DIY Life

Ask any real estate agent, and she'll tell you that when it comes to home equity and return on investment, the two most important rooms are the kitchen and the bathroom. Forget the fancy pool; it's nice, and it might close the deal at sale time, but prospective buyers are going to decide yea or nay in the kitchen.

The kitchen is a focal point for family gatherings and entertaining guests. So what are the main components of the typical kitchen? Well, there's the major appliances. They should match and be energy-efficient. Storage? There should be plenty of cabinets to stash food, dishes, pots and pans.

But what really stands out are the kitchen countertops. This is where the real work is done. Because of that, lighting should be focused on them, literally putting them in the spotlight.

Whether you're planning on building a new home or you're rolling up your sleeves for a remodel, you have a lot of choices when it comes to selecting the countertops. The things to consider are personal preference, aesthetics, matching the rest of the decor, and, of course, budget. Let's have a look at some of the choices.

Bring a bit of vintage style into your bathroom with Julie Reed's crocheted bath rug. The doily pattern that she used is from 1918: authentic and classic. The full tutorial will give you everything you need to recreate this bath mat in your own home.

Julie doesn't just list supplies and steps, but walks us through what works and what doesn't, as she chooses the right yarn and tries to minimize the ruffled edge.

I love her color choice. The juniper and charcoal heather compliment each other beautifully. This is the kind of inspired piece you could build your whole bathroom around. After the break, I'll discuss some DIY ways to finish off your vintage style bathroom.

Water: can't live without it. Learn some painless ways to conserve it around your home, both inside and out.

Have you just gotten home from the market loaded down with organic food and don't know what to do with the plastic grocery bags? Go fly a kite!

Are ready to commit to a low-flush toilet and aren't sure how to retrofit your commode? We can help.

In many homes, the bathroom is the last vestige of privacy (unless you have kids) and also one of the most eco-unfriendly spots in the house. Here's several things you can do to change that (sorry, no advice on how to keep the kids from interrupting your bath).

For even more Earth-friendly tips, be sure to check out our sister blog, Green Daily.

My daughter loves to watch the cartoon "Lil Bill". Repeat episodes come on every day, so I have the theme "Spring is here, Spring is here, it's the best time of the year" stuck in my head. The episode reminds me that the snow is slowly melting and it's about time to go to the beach.

Maybe it is too early in the year to go to the beach yet, but somewhere in the world it is spring or even summer. That means it is time to think about decorating your home for breezy summer days. What better way to do that than with seashells? Kathy Peterson has excellent suggestions on exactly what and where we can decorate with seashells.

Using seashells as a table centerpiece is a marvelous idea. Decorating with seashells in a roomy bathroom is ingenious, especially is you use seashells to spruce up a mirror. You can use shells to pretty up your fireplace too, as well as your lampshades, pillows and curtain tie-backs, and to decorate a baby mobile.

You can decorate pretty much anything with seashells, but like Kathy recommends, keeping your theme simple is the key to a successfully and tastefully decorated abode.

There's no such thing as a good sewer odor, right? If there's a persistent, but unexplained, stink emanating from your bathroom the cause could be sewer gas. Sewer gas is supposed to stay down inside your municipal sewer system or private septic tank. Problems occur when it finds its way back up into the house via your toilet. Eeew.

Surprise, surprise. Plumbing experts say sewer gas is something you should take care of, and not just for the obvious reason that the stink is absolutely revolting. Did you know that sewer gas is toxic when breathed in repeatedly? It's also associated with a buildup of methane gas, which is explosive. Eeek! Now that's a potty problem!

According to trusty home repair extraordinaire, Tim "Ask the Builder" Carter, it's best to locate the root cause of the problem as soon as possible. Tim says the cause of the stink is usually a blockage or a crack in the plumbing drain line or vent pipe, with the latter being a lot harder to detect. Plumbers can find the leaks by forcing colored smoke from a smoke generating machine through the pipes. Cool!

Read more at AskTheBuilder.com.

I live about 20 minutes north of Atlanta. For some time, and particularly since last October, we have been in the midst of a severe drought condition; although the condition has slightly abated, we are still faced with extreme, some would say draconian (look it up -- it'll be your word of the day), water restrictions -- in essence, pretty much all homeowner outdoor watering is prohibited.

Although some slight relief from the ban is expected in the coming months, thanks to winter rains, we are all going to have to reduce our water consumption so that we have something to drink next Summer. To that end, here are some suggestions; some you've seen and a number, I'll wager, you haven't.

But first, some visuals.

"Necessity is the mother of invention," they say. They also say, "Build a better mousetrap." Well, I just stumbled upon a rather clever new shower head. Thought that whole market was done like a burnt T-bone steak, did you? So did I but... not yet, it seems.

The name of it is the It Just Makes Sense shower head. That whole low-flow shower head thing has been flogged like a dead horse, and like low-flow toilets, they leave a lot to be desired. So, Fred Rahaming took on the hot water conservation challenge in a different direction. Full blast hot water when you want it, just a trickle when you don't.

Conservation and rampant self-indulgence, all at the same time. Can't beat it with a stick!

It works kind of like those camp showers; just pull on the chain when you want hot water. In this case, the chain is hooked to a spring so that you can quickly disconnect it with one hand to keep the flow going. And it's DIY friendly; I installed it in five minutes flat.

We've all been there: that rising feeling of dread and suspense. No, I'm not talking about one of Jean-Paul Sartre's books. I'm talking about when we flush the toilet and all of a sudden the bowl's contents slowly start moving in completely the wrong direction. What to do?

The first thing, since you're standing right there anyway, is to start kicking the base of the toilet with your foot. After all, the stuff wants to go down, and sometimes all it takes is a helping hand (or foot) to dislodge things and help the process along.

The next thing to try is the trusty old plunger. There are times when smooth, slow strokes will do the trick. Other times it takes quick, sharp jabs.

And if that doesn't work, get to the hardware store and pick up a toilet auger. It's really a snake, but inside a long pole with a hand crank on the end. It works every time and costs much less than a plumber's service call.

I love browsing in my two neighborhood thrift stores: if I had the time, I could spend hours there every day, checking out all the new things that come in. Inevitably, I come away with treasures that other people thought were trash cluttering up their lives.

One treasure I've found is vintage tablecloths. When I check them over, they have holes or scorch marks, but most of the time, the tablecloth is still usable for recrafting and repurposing.

Sommer Designs shows off some of the beautiful lavender sachets Carrie made from her collection of vintage tablecloths. Although it pained her to cut up her stack, she knew that she had to give them new life.

She decided to do that by cutting them up into 6 inch squares, matching up the wrong sides, stitching up three sides, turning them right side out, filling with lovely lavender, and sewing the last side closed. She finished off the sachet by adding a pretty vintage button to its center.

Here at DIY Life, we love lavender. Maureen told us how to fall asleep faster by making lavender sleep pouches. I previously told you how to make lavender laundry bags and your own herbal bath bags. All these posts use sachets, so get busy cutting up your ruined vintage tablecloths and make your own sleep pouch, bath bag, and laundry bag. Don't forget to check out Debra's scentual uses for lavender, an article full of fabulous recipes utilizing this lovely herb.

[via: Craft]

I had recent occasion to work on a 100 year old cabin. It required major construction to make it habitable; one of the projects that fell to me was the repair of three areas of the hardwood floors that the termites had taken a liking to. They had attacked parts of the floors in two different rooms and to different effect; as for the repairs, one site had convenient access and was easy to fix, one had inconvenient access and required replacement of a number of short pieces, and the last site had a hole clean through the floor about 8" in diameter! (Look right.) I'll go through the process -- it was not difficult, but some time-consuming -- so you can see the easy way to do this repair.

Take a look at the gallery to familiarize yourself with the procedure and we'll begin.

Yesterday we talked about going green in the bathroom and the many ways that we can reduce our water consumption. It is suggested that we switch to low-flush toilets. This is probably the most recommended solution, and many cities even offer credits and rebates toward the purchase.

Ultimately, the goal is to go green, so can the same result be achieved with the old toilet while avoiding a new purchase -- and its inevitable end in the landfill? Yes, it can, thanks to this article teaching us how to convert any toilet into a low flush toilet.

The conversion is dead simple. All you do is fill a half gallon container part way with pebbles or other heavy material, then top it off with water. Put the jug in your toilet tank, where it will displace the water. You'll save a half gallon of water per flush. That's a significant savings in each household; just imagine if your neighbors got on board too! Have a read through the full instructions and the helpful tips, then pass it on to a friend.

[via: Lifehacker]

The circle of life is evident when a young couple moves in to a home previously occupied by an older couple. Then it is literally out with the old (crocheted owl wall hangings and ornate door knockers) and in with the new (glossy black and white photos and doorbells). In our case, our main bathroom had tiles with yellow flowers on them. One big long line of tiles that wouldn't fit our beach theme-- so we painted them.

There are two things to learn from our experience. First, get yourself some good enamel paint, but don't expect to coat all your tiles this way (at that point it is easier to just rip them up and start over). Second, the easiest path is take one design element (our flowers) and turn it into something else (our fish). As you can see in the gallery, once we painted the flowers purple and added an eye we "remodeled" with a simple bottle of paint.

One of our four cats seems to love to play with the toilet paper. I've had this problem before but they usually grow out of it. I have been throwing away shredded toilet paper or re-rolling half of a roll more frequently lately so it was time to figure out a way to stop it.

I know that one solution is to not put the toilet paper on the dispenser. But that simply is not an option for me. I'm even compulsive about which way the roll is put on the spindle.

Just use a long rubber band and wrap it around the ends of the holder. A few weeks of that and most cats should lose interest and move on to play with other things that they shouldn't. (Perhaps you'll need a tip on keeping your cat out of houseplant dirt.)

How green is your bathroom? I thought I was doing pretty good, since I abandoned my chemical rich cleaners for baking soda and vinegar the way Anna recommends. This change is important, but only one small step towards an eco-friendly bathroom.

The video above explains how to go green in the bathroom by conserving water, minimizing energy usage, adding plants, and choosing natural products. Here's what you'll need:

1. Fluorescent light bulbs
2. Plants
3. Food coloring
4. Natural hair and body care products
5. Vinegar
6. Baking soda
7. Low flow shower-head
8. Low flow toilet

Replacing your light bulbs and bringing in a plant are cheap, quick, and effective changes. Making the change-over to a low-flow shower head and toilet can be a bit more costly. If you're contemplating a low-flow shower head, first consider Ryan's pros and cons list. He suggests an alternative to the costly purchase by opening the valve partially, allowing less water to pass through.

The low-flow toilet is another source of water conservation and financial savings. Some municipalities even offer partial rebates on their purchase. If you're not sure where to start looking for the right low-flow toilet, this article, The best low-flow toilets will point you in the right direction.

If you're still not convinced that you want to buy a new one, and this eco-friendly bathroom hasn't quite scratched your DIY itch, then Gary has a project for you. He points us to a toilet hack that allows you to pre-use the water that fills your toilet tank after flushing.

What changes have you made towards a greener bathroom?

With thanks to Kelly Smith (DIY Life's Perpetual Remodeling Syndrome expert), I'm going to do a follow-up to his excellent post on floor tile, but change directions a bit, vertically to be exact. Let's look at the procedure for installing tile on a wall; in this case it was for a dorm bathroom, with the usual sinks, showers, etc. I had already done the rough electrical and plumbing and put in the sheet rock, concrete backer board, and bead board, so now the fun began. I frankly enjoyed myself because it was a lot less physically demanding than the aforementioned projects and I got to use my brain to do the necessary layout that would ensure a nice looking result.

But first, the gallery! It will help as an initial guide and you should refer to it at the parts of the project that require a bit of thought and planning.