DIY Oil Cloth Tablecloth

Hello!

We took our vintage trailer, Myrtle, out for the first time last weekend.

While we were getting ready for her maiden voyage, I had some small projects I wanted to try out (a banner for her "ugly" side and covering up some ugly storage solutions). One item I had saw on Pinterest was the idea to add grommets to a tablecloth. I decided to take it a step further to make a tablecloth that would be durable enough to last several camping seasons.

I just so happen to have one yard of striped and one yard of gingham oil cloth I had ordered online. I had originally thought I was going to use it as upholstery, so I ordered a yard of each to test out the fabric. I decided it wasn't quite right for that purpose, but it turns out to be perfect for tablecloths. The fabric is also fairly affordable and comes on a rather wide bolt.

I split the striped fabric down the middle. Since the fabric doesn't fray, I didn't have to hem the edges of the fabric. I simply had to sew each piece of the striped fabric to the gingham piece.

Once I did that, I decided to add grommets, or rather "extra large eyelets" to the tablecloth. What the grommets allowed me to do was add bungee cords under the table. It kept the tablecloth from blowing around and secured it straight to the table.

The tablecloth worked fantastic even during a windy camping trip. It wiped down very easily (even sticky marshmallows and permanent markers came right off...don't even ask why that combo appeared on my picnic table)

 

  

DIY Self-Closing Dog Gate

Hello!

Today's project is a bit on the random side. It was borne of necessity after getting a new puppy and having one dog that still thinks he's a puppy. We needed some way to keep the dogs out of our downstairs so we could keep an eye on them while potty training. Plus, they have developed a secret obsession of chewing up Barbies and stuffed Goofys which they do so under the darkness of the downstairs.

We had a baby gate at the bottom of our stairs, but with two older children, it never got shut behind them. So, we usually would hear a dog disappear down the stairs and have to chase after them to take them outside. It got really old, really fast.

After yelling about closing the gate a few hundred times over a few weeks, I decided I just needed to make a solution to have the gate close on its own.

So, I sat down and thought about screen doors that close on their own. They have a spring attached from the door to the door frame. I could fairly easily set that up, but this particular gate was adjustable, so with a spring, it would collapse on itself. So I needed to extend the gate, but only temporary because there would be times we would want to collapse it close (if we're moving items up and down the stairs...we had people over and there was going to be quite a bit of traffic, etc.) So instead of a bolt or something harder to remove, I really needed a pin that could be pulled if we needed wider access to the downstairs.

Also, I don't think I would want this set up with a baby in the house, so I wanted to be able to revert the gate back to a regular baby gate when the time comes.

Our doorway has a bit of a lip, so it was a perfect place to have the gate catch (although, adding a block of wood to create a catch wouldn't be difficult). We needed the gate to swing towards the stairs so the dogs couldn't push the gate open themselves.

So, here's how I created a self-closing dog gate.

Supplies

Two pins (as pictured below, I bought a "positive locking drawbar" type pin)
Two cup hooks
Screen door spring
Drill
Optional: Paint & Paint Brush

Directions

1. Optional: Paint Gate

I decided if I was going to removing the gate from the wall, this was a good chance to give the gate a fresh coat of paint.I had some blue chalk painting sitting around, so I gave the gate a quick once over. I taped off the hardware so it would remain silver and painted just the raw wood.

2. Drill Holes 

Once I had the gate extended where I needed it, I marked where the two pieces of the gate met up. Then I drilled a hole through both pieces that was big enough to accommodate the pin. Once your hole drilled, slip the pin through the gates to keep the gate from collapsing.

You may need to trouble shoot this step. I found that my doorway was wide enough that I needed to move the metal track pieces on top to make the gate extend further out. Once I did that I realized that there was a gap in the middle of the gate, so then I had to add a new spindle (or in this case a piece of spare lath I had sitting around) so there wasn't a dog size gap in the gate. When I added that piece of wood, I had to make sure it was on the outside of the gate so it wouldn't stop the gate from collapsing.

One of the reasons I picked this type of pin is it easily opens and closes so removing it should be fairly easy.

The gate catches perfectly fine on the lip on our doorway.

3. Screw the Cup Hooks in

You will need to screw one cup hook into the wall and the other into the gate. Make sure when you add the cup hook to the gate, you pick an area that doesn't effect the gate from collapsing. You will also want to make sure the two hooks are far enough apart you can get good tension on the spring, but not so much tension that you can't remove the spring if necessary. I attached one cup hook and then played around with the spring attached to get a good placement on the second hook.

4. Attach Spring

Slip the spring over each hook. You may also want to add some felt bumpers if you're worried about the gate scratching up your wall.

Now we have a gate that stays close and gives me a bit more control on the pack of crazy dogs in our house. The gate works perfectly for the cat too because he can jump over and use his litter box without having a dog hassle him.

Finishing Drywall for Beginners: Resources and Tips

Hello!

So, as I pointed out in my last post, I'm no expert on finishing drywall. In fact, I've only tried to do some patch jobs here and there, and to say the work was less than impressive would be an understatement. However, I'm really happy (and a bit proud) of how well my latest finishing work went. I'm going to share the resources that helped me and the hints I found the most helpful.

After we had the sci-fi wall removed, we had two different drywall situations. There was a huge panel of drywall missing where they had to put in the support beam on top of the existing studs (a 6 foot section or so). That was going to require one seam to be mud and taped so it would blend in with the rest of the wall. The contractor also had to remove a 6 inch strip of drywall in order to tuck in the 2x4 supports. That area was much more tricky because we couldn't quite get the patch dry wall to sit flush. So, that area had some lumps and bumps to work around.

Finally, I've had unfinished drywall above my cabinets for about a year now, so I figured I may as well tackle that while I was working on everything else.

My husband cut up the drywall and put it up. Once he had the drywall up, I had to figure out this whole tape and mud thing. The first thing I did was read this article by Young House Love. I love how they used to (they no longer blog) give really simple explanations to different projects. It was a good place to start to get an idea of what I needed to do and learn the lingo and tools of the trade.

After I read that article, I moved on to YouTube. I watched several videos but I found this series of videos from a technical school particularly helpful. It was very simple and step by step. I would highly recommend watching the entire series from start to finish.

So, using those videos and various articles I read, I started the process. I think my mistake in the past has been not feathering the mud very well. Once I got the method of feathering the edges down, I noticed that my mud was blending much better. I also didn't previously know I should start with a narrow drywall knife and work my way up to a wider knife as I put layers on. Eventually the seam was about 18 inches wide.

Also keep in mind that the mud shrinks as it dries, so you will need more than one coat to fill in the screw holes.

I put my first layer of mud on and let it dry for 24 hours. Before I started the next coat, I would "knock down" (moving the blade lightly across the surface to scrape off any bumps or large ridges) any high points with a clean drywall knife/scraper. I did not sand between coats. When I was researching this entire process, I found that most pros did not sand between coats. The rationale was if you were smooth enough and feathered correctly, you could save sanding for the last step. That worked really well for me.

As you can imagine, working up from a 3 inch blade to a 12 inch blade took many coats. I think I ended up with around 5 or so. The last two coats I thinned out with some water. That was a hint I kept seeing thrown around and it really did create a nice smooth finish on top of the other coats.

For the 6" strip of wall that was uneven, I had to be a bit more creative with applying mud. I had to try to make the bump disappear slowly, so the mud kept going further and further out from the seam. I had to do more coats on this particular section just make sure that 1) a coat wasn't too thick where it would take days and days to dry, and 2) the tape on the high point was effectively covered so it wouldn't be exposed when I sanded it. It looked like a serious mess for the first 4 coats or so.

The area above the sink/cabinets had a hole I needed to fill in. I used some spare mesh tape to create a patch over the hole and then mudded right over the mesh. It took a couple of coats, but the hole disappeared.

Something a pro probably doesn't have to do (but I did) is go back through after my final coat and filled in any large divets in the smooth finish. So it wasn't a full coat, just a "patch" job on those areas that weren't even with the rest of the drywall.

I tried using a wet drywall sponge, but much like Young House Love, I found the sponge wasn't really all that helpful. I moved over to a fine grit sandpaper and dry sanded. It was definitely more messy, but was much easier to get a nice smooth finish. Most importantly, dry sanding allowed me to feel where there was still bumps or ridges as I went along. The final sanding went surprisingly fast. I didn't have to apply much pressure and was done within a half hour.

Once I was happy with a [mostly] smooth finish, I vacuumed the entire wall and started to apply texture. I had never noticed the texture on my walls until it came time to try and match it. Apparently it was a every man for himself project. The kitchen has no texture on the walls, the living room has a "normal" knocked down orange peel texture look, and the hallway was a random assortment. I used the Homax orange peel wall texture in a can. I used the water based version just so clean up would be a bit easier if things went crazy. I made sure to tape off areas with some drop cloths so it wouldn't spray everywhere (although I didn't bother with the floor since that's coming out within a few weeks).

I watched this video on how to apply the texture. Using a circular motion, I started to apply the texture. It was a bit of a guessing game to see what type of pressure I needed to apply and how thick it should go on. I did have to go back through and add more after I stood back and compared it to the other walls.

Once all the texture had dried completely, I knocked down the texture to match the texture on the other walls. The hallway isn't a perfect match since whatever method they used wasn't what they used in the living room. However, the living room was almost a perfect match.

After texture, all I needed to do was paint the surfaces. I'm really happy with how everything turned out. Now, that doesn't mean I want to tackle this project ever again. I'll add drywall to the list of things I'll hire someone else to do in the future (along with tiling and laying pavers outside).

The area I patched is a 6 inch section directly below where the beam attached to the wall. Can't see it, can you? Success!  

 Since we're planking the ceiling, I didn't have to worry about finishing that area.

Hard to tell with the shadow of another wall showing, but there really isn't a seam showing. The texture isn't perfect on this wall, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.