I Did A Thing!

Time again for my monthly post!  Ha. Ha.

Anyway, back in March, I replaced my kitchen sink, but I ended up re-attaching the same old, broken garbage disposal that I had, rather than purchase more connections to route the drains, when I'd planned on someday replacing that disposal.

I do a lot of costume work in trade for my friends in the SCA (see costuming blog), and I just recently took on a HUGE commission from a woman who traded me, not only for a BUNCH of cool fabric, but also for - you guessed it! - a brand-new garbage disposal that she'd purchased and then never installed.  Yay!!!

They sure do look nicer than they used to, don't they?  This one's even BLUE.

It goes with my house. Heehee.

Since no project of mine is ever complete without at least one supply run to the hardware store, the new disposal didn't have a power cord.

I have to say, at this point, that I have been drenched in the kindness of strangers this week.  A nice man stopped and helped me replace a flat tire on Monday.  Then Tuesday, at the tire shop, when I couldn't afford the tire repairs and new tire I needed, the manager there gave me a massive discount that he didn't have to give me, so that I could drive away on safe wheels.

Wednesday, my friend gave me this disposal, and when the power cord kit was a dollar and a half more than I had in my wallet, the salesperson at Home Depot gave me his employee discount so I could purchase it.  Wow!!

All done!  Wiring is super-easy.  I kind of love doing it.

And here, ladies and gents, is a clean, new sink, with a clean, new, WORKING garbage disposal.  It's quiet, too - standing right over the sink, I can barely hear the disposal it when it's on.

And this is the unit I removed, sitting in the enormous bin I've had under the sink to catch the leaks for the past, oh, like YEAR.

The gaskets had gone bad (probably just with age), and the motor flooded and stopped working.  The thing had been rusting inside (obviously), and had just been filling up with water and then leaking, over and over, since the motor stopped working, even though I wasn't using that side of the sink if I could help it.

Point of interest:  garbage disposal sludge smells like bong water and vomit.







.

The Slowest Couch Update EVER

So, sometime around April or May of 2013, I nabbed a sofa off the side of the road, and, looking back over this blog, I realize I never actually TOLD you about it. Oops.  The short version:  it was free, one arm was moldy and gross and I spent about three weeks cleaning, bleaching, and fixing up the fabric on that arm, and it came out great. Stained, but still great.  The couch looks to be an old Ikea piece - I can't find anything like it in the catalogs for the past five years, so it's at least older than that.  It came with two seat cushions, and no back cushions - no cover, either, just the basic under fabric that Ikea furniture comes with.

Fast forward to...yesterday.  Tired of both sitting on the floppy, thin cushions this sofa came with, and of that damned Day Sofa from World Market (I never like anything I do with it, and every time I decide to fix it up I get bored with it before I'm even finished, anymore. It's in the garage now), I took the loooong seat cushion that I made for it in 2012 apart, and used them to build and bulk up the white sofa's seat cushions.

Creating a long cushion for the convertible Day Sofa. 

All four of these pieces were made by slicing a pair of very thick salvaged seat cushions in half horizontally.

For the white sofa, I sliced the two larger seat pieces in half horizontally again, angling them to make a wide wedge, to build up the white sofa's cushions all over, but with the thickest part at the back to help reduce the steeply pitched angle of the sofa seat (I couldn't get up!)

Trying out pieces and shaping. 

A pic of the dry-run, with the wedges, a bit of rolled-up batting at the front edge to soften the transition between pieces, and a thin layer of batting (later doubled) wrapped around the whole thing to smooth out the seams between pieces.

After I was sure of the result, I used spray-adhesive to stick all the parts together and smoothed out all the edges.

Then I used an old cotton sheet to make a cover for each cushion, to hold it all in place.

Yes, I fixed the wrinkliness of the one on the right. It was just on weird. 

Now THAT'S what I call seat cushions.  They're about 2" thicker than the old cushions, smooth, soft, and squishy.  They look a bit slapdash in the pic, here, but keep in mind, this whole sofa is meant to be used with a slipcover, and the seat cushions are the same way.  This thing is so comfy with the deeper, softer cushions, that when I lay on it to chill later in the evening, I fell asleep right away and woke up covered with cats.

The next step will be to create back cushions out of the remaining two pieces from the Day Sofa in the top picture. After I'm satisfied with those, I'll be on the hunt for some fabric to cover this entire piece of furniture.  I can't wait!  This thing has needed a lot of work, but I adore the shape of it, and I'm really excited about getting it covered.  :)


.

Speaking of Rugs...

So, I totally missed Bulk Item pickup last week.  Totally forgot about it.  I managed to throw my old kitchen sink out to the curb before the trucks started passing through, but that's about it.

But then, on the way home from work that day, I passed a pile that hadn't been there before, and on top of it was this:

DON'T JUDGE ME.  I know this whole picture looks like grandma's house.  The chair and the chaise are soon to be reupholstered in fabric FAR less grannyrific.  Just hang in there.

Look at the RUG.  That's a free, 9x11" area rug.  It's a cheap rug.  It's a thin rug.  But overall it's in great shape.  I don't know why someone chucked it to the curb, except that maybe they just got a new one, but it's perfect for my big living room, and looks fantastic.  (The Surya rug that I won last year is now in my guest room; and I'll be talking about that more later this week).  It needed some serious vacuuming, and I used the shampoo-er/steamer on this rug, too, and now it's fantastic-looking.

It's also a bit more wine-colored than it looks in the picture, which is kinda BRIGHT RED.

But anyway - yay!

So, more on the guest room, and about some more free furniture later this week!


.

HOLY CURB-CHECK, BATMAN!

Last night I swung by the home of a friend of mine to borrow some cash for dog food, because I completely fail at life and am increasingly broke all the time.  I managed to get there far too early (one of the few times "good" traffic wasn't actually working in my favor), and so, seeing that some people in the neighborhood had their bulk items out on the curb for pickup, I decided to take a spin around the area to see what I could see.

Holy. Crap. Did I score big.  I picked up a hideous little 70s double-decker nightstand/side table, kinda like this one:

(images via google search.)

It's not exactly this style; but the overall construction is the same.  And the construction is sound; it's just the finish that's peeling and chipped and...is that a burn mark?

o_0

I have a very cool idea for this thing.






I also found a cute little footstool that needs kind of a lot of help, but it'll be worth it:

  (no actual furniture was photographed
during the making of this post)

Basically exactly like this, except for, again, a peeling and cracked lacquer finish, wobbly legs and frame (just needs all the bolts tightened), and the fact that the top cushion needs to be completely stripped and replaced, as it's damp and moldy and EW.  May need to clean up the wood inside, too, or replace it.











Last but not least, and this is the part that blows me away:  I stopped to scope out a big comfy-looking chair at one point, and I very nearly got it.  It was pushing the edge of my willingness to repair and clean upholstered furniture, especially since I STILL haven't covered the big, white, free couch (although I did buy a new blanket to cover it with, so it looks intentional now).  It wasn't bad, and overall it was in great shape, structurally speaking, but with enough dirt, and minor dings and rips (I'm assuming that a herd of small wrestlers, or possibly ninjas, live at this house), that was I waffling over lifting it into the truck by myself, which was going to be no easy feat, lemmetellya.  Sumbitch was heavy.

I stood, hands on hips, weighing the merits of this chair, and trying to imagine, realistically, how long it would sit in my garage before I did anything about it, when I spied something I'd missed.  While I'd seen the enormous and dilapidated headboard standing next to the chair, I hadn't seen what was propped up behind it, out of sight of the road:

Three huge mirrors.  Three.  2x4', every one of them without a single chip or scratch.  WHO THROWS AWAY GIANT AWESOME MIRRORS?!  Jesus, people!  Yeah.  Screw the chair.  The mirrors went into my truck along with the footstool and side table, and away I went.  I saw my friend, I went home and fed my animals and put the evening's booty in the garage, and have been wondering what to DO with those mirrors ever since.

And then it hit me.

(yes, I measured)

I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED A PAIR OF TALL MIRRORS FOR MY MASTER BATH VANITY!!!! 

I'm also pretty sure the third mirror of the trio is going to go into my sewing room, to replace the wimpy 12x45" door mirror I've been using to aid in my costumery.  Pish.  

ERMAHGERD MERERRS.  

.

I can has a storm door!

Before

Aaaaaand we're back (from a week and a half long vacation, which was epic, and you can read all about it here, on my +2 Blog of Dorkitude).  The first day back involved a lot of sitting around, moaning about post-camping aches and pains, and laundry like you would not believe.

On the second day, I got to work refinishing the storm door that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. It was given to my friend Mary by a friend of hers, and she gave it to me.

took it apart, scrubbed and dried all the parts

it was red!  and with a mirror-finish
shade film on one side of the glass.

how to use up old wrapping paper
(and protect your glass from spray-paint dust)

After: 

YAY!  

 It took about an hour and a half to get the frame pieces and the door hung, and it went off without a hitch.  Special thanks goes out to my awesomesauce boyfriend Kress - I could never have done it by myself, this thing was so heavy.

Finally, light in the 24' long entry hallway!!!

Next post:  some yardwork! 

.

Table Out of Nowhere

Of the things on my to-do list for last weekend, the only thing I got done was the couch cover. But it's done!

Yesterday was bulky trash pickup day in my neighborhood.  Whee!  I was pleased to see my pile thoroughly looted after having only been out for three hours - there was practically nothing left for the trash collectors.

And I scored this coffee table:

Two points each to those of you who looked at this and wondered why the heck I'd be interested in it.
Look at the feet, though:

PERFECT!  These are exactly what I've been looking for...for my couch.  :)

They're undergoing a slight color modification at the moment; another couple of coats of stain and some clearcoat, and then pads on the bottom so they don't scratch my floor, and they'll be ready to go onto the couch.

Yay, couch feet!  The rest of the table is probably going to be turned into a small bookshelf for a friend of mine.  :)


And I swear I'll get that bathroom painted this week. Really, I will.



.

Wildebeests: Free Sh*t

All hail the Craigslist/Thriftstore/Dumpster-Diving Powers That Be!  I was bored at work yesterday afternoon and poking around Craigslist for a big chair to stash in a corner of the living room (more on that later)...and I found a couple, but one was too big, and one was manky...I mean, WAY grosser than I'm willing to deal with cleaning up. Granted, it was only $20, but STILL.

Oh, well, I thought.  And then I drove home and discovered this baby out on the curb down the street:

FREE.

 
Doesn't look like much, I know.  Looks better underneath: 

cleaner than my garage floor

The structure is sound, and aside from a slightly crushed arm rest, it's in great shape.  And it's clean, aside from some small, grubby footprints on the seat where a kid was either walking or jumping on it, hehe.  No nasty stains, no smell - just some footprints that can be cleaned off easily.

This is, in case you don't recognize it, Ikea's KLOBO loveseat.  Not exactly my style - but I've seen really great things done with this and with the similar KLIPPAN sofas, and I have a *fabulous* idea for this little guy.

I love the product care instructions for this thing on Ikea's website, by the way:

Care instructions

• Do not wash.
• Clean with upholstery shampoo.
• Do not bleach.
• Do not tumble dry.        <---- DRAT
• Do not iron.
• Do not dryclean.

Bonus:  for some strange reason, the people who had this loveseat before me covered it (a) by stapling t-shirt fabric all over it, and (b) right before they got rid of it, apparently:  the fabric is BRAND NEW.  I can use that, too.

Score!

To be continued...


.