$100 Home Office Makeover: Painting (Day 1)

This is the first post in a series about improving my computer room to serve as a full-time office.

Big news! I was laid off yesterday. It was not a surprise at all, no hard feelings, the company I used to work for was bought by a company a year ago that has struggled to turn a profit on their purchase. A ton of talented, hard-working people were let go. My former employer’s loss is every competitor’s gain!

To celebrate and welcome this change, I am going to give the computer room a major update.

The computer room was hastily painted and set up during our late 2010 move. Not much thought was given to how to best utilize the space and we used the same workstation equipment we used in our apartment (and before that, our Illinois house). Two years later, though, we have a better idea of how we use the room.

Things I want to improve:

  • Jim and I would both like larger work spaces / desks (so we can stop augmenting them with TV trays and bar tables)
  • I would like to not face the window that features blinding sunshine every afternoon
  • Fresh wall color: I think the entrance hall grey would both brighten up and class up the room
  • I would like a permanent location for photographing plush for Etsy / DeviantArt

But here are the catches:

  • Jim and I must be able to see each others’ monitors. No getting up and walking around
  • I do not want to sit with my back to a doorway (perhaps I am a long lost member of House Atreides? Honestly, it just freaks me out.)
  • The bed and its nightstand must stay in this room for now (the walk in junk closet small bedroom simply isn’t ready to become a guest bedroom)
  • Budget: < $100

Before shots, including our normal amount of mess:

 Day 1 Progress:  Three walls painted grey and white.  The white corner will be useful for taking photos of things for my websites.

 

Check out Day 2, where I plan the new furniture arrangement and continue painting walls.

Budget DIY Kitchen Remodel Progress: July

I don’t think I’ve written an update on our budget DIY kitchen remodel in a while.  Here’s what we’ve been up to these last couple months.

February: I started refinishing the cabinets and tearing out cabinets to make room for the range hood
March: Purchased and installed range hood
April: Spent this month tearing up the many floor layers
May: Popcorn ceiling removed, countertop installed, laminate flooring installed

Unfortunately, I have a crappy tradition of getting sick at the start of summer.  Being sick and recovering knocked the motivation out of me for about five weeks.  During this time I didn’t do jack on the house, but now we’re back at it.

July: Installed the cabinet pulls and reattached most of the doors to the frames.

Here’s a snapshot I took today:

budget diy kitchen remodel progress

To Do: 

  • Paint the interior of the ceiling lighting recess (Dad and Jim installed two LED can lights into here, they’re awesome)
  • Hide the cord from the range hood
  • Hide the range hood’s duct
  • Install wall shelving to the left of the range hood
  • Tile a backsplash around the kitchen

By spreading the work out over a long period of time we’re preserving our sanity (kitchen has experienced nearly 100% uptime through all this work) and putting months between major expenses.  I don’t know how people spend 50-100 grand on a kitchen. Those fortunate people live in a different world than I do.

Yardmageddon 2012: Part 2 – A Professional Asskicking

The landscaper we hired brought a team and spent nearly 8 hours kicking our yard’s ass.  They even power washed the driveway!

Some “after”s:

This tree is coming down next week, since everyone and their mother has told us they think it’s going to fall (on them, somehow).  It’s going to be a lot different without the ol’ leaning tree right out front!

Let’s all lol at the neglected backyard, which looks 50 times uglier since the front yard’s facelift:

Yeah, we’ll get on that soon.  No one can see it but us, though, and we really don’t mind.  It’s natural!  Isn’t that in these days, anyway?

I hate wind chimes

I hate wind chimes.

I hate their hideous, rhythm-less tinkling, a discordant chorus of metallic noise sprayed violently into every nearby ear.

If you think hanging wind chimes is a good use of your limited time on earth, you are an IMPOLITE JERK.  You are OFFENDING PEOPLE.

Why do you feel it necessary to produce noise?  You probably drive with your stereo up, hold boring conversations at the top of your lungs, and you probably also own a yappy dog, because MAKING NOISE IS SO GREAT!

What happens if there is silence?

Does silence make your head explode?

Now there’s a sound I’d like to hear.

I hate wind chimes huge wind chimes

We found these bad boys at Molbak’s – for just $450-some dollars you can be the biggest wind chime asshole on the block. No, the whole town!