Pink Bathroom Makeover

Brother:  “Why are you cleaning my bathroom?”

Me: “Because I’m going to snap photos for the blog.  Hope that’s okay.”

Brother:  “Want to photograph my upstairs bath then too?  How about my kitchen?  The dining room?”

Good try, little brother.  Good try.

This is what the bathroom looked like when little brother bought his house.

Pink Tile Bathroom Before

I don’t know about you but I was totally digging that stencil.  That dirty pink tile was to die for.  The oversized vanity and shelving unit where pretty stellar too.

But for some reason, little brother hated it.  I just don’t get it.  He was afraid of the cost to fix it.  Luckily his sister is an important DIY/home decor blogger.  (I kill me.)  Or he’s lucky he has a brother-in-law that is handy.  And a dad that likes to destroy things. 

Some sweat, family bonding and around $350.00 left his bathroom looking like this.

Bathroom Makeover (Beadboard, Peppercorn, Hex tile)

One thing that has surprised me about my brother during this whole house renovation process is that he actually has really good taste.  (Well, minus the deer heads in the living room.)  But overall, his selections have impressed me.  He usually asks if what he likes is okay but I rarely have to tell him it’s not (minus the deer heads).

The makeover started by gutting the bathroom. (We make our father proud.)

Powder Room Makeover

Moving the plumbing and adding a new outlet revealed a giant mass of razors.  About a week later we watched a home improvement show that had the same issue. I guess it was common to just drop razors in a slot in the medicine cabinet and let them fill up a space in the wall.  Guess those dudes weren’t thinking about the poor people in 2013 that would have to clean that mess up.  (Soccer sandals and socks are a favorite trend in Iowa.)

Powder Room Makeover

After cleaning up the hot razor mess, it was time to prime and paint.  I did feel slightly bad covering up someone’s time consuming stenciling.  But only slightly.  Brother could have cared less.  He chose Dutch Boy’s Peppercorn for the wall color.

Powder Room Makeover

It was then time to lay the tile.  The tile was purchased at Menard’s.

Bathroom Makeover

My dad and brother then installed bead board and molding to cover up the tile grossness.

Bathroom Makeover

They then replaced the toilet.  He also added a new sink, light and medicine cabinet. It’s hard to believe it’s the same room.

Bathroom Makeover (Beadboard, Peppercorn, Hex tile)

Pretty impressive finishes for a bachelor.  (I’m still looking for a sister-in-law.  Contact me if interested. I mean, you get a cute house out of the deal.  I’m sure the deer heads are negotiable if you’re not his sister.  Man, I’m going to get sucker punched for this one.  Let’s look at more pretty after photos.)

Bathroom Makeover (Beadboard, Peppercorn, Hex tile)
Bathroom Makeover (Beadboard, Peppercorn, Hex tile)
Inexpensive DIY Bathroom Reveal

Who thinks the pink tile was pretty rocking?  Any takers on that whole future sister-in-law thing?

 

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Curb Appeal at Little Brother’s House

How was your weekend?  Ours was good. If waking up sore on Monday is good.  I’m not sure if I’m more sore from physical labor or sleeping with a bed hogging dog.  Something about dogs don’t sleep at the end of the bed. That’s for animals.

We headed North to help my little brother do some work on his house. (We had previously helped him here and here.)

Curp Appeal Updates

Baby brother wanted some help with the exterior of his house.  Something about dudes don’t like purple houses.  Or flood lights as exterior lights.  Or decks that look sad.  Or houses that lack landscaping.  Please note Ike in the window above. He quite enjoyed his time at his uncle’s house. How could he not?  Uncle bought him a new toy and bandana.  Spoiled much?

Curp Appeal Updates

Brother had previously put down some black mulch and installed black shutters.  Otherwise the exterior of the house hadn’t been touched in a long while.

Curp Appeal Updates

Brother cleaned the front deck.  My mom, brother and I scraped and painted the purple trim.  I’m pretty sure the previous owner used interior paint.  Awesome. Tasks to add to my “I hate this” list: scraping paint and painting decks.

Curp Appeal Updates

Nate installed landscape edging.  It also decided to actually be Summer in Iowa this weekend as well.  We missed the 90+ degrees with 7000% humidity.  That’s not a typo.  That’s how humid it gets in Iowa in Summer.  You think I’m joking. 

Curp Appeal Updates

Brother bought some bushes and more mulch.  Magically the house looked like a grown-up lived there.

Curp Appeal Updates
Curp Appeal Updates
Curp Appeal Updates

I told him that I bet the neighbors thought someone new bought the house.  And then he sucker punched me.  I threatened to never come back.  And then he bought me Perkins.  My work here is done.

How was your weekend? Any curb appeal projects?  Who thinks my brother has the best sister and brother-in-law ever?  Don’t worry.  We remind him often.

Add Curb Appeal in One Weekend!.jpg
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How to Create a GIF in Google+

Happy Friday!  I’m currently in the middle of a four day week-end. I swear I do work.  Sometimes.  The rest of the time I waste time on the internet and read books.  And people wonder why I don’t have kids.

Last week I posted a GIF of Ike as part of a post for Method’s Cute Pet Contest.  (There’s still time to enter.  Read more about it here!)  I got a lot of comments about the fancy GIF.  You all think I’m a computer whiz. 

How to Create a GIF in Google+

It’s a front.  I really don’t know how I’ve survived being a blogger with my lack of computer skills.  Wait, The Google helps me.  (Thanks, Google.)

I’m going to share with you all my lazy GIF secret.  Any of you can do this.  It involves Awesome and Google+.  See, Google now has this system called “Awesome”.  (How awesome is that?)  If you take at least 5 photos within 10 seconds and then upload them to Google+, “Awesome” will automatically turn it into a GIF for you.  You only have to take the photos.  Bam. GIF.  AWESOME!

How to Create a GIF in Google+

For the photos above, Nate shot in continuous mode with the DSLR.  For the photo below, I just snapped a bunch of photos.  Either way will work.  The continuous mode is obviously a little more fluid.  But I also like the animated effect on the one below.

How to Create a GIF in Google+

That’s it.  Super simple.

Feel free to follow me on Google+.  I’ve been using it for the past few months and I really like it.  Like want to kick bookface to the curb like it.  A lot.  bookface doesn’t have an Awesome system.  And they like to only show my posts to a certain percentage of readers.  Lame.  Google+ for the win.  #teamgoogle

Are you using Google+?  Did you know about Awesome and GIFs?  Who is going to create their very own GIF right now?  Or maybe this weekend?