Finishing Touches to the Master Bedroom

I'm done with the major aspects of the room: painting, hanging curtains, bedding, and a few accent pieces. I'm now trying to decide on what to do with the wall above my bed. I've seen some cute ideas that people have done with scrapbooking paper and being the scrapbooker that I am, this idea appeals to me a lot. Here are a few I like:

I like the simplicity and modern feel of this one by Sherry & John at Young House Love

 

I also came across this cute idea. She used foam board & scrapbook paper on this one. 

You can find out how do this yourself at  Queen of DIY

And here's yet another one using foam board that I liked from 

Kathryn at I Can Find the Time

So after looking at these among others that I forgot to bookmark, I tried my hand at coming up with an idea. I am planning to go buy some frames tomorrow but in the meantime, I came up with a rough draft of sorts to get an idea of what I want. Here is what I came up with:

I used acrylic paint and a foam brush to make this design on the smaller scrap paper just to get an idea. I'm thinking if I go with this idea, I want to do the entire sheet with this design. I thought this design would compliment the print on the lampshades that I already have. 

So what do you think? Too simple? Too much? I'd love to get your input. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, I'm going to get black frames for these.

Restroom Tile

I am no expert when it comes to home remodeling but I I'm not afraid to venture out of my comfort zone and attempt to learn something new.This new braveness came upon me within the last year or so due to the long list of "to-do" projects we have for the house. Every time I try something new, it encourages me to push the envelope just a little more next time around. So far, I haven't caused too much damage and the results of all my efforts have been successful for the most part.

Since we started working on our restroom, I kept debating my choices for floor options. My first choice of course was ceramic tile but neither my hubby or myself had any experience in laying tile plus since there is just a small floor space, we didn't want to spend a lot of money of materials. We made a trip to Home Depot and I decided I'd just lay the laminate floor tiles as a temporary solution because we needed this project to be done ASAP. To my surprise, they had on display laminate floor tiles using grout in between, just like ceramic! They also had a simple step-by-step guide to show how to achieve this look under the display. It looked simple enough so I thought it was worth giving a try. I have to say, the floor looks really good and in our opinion, you cannot tell it's not ceramic. A good friend of ours who has experience in flooring couldn't believe it was laminate when he came to visit. Of course, that made me all sorts of happy knowing I could fool someone like him.

I thought I'd share with you all just how I did it in case you ever want to do this yourself. I had to get ghetto use a few 'unconventional methods' for a few steps but whatever gets the job done, right?

UPDATE (5/30/11):
I just found these before pictures and decided to add them on here. I think you can appreciate the "after" much more if you see how bad it was before. It was bad and it was sad.

 If you look closely at the bottom left you can see where paint stripper dripped on the floor when I stripped and repainted the cabinet a few months ago. Silly me, I didn't cover the floor before I started working that day. Oh well, that's in the past.

1. We had to level the floor first because there was cement tile underneath the old laminate flooring (there was no easy way to remove this) that had a few very slight uneven and cracked areas. We used something called 'floorboard' which runs about $8 or so per panel at any home improvement store.Since we couldn't drill screws into the cement, we used liquid nails to adhere the board to the cement floor.  We found a bunch of heavy stuff all around the house to use to as weight and left it to dry overnight.


This is the tile we chose. You can kind of see in this picture that the tile curves down around the edges which makes it look a little more like ceramic. Not all laminate square tiles are like this so I don't know how it would look with a flat option.

2. Once floorboard was ready, I was able to start laying the tile. I used spacers, just as you would for ceramic tile to leave a gap in between tiles, leaving space for the grout.

3. The tile around the tub was kinda tricky because the tub is not straight lined, it has some curves. Being the creative and crafty person that I am, I came up with an  easy solution. I got an unwanted 12x12 scrapbook sheet and cut it down to the same size as the tile-about 11 1/2 by 11 1/2. Next, I put it where the tile should go and used a pencil to draw a line where I'd need to cut. I have a heavy duty paper cutter and used it to cut down tile squares. Another unconventional method. Lol

4. Once I laid all the tile, I was ready to grout. I bought a small can of premixed grout which was $8.97 and probably only used a third of it. All I did was, I used a small spatula and worked it into the grooves in between the tiles. I let it dry for about four hours and then went back and cleaned up the excess grout with a sponge.

This is how it looked when I was done.

Here's the breakdown on cost:
*Floorboard: $16
*Liquid Nails: $6
*Tile: $25
*Grout: $9
*Sponge:$0--we had
*Spatula: $0--we had
Total Cost: $56!!!!

This option might not be for everyone but we're certainly happy with the result! The three main reasons we chose this option: easy to install, quick (once we applied the tile to the floor, we were ready to move forward to the next step), and easy clean-up (not very messy).
 
Almost done with the room, more details coming soon!

Oh, and I'm joining in on the blog party fun for the first time! I'm having so much fun blogging and meeting fellow bloggers. :)

The DIY Showoff
Addicted to Decorating
Homemaker On A Dime
Tutorial Tuesdays at Hope Studios
Show Me What Ya Got! at Not Just a Housewife
The Thrifty Home

Welcome to my new blog :)

Just in case you're wondering, no I don't live in Britain. This is actually the name of the street we live on and my hubby came up with this cute name. Looking forward to sharing all the busyness our lives consist of whether it's home remodeling, fun stuff with the kids, yummy food, or being crafty. :) Tomorrow I will share with you all how I installed the new floor in our restroom so be sure to swing by.

...btw, I've added a few old posts from my previous blog.

Restroom in Progress

A few weeks ago we confirmed what we'd been fearing for some time....we had mold in the restroom. Yikes! The family and I kept getting sick and at first we thought it was allergies but then we noticed the restroom started smelling kinda funky and realized that it was the wall behind the toilet. There was some water damage to the floor near the wall behind the toilet and we discovered that it too had mold. We were stressing out. This was definitely not a project we were planning to tackle any time soon but we had to fix this quick. After we removed the toilet and sink, we removed the wall and we found the cause for the mold: one of the pipes had a crack and every time we used the faucet, water would leak out and cause water damage to the wall and eventually seeped down to the floor. We're not finished just yet but we're getting there. All we need to do is texture and paint which we plan to finish up by tomorrow night if all goes well (I'm texturing during the day and then we can paint at night.)
I'll share a more detailed post of all we did once we're done. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the room in progress.

This is the wall we had to replace due to the mold.

This is the wall opposite the previous one. I had a scary episode trying to remove this (yes I did this wall myself--I don't recommend) but thankfully my hero hubby saved me from harm!

 This was so easy to install and the end result looks fantastic! 

I'm not too savy on laying tile so I experimented with this laminate tile-as opposed 

to ceramic tile-and I promise you cannot tell the difference plus it's super easy! 

(I saw the step-by-step guide at Home Depot)

The Three Amigos

Just thought I'd share some old pictures I came across of my sweet daughter and my dear friend's two precious boys when they were younger. Enjoy!

Yummy Turkey Burgers

I've been wanting to try ground turkey for some time now but having no experience in cooking it, I've been reluctant to buy it until a few weeks ago. My hubby is really into making good, tasty beef burgers so we thought we'd try making turkey burgers for dinner today. The meat is not at all like beef, it feels a little sticky and of course when done, it turns white instead of brown. I found a recipe online that took just a few minutes to prepare, it was really easy. We usually throw the patties on the grill but since it was raining today we decided to cook them on our cast iron grill instead. I have to say, we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. "They came out so yummy" as my dear daughter said. You can click on the link above to go to the direct page where I found the recipe or just read below. Let me know if you decide to try it and what you think.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
• 1 (1 ounce) package dry onion soup mix
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)
• 6 hamburger buns, split

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix the turkey with the onion soup mix, pepper, garlic powder, soy sauce, and egg. Refrigerate the mixture about 10 minutes, then form into 6 patties.
2. Preheat the grill for medium-high heat.
3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Place the patties on the grill. Cook for 20 minutes, turning once, or until well done. The inside of the burgers will look whitish in color when cooked through. Serve on buns.
    

 

Fun Day at Legoland

My hubby and two of his friends were just having a conversation the other day about how some of the greatest memories they had were from their childhood. The two friends commented that it was sad those days were long gone and could no longer live life carefree and spending each day playing and just having fun. My dear hubby told them that as a parent, you are able to live those moments again with your children and have fun creating memories right along with them. It brings joy to my heart that we are able to share these special moments with our children, watching them play, laugh, and experience new things during there adolesence.
We recently took our kids to the new Legoland that just opened at Grapevine Mills Mall. They did a great job in all the details of the 'dreamland' they created. They even have magical sounding classical music that makes you feel like you are living out your dream by being there. It really is quiet and experience. It is a little pricey but we were able to get discount tickets online and after being there for almost 2 1/2 hours, I think it was worth the price.

 It begins by entering the lego factory and they learn all about how legos are made by Dr. Brick a Brack (I think that was his name).  They are even able to help in making a batch a legos.

We then took a ride through 'Kingdom Quest' which is pretty much a video game come to life. We were taken aback at how almost everything there is made out of Legos! It was incredible! There is a section called, 'Lego Miniland' and it has some awesome Lego structures of city landmarks in the DFW area.

And, who says legos are only for boys? They had a special section for the little princesses....

Here's my dear son building his race car to race it down the different tracks...

There were Legos of all sizes!

And here's one more on our way out through the gift shop. 

(Of course they had a gift shop. Do you really think they'd let you leave without tempting you to spend even more money?)

 

All in all, we had a wonderful time. My kids have already asked a few times when we're going back. :)