Friday, March 22, 2013

The Glamorous Life. Not.

In the spirit of keeping things real...here is the non-excitingness around our casa lately.



I have been in the midst of swapping out our wintery decor for something sunshine-y.  I'm trying to force the whole "if you decorate it, spring will come" thing.  That means we have accessories galore, sitting all over the place...just waiting to see if they make the cut or go back into the closet.

On top of that, our "craft room" aka our second guest bedroom has looked like a bomb went off for weeks months now.  I decided it was high time I emptied it {obviously onto our living room/dining room floor} so I could sort through things and organize my project list.

And then there was the electrical work.



You see, back in October, when stupid Sandy left us without power for a week...we decided to invest in a generator.  Then we thought it'd be a great idea to hardwire it to our house.  For that, we'd need an electrician...and unfortunately, it took until this past week to get that electrician to the house.  Of course, while we had him, I figured it'd be a great time to move an outlet and add another.

The hubs and I love to have string lights on our mantel {especially during fall, Christmas, winter...and well pretty much all the time}, so having an ugly cord hanging off the mantel and plugging into the wall just wasn't a cute look.  Plus, if we want to plug things in on the buffet {like when we put Christmas lights on there this past year}, we had to have our plugs hanging off the buffet to the same outlet we plugged the mantel lights into.

Easy, and much more attractive solution?  {Okay...so the solution was only "easy" for us because we just paid to have someone do it.}  1) Add an outlet on the mantel and 2) move the outlet that was showing on our wall, to an area that would be hidden by our buffet.  Woo-to-the-hoooo...no more cords hanging all over the place!

And why haven't I cleaned up and put our furniture back in place?  Well you DO see the horrendous drywall tape bubbled up in the picture near the fireplace don't you?


Yea, that ugly eye sore.  Ugh.

That crack was there when we bought the house.  I asked our contractor to take care of it while they were doing the other major things in our house.  They did, but the tape soon started to pop off the wall.  I'm no expert, but I feel like it has something to do with the fact that we have plaster walls, and sticking drywall tape on there might not have been the best solution.  I hopped on Angie's list to find a professional with a great reputation, and had him come by to give me a free estimate to fix the crack.  He said he'd need to cut that area out, use fiber glass mesh tape, and then patch/sand/patch/sand/patch/sand. 

He also said it's something that may come back every few years because our house is old, and well, has plaster walls.  {The proximity to our fireplace could also have something to do with the crack.  Changes in temperature = expanding and contracting...makes sense to me!}  The repair seemed easy enough, and I thanked him for stopping by...and then I made a list of materials I'd need and went to Home Depot.

I have grand plans of patching this crack {along with a smaller one in our hallway ceiling} myself.  I figure if I screw it up, I'll need to have a professional come in anyway....so why not try it first and see if I can save the $200.

Wish me luck.  I will probably need it. ;)

34 comments:

  1. You are brave! I'd probably just chicken out and hang a picture over the crack. Because it's in a perfect spot for that. ;) Good luck! You're a better woman than I!

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    1. I'm not sure if I'm brave or stupid...but I guess we'll find out soon enough! Haha! :)

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  2. good luck! my house is in chaos right now, too because i have been spring purging- getting rid of stuff i haven't used in a while.... just took a trunk full to goodwill and i have a feeling more will be leaving! it feels good to get it done though. and even in chaos your house still looks fabulous.

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    1. Isn't purging so therapeutic?!?! Plus, you are awesome enough to donate things too…win-win! Aw, thanks...you are so sweet! :)

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  3. Good luck fixing the crack! I'm sure you can do it!

    My spare room is always full of project supplies and half completed ideas. I clean it out like every 3 months and it just ends up the same. It's a terrible habit!

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    1. Thanks...I hope you're right!!

      HA! I do the exact same thing...it gets cleaned out, then filled up...then cleaned out, then filled again. Oh well! At least we are cleaning it out every once in a while, right?!? ;)

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  4. I would totally DIY the crap out of that! We get settling cracks a lot in our house too because of the age. Tape is hard for something like that, it's almost better to use the netting (do you know what I mean) and mud on top of it. That way of it does come back again, it's easier to repair than trying to rip out bubbled up tape!

    We hardwired our generator this year too :). Yay for storm prep! Course I made Dan DIY that one too!

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    1. Yup, that's the fiber glass mesh tape that I got! I'm hoping it does the trick. :)

      And I'm totally jealous of your electrical DIY skills. We do not have ANY!

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  5. Oh yes. Old houses and cracks. We have 'em too. Thankfully they're pretty inconspicuous. Good luck patching it! And for goodness sake, clean that place up! ;)

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    1. Hahahaha!!! I know, right?!?! I need to get my act together. ;)

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  6. Ugh. Plaster walls are a blessing and a curse.

    Also, I appreciate you sharing your craziness. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who sometimes lives in a house full of Target bags.

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    1. Totally agree!!

      Anytime...it's nice to know we are all in the same boat. ;)

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  7. I'm going to pin those messy photos!!! I kid I kid. But really, my house looks like that most of the time. Minus the crack..

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  8. You are so brave!! But I have faith in you and am all about saving $200 if it works out well! Good luck! :)

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  9. I just fixed the huge hole in the wall where I ripped down my kitchen half wall and it turned out great. You can't see it was ever there. I'm sure you can do it. The trick for me was in getting those big flat drywall sanders and going over it about 10 times. Spackle, sand, spackle, sand...Good luck.

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    1. Thanks Julia! Hopefully it turns out half as good as yours! :)

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  10. I feel ya! Our ranch was built in the 50's and has thick plaster walls through out the upstairs. Right next to our fireplace some of the plaster off the ceiling is bubbling and breaking from the brick getting warm and then cold. I think it just goes with caring for an old house. We've patched it but 2 years later and crumbled and bubbled again. Time for a pro. Those imperfections give are houses character, right?! LOL xo Kristin

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    1. Yup...ours too, 1954. Exactly...that's what my hubby said! Hahaha! ;)

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  11. I so understand that one update leads to other repairs. I adore your look in your home, but what bothers me is the beautiful lighting above your dining table. It needs turned in the direction of the table. Long with long. Now the long part of the light is going with the short of your table. Was this done on purpose?

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    1. When we added a dining room light fixture (there was just a single high hat there before), we had our table facing the other way. Since then we found and made over a buffet from Craigslist, and so we ended up switching the orientation of our table to better fit the buffet. I thought it might bother me having things the way they are, but I don't mind it at all. Plus, we get to enjoy the beautiful light fixture from our living room with the way it is.

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  12. That's a great idea to put an outlet by the mantel.
    My 3rd bedroom/craft room is a nightmare too! After you posted that pic on instagram I started sorting through the piles...still a lot of work left though! Thanks for the inspiration!

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    1. I'm glad I'm not alone on guest bedroom/craft rooms being a disaster! And I'm happy I could help inspire you. Kudos for you taking it on with an infant in the house...how do you have time for it all? :)

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  13. Wow, $200 bucks? My goodness, is everything expensive in NJ? I only ask because hubby just got a job up there, and there may or may not be a move in our future? I say go for it, I 100% believe you will be able to do it yourself, and like you said, if not, then you can hire someone, until then, just keep imagining spending that money on some new spring clothes ;)

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    1. Yup...$200 for that and the other crack in our hallway. He said it'd be a lot (and so did the other person I got a quote from) because our job would take up half a day basically just waiting for coats of mud to dry...so they had to charge that price. Which I totally get...but also, that's why I wanted to try it myself first. We'll see how it goes!!

      And NJ is definitely more expensive than Texas (and the cost of living in Jersey varies depending on where in the state too...by a lot)...but usually the salaries are higher to match the cost of living. So sometimes it balances out. Where in NJ?!

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    2. I've heard that too, he will be working from the Red Bank area, so if or when the time comes, we will look around there. We have gotten pretty spoiled living in TX the last few years, it will definitely be different, but exciting at the same time.

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    3. Oh nice! Yea, I'm sure it'll be a little different, but in a good way! :)

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  14. I know it may seem that things are far from perfect, but trust me when I say your imperfectness is not all that bad. I wish you luck with repairing the plaster yourself (you can do it). Thanks for sharing the 'not so pretty' part of everyday life. :)

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    1. Thanks for the luck! And of course...I enjoy showing the "realness" of life. :)

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  15. Good luck with that crack! I'd probably try to DIY it myself too if it's just going to keep coming back!

    My house has been a mess too! I finally got some cleaning done, but I still need to spring clean and get things around here organized!

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    1. Thanks Ashley!! I'm glad I'm not the only one who needs to do a major clean up! :)

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  16. Crack kills!! haha sorry that was lame. :)
    Sadly, at least one room in my house always looks like that... Good luck with these projects lady!

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