Bulletin Board

This Summer I made a bulletin board for the middle school room at church. I took pictures of the process knowing that this whole blog thing was on my to do list. Yesterday, I was talking with my dad when he asked what my next blog was going to be. I told him it was, "how to make a bulletin board". To which he replied, "can't you just buy a bulletin board?" 

Of course, you can just buy a bulletin board. However, they can be expensive, especially if you need a custom size (like we did). 


Here's what I did. I went to my favorite place . . . .Home Depot.
I bought one 4'x8' sheet of white building board (it's kinda like dry wall) for $15, and four 1"x3", 6' strips of pine for $5 each.


We needed a bulletin board that was 4'x4', so I cut the building board using a box cutter. (BTW - The sharper the blade, the cleaner the cut.)

Then  using a miter box, I cut the ends of each pine strip to a 45 degree angle. 

Then I lined up each pine strip against the building board before marking the opposite end to cut. 

Everything got painted black. (with paint leftover from the kitchen cabinets)

Starting with the strip that was going across the top, I glued, then screwed it into place, making sure it was level.

Then the board was glued and hung with screws before adding the rest of the strips.  

 Here it is. Complete with pictures from Summer camp. 

Thanks for reading! This night owl is going to bed now. 

Painting the Kitchen Cabinets

When we bought our house, this is what the kitchen looked like . . . 

not bad, but definitely not me

One of my decorating philosophies is, "if it doesn't match, paint it!" But, one of my pet peeves about painted cabinets is that you can see the brush strokes. I use spray paint a lot and I had seen a commercial for a new kind of spray paint that I had a feeling would work on cabinets. So off I went to Home Depot (one of my favorite places to be . . . .seriously . . . sometimes I just go and roam aimlessly through the aisles, looking at all the cool stuff they have). I got the spray paint I wanted, did a test patch on the back of one of my cabinet doors, saw that it would work, then went back and bought every can of this paint they had. The best part about using the spray paint is that I didn't have to sand the cabinets before hand, I just started spraying.

I knew I could remove the doors and paint them, but the rest of the cabinet was going to be an issue. So I bought a can of black paint in the satin finish and used an artists brush. It took a long time to do, but you can't see any brush strokes on the cabinets at all. 

The whole process took about a week. The longest part was waiting for the paint to dry. I didn't have a lot of  spray paint space, so I could only do 3 doors at a time. Multiply that by 2 coats each side, with the drying time in between. I wasn't rushed for time, so it didn't really matter. 

I couldn't be happier with the finished product. I am glad that I chose the satin finish, the gloss would have been too shiny. (It looks shinier in the picture than it does in real life.) I love how you can still see the wood grain.

It's been about a year since I finished, and the paint job has held up very well. Every once in a while the paint will get chipped, but I just break out my artists brush and in no time it's back to beautiful. 

I also just redid the backsplash . . . but I'm saving that for another post.

Sink Project

Here goes nothing. . . . . This is one of my all time favorite projects. 2 years ago, my husband took a new job and we moved into a new house. Our new home gave us the ability to entertain large crowds, with that comes a lot of dishes to be washed (my least favorite chore). I soon became dissatisfied with my double sink. (Our previous home had a single basin sink that was huge!) However the sink was Corian and built into the counter top. One day I had the idea that if I found a drop in sink that was large enough, I could cut out the current sink and drop a new sink into the hole. Then I found it! A drop in sink, that would fit the hole that would be left in the counter top, and it was less than $300!!! It was time to get serious. I have a good friend who is a contractor. He looked at the sink and supports, and told me that my idea would actually work! I ordered the sink and studied up on what would have to be done to accomplish my crazy goal. 
Here is a look at the process.

old sink

unhooked the garbage disposal and other pipes
( I found a youtube video about how to
uninstall and reinstall a garbage disposal)

unhooked the faucet (way easier than I thought it would be)

placed the new sink upside down over the existing sink,
then traced around the new sink to mark where to cut

drilled a pilot hole (aka the point of no return)

then came the very dusty process of cutting out the sink,
I used a hard surface blade for my jigsaw

At this point in the cutting process,
I realized that the sink was going to fall
when I was finished cutting.
I was home alone, so I started taping the cut sections
to the counter top as I went along.
The tape held the old sink up long enough
for me to get a good grip and lift it out. 

it's gone!

the dry fit (sorry it's blurry)

installed the faucet (a birthday present from
the same friends who have pestered me
 into this whole blog thing),
and installed the new drain with
plumbers putty for sealing purposes 

ran a bead of caulk around the underside of the sink,
put the sink in place,
 hooked up the hot and cold water,
and reinstalled the garbage disposal
(probably the hardest part of this whole process)

caulked around the edge of the sink and voila!!! 

I love the result of this project! I have been using my new sink for about six months and it works perfectly! The whole process was easier than I thought it would be thanks to youtube, and some patience. This reminds me . . . I need to go do some dishes.