Condo Blues: July 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013

18 Examples of Nautical and Lake Design Style

I'm missing boating and Lake Erie living which is crazy tunes because as soon as you could say, "graduation" I packed my bags and ran screaming from my small nautical home town on Lake Erie. The running joke is everyone in that town is rich and has a boat because of the large small boat harbors downtown and in the neighborhoods near the lake that have boat docks in their backyards. This  isn't entirely true because if you look at the registries on those boats most of them are registered to Cleveland addresses.


The town started as a fishing village and that infulence influence is everywhere. Boat anchors, lighthouses, fishing nets, floats, and the like are so common in garden and home decor it is practically a city ordinance.

I didn't know bathrooms weren't all nautical or beach themed until I moved away. True story.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Craft Room Remodel: Painting Damaged Walls

When the cat's away, this little mouse drags her tools out to play.

While Husband was out of town on a business trip, I painted the guest room/craft room. Good times!


Of course, I want to live in a bright crayon box. Why do you ask?


I'm a wild woman. This is how I party it up when Husband is out of town.

First, I had to unload the room. I ended up stashing stuff in every.single. room.of.the.house.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

How to Clean Dog Urine from Carpet and Keep Your Dog from Peeing on the Carpet Again

Lacey piddles, poos, or sometimes vomits when she gets anxious or has a doggie panic attack. Building Lacey’s confidence with our behaviorist will take time and we are ready to take as much time as Lacey needs to conquer her fear demons.

In the meantime, I’m cleaning pet carpet stains and removing dog urine marks on my carpet in a way that the dog doesn't urine mark that spot again.

Hey everyone! Look what I did!



Of course once I take care of one area, Lacey thwarts me and uses a different part of the house the next time she gets upset and we start this song and dance all over again. And again. And again.

I'm an expert on cleaning dog pee, dog poo, and dog vomit from floors and carpeting - be jealous.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Recycled Bottle Suncatchers

"We have too much stuff in this garage!" Husband said as he navigated past my box of empty wine bottles in the garage. I haven't done anything clever with my impromptu bottle collection and the statue of limitations was up. I figured my next rainy day project would be clearing them out of the garage.

But before I could say "recycling bin" DecorArt sent me a very generous assortment of Americana glass paints and reusable stencils. Seriously, like the day after Husband and I had that conversation. Freaky.

I cut the bottoms off the empty flat bottomed bottles, stenciled them, and made recycled glass bottle sun catchers.
  

painted glass bottle suncatcher



How to Make a Painted Bottle Sun Catcher


Sunday, July 14, 2013

How to Make and Hang Wood Fruit Crate Shelves

The new floor plan and stuff switcheroo for the guest room/craft room leaves me with two vintage wooden fruit crates that won't fit in the room with the new plan.

Yay!

I want a new place to stash this stuff and allow my linen closet to hold linens again. Crazy town, I know.

I have a big boring wall above the toilet in the guest bathroom...



I have two crates and three 2013 DIY Goals: create storage, use what I have first before buying materials, and add personality to the guest bathroom...

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Easy Blog Conference T Shirt

Summer is blog conference season. Yippie for meeting on line friends in person and networking and learning how to be a better blogger!

Not so yippie in trying to find your on line friends in the crowd and making sure they can find you. Last year at Blogher12 Laura from Pet Scribbles and I kept missing each other all day every day of the conference although Margaret from Nanny Goats and Panties and I always seem to find each other each year. Do you know why? Because Margaret is as smart as she is funny. Margaret wears a shirt with her blog name on it.

My new Condo Blues t shirt! I'll get to the kooky color hair in a minute.

While I'm a DIYer all the way, most of the DIY t shirt options are not as professional looking as I want when I'm advertising my blogs.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

House Tour: The Ohio State House

Follow my blog with Bloglovin Husband and I took a tour of the Ohio Statehouse with visiting German friends. While the ornament style isn't something I consider my personal decorating style and architecture but it is impressive. Especially when you consider they build the Ohio Statehouse before the Civil War. In fact, Abraham Lincoln visited the Ohio Statehouse when he campaigned for President! (which they mention eleventy billion times on the tour.)

Let's get inspired!

There is a surprising amount of natural light in the statehouse via skylights. You can tell the architect and designer took pride in their work and wanted to build a grand building for the ages. This domed painted ceiling and windows are one example.

That is gold gilding paint around the windows. All of the lighting is original to the building. 

While I think the gold damask is a little busy for a typical home, it is an excellent example of paint on architecture. They beefed up the look of these otherwise plain windows with a stencil and paint instead of framing the windows with costly molding.

This is the Ohio Senate Chamber. Again, the lighting is original but updated from gas to electric. The carpeting is the same pattern as the original. They have it on file and the company that made the original is still in business.