Sometimes, when one of your tenants moves out they fail to change their address right away – this is not too uncommon, eh? An easy way to handle the mail if you have a forwarding address is to take a sharpie marker and cross out the current address and also cross out the bar code along the bottom of the envelope (if you don’t do this, then it will automatically come right back to your address). Then write, “Please forward: ” and then the new address. This way, you don’t have to pay any postage to send it to them, don’t have to leave it somewhere for them, and you don’t have to just do a Return to Sender – they will get their mail faster. Of course, you can only do this while you are in control of the place – once you get a new tenant then their stuff will get Returned to Sender. However, by then, they should’ve gotten their change of address straightened out anyway. I got this information by calling USPS directly and also after a visit to the Post Office – that’s all the lady did there. Hope this helps someone else!
This is literally straight out of Do It Yourself magazine which is a Better Homes and Garden Special Interest Publication. I splurged last minute in the checkout line at Home Depot and bought a copy. I’m so glad I did – I discovered this cool bulletin board. I really want a subscription to this magazine!!!! But I’m kind of cheap so we’ll see.
We recently had a rental unit become vacant in our four-plex building (building has four units) and we are in need of some art in the common area. I think this might be the perfect thing! We’ll see how long it lasts though! 😉 I figure why put some generic piece of art when you can have something functional. And it does look cute, don’t you think? If someone wants to leave the tenants a note or something – wallah!
What you will need:
-Crochet yarn (whatever color you like-I did red, my favorite!) – found at Joann’s
-Decorative tacks (whatever style you like) – found mine at Joann’s
-Fabric (I used white linen – found at Joann’s)
-Felt (I used white felt – found by the yard at Joann’s)
-MDF board ( found in the lumber section at Home Depot – they had 2 x 4 boards and I had my husband cut one in half so I had to 2 2×4 boards). I bet they will cut it for you at Home Depot if you ask someone though – they are awesome like that. I didn’t think of it at the time.
-Hammer
-Pliers (needle nosed are important b/c those tacks are small!)
-Ruler
-Staple Gun and Staples
Directions:
1.) Cut and prepare the fabric: Cut your fabric so that there is about 2 inches of fabric to wrap around the back of the board. You will need enough to staple. Cut the felt the same. Iron the fabric. I didn’t iron the felt. Cut the corners of the fabric such that when you fold over and staple there won’t be too much fabric on the corners. A little L-Shaped cut off all four corners – just won’t cut past the board itself – not really possible with the board lying on top of the fabric. Don’t worry, you won’t screw it up. I don’t even know if you really need to do this – it just makes it easier to staple the corners.
2.) Staple the fabric to the board: Lay the fabric down on the floor then lay the felt on top of it, then lay down the board. Start on one side and wrap the fabric around then staple it about every few inches. This is tricky since it’s better to use two hands on the staple gun. No worries – you can always hammer the staples in more later if you need to – this is what I did. Staple all around doing opposing sides first to pull taut the fabric as much as possible.
3.) Time to put the tacks in: First, measure out how many tacks will fit on your board base on how wide and long your board is. I had a 2×2 board so I had 24 inches to work with on each side. I wanted to put the tacks about 1 inch away from the sides and 3 to 4 inches of space between. So, I did some fuzzy math and came up with 7 tacks across and 5 rows of tacks from top to bottom. I placed the tacks 3.75 inches apart on the width which meant 7 tacks across and 5.5 inches apart on the height which meant 5 rows of tacks. This left an inch around all the sides and enough room for pictures, envelopes, stuff like that. I pencil marked the first row of tacks using a ruler and pencil and the start of each of the rows of tacks, but I kind of eye-balled the rest. You will not be able to erase the pencil marks later (just fyi). It doesn’t have to be perfect. That’s what I tell the girls – art is art – the beauty is in the imperfections. Hold the tack in place with the pliers and hammer away! Those pliers are important b/c if it gets cock-eyed – that’s how it will go into the board. Make sure to hold it straight. I have a few crooked ones though and it’s fine! Again, art is art! Yes, I do consider bulletin boards art.. :-p
4.) Zig Zag away the yarn: Tie the yarn into a knot around the first tack you want to start from. I just started from the upper left most tack. Then, this is where the creative part comes in – you can zig-zag however you want. Ever been to a work out or dance class and they say it’s time to free-style? And everyone’s all excited dancing around like maniacs – well, that’s where my eyes get big and I look around dumb-founded – it’s frightening! It’s kind of like that to me when someone says that with art b/c I’m not creative at all. But I managed to come up with something and I don’t think you can really go wrong with it. Then, when you are done, tie a knot around the last tack and you are done. I went through and pushed all my thread down so that it’s flush against the board, but I’m not sure if that’s really necessary.
5.) Hang: Put pictures or Christmas/Birthday cards behind the yarn and hang on the wall – I always use Command Picture Hanging Strips!
The one on the left is the one my daughter did – I like hers better. Here signifies the difference in the two minds – mine is chaotic – hers more organized. :-p
Update: I had to use a french cleat to hang these b/c they kept falling off the wall (professional, eh?). I’m no longer fond of command strips – I’m starting to think it’s just a matter of time before the other stuff starts falling. :-/ I used Liquid Nails to glue the french cleat to the back of the tackboard (it is hard to get it level this way though we just used some wall putty (the blue stuff used to stick things to the wall and shoved that in the french cleat space to level things out – a hack, I know – unless you can find a better way to level it) and then there is a level to hang the other part of the french cleat to the wall. They cost about $8 at Home Depot and the one I got holds up to 60 lbs.
So, if you know me, you know that I love collages. Therefore, it’s no surprise that a collage of collages really excites me! I used PicMonkey‘s free service for these. This is just a nice way to fit a bunch of pictures of family on one wall and not have to buy special collage frames – you can buy whatever frames you want and you aren’t limited in what you do, how many pictures, etc. It’s really easy – the trickiest part is getting the pixel size just right for whatever frame you are using. If the size is wrong, you could end up with someone’s head getting cropped off, which is not ideal. I saved mine as 3300 x 4200 pixels when I did them but I’ve noticed that PicMonkey doesn’t let you go over 3400 pixels now so I’ve read that 2200 x 2800 pixels will also work for 11×14. You just click on the create collage button and select the type of collage you want, upload your pictures, and play away. I’m not going to go into those details here b/c I’m sure PicMonkey has better tutorials than any I could do. Here’s the recommended pixel sizes from the blog site that I found:
3×5 inches: 1500 x 2500 pixels
4×6 inches: 1600 x 2400 pixels
5×7 inches: 1500 x 2100 pixels
8×8inches: 2000 x 2000 pixels
8×10inches: 2000 x 2500 pixels
8.5×11 inches: 1700 x 2200 pixels
9×16 inches: 3200 x 1800 pixels
11×14inches: 2200 x 2800 pixels
11×17inches: 2200 x 3400pixels
I got these sizes from the Perfectly Rooted Blog. She has some good suggestions about how to create artwork in PicMonkey which I haven’t done yet. I’ve only used Picasa for that and PicMonkey for collages. I love all these free tools though – one day!!!
We decided to rent out our house when we moved instead of selling it. Here are some of the updates we made in order to make it rental-ready:
Here’s the kitchen:
Kitchen
The kitchen didn’t need much work, in my opinion. Sure, we could’ve updated some things like the countertops and the backsplash to make them even nicer, but we really didn’t think it was necessary at this time and for this market – they are in pretty good shape.
We really wanted to add shelving or cabinets to the one empty wall but we didn’t get around to it this time.
We did need to scrub the grout in the floor tile b/c it had turned really dark. I did this with an oxyclean/water solution that I sprayed in the grout and allowed it to sit for a few minutes, then scrubbed with a hard toothbrush – worked like a charm. Note: You should spot test if this will work for your grout before doing it b/c if you have dark grout or the grout hasn’t been sealed in a while it may not be the best idea.
The biggest problem with this kitchen is that there is no pantry. So, we turned a coat closet that is right next to the kitchen into a pantry, as shown below. My husband used 3/4 inch sanded plywood, cut to size and 1/2 furring strips on the sides to hold them in place. We painted them white. They are all removable so if they would rather have a coat closet, then they can stack all the shelves on the bottom shelf and keep the rod in place (see the brown rod below).
We also got a new 6 panel solid wood door that opens to the left – making it more convenient as a pantry. The old door opened to the right which wouldn’t have been as convenient since the counter top is to the right. We chose solid wood in case later we want to add a spice rack or something to the door.
Pantry
This is the dining room – no updates here – just scrubbed the grout.
Dining Room
This is the living room. My husband had to replace the carpet. We chose to go with Allure vinyl plank flooring (not Ultra click and lock but the kind that sticks together) – this is a blonde color. It’s really easy to install – we’ll see if it holds up. UPDATE: Our first tenant moved out after a year and it looks good as new. 🙂
Living Room
Here’s the hallway. It was redone with Allure Ultra a while back and has held up really well through 2 rounds of tenants (now 3 rounds of tenants) which is amazing for a high traffic hallway. We would’ve loved to put Allure Ultra everywhere but it is significantly more expensive than regular Allure Vinyl flooring and a little bit trickier to install since it’s interlocking and the planks are flexible. The regular Allure vinyl plank is peel and stick (sticks to each other so it’s floating still). We figure we’ll try it out and see how it holds up.
Hallway
There is one bathroom off the hallway. We didn’t do anything to it this time around:
Main floor bathroom
The following 3 pictures are the bedrooms. We chose to do laminate floors in the bedrooms b/c there was a sale and we wanted to try out a few different types of floors to see which holds up the best. Ideally, at some point, we will have consistent floors. There’s still carpet in the master bedroom as you can see b/c it wasn’t too badly damaged. UPDATE: this laminate floor held up really well too through one tenant (1 year) – not a scratch or any problem with it. Woohoo! I think we are permanently done with carpet.
Bedroom 1Bedroom 2Master Bedroom
The basement ended up being quite time consuming. We needed to replace the carpet b/c it had been badly damaged. Carpet is probably not the best choice for a basement anyway. However, we had a dilemma b/c we had a french drain and sump pump put in our basement when we lived there. For that they had to dig up around the edges of the basement concrete to lay the french drain and then they poured new concrete over it. For this reason, the basement was no longer level.
The concrete they poured in was not high quality so it wasn’t smooth and it was also higher than the rest of the basement. We had 2 options, we could pour more concrete in the basement to make it level or we could grind down the edges. We decided that grinding down the edges would be easier and less expensive. So, my husband rented a concrete grinder and grinded down the edges to try to make it more even with the rest of the basement.
Then, he laid down some Allure flooring (the color is IronWood – looks blackish gray). I kind of wish we had chosen Allure Ultra for this b/c it’s waterproof but we didn’t. If this doesn’t hold up then we will next time. The ceiling of the basement is a really cool type of drop ceiling that sits flush against the ceiling joists – thereby raising the height of the ceiling. We made this update when we lived there as well as adding the recessed lighting – makes a big difference to the space. This space makes a great second living room/kid’s playroom or recreation room. UPDATE: this flooring lasted great through one tenant (1 year). There’s a couple of places near the stairs where the flooring has a little too much gap in between the planks and it catches dirt, etc but other than that it’s still great.
Basement Living AreaBasement Living Area
Basement bathroom. There had been a leak at one point in the bathroom above this one so the ceiling was not in great shape – instead of patching it, my husband replaced the whole ceiling – looks better than the previous patchwork, for sure. Other than that, we didn’t have to do anything else here:
Basement Bathroom
Basement Bonus Room with Closet:
Basement Bonus Room With Closet
Basement Bonus Room (potential office):
Basement Bonus Room (Potential Office)
Other than those updates, all rooms had to be repainted and most doors had to be repainted. I’m the official painter so I took care of that. There were lots of holes left in the wall so spackle became my best friend during that time. And I think I’ve basically sanded my fingerprints off so if I ever get in trouble with the law they won’t be able to identify me! :-p So, tenants might not want to mess with me.. j/k – of course!
I’ll include the paint colors here in case you are interested. These are mostly the same paint colors we had when we lived there, except for the living room and bedrooms – I tried to find more neutrals. It’s hard to find a good neutral though – I know many of you out there will know what I’m talking about! There are lots of pink beiges and prison or mental facility grays lurking out there waiting to waste your valuable time! I digress – here’s the colors:
Main Floor Kitchen & Dining Room & one of the bedrooms: Bell Grove Buff (Lowe’s Valspar brand)
Main Floor Living Room & 2 of the bedrooms: Buffed Tan (Home Depot Behr)
Main Floor Bathroom: Au Lait Ole Lowe’s Valspar brand – don’t recommend this color – quite ugly)
Basement Living Area: Gold 3 (Laura Ashley Home brand LA709 at Lowe’s – they don’t sell it anymore but they will make some for you if you ask them for it.)
Basement Bonus Room with Closet: Promenade (Home Depot Behr brand)
To organize my girl’s school papers, I spray painted some hanging wall files that I found at Wal-Mart and hung them on the wall with the girl’s names on them. We get so many papers from school though – I’m not actually sure this is going to be useful. There’s a trash can located directly below this for when it overflows. :-/
With all the electronics in the house, we decided we could use a centrally located charging station to get them all charged at once. We kept losing power cords and devices, etc. We figured our office would be the best place to create a charging station.
Our office is right off the kitchen. It’s really supposed to be a formal dining room, but we figured we didn’t really need 2 dining rooms since we are currently using our breakfast room as a dining room. My husband’s parents had given us a record player shelving unit when we got married and we figured that would serve this purpose really well. It has a little pull out shelf.
I found the box at Hobby Lobby and had my husband drill some holes in it (I want to learn how to use his drill, but haven’t taken the initiative yet – one of these days. He’s tried to show me how to use it once before but I dazed in and out while he was talking and missed half the lesson. :-/ ).
The cords are held in place – or the reason they don’t slip out is due to binder clips.
Also, at Walmart, we found an extension cord that had 4 USB ports on it, so I taped that to the back of the shelving unit – this allows you to plug in 4 devices at once. This is a necessity since there is only 1 plug available behind the shelf.
What you will need:
Extension cord with 4 USB ports
Decorative box with separate compartments
Drill
Binder clips
Strong tape or I used those command picture hanging strips b/c then it’s removable
I love DIY wall art in general! I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that already though I’m not overly creative so you’re not going to see anything magazine-worthy here, but I’m happy with the results which is all that matters, right? :-p I love that you can choose the colors, the content, etc.
So, there are a few sayings that I really love and I’ve made a frame for each of the girl’s rooms with custom phrases for each of them – tailored to their personalities. I’ve also made a couple for my dining room. I used Picasa – it’s free! Here’s a link to the tutorial I used:
I love Centsational Girl’s blog – I could spend hours there on the weekend and sometimes do! Here’s some pictures of the word art that I’ve made so far:
For my very emotional daughter:
For the daughter that gets a nervous belly ache everyday before school..
Because my one daughter thinks she’s a princess and she is of the one true King.
For the breakfast room, because we need a daily reminder, even before breakfast:
And it kind of looks like a bowl, right? Or a vase, but whatever… :-p
This is just a random collage that ended up being a big pain, but I love the end result. Did I mention that my obsession isn’t just with magnet board collages, but collages in general? Yes, love them!
So, what happened was, picture frames were on sale at Michael’s (turns out they always are), so I snatched up a bunch of different sizes in white.
I was all excited to do this collage, but then ended up letting them sit in my office for a little over a year before I decided to do anything with them. :-/
At that point, I realized that to buy mats for these odd sizes that I bought was going to cost about $44 per frame (double the price of the frames). WHAT?!?! And now it was too late to return them.
Well, long story short, we ended up buying a mat cutter for $30 and doing it ourselves. It was a full day project, but way better than spending $44/frame.
My husband arranged them on the floor a few times and got the layout just right – he’s way better at spacial arrangements than me. I love what he came up with though. Figured I’d share for those who want to do a similar collage. But definitely try to buy frames with standard mat sizes. Don’t make the same mistake I did!
A friend of mine gave me a genius idea – she spray painted her light fixtures instead of buying new so I had to try it for myself!
Rather than spend the money on new light fixtures when we had perfectly good ones, we spray painted them!
We just recently changed out all our cabinet hardware to get rid of the brassy gold stuff and so we just needed to update the fixtures since they were also brassy gold.
The can says Oil Rubbed Bronze – that was the color of the spray paint and it was perfect for that bronze look to match our cabinet handles. I also used this same spray paint to paint the picture frames in the magnet board collage that I posted a couple days ago.
Woohoo! Looks like new to me! 🙂
Now, the ceiling fan, I did not dare try to paint (though I’m sure it’s possible – just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort). My daughter’s ceiling fan went out in her room so I convinced my frugal husband that we could move the living room ceiling fan into my daughter’s room and get a new (bronze metal) fan for the living room. It was quite an upgrade since we even got a larger sized fan which is nice for air flow. Yay for no more brassy gold!
These magnet boards are to hold bible verses. I actually haven’t changed them out since I first hung them but that is the intention in the future:
In case you’re curious, these are the verses (my favorite ones, of course):
1.) Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
2.) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34
3.) Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3
4.) Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6
