Disaster Strikes

And it's always when you least expect it, isn't it?

On Saturday I was washing dishes at the sink in the kitchen while Tom was studying in the living room.

And I felt a few drops of water drip onto my toes.

Thinking I had gotten overzealous in my dish-washing endeavour, I searched the countertop area surrounding the sink looking for the culprit puddle of water that I was sure would be there.

But there wasn't one. That countertop was dry as a bone.

Panic mounting and my heart in my throat, I opened the cabinet doors under the sink...

Water. Was. EVERYWHERE!

It came gushing out the moment I opened the doors like a giant waterfall with plastic bags and cleaning supplies floating in it like little toy boats.

Not. Good.

As Tom later told me, all he heard me saying at this point in time during the crisis was "Oh honey, oh honey, oh honey!" Apparently I was so overwhelmed I could not get a coherent sentence out for the life of me.

Tom asked, "What?! What's wrong?!"

All I yelled was, "Water!!!!"

Without another word I shut off the faucet and sprinted down to the basement to grab an armful of our "rag" towels to soak up the area of our kitchen currently acting as a lake when Tom walked into the kitchen and finally realized what was going on. Nothing like only being able to spit out one-word answers during a crisis, huh?

When I got back upstairs armed with a boatload (pun intended) of towels Tom had taken out the remaining items left inside the cabinet and was inspecting the plumbing.

The  brand new plumbing we had just installed about a year ago. Crikey.

This is a photo of the old plumbing before we replaced it..

Turns out there was a piece of pipe that we didn't replace and was really too short, and while it worked just fine to begin with, over the course of a year the daily use and shaking of the garbage disposal slowly loosened the pipe fittings and it slowly worked it's way out of the pipe it was connected to, creating a gap and ending with - you guessed it - a lovely waterfall in our kitchen. Which, looking back, we recalled finding that exact same piece of pipe with the same problem - loose and about to fall out, back when we removed the sink and plumbing to DIY our granite tile countertops. You'd have thought that would've clued us in, huh?

 

 The current plumbing (please excuse the bad lighting and nasty cabinet interior. Gross.

So instead of doing the planned studying/random DIY project combo this past Saturday, we spent the day at the hardware store and working under the sink to correct the problem. Because while we really do enjoy waterfalls, we don't quite enjoy them in our kitchen, thankyouverymuch.

And since the problem was our own fault to begin with (by not replacing a piece that should've been replaced), we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

So we let this serve as a true-life lesson: that while we do tackle everything as professionally and correctly as possible, the fact remains that we're not professionals, just amateur DIYers with a passion for remodeling and learning.

And that not everything has a happy ending round these parts.

Although we are certainly crossing our fingers that this time around the plumbing stays put and we do have a true happy ending in this case!

Anyone else detest plumbing? Do you have any DIY disasters to share? Surely we're not the only ones!

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Final Rail Reveal

We last left off where we had planned our attack, scrubbed the rail, sanded, primed, and finally we were ready to paint!

After about 3 hours of priming and we were ready for the final coat of paint - Rustoleum's Brown Leather Enamel. I decided to go with brown for the rail (even though you don't often see brown wrought-iron railings) for several reasons:

1) The major theme of the exterior of our house is brown. The roof, trim, shutters, and even the mailbox is brown!
2) Brown should hide any dirt and future rust really well until it's time to refinish again.
3) C'mon - who doesn't like brown?

So brown it was, and after 3 hours of painting, we had our beautiful new-ish brown porch railing!

Exciting, right? It got even better when we took off the painter's tape, moved the furniture and plants back, and snapped some photos the next day!

We LOVE the shiny new rail! (look ma - no pits or rust!) And the color makes the rail blend in a little rather than stick out like a sore thumb like the previously-painted black did, which is a total win-win in our book. Yay for color cohesion!

A couple things we don't like about the color, however, is that now it seems to look a little funny against the light blue/gray painted cement floor of the porch.

Which is a little annoying now, but we have plans to repaint the porch floor a light brown/beige in the future, so then it should fit right in.

Another thing that really irks us now? Our house has a bit of brown-overload at the moment! Everything is either brown or white! (well, besides the annoyingly blue/gray porch). But that's okay - we won't have to live in a Browned-Out House for long: we have plans to REALLY change up the exterior of our house this summer, and then the color scheme will finally make sense! So no worries: we've got a plan, man!

Ready for the cost breakdown of our little Rail Revival Project?

1 can Rustoleum Primer Paint: $10
1 can Rustoleum Paint: $10
1 cheap paint brush: $4
1 oddly-shaped 80 grit sandpaper block: $4

Other supplies (electric hand sander, masks, brushes, mineral spirits): on hand
                                 

TOTAL COST: $28

Less than $30 bucks for a new rail! Not bad, right? Admittedly it cost much more when you think in terms of man-hours (a total of about 16 hours), but since we did everything right and by-the-book with any luck this new paint job should still be looking great 20 years from now - which makes us absolutely giddy with joy! (we REALLY don't want to paint this thing again anytime soon!)

Here's a breakdown of all the steps we took (with links to the appropriate post), incase you're thinking of tackling your own wrought-iron-something-or-other:

1) Use a wire brush to get all the flaking paint off (along with any clumps or drips of dried paint).
2) Sand, sand sand.
3) Prime with a rust-stopping primer.
4) And finally paint.

And what's a finished project without a good before and after?

BEFORE (1 year ago)

NOW

Lookin' a bit better, right? (and just ignore those yellow flags in our yard... like we said, we have plans, man!).


So that wraps it up for our Rail-y Rave Rail Revival (pretty sweet alliteration, am I right?). What do you think? Any of you ready to revive your own wrought-iron fenches/railings?

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Gettin' Rail

This past Saturday dawned sunny and beautiful, with temperatures in the 80's and only 5 mph wind.

Hallelujah! It was perrrfect weather for painting!

First we filled a bucket with water and a drop of dish soap and grabbed an old towel and washed off the rail.

Then Tom fixed and secured our wobbly spiral decorative things.

And since we're not the most careful painters ever, we taped around the posts and under the rail to help prevent paint from getting on the cement.

Then we busted out the paint brushes and heavy-duty Rustoleum Heavy Rust Primer and gave the lovely rail a beautiful coat of primer. This stuff is oil-based and hardcore, folks. It's for seriously rusted metal, which I suppose our wrought iron rail wasn't really heavily rusted, but we got it because it's supposed to halt rust in his tracks - and I just can't argue with that!

So we slathered it on. Yep, that stuff is pretty goopy (but isn't all oil-based primer?) and stinks to high-heaven (no worries, Ms. Preggo wore a gas mask again!), but it should provide a very solid barrier to rust while helping the paint stick even better. Can't argue with that! And I love that it was already tinted "Rust Brown" (which is actually more a Red-Brown color), because it really helped us picture what the rail would look like after the final coat.

What do you think? It's looking better already with just a coat of primer, isn't it? Stay tuned for tomorrow's final reveal, where we'll also dish about exactly how long it took and the total cost!

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How To Get Candle Wax Out of Carpet

We threw a little party in our basement for New Years, and had a grand ole' time with a bunch of our close friends. Our basement is the perfect hangout spot, and we often find ourselves gravitating down there when guests come over. It also doesn't hurt that we have surround sound, a big comfy sectional, the tv, and, of course, the bar.

You might remember that we hung up some wall sconces on either side of our tv awhile back.

Um, they're pretty frickin' awesome, if I do say so myself.

We've spent many a night watching some sweet flicks and playing some intense video games down there, lounging on the sofa with the lights off and just the candles in the sconces lit. Like when we watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy? I totally felt like we were right there in the Mines of Moria with the fellowship.

{via}

We just love our sconces.

Until one drips wax onto the carpet.

Just ignore the hanging cords and the scuffs on the white wood, mmkay?

Let's just say that we were upset (which would be an understatement), thinking that we would never ever be able to get that wax out of our beautiful carpet!

Boy we were wrong!

Thank goodness that a little research revealed that alas, there IS a way to get candle wax out of carpet easily and completely! (and cheaply, too!)

How To Get Candle Wax Out of Carpet

1) Gather your supplies. I used:

- An iron
- Paper bags or paper towels (we've heard that paper bags work better, though)
- A butter knife

2) If there's alot of candle wax buildup on the carpet, try to get any large chunks out by carefully using the butter knife. Be very cautious when doing this, however, because you don't want to damage the carpet fibers!

3) Once any large buildups of wax have been gently pried off, use a vacuum to suck up the chunks.

4) Now comes the fun part! Plug in your iron and set it to the lowest setting, on no steam.

5) Gather up your paper bags (I used the ones that our groceries came in from Whole Foods) and cut them up into more manageable flat pieces. Place a flat paper bag piece over the wax area.

6) Take the iron and iron on the paper bag, being careful to keep it constantly moving to keep from burning your carpet - because that might even be worse than the wax! (Note: Certain types of carpet might be more prone to burning - and using a paper towel might also tend to result more in burning - so do this at your own risk!)

7) You will notice that as the iron heats the wax, the paper bag absorbs it - which results in it lifting it out of your carpet! If it's taking awhile to heat the wax, slowly increase the heat on the iron - but not too much, because remember - the goal is to get the wax out without burning a hole in the carpet! I ended up (with the paper bags being so thick) with the iron setting on "Synthetic Fibers", and that worked wonderfully.

The wax is going away! Hurray!

8) Switch out the paper bags as necessary - once the bag is mostly full of dark oil stains, just switch it out for a new one.

9) Once the wax is all gone, vacuum the spot and you're done! Totally easy, right?

Yup, you can't even tell that there was any wax there to begin with - and it feels just like normal carpet, too! It's as good as new.

And - you can also use this trick on the walls, as well!

Yup, I just LOVE a solution to a sticky problem such as this! Especially a solution that costs nothing, is super easy, and only takes an hour of my time! What a lifesaver!

Let me just say that Tom couldn't believe his eye when we came home and I showed him the floor!

What do you think? Have you ever had to deal with a candle wax + spill + carpet problem? How did you handle it? Have you ever used the iron method before - and if you did, what did you use with it (paper towel, paper bag, towel)? We've love to hear your thoughts!

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Get Your Glasses Glistening

We've recently run into a problem that slowly creeped up on us: we realized that all of our glasses had a white milky film on them. We tried scrubbing, soaking, and running the dishwasher multiple times at high heat with more dishwashing detergent, in futile attempts to get the film off. Every time we tried something new, the film seemed to get even worse! It seemed like nothing could be done for our poor glasses.

Just when we thought the glasses were a lost cause (and even purchased new ones!), we hopped online and read a household tip that vinegar might do the trick. So, we decided to give it a shot!

We bought white wine vinegar at the grocery store  for $3 (but we're sure you could use regular vinegar), and grabbed our worst filmy glass for the test run.

Look at all that nasty white film! Gross, huh?

Then we grabbed a large mixing bowl and poured enough vinegar to fill it up and completely submerge the glass. We only ended up using about 1/4 of the bottle.

Then we just set the glass in the bowl of vinegar, making sure every part of the glass was covered.

Then we waited about 30 minutes before removing the glass and rinsing it off with water.

And I must say, we were impressed!

That glass hasn't looked that good since the day we bought it! The vinegar completely removed all the soap scum and filmy stuff that even a good ole' scrub-down from Tom couldn't remove. And I gotta say - letting the glass soak in the vinegar was boatloads easier than scrubbing it!

Over the course of a few days, we managed to soak all of our glasses in the vinegar, and each and every one came out sparkling. Then we just tossed them in the dishwasher to get the vinegar remnants off, and they were good to go. We've read that you can even pour a little vinegar in your dishwasher before it runs to achieve the same effect, but we figured since our glasses were in pretty bad shape they probably needed a good soaking. Plus, seeing the before and after in action was incredibly satisfying, as well!

Of course, now that our glasses are back to their like-new status, we'll be careful to take precautions to avoid this mishap in the future. A little research revealed that there are several ways that this problem can occur: not using a drying aid in the dishwasher, using too much detergent, having hard water, the water temperature is too hot/cold for the dishwasher cycle, and many others. We figured ours happened because of a combination of all three of the first reasons, and we've since loaded up on drying aid and been careful with the amount of detergent we place in the dishwasher, and so far we thankfully haven't run into a repeat - all our glasses have stayed crystal clear.

What do you do to get your glasses sparkling?  Have you ever had this same problem? Do you have any other household tips to keep a casa tidy? Let's swap cleaning tips (we could always use some!).

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