July 2014 - Storefront Life

Bagster Dumpster in a Bag

This post is brought to you by Waste Management’s Bagster Dumpster in a Bag.

As carless urban DIY’ers, with strict limited city garbage pick-ups, getting rid of our renovation junk can we pretty darn problematic.

In fact, we just kinda stockpiled all of it until we could figure out how to get rid of it. I promise we’re not into hoarding territory yet, but dammit the junk is piling up. In the last year we have completed a kitchen mini-reno, a basement reno, decking re-vamp, general projects, and woodworking. All of this has created a lot of debris. We could just get a dumpster, but they’re expensive, and the biggest problem we have is access. We have no front yard or laneway, and our backyard access is blocked by our garage. When we had the house fixed my Mike Holmes, they actually put a dumpster in our neighbors yard (thanks best neighbors ever!), and took down our fence for access.

So I think you can see our issues. No place for a dumpster, and no way to get rid of our non-recyclable renovation junk. Enter Waste Management’s Bagster dumpster in a bag. It’s a fold out portable dumpster made with tarp like fabric. It can hold a crazy amount of stuff. 3300lbs or 20 garbage bags of renovation debris. Perfect. So we ordered our bag online, and got it shipped to our house. You can also pick them up at the Hardware Store. See thebagster.com for your closest retail locations. You don’t have to pay for the collection of the bag until you schedule the pick-up.

Bagster Dumpster in a Bag well really, it's a Bagster bag IN another bag ;) — Bagster Dumpster in a Bag well really, it’s a Bagster bag IN another bag 😉

Now, where do we put it up? We can set it up on the 4′ of concrete behind our garage that is technically our property between the garage and the alleyway. Except…. I called Waste Management, and you need to have 16′ of clearance above the pick-up site, and our garage has a roof overhang (of about 2′). This complicates things, as the arm from the pick-up vehicle won’t be able to reach the bag without hitting the roof overhang. Oops.

Time for plan B: Pushing back our front planter box, and placing the Bagster dumpster bag on the concrete in between the sidewalk and the Storefront. The problem here, is that the planter box is about oh… a thousand pounds. We can either dig up a bunch of the dirt/flowers to lighten the load to move it, or push it Worlds Strongest Man style.

Exterior of the Storefront & Planterbox — Large, HEAVY planter!

Guess which one we choose? OH THAT’S RIGHT, muscles baby!

El Granto and I heaved and hoed and pushed that planter out of the way!

Now we could assemble the Bagster bag. The bag came with assembly instructions. Basically you open it up, then fold the sides down so that it stays open. When you start to fill it up, you can lift the sides up and put more stuff in.

Bagster Dumpster in a Bag set up and ready to go

Let the junk cleaning begin! We stored our construction debris in large bins, boxes and bags, and we started carting out the junk and dumping it into the bag. A few hours work later, and the Bagster dumpster bag was really filling up.

These are some of the things we tossed in the Bagster bag:

Tile, whole & broken
Drywall, small and large pieces
Old laminate kitchen counters
Melamine molds that we used for our concrete countertops
Used buckets coated in concrete (unrecyclable)
Pressure treated deck railings
Paint & stain covered drop cloths
Wood offcuts
Old and Broken Bicycle and Snowboard Parts

WOWZA! That's a whole lotta junk in the dumpster bag! — WOWZA! That’s a whole lotta junk in the dumpster bag!

LOOK AT ALL THAT JUNK!

We were able to fit in way more than we anticipated, removing all the junk from our garage.

This used to be a storing ground for renovation debris. So nice to have the space back!

After we finished, we went online and scheduled a pick-up and made payment for our order. They will come and pickup within 3 days. Our pick-up actually came the next day, which was awesome.

The one thing we had to deal with for pick-up was that parking is allowed in front of our house. If cars were parked there, they wouldn’t be able to access the Bagster Bag. I called and spoke with a Waste Management Bagster rep, and they said they could call me an hour before pick-up, so that I could ensure no cars were in the way. After I got the call, I ran out and placed some temporary pylons in the way, so that the truck could easily collect. Within the hour they had picked it up, and even sent me a confirmation email saying everything went as planned.

The Bagster Dumpster in a Bag seems like it would be perfect for a small bathroom or kitchen reno, flooring project, spring cleanup or if mother nature strikes and you need to clean up after a flood. We are tackling our bathroom renovation next, and this will be perfect for carting away the old tiles & subfloor. If you were doing a whole house renovation, a traditional dumpster will still be the way to go, but for small renovations and cleanup projects this works perfectly.

Have you ever used a Waste Management Bagster Dumpster in a Bag? How did you like it?

Disclosure: This project was brought to you by Waste Management Bagster Dumpster in a Bag, but all opinions and junk are our own.

DIY Concrete Side Table

As we continue to push ahead with the backyard reno, I am starting to think about the smaller details. Accessories, lighting, flowers, furniture etc. We are currently happy with our outdoor chairs, but the rest of our outdoor furniture leaves a lot to be desired. We were using a old chipped green table with a cigar burn as a side table. Not the best looking piece of furniture…

As a place to set a drink and small plate of food is a must have in any backyard, I did what any DIY’er would do. I set out to make a useful, stylish new side table.

Back before we embarked on our concrete countertop project I made a small concrete test slab with some cheap big box store concrete mix. It had some big flaws, and I cringe when looking at it now. I used the wrong mix, did some sketchy form caulking, used a product with too large aggregate, and didn’t get out all the bubbles! None the less, I had created it, and rather than throwing it into landfill, I opted to re-use it.

I fabricated some simple modern table legs, and this is the end result.

Concrete Table — DIY Concrete Side Table

The legs are made with some kiln dried 2×2 pine from our local lumber yard. It was assembled with some simple pocket holes and screws.

DIY TIP! I like to have two drills (or a drill and a driver) for working with pocket holes. One for drilling, and one for driving the screws. It saves having to change the bit every few minutes!

One for Drilling the Holes and one for Driving the Screws

The legs were primed and then painted with Rustoleum Universal Flat Metallic Soft Iron spray paint (looove this paint and colour).

Legs Fabricated with 2x2 pine — Legs Fabricated with 2×2 pine

Legs Painted with Rustoleum Universal Metallic Flat Soft Iron spray paint

We topped the legs with our recycled concrete slab and sealed the concrete with the Buddy Rhodes concrete countertop sealer. If was to do this project again, I would have used the Buddy Rhodes mix instead of the cheap big box mix (the BR mix is lot lighter and easy to use.)

Top sealed with Buddy Rhodes Satin Sealer — Sealed with Buddy Rhodes Satin Sealer

If you were to do this project, you could easily pour the concrete top yourself, or buy a prefab concrete patio stone at the big box store. If your patio stone has a texture on it, consider flipping it upside down so the raw concrete side is exposed. Make legs to fit your slab, seal it and you’ve got an inexpensive industrial table!

Here’s a few more shots of our finished table.

SOURCE LIST:

Materialst:
Concrete – Hardware Store
Concrete Sealer – Buddy Rhodes
1 2x2x10 kiln dried pine – Downtown Lumber
2 1/2″ pocket hole screws – Lee Valley Tools
Zinnser Primer – Home Depot
Rustoleum Universal Flat Metallic Soft Iron spray paint – Home Depot

Tools
Drill & Driver – Milwaukee
Measuring Tape
Kreg Jig – Lee Valley

Difficulty Level (on a scale of 1-5):

two out of five

Total Cost $40

Beats spending $1155 at Restoration Hardware for this, doesn’t it?!

Restoration Hardware Belgian Trestle Weathered Side Table

What do you think of our new table? Would you give a try at making one?

Grass (& Clover) Watch 2014

Watching grass grow isn’t the most interesting topic in blog land, but hey, at least it’s not another mason jar project.

Continue reading “Grass (& Clover) Watch 2014”

Pergola Progress

Not quite sure where this week went. Last time I checked it was somewhere around Tuesday, and then BAM! Friday!

Hey, I’m not complaining, but I sure do wish I got more accomplished around the house this week.

Here is what we’ve been up to.

The pergola started creeping off paper and into fruition. We made a stop at our local lumber yard and picked up all the wood, including the 12′ pieces. Thanks again goes to El Granto’s Mum and Dad for the car loan.

After some demolition of the current deck’s fence/top posts, a big shout out goes to the previous owner for stripping Every. Single. Screw he used to assemble the deck. Really awesome work… A sawzall with a nail cutter blade later, and a pry bar, and we were rid of them, busted screws and all.

With demo complete, we started building anew.

The new posts were measured, kerfed (to go around the ledger on the wall), and up they went.

Then the front and side beams followed suit.

This was a bit of a scary ladder moment (14′ drop to our new concrete walkway with hands above head holding a 2x6x12), but El Granto took over for me, and got it done.

Decent progress, but still a ways to go. We have to add the cross beams, which overlap each other, so some careful math and half lap joints are in our future. Then we have to add some more fence boards. This kinda sucks. As our new pressure treated lumber is greener than a 19 year old after St. Paddy’s Day and our current fence/privacy screen has faded nicely. I know you’re going to lay into me about staining the deck. That is a ton of upkeep, and I’d like to ride the bare wood train as long as we can. I bought some Cabot deck wash, so here’s hoping I can brighten up the old bits a little, and that those new PT boards will fade quickly.

Back to the pergola. Our plan for the is to have a large open pergola like our inspiration:

This means not a lot of cross beams for shade, but what it does mean is that we are adding a fabric shade canopy.

We selected a Sunbrella sheer outdoor fabric for the canopy, Shadow Snow. It will filter out the harsh sunlight, but not block it completely. The last thing we wanted to do is remove all the beautiful natural light from our bedroom. The canopy will be loosely draped over the frame, and removable for winter. (Thinking corner grommets and hooks on the top of the pergola.)

Speaking of fabric. Our whole Sunbrella order arrived this week, and I’m super stoked.

Looks like I’ve got a hell of a lot of sewing to do! Anyone want to come help? I’ve got two machines! That or I teach El Granto. I think that’s a damn good idea actually! He’s a great hand sewer. He’s the king of sewing motorcycle patches to his denim jacket and vest. No, not the gang variety. We’re friendly neighbourhood bikers, not Sons of Anarchy bikers.

Where was I? Busying myself with projects apparently. Looks like we’re going to have another full weekend.

P.S. It was my birthday yesterday, and my awesome husband baked me a gluten free cake. The dog was a bit jealous, but man was it good. Best. Husband. Ever.

Have a great weekend, and follow us on Instagram to see what we get up to!

The Time Mike Holmes Fixed our House

I completely missed our Blog Anniversary last week!

On July 5th, we officially turned two!

I had plans of a whole Blogaversary week with my fave stuff, behind the scenes etc, but heck, summer happened, and so did work in our backyard. However, I will give you one flash back post!

I was talking to a good blog friend a few weeks ago, and mentioned that my lifelong dream was to have my own show on HGTV, and that we had loved being on Holmes Inspection. She gave me the WAIT WAIT WAIT, you were on HOLMES INSPECTION? And I was all like “yeah dude, Mike Holmes fixed our house! It’s on my blog!”. Then I realized I posted about being on the show on my 2nd ever blog post. Back when…oh about two people read the blog (Thanks Moms!)

So I said to myself. “Maybe my new readers don’t know about the time I cried on international TV, and Mike Holmes saved our butts”.

Here’s the scoop. We moved into our place, and had big problems from day one. We were in over our heads, and had spent ALL our money on buying the place. We had a home inspection (from a VERY reputable company) but a lot of things were missed.

Mike, Damon & the team stepped in, and fixed all the problems hiding behind the walls of the Storefront.

I wont spoil the show for you, so head on over to HGTV and give it a watch!

Watch Moisture Madness — Watch our episode “Moisture Madness” on hgtv.ca

For my American & International readers, I don’t think it will let you watch it on the Canadian site, and I do not see whole episode listed as streaming on hgtv.com. Keep an eye out for our episode on your local listings, or give it a google and see if you can find it.

Our Episode: Holmes Inspection Moisture Madness.

FAQ

We get a ton of questions about the show. Here are answers to your most asked questions!

Whats Mike Like? Exactly as you see him on TV! He is kind, friendly, funny, and cares sooo much about quality construction, and helping people! The first time we met him was literally when he knocked on our door in the show. Nothing is scripted. He is genuine, and it was awesome to have Mike and his team come to our rescue.

Did we have to move out? Yep! We had a lot of construction going on, and some safety concerns, so we moved out for the duration of the show. We stayed at Grant’s Mom & Dad’s place, and the only time mid construction that we came back to the house was when you see us come back in the show.

How did we get on the show, and why did we apply? It was Christmas time, the house was falling apart around us, and no contractors were returning our calls as it was the Holidays. Defeated, we were sitting on the sofa watching TV, and a Holmes Inspection marathon was on HGTV. El Granto turned to me and said we should apply. I said, oh our house isn’t THAT bad, is it? He said…well, yeah it is. We emailed them our story via their casting call on hgtv.ca. I drafted the email, read it back aloud to El Granto, and burst into tears, as yeah, it did sound pretty terrible when you put it all on paper. Our story must have been compelling, as they picked us!

When did the show air? It aired in September 2011, a week and a half before our wedding! Don’t worry, we still got married, although we did have to postpone our honeymoon, and never did get to go to Europe. Instead we took a short tropical honeymoon six months later.

Did you have to pay? How much? Sorry guys, we’re not discussing anything about money. That’s private!

Would we do it again? OF COURSE! They saved our butts! We owe Mile & the team a world of gratitude and I don’t know where we’d be without them. We now have an awesome home, that we are loving putting our own stamp on.

Let me know if you have any more questions, and I will do the best to answer them.

Have you ever be on TV? Have any television aspirations? What did you think of our episode?

Sore Muscles & Dirt

The pathway & lawn are done. I may have killed El Granto in the process, but they’re done.

No really, El Granto is a wreck. I think the sheer amount of sunlight, heat & heavy lifting was too much for the poor Englishman. He’s got a bit of heat exhaustion, and is spending the day in the a/c topping up his fluids. I feel like a bit of a jerk, cause my girly muscles couldn’t really help him as much as I would have liked.

Here is what we accomplished, although it doesn’t look like much, it was an absolute ton of work.

Recap from last weekends progress: We took up the path, laid down new rock bedding, and re-laid the pathway, this time with the concrete pavers upside down.

Now, here’s what we did this weekend:

We rented a rototiller, and tilled the whole lawn. Yep, the whole thing, even where we had bits of grass growing. We wanted a fresh clean start, and to get our really packed down lawn a loosening up, and re-grading.

El Granto rockin the rotatiller — El Granto rockin the rototiller

While we were tilling, we ran into a few ~~bumps~~ err rocks. As I started to dig further to get the rocks out, we realized the back half of the lawn was filled with rubble, and then topped with a tiny bit of topsoil. We’re not talking a few stones, we’re talking a bunch of whole bricks, chunks of concrete and other junk. We dug them all out, and bagged them up. They will go out with our trash in our Bagster in the next week or so.

After we tilled and removed the junk, we dug out a trough beside the pathway.

We edged it with plastic edging, and lined it with landscaping fabric.

Trough & edging — We used 4 1/2″ wood blocks as spacers to try to get the edging laid evenly. That plastic edging however does not like to lay straight.

We then filled the trough with large river rock. This will not only be good for drainage, but it also gives a nice custom look to the otherwise cheapo concrete path. Like putting lipstick on a pig. You know its still a pig, but at least you’ve got something else to look at.

Trip to the garden center for 13 bags of large river rock. All told we have 25 bags of rock under and beside the path. Wowza.

After the rocks were laid, we raked and re-graded the lawn, and seeded it. We used a combination of sun/shade grass seed and white clover, and used an old EZ seed container we had laying around to distribute the seed.

Seeding Lawn — Seeding the Lawn (and looking awkward.)

After we seeded, we raked over the lawn, and have been watering perpetually ever since. It isn’t ideal to seed in July, but we will try our hardest to make this grass & clover grow! For the next couple weeks, Odin is blocked from the yard, and we will have to do walks for all his dog needs. Hopefully this will actually give the lawn a shot to get going!

A full reveal is a few weeks away. We’ve gotta turn this dirt patch into a lawn. You can follow along on grass watch 2014 on Instagram. Cause you know, watching grass grow is super interesting. We know how to party round here!

We also got started on our deck pergola. An update will come on that later this week!

Excuse me while I go mow down on copious amounts of ibuprofen.

Bring It, Weekend!

I am counting down the minutes to the weekend. This one is going to be EPIC.

We have El Granto’s Mum’s SUV and a very long to-do list. When I say very long, I really mean it. We’ve started tracking our home to-do list, broken down into tasks on a project manager website called Trello. Our Backyard & Balcony lists are almost off the page. It gives me anxiety just looking at them.

However, we are making some progress! (even above and beyond our progress here.) We made all our outdoor fabric choices, and I ordered all the Sunbrella fabric for the whole backyard. We’re talking new curtains, a daybed cover etc. As soon as the fabric arrives, we can get started sewing. Little secret… sewing was the first DIY I ever learned, and I almost went to school in Halifax for textiles. However, since we moved to the Storefront, I haven’t gotten a sewing machine out ONCE. Literally, I have not sewn a single thing in over three years. I hope I’m not too rusty, and I still remember how to make cording, and how to sew a zipper panel.

Here is what our weekend plans are:

Till backyard, and plant grass & clover seed.

Finish pathway.

Dig garden beds, edge and plant.

Buy lumber for deck pergola.

Build pergola.

Buy & install new exterior lights.

Install new door hardware.

Paint Doors.

Wash deck.

Finish this little outdoor side table project I started this week.

Bonus Project: We got a Bagster! This means we also hope to clear out all the reno debris and junk in the garage. [yeah, we still have reno debris from our kitchen reno, yikes!] We cant wait to get rid of all that junk.

Once the debris is out of the garage, El Granto can get to building a new work bench, and we can get permanent homes for some new tools we acquired over the winter (and we even added a few more new ones this past week.)

What have you got planned for the weekend? Wanna come over and lend us some muscle?

Wood Stained Wine Glass Holder

I received a sample in the mail the other day from Minwax. It included a couple packages of their wood finishing cloths, and a small piece of wood. At first glance the wood looked like an artists palette.

Continue reading “Wood Stained Wine Glass Holder”

Backyard Progress Report

While I don’t yet have a stunning after shot of the backyard, we are making some progress!

Here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks:

We painted the back of the Storefront. This was a bigger task than you’d think, after scraping, caulking, priming, and two coats of paint, only painting in mornings so there would be no direct sun on the paint, it took a whole long while! Glad to have this one done.

We almost choose a door paint color, but then decided to get sample fabrics, and decide on all the colors at once. We will be making new outdoor drapes (this time out of real outdoor fabric instead of drop cloths.) We will also be making a nice permanent cover for our outdoor daybed, again using the super durable and water repellent fabrics from Sunbrella.

We borrowed Grant’s Mum’s car, and loaded it up with HPB (High Performance Bedding), a cool rock product that is the perfect bedding for pavers, and requires no sand or compacting. We purchased 12 cubic foot bags of it from the super nice & helpful guys at Van Beek’s Garden Supplies and lugged it home and into the yard.

We then pulled up the old 30″ x 24″ pavers (man they we’re heavy!), laid down the rock, screeded, and laid the pavers back down. We really wish we had the budget for new pavers, but the most important part of this job was to fix the drainage problems.

We did have one ace in our sleeve however. We flipped over the paving stones, so instead of having a fugly textured concrete pattern, they are now just plain concrete. A lot more industrial looking, and surprisingly a big transformation. I’m not going to spoil the after yet, so you will have to wait a bit longer to see what they look like. The most important thing however is we had a huge rain storm last night, and there was ZERO lake in the backyard! No dirt on the path, and no puddles! Big win for the Storefront.

As much progress as we’ve made, we still have a lot to do. Whats left on our list?

TO DO:

Till up the grass, create and edge garden bed by the ivy, top dress lawn, and seed with clover and grass.
Get & install new exterior lights. I have my eye on these.
Get fabric, and sew new outdoor drapes.
Sew cover for outdoor daybed.
Make 2 new outdoor side tables.
Paint doors.
Add some more flowers & landscaping.
Replace door knobs.

ANNNNNND we found another project to add to the list. A few weeks ago we were out at a rooftop patio downtown, and they had this draped pergola shade structure.

How perfect would that be on our upstairs deck? Yep! Add another project to the list.

Build badass shade pergola.

So what did you get up to on the weekend? Any backyard projects?

Removing Great Stuff Spray Foam From Hair/Dog Fur.

Having a dog is akin to having a gaggle of small children. You turn your back for one second, and they can manage to ruin more stuff than the Tasmanian Devil.

Enter last weekend, when on a whirlwind (pun intended) of home maintenance, I was using Great Stuff expanding foam to fill in some holes on the exterior of the Storefront and the garage. The garage door had quite a few gaps between the frame and the cinderblock, and I was filling them up with spray foam to keep out any unwanted bugs, creatures, neighbors, as well as prep the garage for insulation.

I had sprayed one whole side of the door, and was up on the ladder spraying the other side when I heard El Granto exclaim “ODIN! What are you doing?!” His voice had an unequivocal edge to it, so I instantly knew it wasn’t a “did you poop in the alleyway” kind of problem. It could only mean an actual, legitimate, serious problem. I looked down and Odin was on the end of his leash, trying to make his way into the alley. He had pressed himself against the garage wall in an effort to see around the corner (and chase squirrels I’d imagine). In his plan of escape he had pressed himself so closely to the wall, that he had in fact rubbed his face, ear and neck into the wet expanding foam.

If you have seen Odin before you will know that his giant velvet soft ears are his crowning glory. His pièce de résistance. His lady killer ears. Those things are so big that Odin is anything but breed standard Vizsla. They are the thing we fell in love with when we met Odin as a puppy.

His right glorious velvet vizsla ear was now covered in molten plastic.

We panicked. Would it burn his skin? Did he eat any? Is his hair going to fall out?

It was a Saturday of the long weekend, rushing him to a vet wasn’t the best option. We needed to figure out how to remove the wet foam before it dried and was (cue dramatic reading) stuck forever.

I ran to the Great Stuff container (cause I’m a direction reader) and low and behold it gives you clear instructions on of what to do if you get it on your skin. I figured dogs are close enough to humans. They have skin and hair errr fur. So good enough! Okay, all we have to do is “remove with acetone”. Acetone? Why would I have acetone? That’s not part of my standard garage chemicals. I mean I’ve got varsol and paint thinner, but acetone….not in the garage.

BUT wait! Isn’t acetone…nail polish remover?

I ran into the house yelling at El Granto to get the dog in the tub. He yelled back that water speeds the foam curing. I yelled back no water! I grabbed the acetone nail polish remover, and jumped in the tub (fully clothed in my maintenance/painting clothes). We got to work applying acetone to his ears gently with a cotton pad. While this worked, it wasn’t going fast enough. Eventually we just started squirting his fur with the acetone, and working loose the spray foam with our fingers. This worked much better.

We removed the spray foam from Odin’s skin and hair like it was a bad manicure.

After we were finished, we rinsed him off with warm water, and shampooed and conditioned him with his soothing oatmeal boutique dog shampoo. (Yes, yes I know, we’re yuppie dog owners who treat their dog like a child, I’m fine with it.)

By the end of it, there was clumps of dog hair littering the tub, a dog with bits of spray foam still lodged in his hair, and two very unimpressed dog owners. El Granto even had the foresight to snap a pic of the dog & I in the throws of foam removal. You can see the enjoyment in both our faces.

But Odin was alive, not burned or maimed, or missing an ear. The only evidence of foamagedden was the few errant bits stuck in his hair. He didn’t break out in a rash, have shortness of breath or do anything else scary enough to warrant a trip to to the 24 hour vet.

Shortly after his bath after everyone had calmed down he was again a happy pup sitting in the sun.

So there you have it. Use acetone (or acetone nail polish remover) to remove Great Stuff Expanding Foam from your hair or your fur. Hey, we’re not judging, that sweater vest of chest hair you’ve got going on could certainly be considered fur. And yes, I’m a good enough friend to not bring up your mustache or back hair.

Oh and don’t be stupid, call poison control if you get any in your eye, nose, mouth, or any other hole (again…not judging). Well…maybe a little.