November 15th, 2012
before leaving edgewater (and taking a big break on the house stuff) we pulled together one last diy for our master bathroom. (we shared with tinkernation first.. we guest blog every now & then, here’s our previous post if you missed it. and if you haven’t checked out their site poke around a little, tons of great posts for all kinds of diy’ers)
we wanted to have a one-of-a-kind bathroom sink cabinet and decided early on to go vintage; we found this restored beauty in boulder, colorado and splurged a teensy bit. the sink and faucet were a steal online which helped even out the cost of the dresser and the mister could do all of the customization so overall it was a good deal. to see the full step-by-step go here. if you’d love a really original piece we definitely recommend this project, it’s a very doable d-i-y!
Filed Under: Uncategorized
Tagged: diy blog, small home renovation, small homes, tinkernation, turning a dresser into a sink
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September 6th, 2012
in case we’ve given off the false impression of the glamorous life around here (i can hear you laughing already) i thought i’d show you just how glam some of our projects are. (; we tease about mr man’s hoarding of tools. yes he uses them for work, and renovating, and… but do you need 50 screwdrivers, 12 razor knives, 18 rolls of tape, 7 tape measures, 6 levels, approximately 387 drill bits, you get the idea. and that’s not even counting the big stuff like the air compressor, table saw, nail gun, and so on. so we laugh about hoarding and i wonder how many times in our lifetime we can organize the same tools.
but he did get rid of a few screwdrivers (fifty was no exaggeration), and we did consolidate a lot, and can you believe every last thing fit into that teeny tiny trailer with even a smidge of room left? usually (before this project) you opened the back gate of the trailer with long arms because you just didn’t know if an avalanche was going to come hurdling out like an overcooked sausage flying out of it’s casing. and he does do a lot of amazing things with those hoarded tools of plenty so no real complaining (as long as he doesn’t outgrow the trailer).
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, diy blog, hoarding, home diy blog, tools
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June 25th, 2012
→ we are so excited to share a website with all of you today called tinkernation. it’s a site for all types of diy enthusiasts…homes, bikes, cars, and everything in between that fuels your do-it-yourself spirit. i was so flattered they asked me to be a featured author on their site so i could show off some of the hard work my husband does for us day in and day out! it’s a fantastic forum full of inspiration and we’re so happy to be a part of it. a big southern thank you to the entire team at tinkernation for including and working with us! be sure to pop over and see what all the fuss is about, today is our first featured article, with some special surprises to be shown throughout the year of secret behind the scenes projects at camp1899!!
Filed Under: p.s.
Tagged: camp1899, diy blog, home renovation blog, tinkernation
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February 2nd, 2012
→ we wanted a door that stood out & you wouldn’t see eveywhere..
we had two made (for both the front & side) and will be painting them a really fun color…
→ because the brick is double layered on the house the door frame is double the depth..
he built a matching frame to mirror the original, our future screen doors will hang from this
second frame and give us room in between the screen & door for hanging a wreath.
→ once the second frame was built to the edge of the wall he framed in around the entire
door to create a seamless frame (and covering the yellow spray foam & plywood)
this type of trim work is a really easy diy, electric tools make it the most simple but manual will work. to match the door trim would have been hard to find because of the thickness, so as long as you have good wood (in this case 3/4 inch and the door frame is 1 1/4) that is smooth (most important) you’ll be all set for an easy project, and you can get pre-primed like we did for one less step. we compensated for the 1/2 inch loss by using 1/2 inch plywood, which also saved money, and you never see it to know it isn’t a 1 1/4 inch piece of frame. to make it seamless (we’re not quite there yet) use short hair bondo (a fiberglass compound that you mix and is easy to sand.. only use the short hair, no substitutes) on the major joints connecting the two frames together and use caulk for all of the edges and corners. (bondo is too hard to sand in super tight places/corners)
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: denver colorado blog, diy blog, diy door frame, diy door installation, home diy blog, home renovation blog
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January 27th, 2012
2 more ceilings down…
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: beetle wood, camp1899. small home blog, ceiling diy, diy blog, home renovation blog, tiny house blog
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January 16th, 2012
best. best. BEST. thing. ever. depending on the size of your house (and water needs to fit said house) a regular water heater will be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to ? making it most certainly a less expensive way to go for heating your water. but! if your budget allows you to spurge a bit, for our needs to the tune of $1500, you can have a quietside tankless water heater. and for that pretty penny.. you’ll have unlimited (UNLIMITED) hot water. you can take a steaming hot shower for an hour, no problem. got guests, like 10, back-to-back hot showers.. no problem. and can I just tell you… it. is. HEAVEN. i turn the shower on and 30 seconds later it’s piping hot and ready to go for(ever). two things we are pretty much over the moon about…. this and wall mounted toilets with no yucky bases to clean. just saying.. leave a little extra room in the budget, you’ll never regret it.
(~we purchased ours directly from quietside)
January 9th, 2012
the moment you’ve all been waiting for (; well… ok.. that we’ve been waiting for! a shower, hot water! woohoo! it’s not done as you can see, but it’s working, and that is fabulous to us. we knew all along that we wanted a walk-in doorless shower. we didn’t know what material we would use, we thought white subway tile would probably be most affordable (and thus what we would buy). lucky us though, when we went shopping we found beautiful carrera white marble to be only a smidge more, we chose 3×6 tiles for the walls and 12×24 tiles for the floor (the shower floor is 12×24 tiles that were cut to allow sloping to the drain).
we went 10 ft up the shower walls, to the point where the ceiling starts to slope, and then are drywalling the top for a smooth transition to the drywalled shower ceiling. this is the only portion of ceiling in the entire house that will not be blue beetle wood. (due to moisture concerns) the rest of the master bath will have wood, but the shower will not.. also, we put in 6 can lights that would have been a real challenge to cut wood around. in the rest of the bath we went a little less than half way up the walls with tile, leaving the remainder for pictures. we wanted a fancy shmancy, luxury hotel feel and we love it!
i don’t have diy (sean did the drywall & lighting, but for time concerns we hired out the tile installation) photos or in progress photos because of the timing of the work, middle of winter, it was quite cold and the tile guy ensconced himself behind layers of plastic and tarping to maintain high heat in the bathroom while working, and after, to help set the tile. not wanting to intrude i basically stayed away and only at the very end started getting these photos. depending on your time frame (and skill set) would you want to take on a job like this. our bathroom has almost 3000 tiles, that is a.l.o.t. of tile to set and a lot of cutting, making sure the floors lay right, oye and double oye if you don’t know what you’re doing.. even with a professional this job took a ton of time, so be prepared!
December 29th, 2011
→ drywall got started and I forgot to show pictures, we were on the move on drywall just before heading east, and after the living and bedroom ceilings were installed is the first thing that got picked back up again. it’s one of the most exciting things so far (who thought drywall could be exciting??) it’s making the house take form like nothing else, we have rooms!! i don’t know how many drywall pictures you want to see, but it’s a work in progress as i type these words. not a lot of diy to walk you through on, but one thing the husband insists on using is screws not nails. with nails, over time, pressure can allow the nails to push out and when you look at a wall closely you can see small indentations where the nails pop. with screws you’re much more tightly fastened and no popping out later.
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp1899, colorado blog, diy blog, diy home blog, drywall diy, home renovation blog, small house blog, tiny houses
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November 30th, 2011
Our lovely set up.
If you haven’t tried Red Velvet wine from Cupcake…ya gotta try it my fellow DIY’ers!
It made for a lovely night of craftiness.
To help give us tork we attached the top to our pants with a safety pin, then started the bracelets with a simple braid. When you get to where you’d like to start your hex pattern (we really like the chevron look) you just add a bolt on each side strand to pull over and braid away. As you add more and more hex bolts you really need to hold the bolt tightly in place with your thumb…otherwise they get all twisted and yuck. By my 3rd bracelet of the night, I had it down PAT. We used waxed brown, silver and white strings plus an additional bracelet of mine for a little pop of color.
We were very addicted and didn’t stop until 1:30am!!! We had so much fun and by the end our fingers didn’t work well anymore… yeah, not the best part. I took apart some costume jewelry and added bling to some of the pieces.. (like the top middle white and sliver bracelet). My 5 year old daughter especially likes that one… Laura got her jewelry bag out and started mixing with her other bracelets. Magic! Some added color is so chic with the industrial and natural look of the bracelet. (we bought the string at Hobby Lobby (I had the twine on hand in my junk drawer) and bought the hex bolts at Menards, which range in size so pick your poison! Total cost for making 8 bracelets: $10)
here’s the link to the great blog they originated from..
As always, thanks for having us crazy chicas Tiffany! We love ya:)
xoxo, Lindsey & Laura
(lucky me.. i got a surprise in the mail, one of my very own!! thanks lindsey) (;
Filed Under: i spy
Tagged: chevron jewelry, diy, diy blog, diy jewelry, hexagon bracelet diy, i spy
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November 14th, 2011
happy happy joy joy. a toilet!!
no base to clean. energy efficient. ready to use!
(see our first post here. and if you want one, it’s a toto)
Filed Under: D-I-Y
Tagged: camp 1899, diy blog, home diy blog, home renovation blog, tiny house blog, toto, toto toilet, wall hung toilet
*please & thank you* link back to us if you re-post something you see here.
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