Design

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You and Your Contractor: #01 Your Ballpark Price

I am a project manager that has worked for Architecture and Engineering (typically little A big E) firms for many years. I scope, estimate, negotiate, schedule and deliver projects with multi-disciplinary teams. While the projects are different than a residential home project, there are some crossover lessons on how to develop your project and work with (manage) your contractor. My goal is to help provide you with some tools in your toolbox for making the project process smoother. Developing Your...

How to Avoid Common Wood Project Finishing Errors

There are a number of wood preparation and finishing errors on the project below. At some point, I’ve made them all and learned my lessons the hard way. I can tell you that prior to staining, boards always felt smooth and looked ready to turn a beautiful shade of whatever stain I was going to apply. Problem #01: Improper edge treatment and not enough glue. For your glue project, having straight and crisp edges will make your joins look flawless....

Office desk with real wood top

IKEA Hemnes Desk Hack – Finishing Style Touches

This year has been an interesting one for us all. The news in March that we were to work from home created some interesting space challenges for Ryan and I. My office became the guest bedroom, where we had a queen bed and large dresser, and not room for much else. Someone gave us a small Ikea secretary desk, which tied me over for some time. It was broken and when open took up a lot of space without a...

image of our completed pavilion

Backyard Pavilion Project

We love to be outside. There is a season in the Pacific Northwest that comes with a wee bit of precipitation – rain, mist, phantom droplets, and occasionally some snow. We also love to barbeque. After years of trying to stand in the fleeting covering of the protective overhang of the houses roof, we decided it was time for a proper covered area. This is our design-build and style journey of the Pavilion. This is currently a project in process...

Kitchen Refresh – From Grey to White

It’s time to endure more kitchen work. I’ve had a chance to recover from the last overhaul we did, and barely even remember when the entire kitchen, pantry and refrigerator were in our family room, eating dinner at the kitchen table next to the TV. We modernized our kitchen from this: Into this kitchen: I’ve enjoyed you, grey counters, but I’m ready for more white. Here are the top contenders: It’s down to Sileston Et Statuario or Ceaserstone Frosty Carrina....

Final Firepit

How to Add a Unique Backyard Fire pit

We love campfires, s’mores, stories, and sharing moments with our friends and littles! For years, we had great moments around our portable fire pit. After a fun evening of fun with friends, good food and watching the kids roast marshmallows and eat more chocolate than mallow, we sat watching the embers fade in our slightly rusted fire pit. We both agreed it was time for an upgrade and another design build project. The Replace our Sad Little Rusted Fire Pit...

Removing glued bricks can be difficult

Tips to Planning and Building your Retaining Wall Project

We recently undertook construction of two retaining walls in our backyard. We learned a lot through the process – including some trials and tribulations along the way. However, the end product is going to be fantastic. Here are some important tips we learned along the way: #01: Know what type of wall your brick can be used to create. Companies have different names for the purpose of their walls. Belgard uses freestanding, retaining, and garden. There are some retaining wall...

Office desk with real wood top

IKEA Hemnes Desk Hack – How To Build a new Desk

We needed some extra office space and I’m always up for another project. We decided to convert our guest room into some much needed office space. We found some inspiration from the ether for building a desk that used IKEA Hemnes dressers. Maybe it was all the previous oil staining projects, but when Nichole asked if I could make a custom wood desk top, I said sure. Turns out an 11-foot wooden desk top and carefully attaching it is a...

Belgard Weston Untumbled Rio Stone Wall

Considerations for your Retaining Wall – Belgard Weston Stone

Picking a retaining wall stone is fun and challenging. Our backyard is terraced with what I would call “regional” rocks. It also has this unfortunate kitty-corner (or katty-corner for some) slope that isn’t the easiest to work with. We also had some areas of the existing retaining wall that were failing. After multiple trips to landscape supply yards, pouring through online catalogs, and some disappointing price quotes, we chose the Belgard Weston. TIP: Determine if your wall is free-standing, ornamental,...

Laundry Room and the Zombie Bar

Every laundry room needs a zombie bar – you know, that bar that is so sturdily built it could withstand a zombie apocalypse (the question being why you’d be in that room to survive is neither here nor there…). Our laundry room came with beige and brown linoleum floors, to match the reddish oak cabinets and beige walls. The sink was a vinyl sink with a low faucet. I was grateful there was a utility sink but the faucet’s functionality...