Home Improvement

After realizing Bonkers was never going to use the nice ramp I built him for the dining room platform, I caved and built him a lower platform to use as a step to get to the windowsill platform.

Yesterday I was home due to the Federal holiday, so I decided to make myself useful [something I had avoided all weekend by spending most of it sprawled on the couch, under a puff, watching hours of HGTV]. So I set up my ladder, draped some plastic, and finished painting the girl cave ceiling. As you may recall, I started painting the edges of it back in October… The color is a beautiful, rich dark purple called Galaxy by Benjamin Moore.

Last week I built, primed, and painted a cat platform and ramp for the dining room. A few days later I attached them to the dining room windowsill. But after a week of enticing [treats], encouraging [kind words], tough love [dropping on ramp and saying “up up up!”], I realized the cats [particularly Bonkers] were never going to use the ramp.

4 days ago I built a DIY spice rack with some trim wood I bought at our local hardware store. 3 days ago I primed it. Yesterday I painted it, and today it is DONE! It’s my birthday today [43!], so I decided I’d wait until today to hang it up, as a birthday gift to myself 🙂

Last week I bought wood to build a cat platform & ramp for the dining room, as well as for the DIY Spice Rack. I bought a half sheet of ¾” plywood, which I had them cut down into a 23″ x 15″ platform and an 8″ x 48″ ramp. I sanded the edges, nailed treads to the ramp, then primed and painted the ramp and platform.

Today, after a 3 week break from even thinking about DIY [due to traveling for the holidays, a wedding vow renewal on the beach 2 days after Christmas, and friends over for New Years], I decided it was time to get back into it. I’m starting by making my long overdue DIY Spice Rack!

I completed 6 DIY projects in 2013 🙂

At the end of October I started painting the girl cave ceiling, but didn’t get very far due to vertigo issues I’ve suffered from since May. I’m painting it Benjamin Moore Galaxy – a beautiful, rich, dark purple. I think it will look so cool once it’s painted and covered with tiny LED lights. I know it’s not typical to paint a ceiling, let alone paint it dark, but my girl cave is, well, my GIRL CAVE. And my art studio. And I can decorate it however I please 🙂

After painting the Girl Cave walls Violet Mist, I decided to paint the built-in cupboard Amethyst Shadow, which is from the same color family. I decided on high-gloss paint because I love the look of shiny furniture! After 2 coats of BIN primer and 3 coats of Amethyst Shadow, it was done and looking fantastic! It took 2 weeks to fully cure before I could put anything on it. For the hinges & hardware I used Krylon Fusion Mystic Prism Effect spray paint.

The fire alarms in our condo are hard-wired to the walls. Over the years they’ve become very ugly and yellowed. Particularly the 3 upstairs alarms – one in each bedroom, and one in the hallway about 15 feet up. They all say “Do Not Paint” on them. So last weekend I finally got the last of them painted. You saw that coming, right? I made sure not to paint over the green light. Or the red light. Or the slots where the smoke and fire get in.