Gotta love Ikea

I have to sleep in a DARK room.  And even with two inch blinds the lake house was not dark enough.  The master bedroom is on the east side of the house, so the sunrise is a BIG problem,  When we are at the lake we are suppose to be relaxing so to be awake at sunrise it not a fun thing for us.  

But I am on a budget with everything I do with the lake house.  So I had to think outside the box.  I decided that I wanted a wall of curtains rather than one on each window and another one on the door.  I also wanted floor to ceiling to make the room look bigger.  Yes that is popcorn ceilings you see, we didn't scrap them because we were running out of steam and it is a lake house.  I painted the ceilings the same color as the walls to make the rooms look as big as possible.

The Rods are the longest rods I could get at Ikea they were $8 each and they are adjustable.

I used these brackets and I need two sets.  $1.50 each.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60268642/

I splurged on these (ha ha) $7 for the set.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40217248/

I connected the two rods with a threaded rod.  I picked it up at Ace hardware store, it was $1.19

I mounted the curtain brackets on each side of the door and the outside of the windows.  So yes I am only using four brackets for the entire wall.

So for $27 I have a full wall curtain rod, brackets and decorative finial ends.  Trust me that is a great price for over twenty-one feet of curtain rod.

I sewed the panels together.   Yes the middle is a different color. Long story. (Somebody Gary was wrong on how many it would take and when he reordered they were not exactly the same.  But that was the only option.  Again this is a lake house.)  I sewed three together  on each end then the four in the middle are sewed together in groups of two. So we could open them to hang on both sides of the windows and both sides of the door leading to the back porch.  I should have taken an open photo.  Sorry.

Gary is the Groupon king in our house.  He got two dark out curtain panels for 19.00, only flaw they are narrow.  If you haven't been shopping for dark out curtains lately, hold on to your nickers.  They are outrageous.  So for $100 I got floor to ceiling room darkening curtains for the whole wall.

So for $127.00 I have room darkening curtains and the rod.  I am going to customize them.  I will post that when I do it. 

Happy room darkening.

Vents

The lake house vents are in BAD shape.  But there are 15 vents, four HUGE, five large, five normal, and tiny one.  I priced new vents and was not going to spend three hundred dollars on new vents.  SO painting them is my only option.  I got two cans of spray paint to match the hardwood floors. 

First I laid an old towel in the bottom of the tub, I sprayed the vents down heavily with 409, then I filled the tub up with scalding hot water.  I decided to soak them.  Let the water do the hard work.

Confession, I didn't mean to soak them overnight, but this tub is only used when we have guests.  So I was able to leave them there without worrying about it.  This is what I found the next day.  I always use rubber gloves on all gross jobs.  I scrubbed all the vents with my scrub brush.

You can see how much dirtier the water is after they were all scrubbed.  Always clean before you paint.  So you won't get flaking paint.

I stacked them to dry.

Like I said they are in bad shape, and that is the factory paint.  Before I put them back I will vacuum out the ducts.  I am also going to put weather stripping along the sides to hold them in place.  After we put the hardwood floors down they slide in the openings.  Drives me crazy. 

Getting ready to paint. I am just using an old sheet as a drop cloth.

First coat.

Never fails I start a project and Gary decides to do something.   He decided to mow today.

So no second coat today. 

I decided to paint the louvers, after I did the first corners with weather stripping.  I did the second top coat at the lake.   So two cans of paint did the insides and the tops twice of 15 vents.

I only painted the inside of the vents with one heavy coat of paint.  Then I put peel and stick weather stripping on the corners to stop the vents from moving.   I vacuumed out the vents out while I did this.  I do that once a year.   It will shock you what they gather. Love my Dyson, great vacuum.

The vents look 100 percent better, and match way better.  I am pleased.   I am doing the master bath two next.   A different color to match the tile.  

I didn't paint the master closet vent.  Honestly I just missed it.  Like I said it took two cans of spray paint to do 15 vents, I have $7 in paint and $8 in insulation to make the vent stay in play.  So for $15 I have a whole new look.

Happy Venting.

The RV thingamabob

Confession,I have this burning desire to RV the Grand Canyon, and as many of the state parks as I can squeeze in before Gary just blows a gasket.  He claims he is game if I do all the driving.  Well I know that we want a class B.  You might ask what is the difference.  Well size.  I want the smaller van chassis, but I want what they consider a B+ unit they are between 24 and 26 feet long full bath, full kitchen.  (well RV standard full).  There are three companies that I am looking at simply because they have a murphy bed.  This is a great use of space.  Here are the companies I found and the links to their websites.  I am going to go look and test drive the units sometime soon. (I'll post and get actual photos of the units)   There is a fourth company just because the price and the floor plan is doable.  Note- the murphy bed is so new that finding used models is literally "like finding a needle in a haystack".

So what I learned from this hunt is that the maker of the RV is the company like Leisure Van, Pleasure Way, Coachmen, and Viper.  The chassis can be any company they want to use, Ford, Chevy, and in most of these Mercedes. The GVW makes all the difference in MPG. Which is really like 15 MPG not the 20 most companies say.

First Leisure Van  Unity MB is the unit I like here is their website.

http://leisurevans.com/unity/floorplans.html#anchor

Floor plan

 Pro- Great queen murphy bed, 24 feet long.

Con- Tiniest kitchen sink EVER.  Cost a kick in the gut at 120,000-149,000

The next option is Pleasure Way XL they offer a unit called the Plateau.

Here is their link.

http://pleasureway.com/pleasure-way-plateau-xl/

Floor plan

Pro- Murphy bed, no slide outs, best open bathroom plan

Con- 25 Feet long, again the cost is steep at 132,000+

The option to offer the bed I want is Coachmen Prism 24M
Here is their link.
http://coachmenrv.com/product-details.aspx?LineID=53&Image=742

Floor plan

Pro- Bed, large sink, and chase lounge. Price 87,000-95,000, Thought it was just 24' long

Con-  25'4" the 24M lies, Honestly not as nice as the others, yet the price is better, still not great at 87,000.   To be honest for that amount of savings it is a great bargain, so it is the leading the race.   The issue is who expects to pay that much for an RV.   Not me.

This is just because of the price, and the layout is not bad.  The Viper 27V
http://nexusrv.com/product/2016-viper-27-v-class-b-motorhome

Floor plan

Pro- floor plan is okay, Price 79,000+, sink size

Con- size it is 27 feet long.  And no real living room space, the dinette takes up all the space.

I have no idea what we are going to do.. I'll post that later.  But hope all my research helps you save some time.  Good luck.

Quick update.... 

Another company offering the Murphy Bed.  This company is HARD to find, not very many dealers.  They don't post their prices which is not a good sign.  The model is the 

Platinum II 241XL MBD — Murphy Bed Dinette

http://www.coachhouserv.com/model-241xl.php

Happy RV hunting.

Dishwasher Heater Replacement – Samsung Dishwasher Repair

My dishwasher was giving me an error code.  The two middle lights would blink and the dishwasher would stop half way through a wash cycle.  SO after I hit google, and searched I found that it is a heating element error code.   I attached the link I found to take it apart.  It was not the exact model but close enough.  It took me two hours to fix this problem.  But honestly it would have only taken an hour if I had the right tools and had gather them at the beginning.   I know better, but I was trying to take a short cut and I was also tired of hand washing dishes.The part took 10 days to get.  

I will tell you purchase the magnetic tools.  I will never own anything that is not magnetic again.  Dropping a screw in tight places is not fun.

I am a big video person... This is close but not the same on the underside.  I also just unplugged the unit and left the electrical attached as well as I found it easier to disconnect the water supply from under the sink. But that was my preference.

My six year old unit without the baskets.

I took the dishwasher apart and found this.  I wish I would have gotten a photo of the dish soap build up before I cleaned it out.  Beyond gross.  This is not even close to the way it looked.  When I took the rest of this apart there was more build up on the underside of the white pump blades.  Just hold that so it can't spin while you take the screw off.   I use cascade, so I was beyond surprised.  I will be doing some research on that next.  This is a very poor design, the square drain is about 1/2 an inch higher than the last bit of water as you can see it sits in water.  then the support bar is a gather place for debris to gather and burn on the heating element to start the rusting process. But it did take six years to break.  

I strongly suggest that you plug the sink that the dishwasher drains to.  

What the new part looks like.. HUGE difference as you can see.

\

The old unit.  

The worst part of the whole process was taking this out.  It really is a pain to get to.  

Happy no more hand washing dishes.

Getting organized

We are getting ready to put the house on the market so I am gonna be organizing like crazy.  
I am trying a new way to organize my sheets.   I am rolling the fitted sheet and pillowcases into the folded flat sheet.  It makes a nice large roll.  I did not like the pillow case method.  I need everything to be tidy in the linen closet.

This is what you will see when looking at the shelf.

Sorry about the focus.  I just laid the fitted sheet down then the pillow cases.

Here is what the side view looked like.  I will snap a shot of the sheet in the linen closet when I get the closet all cleaned up.  I will finish that up tomorrow.

Happy Folding.

Creating Beautiful Things in Life: How to properly size crochet hats. Chart for corre...

Okay confessions.
One I have totally been neglecting this blog.  I have been finishing my degree. (sadly I have done several things I could have blogged)

Second confession.. I found this great little beanie hat chart and it works.. GREAT.   So I thought I would just share the blog link rather than do one of my own.

Creating Beautiful Things in Life: How to properly size crochet hats. Chart for corre...: Crocheting hats is something I know well. In my experience, getting the hat to fit properly without a model is not always easy. Most Beanies are the easiest to fit the head properly...

I am working on an afghan. I will post that. It is turning out very neat..