We got out dining room sideboard so we would have somewhere to put our wedding presents other than the floor in the second bedroom. It came from a consignment store and just made it home in the back of our Rabbit.
I finally got tiered of the brass handles and updated them to a brushed nickel kind of look. Simple project; over and done in one evening.
And now we know: sometimes a small project is good so you can see immediate results and remind yourself that home reno is fun
At the end of May we are re-doing our bathroom. The water damage is just gross and the rotting of the sub-floor concerns us. So with a small budget, I decided to tackle constructing our own vanity. My husband just shook his head.
Here are the plans I drew up. We are re-using the existing sink which covers the entire top of the vanity:
I started with a large sheet of birch veneer plywood and started cutting with a circular saw. In the end I had to visit my grandfather-in-law and use the table saw to clean up some of the cuts. Wow is that a more efficient tool for cutting this type of thing!
Also, it seemed like a good idea to use wood dowels to assemble the pieces so you wouldn’t seem any screw heads. I thought it would be easy; drill two holes, add some glue and press them together. Well turns out it is hard to line up the holes perfectly without a jig. So we went out and bought a nail gun, the most fun tool ever. After that assembly was a piece of cake.
This is how it currently looks, waiting for stain and serving as a play house for the cat:
And now we know: Nail heads are small and hardly even show after you patch them. (maybe, I think, hopefully) I still don’t know how to get those dowel holes to line up.
As the final step of our closet redesign, we installed a door from the upstairs hall into what used to be the master bedroom closet. This door install went a lot easier than the last 2. It was not a pre-hung door but it is also a lot easier to cut down the height of a slab door.
The inside required some drywall installation and patching, but at this point I am a pro at mudding. The hall and trim still need to be painted, but that is a job for when the windows can be left open. 
And now we know: when you are cutting down the height of a door before installing it, it is just as easy (and cheaper) to buy one NOT pre-hung and assemble it yourself.
And so we replaced it. On a day we were both sore from a Saturday spent installing hardwood for a friend. It only took an hour and it does make a big difference.
And now we know: if one spouse really hates something and the other wants to wait, best to just replace it, I mean the house is just going to suck all your money anyways, so why try to fight it?
Since we are on a tight budget and I enjoy re-finishing projects, when someone offers me furniture I usually take them up on the offer. So when a friend was getting rid of their couch, I was willing to take it off their hands.
Another friend and I drove to Kemptville with my parents Subaru one Sunday to pick it up. It turned out to be slightly too large so my friend disassembled the top piece of the back and we managed to fit it into the car.
Upon returning home, my husband was not happy with me. He was horrified with the state the couch was in and stated that if I wanted to keep it I had to have it covered by next Saturday. (In telling this story to women married longer than me, they always ask; “and you listened?!?”)
So over the course of 6 days I re-upholstered the couch to a state of 95% completion. At the end of the week there was still some hand stitching to do, but he let me keep the couch.
It is good quality; oak frame and down cushions. Very comfortable as well.
And now we know: the husband does not have a lot of vision and does not always appreciate my thrifty ways of furnishing our home. He is usually happy in the end though.
A friend made us a beautiful stained glass window as a wedding present. She was in town for the weekend and installed it for us. It is stunningly beautiful.
The kitchen ceiling fan was on its last legs and needed to be replace. During a long stretch on a Sunday afternoon (4 hours total) we successfully installed a fancy new fan.
At one point during installation, believing the fan to be defective, we went to home depot and purchased a second identical fan. Upon later determining it was our error and not a problem with the fan, we decided to install it in the back room (much faster to install the second time)
