Val Frania

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Making Progress!

We have progress to share today. HA.LE.LOO.YAH. The Bathroom before: The bathroom had three different layers of linoleum with subfloors under each one. Walls patched and painted, wiring done, cabinet painted, subfloor almost in! The wiring was all goofed up, pigtailed all over the place with obvious additions here and there – mish mash! Next up… The Bedrooms before: The Master from Dotville Walls and closets patched and painted Boys’ Room – Sunglasses please! Lime green, per their request – cool decorating to come… Blue and Purple Clown Room? No thank you. Antique white is just what the room doctor ordered… The Hallway Even an insignificant space can change the whole look – check out the before of the hallway. So long paneling and hello drywall and paint! The Livingroom Pulling up the carpet and painting the walls in the living room gave the feeling (and smell) of “new and … Read more

Basement Reno - You never know what is behind those walls!

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Three Dozen Mice and MOLD!

Ugh. That moment when you realize the job is bigger than the both of you. But then you realize that the truth is better than not knowing… Enter three dozen mice and a basement full of M.O.L.D. Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along… “This basement isn’t too bad.” “No biggie.” Right? Typical basement – half done, paneling everywhere, dirty and ug-leee. You wonder what they were thinkin’ when they planned such a space. Come on, paneling, really? Broom and mop here, a little paint there, OK, a LOT of PAINT. It’s doable, right? If people want to get something cleaned in their house, they can get pressure cleaning services from this site. You can click site “We’ll just tear down the paneling and put up some nice new drywall, split the room in half and use one side for a school room and the other for a play … Read more

Disgusting Foreclosed Home {Love My DIY Home}

Keeping Up With the Joneses – From Polluted to Pleasing

From Polluted to Pleasing When you walk into a foreclosed home, the resulting smell that attacks you along with the less than appealing visuals can be very daunting. At first your sensibilities shout, “No! This is not what I want! I can’t deal with this. It’s too disgusting!” You say to yourself, “I can’t put my family in this place.” There is mold on the window frames, stains on the wood floors and carpet that is not cleaned since no one contacted carpet cleaning irvine and it did smell like dog urine and bedroom walls that look like a frustrated artist let go with wreckless abandon. Then your adventurous side kicks in and you start imagining what it could be. You see past the grossness and envision newly painted walls, ripped up carpet (check carpet cleaning atlanta ga here), and your Essential Oils diffuser cleaning the putrid air. In such … Read more

Summer Floral Arrangement {Love My DIY Home)

DIY Summer Flower Arrangement

While on a road trip with my DH this week I picked up some clearanced (70% off) flowers and vases at Michaels in Flint, MI. Last night I put together two flower arrangements while we sat around the table and chatted at my DD and SIL’s house. 20 minutes, tops. Really, it was that easy. For this vase, I just stuck them in after cutting them at the proper length. E.A.S.Y. For the second vase I cut some foam and pushed it down to the bottom so it was secure. I cut more flowers and arranged them, bending down the bottom few and filling in the bare spots. It was that easy. Here’s something comparable at Target for $19.99. Mine cost $2.50 for the vase, 50 cents for the foam and about $3.00 for the flowers. Not only was it cheaper; I like mine better. If you DIY, you can … Read more

Properly prepare the walls for painting {Love My DIY Home}

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Preparing the Walls

The hardest part of a remodel is convincing yourself that you will soon be done and that all the chaos around you will some day make sense. After the third day you moan to yourself and say, “This is never going to end, I just want it to be over.” You might even find yourself rocking in the corner mumbling to yourself. But then you see a bit of progress, the muck lessens, the dirty nasty carpet gets torn up, the holes get filled, the primer goes on and then bingo … hope flies in and you are instantly encouraged, knowing you can come back again tomorrow. Hiring professionals, such as a Mighty Dog Roofing, for remodel projects can alleviate much of the stress and uncertainty, ensuring the job is done efficiently and effectively. IRT offer commercial & industrial roofing services, click here to visit the IRT website. Here are … Read more

Keeping Up With the Joneses | Love My DIY Home

Keeping Up With the Joneses – Kitchen Demolition

To start, the Joneses, and other family members including moi, started ripping down and tearing up. Oh, how I enjoy kitchen demolition! Even the kids got their share of demo, which BTW, shows you and I that if a 6 and 8 year old can do it… You can do it too. But for large-scale demolition projects, it is advised to hire professional Heavy Equipment Demolition services. I’m gonna preach it till the cows come home. Too often we say, “I could never do that.” How about, “I could totally do that!” April took off the scalloped hoop-de-do above the kitchen sink. Now, hoop-de-doos aren’t necessarily bad, I recently painted a shelf with a couple of them for my mason jars and it turned out very nicely. It turned from boring to fab, but here it would only look old and outdated. So off it came and amazingly enough, made … Read more

Keeping Up With the Joneses – The Kitchen Before

Welcome to a new series: Keeping Up With the Joneses Join us as we follow the first time homebuyers Jones family as they take a foreclosed house and turn it into a warm and inviting home in just 30 days! Their goal is to have it not only livable for their family of five in just 30 days, but have a 5 year plan to bring it to perfection – to flip it and move on. Not only is this a huge job, but they have a very tight budget as well. The Kitchen Before I’ll let the pictures do the talking here – it’s pretty obvious they have their work cut out for them! Occasionally I’ll photo bomb since I’ll be out there helping from time to time. You can play the Where’s Val game (Where’s Waldo?) with me. We will show you step by step, and occasionally insert … Read more

Fifty cent tile table topper | Love My DIY Home

What Does One Do With a Fifty Cent Tile?

What does one do with a 50¢ 12X12 tile? Tile a floor (a VERY small floor) Use it as a cutting board Use it as a trivit (for a VERY big mug) Paint it with chalkboard paint and prop it against the counter top for a menu Put it beneath a plant to protect your floor Use it as a centerpiece for a bowl of fruit (8 year old Isaac’s suggestion) What did I do with a 50¢ 12X12 tile? I found this tile at Habitat for Humanity for 50 cents and I immediately thought about my antique nightstand that holds my Young Living oils diffuser. I was a little concerned the mist would damage my table top, so when I saw this tile on the cheap I snatched it up. Here it is – notice I did nothing to it before I took the picture. Real life. I am … Read more

Accidental Artist Strikes Again… DIY Mason Jar Shelf Redo

I’ve mentioned this before…sometimes my best ideas come from mistakes or accidents. This is the case of the redo. A couple of years ago our daughter, Jillian, said she wanted a shelving unit for her nail polishes – we’re talkin’ 100 bottles. Since one of my kids wanted something, of course I would spend the next few months looking for just the right shelving unit. While at an auction, the auctioneer grabbed a little wall shelf unit that from across the room looked perfect for her project. I only paid a buck! Imagine my surprise when I went to get my little nail polish shelf and it was 4X bigger what I thought it would be. Needless to say it went in the garage for two years, abandoned by this overzealous mother… Until one day the light bulb went on. I would paint it and use it to hold my … Read more

Are you tired of expensive planting supplies?

Here are two DIY planters you can make with trash. Yep, that’s right. Trash Free, easy, and green – literally. Cut the bottle in half. Remove the cap. Flip the top half and stuff it into the bottom half. Grab a coffee filter and place it in the top half. Fill it with potting soil. Plant a seed and watch it grow! See how the water drains into the bottom but no dirt falls through? Genius! You can cut off the bottom of another pop bottle and place it on top to create a green house affect. We did this back in May when we started our seeds. Here’s the little seedling I transplanted into the pop bottle planter. I used t’paper rolls for my first DIY planter. Yep. I said t’paper rolls. First, collect t’paper rolls for a few months. Pop them into a large planter and fill … Read more