Green Goodies

Now that we’ve got the cabinets and door sliced, diced and perfectly painted, it’s time to assemble everything into one snazzy, salvaged storage unit!!

Here’s all you’ll need to turn two upper cabinets and a hollow core door into a storage unit:

~  4 L-brackets and corresponding screws

~ 4 drywall anchors (optional)

~ Gorilla Glue (or other wood glue)

~ drill

~ painter’s tape

~ 4 cabinet knobs of your choosing

~ screwdriver

1.  Assume the position.  Got that perfect spot picked out for your storage unit?  Mine was a blank wall in my craft room that was just begging for some extra storage, and I lined the cabinets up against the wall. 

Chances are that one of your cabinets will lean out further than the other one (like mine, above) – this is no problemo.  Just wiggle them around until the fronts of the cabinets are flush and level, then put a few screws through the interior walls of the cabinets (using your trusty drill) so that the two sides of the cabinet are screwed together.  This will keep them flush and perfect for all eternity.

2.  Batten down the hatches.  Now you’re ready to attach your cabinets to the wall.  This is an important step, because you don’t want your storage unit to come crashing down the second that you put something in it – that would be pretty uncool.  All you need is a few L-brackets and screws (and drywall anchors if you want, which will make your cabinet less likely to pull out from the wall).  These are what I used (apparently L-brackets are also called corner braces – who knew?):

I put one L-bracket in the outer corners of each cabinet – just attach the L-bracket to the underside of the top of the cabinet with a few screws.  I was driving myself crazy trying to hold the L-bracket in place with one hand and the screw with the other hand and then trying to screw in the screw – that’s for the birds.  Here’s a little tip – just use some painter’s tape or masking tape and tape those little brackets to your cabinet and to the wall – voila!  No more pulling your hair out while you’re trying to screw the screws in!

Here’s another little tip.  If you’re going to have anything on top of your cabinet that has cords, make sure that you leave a little space behind your cabinets so that the cords can sneak through.  I knew that I was going to have a TV on top of my cabinet, so I used a screwdriver to hold the cabinets out from the wall when I was placing the L-brackets.  Easy!

3.  Put a lid on it.  Here’s the fun part, the part where your storage unit is actually going to start looking like a storage unit instead of just some random cabinets and a door.  All you need to do is grab your Gorilla Glue, make some squiggles on the top of your cabinets and smush the door down on top.  After you make sure everything is centered and just where you want it, grab some heavy stuff and put it on top for about an hour. 

Note:  If you’re going to have cords behind the unit, you might want to make a little cut-out on the back side of the door that you can sneak your cords through.  To make the cut-out in my door, I just figured out where I wanted the cords to come through, made two little inch-long cuts with my hand saw, scored the wood with a utility knife, and then whacked away at it with a hammer until the pieces broke off.  One piece was a little pesky, so I went after it with a pair of pliers and it finally submitted.  Victory!

4.  Get a handle on things.  While the glue on your new countertop is drying, it’s the perfect time to put some new knobs on your storage unit.  I wasn’t exactly sure where I wanted the new knobs, so I just took a look at the knobs on our kitchen cabinets and copied the placement.  I figured out that the knobs should be 1 inch below the frame of the cabinet door, in the middle of the side piece. 

Then I just measured down, made a little dot with a pen, and made a little hole with my trusty drill using a drill bit that was about the same size as the screws that came with the new knobs.

Final tip of the day – put a little painter’s tape on the back side of the cabinet door where you’re going to be drilling – that will prevent the wood from splintering and make your drill hole look more like Picture 1 than Picture 2. 

Yay, now your storage unit is ALMOST ready to go!!  Stay tuned to find out how to make that snazzy, custom countertop . . .

Hold on to your paint brushes – I’m back with another step in my tutorial for creating a custom storage unit out of salvaged cabinetry!

This step involves a hand saw, so get excited!

So far, we’ve painted our salvaged cabinetry and now we’re ready to create a countertop for our storage unit.  The hubby and I salvaged a bunch of hollow core doors from our house during our remodel - I’ve had big plans for them for awhile, and I was super excited to finally get to put one of those babies into action with this storage unit project.

Here’s what you’ll need to turn a hollow core door into the perfect countertop for your storage unit:

~ 1 hollow core door

~ hand saw

~ painter’s tape or masking tape

~ Sharpie

~ screwdriver

~ measuring tape

~ sawhorses or something you can rest the door on

1.  Measure up.  Unless you have freakishly deep lower cabinets, you’ll need to cut down your door so that you only have a small lip for your countertop.  Just place the door on top of the cabinets and play around with the amount of overhang that you have until it looks right – I went with about a 3 inch lip on mine (for a total counter depth of about 16 inches) so that I would have room on top of my cabinets to actually work on projects, display larger items, etc.

2.  Tape it up.  Once you know how large your countertop is going to be, use painter’s tape or masking tape to mark your “cut line.”  Make sure to tape around both sides of the door, and draw a center line down the tape with your Sharpie (you can draw the line on one side only).  There are two reasons for taping the door – first, it clearly marks the line that you’re going to cut with your hand saw and, second, it helps keep the wood from splintering while you’re cutting.  It’s not a perfect fix for splintering, but it definitely helps.

3.  Remove the excess.  Since this hollow core door was actually hung in our house, it had a door knob and hinges that needed to be removed.  However, if you’re only using part of the door you can get away with only removing the door knob or the hinges – just use your screwdriver to take off whichever hardware is on the side of the door that you’re using.  In my case, I just had to remove the hinges.

4.  Go to town.  Bust out that handsaw!!  In a perfect, responsible world, you’ll place your door on two saw horses so that everything is stable and safe while you’re making your cut with the handsaw.  I didn’t have saw horses – while I definitely do not recommend trying this at home (safety first!!), I just propped my door up against a wheelbarrow that we had in our garage and started sawing away.  

At this point, you’ll definitely be glad that you have a hollow core door rather than a solid core door.  As you can see from the picture above, the majority of the hollow core door is just a wood veneer and cardboard spacers – the only real wood are two pieces of 2 x 4 at the top and bottom of the door.  I had a tough time cutting through the wood at the top and bottom of the door, but the middle part of the door was relatively easy to cut through – but don’t get me wrong, my wimpy bicep was definitely screaming the next day!

5.  Paint’er up.  Your door is almost ready!  Now just prime and paint the areas that will be exposed, like the sides and underside of the lip.  You don’t need to paint the whole underside or the top, since the cabinets will be covering most of the underside and our awesome custom treatment will be covering the top.

Stay tuned to see how this salvaged storage unit all comes together!!

Would you ever think that these dreary cabinets:

could turn into this?

It just goes to show you that with a little imagination and inspiration, you can turn salvaged materials into something fun, useful and totally unique.

Let me fill you in on the details.  As you already know, we completely gutted and remodeled our house from top to bottom.  During demo, we made sure to save as many cabinets, doors and random (but potentially useful) things as we could so that we could reuse, recycle or repurpose the salvaged materials instead of just throwing them away.  These solid oak upper cabinets from the den were two of the pieces that were able to be saved:

Pretty uninspiring, right?  (And please avert your eyes from the disaster that is our garage).

We had two of these babies, so I schemed up a plan to turn these upper cabinets into a single base cabinet unit for my craft room.  There were a few steps in these cabinets’ metamorphosis that I’ll fill you in on over the next few days, but first here’s a quick painting tutorial on how the cabinets went from dark and dated to fun and fresh.

This is all you’ll need to get started painting your salvaged cabinets (or any other wood furniture):

~  salvaged cabinets

~  medium grit sandpaper

~ 1 quart oil-based primer, like Kilz

~  1 quart latex paint, color of your choosing

~  water-based polyurethane, finish of your choosing (I used Minwax’s satin finish)

~  foam roller and paint tray

~  foam brush

~  wood filler

~  screwdriver, pliers and hammer

1.  Remove handles and molding.  Since I was going to use these upper cabinets as lower cabinets, I removed the crown molding that had been added to the top of the cabinets – it came off easily using the back of a hammer.  The handles were also in a funky place for lower cabinets, so I just removed them with a screwdriver.  The last step was to remove all of the nails that had been used to secure the cabinets to the wall – they were finishing nails without a head, so they pulled out easily with a pair of pliers.

2.  Fill in the holes.  Not surprisingly, all of the nails and handles that I removed left behind bunches of unsightly little holes.  I just grabbed a tube of wood filler and crammed a bunch of filler into the holes.  Don’t worry about being too tidy here because you’ll sand off the excess later on.

3.  Get sandy.  You’ll want to go to town on your cabinets with medium grit sandpaper to remove any slick finish from the cabinets so that your primer can easily adhere to the surface.  This is also when you’ll sand off the excess wood filler for a nice, even finish.

4.  Bust out the primer.  Oil-based primer is just the ticket for painting wood – it’s super sticky and provides a great base for your paint.  Don’t worry that it’s oil-based – latex paint can go over oil-based primer, just not oil-based paint.  Funky rule, I know.

While some people swear by brushes, t when I’m applying the primer to wood I like to use a foam roller followed up with a foam brush for any tricky corners or drips.  I find that brushes leave behind brush strokes that can drive you crazy, while a foam roller leaves a pretty smooth finish.  Here’s what the primer looked like when I tried to use a brush that I had on hand rather than buying a foam roller:

See what I mean?  It can look pretty bad without a roller.

But don’t worry about your primer being even and perfect – it won’t be and it doesn’t need to be.  All you need to do is make sure to get a little primer on every surface that you’re going to paint so that the paint will stick.

5.  Roll on the paint.  You’re nearing the finish line at this point!  My cabinets took two coats of paint, and in all honesty could probably have used a third coat (sadly, I am lazy and decided to just go with two – still looks pretty good).  I chose to paint over the plastic inserts on the cabinet doors because I hated the color but liked the pattern – if I ever grow tired of the inserts, I can just remove them and add fabric, paint them in a cool mosaic pattern, etc.

6.  Protect the finish.  The last step in this painting project is to slap a few coats of polyurethane on the cabinets to protect the finish from nicks, water rings, or anything else that might hurt the paint.  Be sure to smooth out any drips, as they will turn yellow.

See, painting furniture isn’t so hard!!  Stay tuned, I’ll be filling you in over the next few days on how to create a countertop for the cabinets with a salvaged door, how to assemble your new cabinetry, and how to customize the countertop with a colorful finish.

Check out steps 2, 3 and 4 for the finished cabinet.

This post is shared with Remodelaholic, Poppies at Play, Finding Fabulous, Mustard Seed Creations, My Romantic Home, Thrifty Decor Chick, Between Naps on the Porch, Cottage Instincts, Making the World Cuter, It’s So Very Cheri, Twice Remembered, The Girl Creative, Sumo’s Sweet Stuff, and The Persimmon Perch.

I know, I know – this title is a little more risque than you’re probably used to at It’s Great To Be Home.  But there’s a reason for that – just let me explain.  

You’ve probably heard that low-flow toilets are the way to go these days because they use way less water than outdated high-flow toilets – like up to 30% less.  And with programs like Dallas’ “New Throne For Your Home,” some cities actually reimburse homeowners for part of the cost of replacing their old toilets with water-saving low-flow toilets.  That’s a pretty awesome deal, right?

Here’s a press release that the City of Dallas issued when the program was started almost two years ago:

Even though this program had been around for over a year by the time we started remodeling our home, we knew nothing about it until we saw a little flyer at Home Depot Expo.  We were totally blown away!  Our home was old enough to qualify for the program (built before 1992), so we were in the money!!!  All that we had to do was fill out an application that is available online, and send it in to the City of Dallas along with our most recent water bill and a receipt showing that we had purchased 2 low-flow toilets – so easy!!  

Now for the interesting part.  We’d been waiting for a few months to see that $180 credit on our water bill – and today we got a call that someone from the City of Dallas was on their way to scope out our digs and make sure that we’d really installed the new low-flow toilets.  They wanted to make sure that we weren’t scammers!!  Luckily this was no problem for us as we hadn’t been planning on pocketing 180 bucks-worth of free water.  

Now that we’ve passed inspection, we can expect to see the credit on our next water bill!  Gotta love it when your city takes steps to help out your wallet and the planet.

Want to find out if your city offers a similar low-flow voucher plan?  Just google the name of your town with the phrase “low flow toilet.”  And click here and here for tips on choosing a low-flow toilet.

It’s pretty cool that it’s so easy to jump on the “green” bandwagon these days.  Most cities have recycling programs, there are CFLs in every grocery store . . . it’s awesome! 

In our house, we make sure to use CFLs in every light fixture, we’ve reused old carpet and salvaged materials from the renovation – we even made it easier to recycle by having a special trash pull-out installed in our kitchen during the remodel so that we could separate our trash from our recyclables in a snap:

(I know, totally not necessary, but one of those things that’s really fun to include when you’re designing a kitchen!!)

Even though it’s easy to recycle, it’s sometimes pretty darn confusing to figure out what’s recyclable and what’s not.  Real Simple has a handy-dandy article that can walk you through how to recycle (or reuse) anything. 

Here’s the skinny for my peeps that don’t feel like clicking on the link:

Got any recycling tips of your own?  

All images courtesy of Real Simple.  Click here for your own printable version of Real Simple’s A-Z recycling guide.

It was kind of pitiful – my cute hubby went outside to water our new sod last night and came back in covered with mosquito bites.  It’s official – those nasty little buggers are here.

Ever since we set up our little oasis on our covered patio, we’ve been dreading the day that the mosquitoes arrived.  We’ve also been hatching nasty plans to kill all of them.  And researching various methods of whacking them (or at least encouraging them to bite someone else). 

In honor of Earth Day, here are some of the funnier (and probably totally ineffective) means of killing / deterring mosquitoes in an “earth-friendly manner” that I’ve found:

• Listerine.  The word on the street is that Listerine can be sprayed around your house from a spray bottle, and the active ingredient in Listerine, eucalyptol, kills these little mosquitoes. 

• Laser guns.  I’m totally serious.  Apparently scientists are developing a laser gun that will “toast millions of mosquitoes in a few minutes.”  Awesome.  Too bad they probably won’t be available to the general public.

• Fabric softener sheets.  Just rub these sheets on yourself or tuck a few in your pockets and you’ll be bug-free (in theory).

• Liquid dish soap.  Sprayed around your yard, liquid dish soap is supposed to attract mosquitoes with its lemony-scent and then kill them dead.

• Vick’s Vapo-Rub.  Cedarleaf oil, an active ingredient in Vick’s Vapo-Rub, is a natural mosquito-repellant.

• Citronella.  This one actually works (although I still seem to get bitten even when I’m holding one of these candles).

It’s no shocker, Snopes has called into question the effectiveness of Listerine and liquid dish detergent in repelling and killing mosquitoes.  No worries, I’m banking on that laser gun – hey, CNN reported it!!

Do you have any tried and true ways of killing mosquitoes while still keeping Mother Earth happy?  How are you celebrating Earth Day today?  Let’s hear about it!

Images courtesy of Target, Vicks and Bounce .

Most of you know about Habitat for Humanity, an amazing, nonprofit housing organization that has built more than 300,000 homes around the world.  But did you know that Habitat for Humanity also operates retail outlets called “Habitat ReStores” where top-notch used and surplus building materials are sold to the public for a fraction of their actual value? 

The proceeds from the ReStores are used to fund the construction of new Habitat for Humanity homes within the community.  Habitat estimates that at least 10 or more houses are built each year from the proceeds raised at the ReStores.  How great is that??

There are ReStores located all over the US and Canada – just click here to find one near you in the US, and here for ReStores in Canada.  Here are examples of just a few of the awesome finds at the Dallas-area ReStore:

Doors & windows

• Interior & Exterior, many new [Starting at $5]

Plumbing Supplies

• Copper, PVC, Iron pipes, fittings and other supplies. [$.05-$10]

Plumbing Fixtures

• Antique to New: shower enclosures, sinks, and other fixtures [$5-$100]

Electrical Fixtures & Supplies

• Electrical wiring, new & used light fixtures, switches and outlets. []

Appliances

• Electrical and gas applicances, all less than 10 years old, and guaranteed to be in good working order. [Starting at $25]

Kitchen and Bath Cabinets

• Bath vanities, kitchen cabinets, etc. [Starting at $10]

Heaters and Air Conditioners

• Gas and electric space heaters and air conditioners, Central Heat and Air units. [Starting at $25]

All Types of Flooring

• Gently used and new carpeting, all types of tile, lineolum, hard wood flooring, etc. [$.05-$50]

These great building supplies are donated to the ReStores by all kinds of building supply stores, contractors, demolition crews and individuals just like you and me – so these ReStores are not just a great opportunity for you to find affordable building materials, but you can also help Habitat’s cause by contacting them to donate your used appliances and other building materials that are still in great shape. 

The Dallas-area ReStore accepts “overstocked items, seconds, used, discontinued and salvageable building materials, home improvement items, and major appliances donated by builders, contractors, manufacturers and individuals.  Donated materials are used whenever possible in the construction of Dallas Area Habitat homes.  The remainder are sold at discounted prices with profits used to fund construction efforts for Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.”  In some cases, Habitat will even pick up your donated items. 

So instead of selling that old fridge on Craigslist or putting it out for bulk trash pickup, wouldn’t it feel great to donate it to an awesome organization like Habitat?  Click here for more info and guidelines on donating to the Dallas-area ReStore. 

What awesome steals have you found at discount outlets like the ReStores?  Do you have a favorite charity that you like to donate to?  I’d love to hear about it!!

Images courtesy of Habitat for Humanity.  And thanks to Jen for bringing the ReStores to my attention!

That little green frog has no reason to complain about being green these days – not only is it easy to be green, but going green can be pretty easy on the wallet as well.  Think you’ve got a dainty carbon footprint?  Take a sec and check it out here.  

While it probably isn’t feasible for most of us to convert our homes into ultra-green abodes, there are a few simple changes that each of us can make in our homes or our daily routine to help out ol’ Mother Earth.  You might be surprised that these green tips can actually lead to a little more green in your bank account!  
 

1.  Make CFLs your friend.  ENERGY STAR says that compact fluorescent lights, or “CFLs,” use only 1/4 of the electricity used by ordinary incandescent bulbs – that means that even if CFLs cost a little more than incandescent bulbs, the amount of money that you’ll save on your electricity bill will totally make up for the higher up-front costs (about $30 over the life of the bulb, according to ENERGY STAR).  And you’ll be ecstatic once you realize that your CFLs last 10 times longer than your old incandescent bulbs, saving you trips to the store AND extra cash.  The hubby and I switched out all of the regular incandescent light bulbs in our home for CFLs – it’s a simple switch to make, and what a difference!  

CFLs have really come a long way in the past few years.  Modern CFLs have left the twirly CFLs of yesteryear in the dust!  While those spot-em-a-mile-away twirly bulbs are still around, they’ve been joined by a bunch of new and much more attractive friends:

Bare Products		Covered Products			Reflector Products
Mini-Spiral or Twist	Tube or Universal	Incandescent/ A-line	Globe G25, G30, G40	Candelabra, Post or Bullet Shape	Indoor and Outdoor R20, R30, R40, PAR38

CFLs also give you a choice of the quality of light you want – do you want daylight (like for applying makeup), soft white (for most living areas), or bright white (for areas that you really need lit up)?  For a little more info on CFLs, check out the ENERGY STAR website and its neat little interactive tool you can use to figure out what CFLs are best for your home – click here to check it out!!  And find out how to safely dispose of CFLs here.

2.  Go low with the flow.  Every time most of us take a shower or brush our teeth gallons and gallons of unused water goes down the drain.  Low Impact Living says that low-flow attachments for your sink and shower can save up to 3,000 gallons of per person each year – that’s a serious amount of water!!  These attachments are pretty cheap ($30 and up), and can make a big difference in your water consumption as well as your water bill.

3.  Program it, stat!  Programmable thermostats are one of the greatest inventions ever – how awesome is it that you can tell your programmable thermostat that you want your house to be 70 degrees at 3 pm on Tuesday, and your programmable thermostat will make it happen!?!  You can find low-cost programmable thermostats (I’m talking $40 or less) at any Lowe’s or Home Depot that you can install in a jiff.  And once you’ve got that baby in place, use it!!  Make sure that you turn the heat or A/C down when you’re at work or out of town – your utility bills will thank you!

4.  Put a sweater on it.  Ah water heaters, apparently one of my favorite subjects.  You already know to turn your water heater down to 120 degrees - that way you can prevent scalding and save the money you would have been spending to heat all that water to a bazillion degrees.  But Low Impact Living has a few other nifty (and cheap!) ideas to increase the efficiency of your water heater – put aninsulation sweater on your water heater and insulate the pipes coming out of your water heater.  The added insulation will decrease the amount of energy that your water heater has to expend to keep your water hot.

5.  Recycle.  It can be confusing to figure out what can and can’t be recycled, and how to take advantage of recycling programs in your city.  Earth911.com will tell you everything you need to know about recycling and how to recycle in your neck of the woods.  Since my husband and I added an extra trash can to our kitchen specifically for recycling, we’ve been amazed at how little actual “trash” we have – almost everything that we used to just throw away is recyclable! 

6.  Give plastic water bottles the boot.  Yes, they’re convenient, but those little “disposable” plastic containers are a big no-no these days.  Take a trip to your local grocery store or click here to pick up a few reusable, sturdy plastic bottles that you can use and then pop in the dishwasher to reuse.  And with all the water filters available these days, the water in your reusable bottle will taste just as good as store bought (and it will be a lot cheaper).  

That doesn’t sound so hard, does it?  Visit Low Impact Living for more ideas on how you can save a little green while you’re saving the planet.  Got any green ideas of your own?  Let us know!!
 

Images courtesy of ENERGY STAR and Think Outside the Bottle.