Sink Hunt

So this is a little out of order, I haven't shown you our counter-tops yet, but I went on this sink hunt before we found the counter-top because I knew we would have to have one. So...I'll show you the counter-tops later this week! 

Long story short: We had to get a new sink.  I didn't want to pay $$$$ for it.  So I heard about this warehouse construction sale happening downtown so my MIL and my dad went with me. It was great fun, however, they were $$$ which wasn't what I wanted.  I wanted $ and would have settled for $ 1/2. Which we did in the end. We got a sink and faucet at trusty HD for $245ish and it had a dish rack. Score. :) 

I wanted a big sink.  A big farmhouse sink if possible. 

I wanted a deep sink. Because I feel it's more useful. 

I wanted the sink to be open to be one bowl not two.  But most of these would have worked, I guess.
Except that they were so expensive and heavy(the middle one) and used (the right one), which isn't too bad, but not for me. I knew I could do better.

This one was cool, but aside from being mucho $$$$ it was so industrial, not really the vibe of our kitchen.

We bought this one from Home Depot. It's awesome. It's $230.  Which is pretty good comparatively. Not CHEAP but well worth the expense.  It's a wonderful sink! Daniel likes it.  I like it. It's a win-win-win. 

So what do ya'll think? What kind of sink do you have? Do you have a dream sink? 

Love,

Sarah

"Clean it up Cinderella"

While no one was ordered around while cleaning the house, I am pretty sure that all of us, or rather, all of the females at one point felt like Cinderella.  No, not in the princess-y way, in the "I am so sick of cleaning someone else's mess" way.

When we bought our home it was pretty disgusting.  We didn't buy it because of what we saw, we bought it because of the potential we saw.

A little background about our house:  It was a reverse mortgage.  This means it was bank owned, but not because the previous owner couldn't pay, because they owned the house outright and asked to start getting money out of the house.  So basically, the bank paid her and when she moved on (we aren't sure if she died or went to a nursing home) the bank owned the house.  So like a foreclosure the house was managed by a group that was paid by the bank to cut the grass and make sure there weren't squatters, but they didn't really clean at all.

Ok, so we needed to do that before anything else could happen.

The first couple of days it was magical and wonderful.  Then we noticed how nasty everything was.  When you'd turn a light on your fingers would feel sticky and gross.  YUCK.  So, Cinderella got to work.  You can't see the tar on this light switch but, you'll just have to trust me.

I can't tell you how many hours and days we spent cleaning.  I forgot.  I blocked it out.  I don't want to know actual numbers.  I do know it was hard work.  For me, this was the most grueling part.  It was the part that we had to do before anything else upstairs could be done.  While this was hard work, we had amazing help from our families!  Both of our Moms scrubbed things down and made sure we weren't going to miss any spots.  Especially the windows.  It seemed like my Mother-in-love was endlessly cleaning windows.

Here they are working side by side, sorry for the dark photos, it was SO sunny out!

They got every window frame and the outside!  The frames were hosed off and wiped down. 

Even though we ripped out the carpet (eventually), I think we vacuumed it.  We left the windows open so that we could get air circulation.  At this point we hadn't turned the AC on yet.  It was August in GA and it was HOT and HUMID but we were only there for 4 or 5 hours a day so it seemed wasteful to cool the whole house. 

Daniel and Joseph helped clean too! (There were others who shall go un-pictured but who also helped us so very much!)

We washed the walls with a vinegar and water mixture or dish soap for tough grime, but more on that later.   Sorry this post is so boring but I am saving my major Soap Box to sit on next post.  It's a doozy.  This was a major process though.  It took a lot of time and effort.  It was good to get to know all the nooks and crannies of the house.  I think we would have cleaned any house we bought, but definitely not this intensely.  If you don't already know why we cleaned so much, you should know I am holding on to that secret, but next post I'll share it!  Stay tuned. ;-)

until next time,

Sarah

The Concrete Stain Saga: part 1

The Second project that we did was also in the basement.  If you missed that first post about our Adventure with Drylok click here.  


Our second project was to use concrete acid stain to cover up oil stains in our floor and seal out moisture coming up from the ground underneath the concrete.  Daniel works at a Jewelry store and they have a stained concrete floor.  We both think it looks really awesome!  (I have seen some that have glitter in them, but I couldn't convince Daniel to sparklify our floors) 

Isn't that pretty? (picture from Google search)

The beginning of this and most DIY and home renovation projects is simple:  CLEAN. Clean the surface thoroughly.  Oh-ho-ho my friend, easier said than done. Easier said than done.  If you have ever tried to clean something that is really old, and porous, you'll understand.  You can't clean ALL the dirt off of 50 year old concrete floors.  You'll drive yourself mad.  But, do your best.  I think we could have gotten more dirt off the floor, but we got a lot of it and the rest is sealed up like a time capsule.  

First we swept the floor.  Then swept it again.  Actually, Daniel swept, he is really great at it.  I sucked up the dirt.  Luckily, we had a shop-vac.  Sweeping is boring so I didn't take a picture of that.  

Next up....The Grinder (read it again in a baseball announcer voice) :)
This process involved a diamond tipped grinder.  OoooOooo Fancy.  Nope not really, this thing was a beast.  [And as my knowledgeable, diamond informed husband told me, they may be diamonds, but they aren't jewelry grade, they are not a good color or clarity so they use them on machinery etc.]  We rented the Beast from Home Depot. (Our store of choice) And it's this great big machine that looks like a floor waxer except that it tries to rip off your arms. Alright, I am exaggerating, a little, but only a little. 

This was after when we were cleaning it. 

 So Daniel and his friend and co-worker Joseph rented the beast after work and started grinding the concrete basement floor.  

This is Joseph.

This is the grinder at work.  Honestly, I wasn't strong enough to steer this thing. 

The goal of the grinder is to scuff up the floor so that it will accept the stain and remove any surface stains.  To do this you have to add water to the floor in small doses so that it stays near the grinder's wheel.  If you don't have enough water the Beast can overheat. We added water with a hose that was fed through our window,  but you could easily use buckets or whatever was easiest for you. 

During the grinding process we met with a small hiccup.  Remember how I said we didn't get up ALL the dirt? Because you can't really get up ALL the dirt?  Well add water and concrete dust to really fine old dirt. What did you get? mud? Lots of mud? Lots of soupy icky mud? Well, you would be right.  This wouldn't have been a big deal except that we couldn't see if all our hard word was paying off.  It was impossible to see any scratches in the concrete until it was dry and clean.  So we had to stop and reassess.  

We got back up.  Another shop-vac to help get up all the mud and someone holding the hose full time.  The mud-sucking was the most time consuming part.  If your concrete is newer, outside or if you can clean it better before hand I think the mud would be less of an issue.  I will say that there is going to be mud even if you have brand-new concrete, because the grinder is essentially a giant sander and we all know that when you sand something you get dust and dust+water=mud.  After we finished grinding the whole basement we went back through with the hose and shop-vacs and rinsed the floor.  Let me tell you, all of our backs hurt and all of us wanted to throw those shop-vacs out the window.  While we are talking about it, two things about those shop-vacs: 1) surprisingly, the smaller one sucked up the water/mud better and 2) it was really hard to get just the right angle so the suction would kick in but eventually with practice it worked. 

This is what it looked like when we were done.  We weren't able to get ALL the water up, so we just let the little puddles air dry.  

When it was all dry, it looked like this. ^^^ If you look closely you can see the circular scratches.  We were so proud of those scratches and glad to see that all the work and frustration had been for a reason! 


Ok, I think that's enough for today.  God bless you if you read all the way to this point. :)  This isn't the most thrilling project out there.  Read the next post to see why we did all this: Concrete staining! 

See ya later,

Sarah

P.S. I love comments. I love to know who's reading and hear your thoughts and opinions! Thanks a bunch!! YOU'RE AWESOME!