I'm Fixing a Hole...

That's right, a hole. In the wall of our entryway. And if any of you know the story of how I met the Master Chef, I know what you're thinking. HOWEVER. I did not create this hole; it was the result of getting a new furnace awhile back. When the furnace was installed they took our old thermostat and humidity thingy off the wall and put in a touch screen deal that does the job of both.
The new thing is awesome and glows when you touch it, but now I had a problem:




Off to the Home Depot, where the Master Chef picked up a patch kit. Inside it had a metal mesh patch, Spackle, sandpaper and a plastic spatula thing that I found is actually called a putty knife.

Then ... the patch kit sat on the counter for about two weeks while I decided whether or not this was something I wanted to attempt. I was pretty sure I could really screw this up and it's right in my entryway, meaning that everyone who walked into my house would see exactly how bad a wall-patcher I was.

I reeeeally wanted to ask the Master Chef to do it. After all, he has experience. But I also wanted to report back and post on how anybody can patch a wall and not biff it up. Sigh. I opened the patch kit and set to work.

The mesh bit had a sticky side and all I had to do was trim it to the size I needed and stick it over the hole. After the simple act of sticking on the mesh, I immediately got pretty cocky and now fully believed that I was the Patch Queen of the Universe.




I grabbed the little tub of spackling with authority and slapped a giant glob onto the putty knife. I very gently and lovingly applied the spackling, just covering the patch.




I checked my instructions, which said to feather the spackle. I decided that meant to make the edges of the patch area very thin so that's what I tried to do.




Hmmm... this is not working like I thought it would. The spackle was now spread over an area twice the size of the patch.



Panic began to set in as I realized that what I had feared before I started this project was coming true. I was messing up my house and making it look crappy. A simple, small hole had turned into the pink wall of shame.

I decided that the best thing to do was walk away from it and perhaps when I returned it wouldn't look so bad. I also needed some reassurance that I can actually do something right and went outside to admire my flower basket and breathe deeply for a few minutes.

Ahhh! Much better.

I walked back over to the patched area with a renewed confidence and... Hey! Is that... fingerprints?



T Bub had saw my pretty pink mess and poked it. Surprised that his finger had left a big dent in the drying spackling, he tried to fix it. And created more fingerprint craters.

I walked outside to take a few more deep breaths. Then, with every ounce of patience I had left, I faced the wall.

This is on, wall.

I used my finger and gently smoothed out the fingerprints and deep lines in the spackling. As it dried it turned from pink to white, so I tried sanding the white edges. Not. Too. Bad.



I left it to finish drying overnight, then went to work sanding.


I began to very cautiously have hope that this might not turn into a total fail after all. Sanding the spackling smoothed all the bumps out but left sanding dust all over my floor. Turns out, sanding is VERY messy. But then again, so are most of the projects I get my hands on.



Also, please ignore the 80's tile. Once I work up the nerve, I'll get around to tearing it out and putting in new. Someday. Because right now I'm still recovering from thinking that I biffed up the entryway wall. Even though I didn't.

After I sanded it until it felt smooth and seamless with the wall, all that was left was painting it.
DANG! I really am the Patch Queen of the Universe.


And I proved that anybody can patch a wall and not biff it up. Even me. ; )

Picture This...

There’s a walkway from the front door into the rest of my house that was just kinda blah. I put some pictures up on the main blank wall, but it still didn’t do it for me. I wanted more.

Then, while looking for ideas to work into T Bub’s room, I saw this at Thrifty Decor Chick .

I knew right where I wanted it to go. Nice!

Lemme tell you, this was my first time working with a miter box and the results were… less than spectacular. Cutting that moulding out was not an easy task. But that’s a story for another time, people.

Today I’m going to show you how I took three cabinet knobs from the Home Depot (Three knobs for three bucks. It was like shopping at the Dollar Store!) and turned them into picture hangy knob thingys. Geez, there’s gotta be a better name than that. ; )

If you have a toddler, this is where you can start singing Special Agent Oso’s ‘Three special steps’. Because it’s stuck in my head, I thought I’d share with you and now you’ll be singing it too. You’re welcome.

Step one: Turn the knob upside down and using epoxy or a glue gun, squeeze glue into the opening where the screw would go.

Step two: Place the head end of the screw in the glue. Make sure the screw is in there straight before the glue hardens.

Step three: Let dry. Now you can just screw your knob into the wall. I used the glue gun to attach the ribbon to the back of the picture frame and simply hung up the pictures.

For stability and safety when hanging bigger or heavier frames, I would hang them the traditional way first, then add the knobs and ribbon (so the frame isn't really hanging from the knobs).

How easy was that? Those knobs can be found just about anywhere, so pick out some that match your décor and go to town!