Author: TheDIYGirl

Droid Incredible 2 won’t turn on

I have a Verizon Droid Incredible 2. I have loved the phone — it’s fairly slim and has a good set of features.

I moved recently from Texas to Tennessee and started having problems with the phone. I plugged the USB into my computer and it didn’t seem to hold a charge all that well.

After a couple of weeks I went to check it while it was charging and it wouldn’t turn on. It wouldn’t do anything. I was upset.

I checked online and people said they pulled the battery for a while with mixed results. I left the battery out overnight and the phone still wouldn’t start the next morning. It wouldn’t do much of anything. I would try to power it on and the Verizon “red eye” would show and not go one step further.

I was bummed. I hadn’t gotten it wet. I hadn’t done anything funky with it. And the phone just died.

So I asked myself what had I done differently lately that could be pissing off my previously flawless phone. While at my house in Texas I had always charged from an electrical outlet. After a few days in Tennessee I started charging from my computer USB . That was the only change I could come up with.

So I took my basically dead phone and plugged it in to an electrical outlet. It powered up and after charging has behave perfectly as it always has. My assumption, and I could be wrong, it did NOT like charging from a USB.

My phone could be an anomaly, I could be some bizarre exception — but if I owned a problematic Droid Incredible 2 that wouldn’t start I would be to try charging from an electrical outlet and see if that resolved the problem.

Personally — I won’t be charging my Droid Incredible 2 from the computer USB except in emergency situations.

February 5, 2013

Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update Plans

Here’s the to do list for the kitchen update:

Issue	Plan
1. Popcorn ceilings	Back Burner
2. Popcorn on soffits	Removed and primed
3. Gold walls	Change to buttery yellow
4. Green paint on cabinets and cabinet hardware	Change look, paint, new hardware
5. 80’s light fixtures.	update
6. Counter tops	update
7. Black toe kick	prime and paint with cabinets
8. Spindle railing	live with for now
9. Vinyl flooring	live with for now
10. Electrical issues – more outlets on back splash and hard wire light over sink with a switch	get electrician to take care of

I’m not going to worry about the ceilings unless I decide to stay here permanently and I seriously doubt that will happen. If I’m going to put this up for sale I want to spend as little as possible while maximizing the resale amount so that means doing a lot of work myself and not buying new cabinets.

I have already scraped the popcorn off the soffit and primed them for painting. When I pulled the board that connected the cabinets on each side of the sink I realized the popcorn on the bottom of the soffit wasn’t going to work so that has been scraped off and primed as well.

I have to resolve the light over the kitchen since the current light was attached to the board across the front that’s been eliminated. Not into the scrolled woodwork and it opened up the window so it looks a lot bigger.

An electrician came out a couple of days ago to quote installing the bathroom fan/heater/light, hard wiring a light fixture over the kitchen sink, and adding two outlets to the kitchen back splash area. He emailed a quote the next day of $200 for all that. I’m totally on board with that and asked to get it scheduled.

The same man also happens to do cabinets and countertops on the side so I talked to him about my ideas to improve the appearance of my cabinets. I showed him the pictures I had gotten from The Lettered Cottage. The “before” cabinets are almost identical to mine and I would love to achieve their “after”.

Shaker Kitchen Cabinet Update Plans - TheDIYGirl.com — From The Lettered Cottage

These are the only picture they posted of how the change in cabinet appearance was done. I emailed asking for details on thickness of the wood and how it was attached but never received a response.

I don’t want the middle piece, but I want the Shaker like frame. He had all sorts of ideas and seemed to have no problem helping me update my kitchen in a low-cost way. He thought he could have all the wood for the doors and drawers ready for around $200. What a deal.

The cabinet-maker suggested cutting off the lip of the door and then adding another life with the window frame and then adding invisible hinges. I’m not sure about making the inset of the doors a full 3/4″ instead of its current 3/8″ and was somewhat aghast at the cost of invisible hinges. I found $11 a pair to be a common price and with 20 doors that $220 for hinges alone compared to just updating to black hinges for around $40.

He checked out the cabinets and said they were custom and well-built so they were definitely worth updating and painting.

I’m hoping this will work out, but also realize people are kind of flaky so I’m not totally confident it will happen. If I don’t hear from the guy I will check other options.

Note: Despite emails and calls the guy went MIA so I had to come up with a different plan.

February 3, 2013

Painting master bath

I was painting a lot of light colors in other rooms to maximize the light, but wanted the master bath to be a really dark, almost evergreen, green with the snow-white trim and shower.

I once again tried the Clark + Kensington in Carriage Hill green after doing some drywall repairs and priming those spots.

I don’t want to minimize painting. You have to remove all the electrical plates, the towel bars, toilet tissue holders, the bathroom mirrors. You have to tape all the woodwork and counters. Groan — you have to paint around the toilet. Painting a large room is easier than the small confines of the normal bathroom, But the results are worth it.

Before Picture

I painted a test area on the right to see the color

The Clark + Kensington paint went on nicely, but I did need to touch up with a light second coat since the gold showed through in spots. No big deal — it only took a few minutes.

The finishing touches included finding a shower curtain that would go with the paint and towels and also a towel rack that would hold the towels near the shower so I could reach them. I decided on a three arm rack that would also hold an additional hand towel/wash cloth set. I’m happy with the results — especially when comparing to the first pic in this post!

After picture

February 3, 2013
Painting Basement Den Area

The first room I painted in my newly purchased house was the living room. Since I’d had great luck at my previous house a few years ago with Valspar paint from Lowe’s that’s what I purchased for these rooms.

As I stated in another post it simply wasn’t the same paint. Roller marks were a terrible problem and if I tried to go back and smooth them out the paint lifted off the wall. I realized it could be a result of poor quality paint I was trying to cover.

After checking Consumer Reports I wanted to try their top rated Clark + Kensington paint from Ace Hardware.

I chose a bone white satin to brighten the basement room and the Clark + Kensington paint went on beautifully with no roller marks. I had a little problem with the paint trying to lift off, but decided it was because of the poor quality paint I was covering since it didn’t happen when I painted the primed areas. Maybe I should have primed all the crappy paint.

The odor was negligible, it dried quickly even in a basement area, and everything cleaned up easily.

I was less than impressed with the Teflon coated roller pan I decided to try. Maybe the paint would have washed out easily when it was wet, but the sales person at Ace told me you allow the paint dry overnight and then just pull out the skin of dried paint the next morning. Not happening. I could scratch the paint off the next day. I allowed it to dry an additional day with no change. The primer was never going to simply peel out of the pan. I will attempt to return it. It does say “latex” paint peels out, so maybe the primer was the problem. I still wasn’t impressed.

The Teflon roller I used with the bone white paint cleaned up fairly easily. I used the cleaning tool and wasn’t that impressed with the results, but then how else would I get the paint and water out of a roller?

What I really did like was a rigid plastic roller pan I bought at the Benjamin Moore shop for $1.49. It was strong enough you didn’t need a metal roller pan and for $1.49 I didn’t mind throwing it out. For heaven’s sake — a line at Lowe’s is $1.99. The rigid liner was much better. I will try to find out the brand and will post the information later.

The primer from Lowe’s seemed to work okay, but I don’t have a whole lot to compare it to. I will use it again in the kitchen on the soffit where I remove the popcorn and on the backsplash before I wallpaper and will post how it works in those areas.

The results

I tore off paneling, I replaced a section of drywall, did a lot of drywall repairs that I then primed before painting. The paint went on great and the bone white is SO much better than the previous gold. I also replaced the light fixtures with $7 dollar ceiling fixtures from Ikea. Whoa — what an improvement.

den before — with same awful gold paint that was in every room of the house

paneling removed

New section of drywall on left

Drywall repaired and primed

Den painted bone white with new ceiling fixtures

Final Note

I was getting close to the end of painting and realized I wasn’t going to make it with one gallon. I call the Ace Hardware in La Follette and asked if they would mix another gallon and have it ready so I could run in and grab it and get home without having to wash my roller pan and roller. No problem.

I covered the roller pan and roller with a wet towel and drove up to the store. My gallon of paint was mixed and waiting for me. Jennifer even had it waiting for me at the door. I paid and was back home and painting in 20 minutes.

Now tell me Lowe’s would do that… I don’t think so. Not only do you get great paint at Ace, but you get awesome service as well.

February 1, 2013
My “new” kitchen

My new fixer upper in Tennessee has decent bathrooms, but I feel the kitchen is abysmal. Sheesh. Oh, let me count the things I don’t like about it…

Let’s start at the top

Allow me to preface this with my apology if you happen to love any of the things I’m going to mention. I don’t mean to offend, but there are some things I really, really detest.

1. Popcorn ceilings. Who invented that idea and can we find him/her and shoot them? Of course the popcorn problem is in every room of the house.

2. But I have never heard of anyone putting popcorn on the soffit over cabinets. I’m not going to tackle popcorn removal on the ceiling, but it’s coming off the soffit so I can paint it the same as the walls.

3. The gold walls, but like the popcorn that exists in every single room of the house. The same hideous paint that wipes off with a cloth and absorbs everything that comes in contact with it. Note to self — don’t ever think cheap paint is a bargain. As stated with the living room and hall, I’m not a chair rail kinda girl and that needs to go too.

4. The green paint on the cabinets. Not only is it a yucky green, it was poorly applied, and is even more hideous when juxtaposed with the gold wall. It’s gotta go. The style of the cabinets is clearly 30 years old and so is the cabinet hardware.

5. Digressing a little upward — the 80’s light fixtures. Another thing that’s gotta go.

6. The counter tops — they are a pale leafy pattern . They aren’t in terrible shape, but Formica is Formica. When I paint the cabinets white the counters are going to need some color. I have no idea what I’m going to go with but I know I want more color.

7. The black toe kick. I understand the practicality of that choice and it probably didn’t look bad when the cabinets were really dark wood, but it doesn’t work with green and it’s not going to work with white. I rather have to touch it up every once in a while that leave it black…

Okay – now facing the other direction… After rearranging the shelves that were set up to accommodate nothing by soup cans I think I can live with the pantry. I fixed the light at the top of it, so it even has light at night. Most importantly it has room for the dog food container and dog biscuit container on the floor. We have our priorities, after all 🙂

8. I could really live without the spindle railing in the kitchen and would love to have a real wall there instead. It’s not very strong — I started to trip at the top of the stairs and grabbed the rail — it’s very flimsy at that end. I realize a wall might have the same issues, but I’d like the solidity of a wall painted the same color as the rest of the kitchen.

9. Vinyl flooring. Now that I’ve cleaned it up I realize it’s not in bad shape. If I stay I will want to change it, but if I decide to turn around and sell the house it will stay.

10. Electrical issues – the cheap flourescent light over the sink isn’t hard wired — a cord goes to one of the TWO outlets in the backsplash. Two outlets? What kitchen has only 2 outlets in the backsplash?

I bought a microwave cart from Ikea before leaving Dallas and may go to the Ikea in Charlotte and get an island. There is ample room in the kitchen and I think the added work surface would be awesome.

But first I have to resolve all the above mentioned issues…

January 30, 2013
Another example of why I’m the DIY girl

Upbringing

I was raised by a dad who wouldn’t allow the use of the phrase “I can’t.” On the rare occasion I would dare utter those two words he would sigh and calmly respond “You can do anything you want to do. What you’re saying is you’ve decided you don’t want to.”

This was a constant and repeated theme until the phrase “I can’t” was extinguished from my vocabulary. What a gift. I wish it was a gift every parent gave every child.

Experience

When I have allowed people onto my property to work on things the experience has not been good. They work on what I’ve requested, destroy everything in their path, and don’t do all that great of a job at what they were hired to do.

It’s just proven to not be worth it. So I take my time, research on the internet to learn how to do things, and do it myself. No destruction of surrounding things and the job gets done to my standards.

I have one shining exception to this. Maintenance Free Exteriors in Highland Village, TX did absolutely perfect work with no damage to my property. If you are in North Texas and need siding or windows call Robert Smith at 972-966-1834 or check out http://www.maintenancefreeexteriors.com. He’s awesome.

The one other thing I won’t do is anything roof related. Sorry — scare of heights so that gets hired out.

Recent Experience

I arrived in Tennessee and had a recommended general handyman show up on my doorstep the day after my furniture was delivered. I was in no way ready to figure out what I needed help with, but hated to turn this older man away who had set the next couple days away to help me, so I allowed him to start.

It was a total and complete disaster. Almost everything he started ended badly. Attaching the water line to the refrigerator took three trips to the store. I wanted new locks and he drilled a door wrong so I had to replace the door. He drilled another brand new door and damaged the surface. On the last door he used the wrong drill bit and blistered the paint so badly I will have to refinish the entire door.

He replaced a half wall of drywall and thought it was okay the replaced sheet was 1/4 inch inset from the wall above it. I had to rehang the drywall after adding sections of 2 x 4’s to get it out level with the other sheet rock.

I could go on and on. I had paid him for 3 days and when he botched up more stuff on the 4^th day and not returned I assumed it was a wash for all the damage he had done. Wrong.

He called a week later while sitting in his vehicle in my drive demanding payment. When I said we needed to discuss this since I was having to redo or repair so much stuff that I had assumed we were even he threatened me.

He told me if I didn’t pay him for the last day I would suffer serious consequences. I asked what he meant by the threat and he wouldn’t elaborate, but since he had kept a key from my dead bolt changes I was extremely upset by the threat. He continued to threaten me and I continued to ask for clarification until he hung up.

As a single woman this kind of stuff is really scary. I have learned there is a certain element of the male population that has no problem doing bad things to women who have no males in their life. I was scared.

I went to the police department and made a report in case something happened to me or my house. They suggested I pay him just to get him out of my life. The idea absolutely galled me, but I couldn’t disagree. So in the end, while I wouldn’t pay him for the crappy work he’d done I would pay him to get his miserable ass out of my life for good.

As luck would have it a nice man came that afternoon to replace a water pressure regulator so I called the above mentioned ass and told him he had an hour to come get his money.

He pulled in the driveway and the plumber walked out to his truck. He didn’t need anything – he just wanted to make his presence known. I could have hugged him.

When he saw there was a man here (the plumber made a point of walking out on the driveway when he arrived) the weasel wouldn’t even get out of his truck. I walked out and told him I wanted my key. He acted surprised and dug it out of his pocket and once in my possession I handed him the money and walked away.

Bottom Line

It was an unfortunate experience so early in my move, but I have no intention of letting it sour me on my decision to come here.

I still need help with some things, but I get lots of suggestions before letting anyone in my house again. And I will be using Angie’s List as much as I can – although I’m in a rural area of Tennessee and I’m not sure how much help it will be.

Protect yourself ladies – there are a lot of predatory, lousy workers out there that you don’t need to allow into your home. Learn from my mistake. Be careful.

January 29, 2013
Painting my fixer upper

This house has the worst paint ever. Not only did they spray every room in the house a not very attractive gold, but they used the crappiest paint known to mankind. If you bump it with your elbow it wipes off on your clothes, if you wipe it with a wet cloth the cloth comes away gold. It totally water-soluble.

The only good thing about this “washable” paint is that the overspray that is all over the white woodwork washes off. It takes an obscene amount of scrubbing and buckets and buckets of water because of the amount of gold paint that comes off, but the paint does wash off.

I am going to be trying a lot of new products.

First room

The first room I painted was the living room and hall. I had great luck with Valspar satin paint in my Texas house so I went back to Lowe’s for the same paint.

But it wasn’t the same paint. It left terrible roller marks and if you tried to go back and smooth them the paint came off the wall. It just wasn’t the same paint. Or maybe it was a function of the crappy paint it was covering. I don’t know, but I wanted a better painting experience with the other rooms I painted.

I checked out reviews and found a lot of folks who experienced the same thing I did, so it left me thinking it wasn’t the paint I was covering, but changes in the Valspar paint. I absolutely loved this paint the last time I used it so I was really disappointed with the results this time.

Consumer Reports

I decided to see what Consumer Reports had to say about interior paints and found their top rated paint to be Clark + Kensington Satin Enamel from Ace Hardware, so I visited the local Ace Hardware this afternoon and bought this paint for the master bath and den. I wanted an evergreen green for the bath and a bone white for the den area. Two totally different colors both going over my crappy gold paint. I will post a follow-up on the results after painting these two rooms in these two diverse colors.

The girl who helped me at Ace (she was an absolute sweetie) told me about some new items I had never heard of. I ended up getting a Teflon coated roller pan that she said she had personally used and loved. You allow the paint dry overnight and then just pull out the skin of dried paint the next morning. I can’t wait to try it.

I also got Teflon rollers that are supposed to be washable. I like the idea of reusing the rollers instead of disposing of them. She also recommended a tool for cleaning them. It has a moon shaped side that will help force the paint out of the water before washing and then the water out of the roller after washing. I plan to use it for cleaning brushes as well.

I will report how all of these things work after using them.

Last, but not least, I have to try a new primer. When the door to the garage was being replaced there was evidence of black mold at the lower edge when the casing was removed. I pulled off the ugly paneling on the lower part of the wall to find 2 feet of black mold from the concrete up. That drywall has been replaced after I sprayed with 50/50 solution of bleach and water.

So I decided I might as well yank off the rest of the paneling that I hated and all that drywall needed to be repaired since the paneling had been glued as well as nailed.

So I will be trying a new primer on the basement walls, the kitchen soffit where I removed the popcorn (who puts popcorn on kitchen soffiting???), and wall patches I needed to do in the bath. I decided to try Lowe’s Valspar primer that says it’s best for new drywall.

Painting Cabinets

I found a blog that talked about painting cabinets with great results so I’m going to try the products they used. http://www.younghouselove.com/2012/01/how-to-paint-your-cabinets-aka-hallelujah/. Their cabinets turned out beautifully so I’m going to follow their suggestions with the hope my cabinets will turn out looking half as good as theirs.

I went to Benjamin Moore and purchased their Fresh Start® Primer and plan to go back and get their ADVANCE Waterborne Interior Alkyd Paint – Satin Finish for the final coats. The ADVANCE is a little pricey at $44 a gallon, but if it levels out and produces the smooth finish I’ve read about it will be worth it.

Follow Up

Sheesh — that’s a lot of new products. Heck, it’s a lot of money!

I will report back with results after I have used all this stuff. I am going to volunteer at the Campbell County Historical Society tomorrow since there’s a 100% chance of rain and I plan to start painting the next day and keep going until I have the bath painted, the den primed and painted (new sheet rock), and the cabinets in the kitchen primed.

That’s the plan — we’ll see if I stick with it…

January 28, 2013
Have a bathroom exhaust fan or heater?

I have two words — CLEAN IT.

I recently purchased a foreclosure that had two bathrooms with a fan/heater/light. One was brand new. One was an original antique from when the house was built in 1987 and had a non-functioning heater so I ordered a new unit from Amazon.

In preparation for the arrival of the new unit I started to disassemble the old one. This was after vacuuming the old unit out trying to see if I could get it working.

Once I got it apart the thing was beyond disgusting, beyond belief. I didn’t think dust could cake on that thick — doesn’t it fall off from its own weight?

I had to scrape to find the attaching screws because they were so buried in dust. I wear contact lenses and even with protective goggles I was drowning in crap. I was afraid to breathe so I went and got a face mask. The vent for air was so incredibly clogged with layers of dust I doubted that any air was actually pushed through.

I stopped with the disassembly until the new unit arrived and I could see just how much had to be removed. That evening I took a shower in the same bathroom and evidently the weight added from the humidity of my shower caused thick cakes of dust to fall down on the rug below it.

Gross.

If you have a bathroom fan take the cover off the light. Take the bulb out of the light. Find the screw attaching the unit to the ceiling and remove it. Vacuum the ever-loving crap out of the exposed fan and vent and everything you can get a crevasse tool to.

Your vent will work more efficiently getting the humidity out of your bathroom, the fan will last longer, and you won’t be breathing the disgusting caked dust that results from a failure to do these things every year or so.

January 25, 2013
Ordering decor over the internet

I had unhappy dogs since we arrived at our new fixer upper house in Tennessee. They had lived their entire lives with a carpeted living room and were retreating to their beds since they didn’t like to lay on the cold hardwood. They seemed to be adjusting to slipping and sliding as they chase their toys. They were not adjusting to the hardwood for resting. I needed an area rug and I needed one now.

I searched and searched the internet not even sure what I wanted. A solid? A pattern? What color or colors? I was looking through the endless selection available on Overstock.com when I saw it. It was perfect. At least it was perfect according the color settings on my monitor. What if it arrived and the colors looked totally different in reality?

I wrestled with ordering the rug for a couple of days. I kept looking at it pondering what return shipping would cost on an item that large and heavy if the colors turned out to be hideous. I have moved to a somewhat rural area so I can’t just run over to a store and shop, besides the prices I was seeing at those stores were really high. I finally screwed up my nerve (in desperation to get something) and pushed the order button.

By the way, I signed up for Ebates and accessed Overstock.com through them so I will be getting a rebate on the rug.

I ordered it on Monday and the rug arrived Wednesday afternoon! I unrolled it and it’s perfect — it’s a negative of the colors in my couch. The blue is a denim blue that picks up the blue in the couch. The reds and greens picks up the couch colors as well. I’m thrilled.

And the dogs are happy 🙂

January 23, 2013
My Tennessee Fixer Upper

I wanted out of the heat of Texas, I wanted green mountains, and I wanted cheaper. I found a heck of a deal in Jacksboro, TN — a foreclosure at a great price but obviously not without shortcomings.

I’m about 3 miles outside of town on a lot that has a view of the Cumberland Mountain Ridge from the front windows. Well at least a view while the leaves are down in winter — not sure I’ll be able to see much when the leaves come out in spring. I have so many gorgeous state parks within 30 miles I don’t care. When the leaves come out I’ll be busy and enthralled.

The living area, kitchen, and den area in basement had chair rail that I wasn’t wild about. It’s mostly removed and will completely be gone soon. It just didn’t work for me.

Every wall in the house had been spray painted with a fairly dark gold paint of such incredible low quality I would love to know how the painter got it. If you bump the wall it comes off. If you try to wipe a spot of the wall you end up with a gold rag. The worst part is every living last room is the same gold color. Yuck. The only good thing about the paint is that all the overspray that is one everything is scrubbing off…

The first week I was here I ripped the railing off the living room and hall and painted it a pale yellow to go with my furniture.

I badly needed to eliminate the insanity in at least one room. While it’s a work in progress, at least it’s an oasis in the torn up, packed up rest of the house. I have things weighing down the end of the rug I ordered from Overstock.com to try to flatten it out.

Massive To Do List

I’m overwhelmed at this point and end up getting distracted. I don’t know if I should unpack boxes, clean, or start renovations. I have rooms to paint, drywall to repair before that, chair rail to rip off, kitchen cabinets to paint. That’s just for starters.

The first thing I need to do is get organized and prioritize so I don’t go crazy. I think the kitchen needs to be addressed first since I refuse to unpack kitchen stuff until the cabinets are done

January 22, 2013