Refinishing Our Hardwood Floors

Busy weekend....we completely refinished the hardwoods in our living room! Well, we kind of cheated a bit. You see, our hardwoods were on there last legs. We were this close to covering them in laminate and calling it done. But we wanted to try one more time to see if we could get them presentable. I think you're always better off leaving original hardwoods when you can; it's just something buyers seem to look for.

I'm not saying that this is the right way to do this, it was simply a last ditch effort that payed of surprisingly well. YMMV.

You can tell that hardwoods were in pretty miserable shape:

Sanding the floors down wasn't an option for us due to time constraints and allergies. So, we rented a professional floor cleaner from Home Depot (which was surprisingly affordable) and used a solution of water, Murphy Oil Soap, and a little Bon Ami as our cleaning agent. Once the water had time to sit a bit, the wax came off pretty easily. We purchased the red scrubby pad you see there. Evidently, different colors correspond to different "grits" and frankly, I wish we'd used a bit tougher one. But, better to err on the side of caution than wind up with scratches.

A good cleaning worked absolute wonders...you can already tell how much better the floors looked after just a few passes with the machine. Once they were fully scrubbed, there were quite a few areas where most of the original varnish was worn off. Which I am fairly sure is the only reason we got away with this next step:

After letting the floors thoroughly dry, we applied a coat of Daly's Walnut Stain to floor, using lint free cloths to give the finish a hand rubbed look.

We allowed the stain to dry overnight, than applied Daly's CrystalFin in semigloss. We used a large mop-head like applicator sponge to apply it, making sure to keep a wet edge:

We bought these products at our local Benjamin Moore. They're made in Seattle and are much less toxic than a lot of what is commercially available.  They aren't the cheapest, but avoiding chemicals that may or may not cause cancer is worth it to me. Plus, you can really smell the linseed in their products, which I think is cool. Yes, I'm odd.

Here's what we got:

So much prettier than what we started with and not bad for a weekends' worth of work. Want to see what the house looked like after we moved all the furniture out of the area? We put the dining table, china hutch, mand a few other construction sundries in the kitchen:

Stacked miscellaneous crap in front of the fireplace, since it has a slate hearth:

Put both couches and media table in our master bedroom:

And even stuck some of the kids' toys in the entry way:

The good news is that after wading through so much stacked stuff, I got off my butt and took three very full boxes to Goodwill this afternoon. We almost have our house back to normal, too. In the end, it was so worth the mess.

Another before:

And after:

Best of Pinterest- My Top Ten Pins

Without further ado...10 pins that made me smile or want to take it home with me: Hipster French Bulldog I want the husband to paint this...it could live in the kitchen, or even the kiddos' room.

Source: etsy.com via Anaika on Pinterest

Molding as attractive and cheap closet organization:

Source: bluevelvetchair.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Fun snack for the kids:

Source: princessandthefrogblog.blogspot.com via Joanne on Pinterest

A very fun and girly riff on Union Jack:

Source: sheridanfrench.blogspot.com 

 If we ever have a dedicated guest room again, I plan to make this bed platform. I love that something made from pallets and dressed in a hodgepodge of linens can look so amazing. I also want those white floors! If we were in our "forever" house, I'd have our hardwoods painted in an instant.

Source: stilinspiration.blogspot.com.es via Anaika on Pinterest

Brilliant- actually washing the clothes where they wind up. Hopefully this becomes standard in homes someday!

Source: roomzaar.com via Anaika on Pinterest

With everything we've got going on right now, this looks like Heaven....just enough grass for the dogs:

Source: greenstreetblog.blogspot.com via Anaika on Pinterest

Eventually going to try to find a way to weatherproof this idea- wouldn't it look awesome hanging on a covered porch?

Source: repinly.com via Anaika on Pinterest

Coral and Taupe:

Source: gracioushome.com via Anaika on Pinterest

And a very random, possible Halloween costume for Ms. Toddler and Mr. Baby:

Source: beautifullyanonymous.tumblr.com via Anaika on Pinterest

Happy Thursday!

(Almost) Free Art and Mantel Decor

Awhile ago, I shared a really great site for free art printables. It's no secret I've never gotten our mantel looking just right, but that is all about to change. I found some great sea life art on NYPL's site. You can click here to see the images- I chose 6 of my favorites, planning to make a 2x3 collage over the mantel. Here's my favorite of the bunch:

You can tell they're images from a book. At the top of each image is a print button-I clicked that, then right clicked the image to save to my desktop. From there, I imported each image into Picasa. It's free and you can get it here if you need photo editing capabilities. I cropped out the really dark edges-didn't want to waste all that ink!!!! From there: click "File," then "Print." Choose "Full Page" and click the print button on the lower right side, under the image.

With all 6 images printed, the only thing left was to find 6 inexpensive frames for them. A quick trip to Dollar Tree fixed that. I just got plain old document frames with hangers on the back.

If you look closely, you can actually see my reflection in the frame. Not the best, sorry. We're re-doing the flooring in the kitchen and I just had a couple of seconds before I needed to get back to it. I had originally planned to arrange my art over the mantel in a 2x3 collage, but decided to experiment with staggering them as well. We ultimately settled on a configuration that required 7 pieces, so I printed out another sheet and bought one more frame from the dollar store.  We scored a raku-style ceramic vase from Target for about 5 bucks, marked down from 17.99:

And yet again, the picture quality sucks, but I want you to know that I'm not fudging the cost...it's one thing to say that something was "inexpensive" but that can mean different things to different people!

 Then, we added a couple of candle sticks to complete the look, and there you have it. I tried to keep everything "centered" since we have a ridiculously long mantel. i was hopeful that I could visually shorten it up. I love how the sea life art turned out- the husband declared it Pottery Barn-esque- and best of all I'm only into the mantel decor about 13 bucks, so I'm not exactly locked into it.

I love that the reddish brown in the shells compliment our uber-cheap curtains...

Here's the 5 buck vase-love!- and some coral I got from my dad a million years ago...he used to be a professional diver and I've swiped borrowed some really cool ocean-findings from him over the years.

 There was no eliminating all of the glare on the frames in our *lovely* hazy weather, but I hope the pics are good enough to give you the gist- enjoy!

Summer Mantel Decor

With our own mantel decor revamp underway for summer, I thought I'd share some of the mantels that inspired me to make a change. Maybe it's the fact that we've lived in a state with minimal sunshine for several years, but I am really loving the bright whites lately...and the less cluttered, the better. The older I get, the less stuff I want to have to deal with!

Minimal and perfect:

Source: doorsixteen.com via sfgirlbybay / victoria on Pinterest

I'd probably choose a painting that had a bit more color to it, but it would be easy and inexpensive to recreate this mossy/beachy look:

                                   Source: simplifiedbee.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest 

I absolutely love this...so simple and traditional, but if you look closely, there is a bright yellow Buddha perched to the right of the mirror. I would have never thought of stacking hardcover books inside of a fireplace, but they've pulled it off beautifully:

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Sarah on Pinterest


Do you see the blue swirl vases to the right? You can read Centsational Girl's tutorial for those here
Can't wait to try it with some of the old glassware we have laying around! 

   

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

We should have pics of our own mantel to show off soon. And the best part? It cost us less than 15 bucks!

#1: Getting Paid Creatively

This is the last of my 10 money saving strategies- we'll get back to the home reno stuff very soon!

I find that a lot of people are just so obsessed with how much money they can make. Which is good, to a point. (there's nothing wrong with being rich and don't ever let anyone tell you there is!) But the most important part of your salary isn't how much you make, it's how much you can keep and how far you can stretch what you've got.

I'd highly recommend that you have a good CPA or financial planner, or both in your life. Figure out what you can hang on to and what you're gonna need later. That will put you so far ahead of the game.

Because of the way that the military is paid, only a portion of our income is taxable, which is a pretty sweet deal. If I were to go out and get a "real" job with a "real" salary, I'd push us into the next highest tax bracket and actually cost us money by working and having to put the kids in daycare.

I do work, and I do get paid- here's how: I do several different things...I sometimes write web copy for a company out of Las Vegas...most notably, a very cheesy catalog description of a black bikini ;) I take surveys, I test new products before they're released, and I refinish and sell furniture. I do focus groups- and there's something really satisfying about telling someone their commercial sucks before it airs!!! It isn't mortgage money, but on the worst month, it still pays for diapers. Sometimes I even make enough that it pays all of the bills associated with our munchkins. I once got a Wolfgang Puck multi-cooker in exchange for testing out certain recipes and writing a review. The thing retails for 249.00 and our crock pot was on the fritz, so that was awesome! Most web-based companies (textbroker, surveyhead, valuedopinions, opinionoutpost) offer several different formats of payment. I will take a certain portion of my earnings in cash, some in Macy's gift cards (free/cheap way to clothe everyone) and some in Amazon promo codes. If we're honest, most of us can be a little cavalier with cash, which is why I like having the promo codes and the gift cards. When I get the Macy's cards, I stick them in a drawer until there's a sale, then whomever needs clothes gets to use them. It works well for us. Again, our system isn't going to work for everyone, but finding that sweet spot where you make enough to cover your needs and most of your wants without having to pay taxes on it is a nice place to be.

If you check out any of the websites I've listed, you'll probably think, "wow, the pay sucks!" And that is partially true. It took about a year of doing the crappy paying stuff before I started to get the better jobs, so YMMV. If none of this is practical for your situation, I highly recommend falling back on the barter system- again, it isn't what you make, it's what you keep!

So there you have it- the 10 ways we have all that we have on the salary we have. Hope some of my strategies work to keep just a bit more of your money in your pockets :)

#2:Daily Deal Sites

This is going to be a quick post without many pictures- our little girl is turning 2 tomorrow and I have cupcakes to bake!!!!

My favorite daily deal site is probably Groupon. If you aren't signed up, you should be! They're fantastic for getting super deals on family outings and restaurant discounts. They also periodically email promo codes worth  $5 or $10. Our first ever Groupon was for tickets to the Seattle Aquarium.The kids would have gotten in free, but each adult admission costs $19.95. Groupon had them for just $10 each AND I had a $10 promo code, which effectively made our tickets 5 bucks apiece! We felt pretty bad for the couple in front of us....they wound up forking over more than 100 bucks to get themselves, their kids, and their friends in. It was an awesome outing, though. Ms. Toddler kept saying, "wow!" and at the end, she got to pick a stuffed animal from the gift shop, which made her day.

The deals are time-sensitive: you have to buy it when you can buy it, but the expiration dates are fairly long, so we've never had an issue getting to use them. My most recent score was an all day pass to Vertical World, including shoe rental for 3 bucks, which made for a really cheap and awesome father's day gift. If you're looking for dining discounts, try GrouponNow, but be warned, most have to be used the same day they are purchased.

Other sites to try: LivingSocial and Saveology

 For upper end clothing, I really like MyHabit. It's owned by Amazon, so if you have an Amazon gift card you can use it there. Shipping is always free and new events begin daily at 9 am PST. When the site first launched, I was lucky enough to get a promo code for $25 dollars, which I turned into free shoes for the husband.

For home furnishings, OneKingsLane. I've seen everything from OXO kitchen tools for cheap to Frette linens.

And while this isn't a daily deal site, if you're going to eat out, I'd highly recommend a trip to Restaurant.com They offer discount gift certificates in several denominations depending upon the restaurant. Typically, you'll pay $4 for a $10 certificate, $6 for $15, and $10 for $25. Minimum checks do apply, so it's helpful if you know what you typically spend at the restaurant you're purchasing for. Remember to go through Ebates! I paid 3 dollars and change for our last $10 certificate.

Next and Last: My #1 Tip for Cheap Living...Getting Paid Creatively (relax, it's perfectly legal!)

#4 Trade, Swap, Barter and Mooch

Well, no not mooch.

Actually, I think this post could be easily summed up in one word: cooperation. Cooperating is something that I think our grandparent's generation did really, really well. Ours, not so much. I think the economic constraints of WWII probably had a lot to do with that. Most families wouldn't have had a ton of cash, but most of them would have had a garden or been skilled enough at a trade to barter their services. And if our economy doesn't pick up soon, I feel pretty secure in saying that a lot more people are going to turn to bartering to help provide for their families. Everything comes full circle, I guess.

We swap everything from produce to clothes to coupons. And if we really trust them, we even let them borrow power tools. ;)

The list goes on and on. And you might be shocked how many people are willing to work for beer. There's nothing crazy or earth-shattering about #4, but it works.

#3 Get off your butt Do it Yourself

Despite all of our crazy home improvement project, I would have to say that my nuttiest DIY adventure was mowing our 3 (totally unlevel!) lots while 41 weeks pregnant with our daughter. Not my brightest move ever. But, that actually brings me to a point about doing it yourself. We actually talked about hiring a lawn service during the 3rd trimester. You see, my husband is quite literally allergic too grass. Not all grass, just the kind that grows in the Northwest. Which is where we live. It would have cost us $35 per week to have a lawn service come in and just do the basic mowing. Even in this part of the country, we mow from April to October, roughly 28 weeks per year. That's almost $1,000. And I am way too cheap for that. That's a small(er) DIY saving.

Here's a huge one: our master bath.

Depending upon which contractor we'd gone with, we would have shelled out between 30k-35k more, and that's just for the slate tub. The sink console I wanted was Pottery Barn and in the thousands. But we found a great old sideboard at a thrift store and modified it ourselves. We got the same look I wanted, but for $300 bucks.

 By doing the work ourselves, albeit slowly, we simply paid for the cost of materials and the tools we needed for the project. We mostly worked on it on the weekends and there were times that we took baths in rubbermaid storage tubs. Go ahead, you can laugh. It's funny now. It was so worth it to keep all that cash in our pockets. You can see pics of our sink console here and read about the slate tub here. (I actually need to update our bathroom pictures- we've added a lot more molding)

I really prefer that we buy our tools vs. renting them. If you rent them more than 1-2 times, you've basically shelled out the cost of the tool, but without anything to show for it. Even if it's a tool we aren't likely to need again, I'd still rather buy it then sell on Craigslist. Quick disclaimer: I really don't recommend DIYing electricity unless you really know what you're doing. And while the husband has a construction background, he'd never built a custom tub. What he came up with was the result of a lot of reading, how-to video, and trial&error.

Next Post: Money Saving Strategy #2 Daily Deal Sites