Tears have never worked for me. I always get told to look it up and do it yourself. That's how this wall came about... 6 months of drywalling and sanding. My dad gave it a B+...

I hope your brother can help you out. I was thinking 2 pendants would look good in that space.

Robin -- your dad sounds JUST LIKE MINE! You did that? I am SERIOUSLY impressed!

I think that wall is fabulous! Do not get me started on dads, please!

I think it deserves at least an A- given this was my first major project in my house. Before photos...

Well..the road to hell is paved with good intentions.. too lazy to cook..goodbye homemade french onion soup, hello soggy Kentucky Fried Chicken!! Almost brought it back and asked..."Is extra crispy now called extra soggy?"!!

And this is the after from the living room. (The flooring will hopefully be changed soon)

Ok, that's it, you're hired! You can come over any time you want, I'll be here :))

Check out this youtube video on how to screen in your porch. I WANT THIS. I am so tired of being chased around the patio by bees and moths and every other kind of bug:

It really doesn't look that hard, what do you think?

At least A-. Great job! Problem with my dad was for as much as he taught me, he left me without some valuable skills, like how to safely use power tools. He would never let me use the saw because he was afraid I'd get hurt and he'd never forgive himself. The argument "teach me so I'll know..." didn't work.

I've since taught myself and I'm not afraid to try to do things, and I'll always research the "hows" before I start. I'm also smart enough to know when something is beyond the scope of what I'm willing to tackle and do correctly. But I must say -- there is a LOT of satisfaction in being able to do most things for myself.

My dad was the same way until he saw me at work doing a vehicle extrication with a bloody patient one day. I think that was the moment he realized his baby wasn't so much if a baby anymore. He then got me a tablesaw for my housewarming. Lol!

And Bobbi... If its warmer where you are, I'll be there next week.

And Jayme... my stomach churns for you. Yuck.

Ahhh... so if I can show him I can handle the "Jaws of Life", maybe...maybe I'll just get that mitre saw I've always wanted!

I want a miter saw too! And a band saw. Robin, come on in! Right now it's 88F in my backyard!

Hahaha!!! Maybe!

I really want a band saw... but truthfully, I don't have a good setup yet for the miter and table saws so I'm going to have to wait until I get the garage sorted out. I did all my main floor laminate with the saws set up in my back yard.

I asked for a mitre saw for years for Christmas. One year, I got it. It looked like this:

Miter saw. Miter box. Close, right?

You're kidding, right? Ok, well, that's not the one I want :))

Nope. Not kidding. And my mother... bless her heart... gave me this: (this exactly):

OMG Kimdee! How on earth did you keep a straight face? How can anyone take that seriously? That's.....adorable!

That's sweet of her. It does have quite a few handy tools in there. And it's a fantastic carrying case for the whole thing.

This year when R asks me what I want for Christmas, I'm going to tell him to ask me what I don't want, the list is shorter.

I know, right? It was all I could do. I kept the little pink hammer (good for picture hanging), the tape measure, the needle nosed pliers and the level. Then I went out and bought myself a complete set of quality screwdrivers, pliers and other assorted items, and a proper container to put it all in.

It WAS sweet of her, yes. But totally not what I had in mind.

Kimdee - REGIFT!

EZ, I don't think shower curtain rods are expensive, however, they do sell sleeves for the rods that are much cheaper. You could look into this, possibly online?

@eztia -- that MIGHT work.. but the mirror will still be too tall for the space.

The more I think about it, I think the answer is to get the electrician out and have him take out the wall box and install an overhead box for a pendant light. I think it will look nicer too. Then all I have to do is patch the sheetrock. Easy peasy. And what, a couple hundred for the electrician?

This powder room is becoming a monster!

My dad showed up last year around Christmas with 2 cordless drills, an impact driver, cordless reciprocating saw and cordless skilsaw - he wasn't using them so I got them. I love having a carpenter in the family.

@eztia - most anything can be painted as long as its prepped properly.

@kimdee. Best wishes on your project!

Kimdee, it's called the snowball effect :))

Ez, they may sell a faux chrome rod sleeve, I'd have to look. What is under the white sleeve you have now?

Thanks, eztia! I wish I could come help you with some of the stuff around your place, though.

Eeew, skunk smell, narsty.

Aw eztia... I feel for you! Was racking my brain trying to come up with stuff to help you out. We have a few clients with MS who call us regularly for lift assists and I was trying to envision their homes and what modifications they had made to make their lives easier. Next time I go to their houses I promise to take notes and ask more questions for you!!

But I can't help with the skunk. Sorry

Good lord, I cannot win today. I didn't get the right burger that I ordered at McDonalds either. LOL!!

Did you at least pick up some cake?

No! Crud. But I bought an apple pie at McDees. And a coke.

Apple pie even sounds good right about now. Hmm... I do have to go out to move my truck...

Hot fudge. Ooey, gooey hot fudge. Doesn't even need ice cream, or cake or anything but a spoon. Just dip it in and gooey it out. Oh yum.

Lava cake. With ice cream.

Here's a dilemma...

Putting in plug in under cabinet Ikea LED puck lights. I have enough extra cord to stretch clear across the house. There's also the issue of the switch being midway down the power cord. How can I hide all this extra cord while still having access to the switch?

Hmm. I did that in my last house. I put the switch part of the cord up underneath the cabinet, and bundled up the wall cord, and just left enough to reach the outlet. Does that help? I had to reach under the light bar trim to turn it on, but at least I didn't have tons of extra cord at the outlet.

From the transformer to the switch on the power cord is 51" then from the switch to the actual plug in is 78"

Maybe just came up with a solution. Maybe.

Let me know how it turns out!

I'm playing with electricity tomorrow!!! Yay!!!

LOL! You go, girl!

Holy crap, it's 10pm. I got all wrapped up in my mirror drama and I still have an ad to build for morning. Yeesh.

Is your hair curly already?

Only slightly... but that may have been from giving myself a little buzz installing my hood fan the other day.

Safety first!

I succumbed to the desire for a chocolate malt today ...then paid the price by feeling chilled until my heating thermostat kicked on for the evening warmup. The house we just bought is a couple of blocks from a DQ and they do half price drinks and shakes/malts in the afternoon so I stopped on my way home from an early quit day

Another cold, wet and miserable day here but yesterday was a beautiful day. Official records in Chicago are now a record for amount of rain in April...and we still have another week to add more. We've had about 8 and a half inches and the rivers are flooded. My neighbors had a dumpster delivered and a couple of Servpro vehicles there today so I think they must have gotten flooded over the weekend. Supposedly, weather pattern for the weekend is drier with temps into the 60s so maybe we can dry out a bit.

My brother in north central Kansas said he had two inches of snow this morning...more crazy weather

Spring is late coming for a lot of places, it seems. Mmm. Chocolate malt! Off to bed with me I guess. I shouldn't be working so late when I can't see or think straight.

Nighty night to all.