and maybe lock it.

 I had previously noticed that every time my sprinklers came on that all the water would flow to the gate and cause a giant puddle.  I decided to dig all around the existing post so I could reinforce the post as well as set the post in the proper place.  While digging I ended up finding an active sprinkler head buried deep below next to the post that holds the gate.

I poured concrete all around the posts and formed a curb so the gate had something to sit on. It wasn't hardening as quick as I liked so I ended up out side at 11 pm trying to finish it but hopefully this keeps my gate from sagging again. One day I may just pour a pad back there for the gate to swing on. 

So if you have saggy posts I hope this helps

Thanks for following along on the slow remodel of this house. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for sneak peaks into upcoming projects.

This not usable wall is now a little more usable

Mudroom/ Coat-rack

I have three little girls. That equals three backpacks, three coats, three pairs of shoes and three separate messes of random crap.  The problem is that I only have four little hooks which made for a cluster of mess. I have a sickness where I am unable to let go of things if I think they have any value in the future. I just so happened to have reclaimed some material from other projects that helped me to get this project done.  Last year we remodeled a ski in ski out lodge for a couple and remodeled there ski and boot room. In the original room was some tongue and groove bead board alder. This was going in to the garbage so I took it home. Using that and some cabinets that I had left over from redoing my kitchen in the Maeser (Click Here) house I was able to come up with the material for this project.

I built the bottom bench first then installed the tongue and groove a top the bench. I ran two rows of hooks then installed the cabinet on top to hold more stuff. Of course the colors don't match so we filled the holes did some caulking and started to paint away. 

After painting everything white I thought I would try to be creative and painted the inside of the cabinet many different colors until I found one that wasn't to bright but still added contrast. 

You can see by the differing colors that I tried yellow. I tried what Anni Sloan chalk paint calls duck poo ( a kind of green blue awesome color) and a gray. We ended up just sticking with the gray. 

We were limited with the space available. I wish I could have gone bigger. I like how it turned out but I don't love how it turned out. The top cabinet gives it kind of a top heavy feel, but in the process of some of my other projects; I have ended up removing the upper cabinet to make way for something else. It has however served its purpose well and is still better than what we had before. What do you think of the mud bench? Is there a space that you would want to convert to allow for more space?

Thanks for following along on the slow remodel of this house. Feel free to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Follow me on Instagram or Twitter for sneak peaks into upcoming projects. 

They didn't tell me it came in Super Fast Lamborghini Galaxy Gray

Water Heater Replacement

Rut-Row there is water on the floor. The life of a water heater is limited. If you have hard water like we do; the life of all your appliances can be significantly shortened. We have a water softener, but I am not the best at remembering to put salt in it. The date on this water heater was 2010 so it actually did make it 7 years. Not the best I have had but still not premature. I have all these other projects going on that I was going to try and get to but I also like hot showers. This is what I get to tell you about this week. 

I received a phone call just after arriving at work. My cute little wife told me that there was water all over the basement around the water heater. most of it went down the drain. I explained to her via Facetime how to shut off the water and also the gas to the unit.  Yellow one is the water and the red one is the gas. 

  

Before I went home to tackle this my wife and I had called different companies to compare prices. I walked into Standard Plumbing while on the phone with Furgeson. My wife had called RC Willey's. 

RC Willey had the best price and I was able to get the other two to match it but I can do six months same as cash at RC Willey. On my way home I picked up the heater from their warehouse and took it home. 

I went downstairs to assess the damages. I must say not a lot of damage. just a little water on the floor and a hole in the bottom of the water heater. I opened the pressure release valve on the side of the water heater and let that drain then at the bottom of the water heater is another drain to let all the water out. 

The hydro static pressure was so intense it tried to spray all over the place so I used my hands of iron to redirect the water towards the drain.  Water heaters are actually quite easy to remove and install. There is a two water lines and the exhaust vent on top, the gas line near the bottom and an earthquake strap wrapped around the middle. 

I removed them with an adjustable wrench. The vent was held on by 3 1/4 inch hex head screws. I removed those with my screw gun.  The gas line was removed with two wrenches since the fitting kept turning on itself.

As I pulled it out I leaned it to the drain to get all the water out I could before lugging it upstairs. 

I took a video of the sediment that was coming out of the bottom. The playlist I chose was from my daughters spotify account. That way all the music that may be heard by little ears is still appropriate. 

The new water heater came with everything it needed except for three things. I took these off the old one. Those things are: 

Pressure relief extendy thing (long copper pipe)

Gas nipple

Exhaust venting

I put it back in the way it came out and hooked up everything that came off.  If you look at the original water heater I notice a lot of calcium buildup and corrosion. Upon inspection I realized that the inlet water line wasn't quite tight enough and had been drizzling for awhile. this caused the build up. I also notice that there was no Tephlon tape on any of the connections. I added this as well as checked and tightened all the connections. 

After finishing my double check on all connections. I turned the water back on and let it fill up. I then turned on the gas and lit the pilot light. I had my wife go upstairs and turn the faucets on one at a time in order to let the air out of the system. We have hot water again. I only took me maybe an hour once I got the new water heater home. I am into the new 50 gallon Rheem water heater fully loaded in Super Fast Lamborghini Galaxy Gray, for around $450 and an hour of my time. 

I read the warranty information. As long as it was installed per manufacturers instructions. It has a 6yr non-transferable warranty. Full replacement on the unit for 6 years.

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