Demolition Derby!!!

Last night I tackled a new level of DIY. I tore down a wall!

After the basement flooded, we had a few contractors come by to give us options. They all started with taking down the wall of my storage unit where the water was coming in so the damage could be properly assessed. My neighbor and I decided it would be cathartic to tear down the drywall ourselves - and it saved us $300 in the process. So with the help of some Youtube videos and tools from my handy friend, we single ladies took down that wall all by ourselves!

I was really looking forward to walking into Home Depot like a badass and buying a sledgehammer. But for a small wall, it was really unnecessary. Also, I was kind of afraid that we would sledgehammer right through the wall and the house would come crashing down on us. Instead, we used some pry bars, hammers, and a utility knife.

Tools of the trade

Fran got to take the first shot, since the water and mud from the flooding actually ended up in her living space. Here's me going at the wall:

More fun than spreadsheets

It was pretty awesome! The drywall was pretty easy to take down, especially where it had gotten wet and was already disintegrating. In some places, we were just tearing chunks of it out with our hands. Clean-up was pretty easy too since we had put down a tarp to collect all the pieces. The hardest part was breathing through those masks! Altogether, it took less than an hour to demo and clean up the mess.

And here's the bare wall of our basement foundation. Notice the little pile of dirt? I imagine that is where the flood of mud came pouring through.

I'm just glad I don't have to put the wall back up! I'll leave that to the pros. But if anyone needs a wall taken down, you know who to call!

Let Them Eat Cake! Off a Tiered Cake Stand

A few months ago, I had a craving for cucumber sandwiches which then made me want to have an afternoon tea party. Then I decided I needed to have a tiered cake stand to serve all my cute tea sandwiches, scones, and cakes. And of course, being ME, I had to make it a DIY project.

I did some research on the internet and found this tutorial on how to make a cake stand with a plate and a candlestick. I like the idea of using repurposed materials, but I was nervous about drilling a hole in the middle of a ceramic plate. Would it explode in my face? blinding and maiming me forever? Power tools scare me. Ideally, I envision myself as a bold, independent woman capable of making anything from the most delicate lace baby sweater to the sturdiest coffee table. And I did make a coffee table once in a woodworking class at the Boston Center for Adult Education. But it was terrifying! Table saws are terrifying. Power tools are terrifying. I don't even like electric toothbrushes. And not to put down my DIY mentors online, but a lot of them have these great projects, but they send their husbands out to do the power tool work (except for this amazing woman  who builds all her own furniture and puts up tutorials so you can too). Is that really Doing It Yourself? As a single woman and a single homeowner, I am faced with doing the scary stuff alone. But don't feel too bad for me! Because now I have conquered my fear of the power drill. I gots drill skillz.

There are other online tutorials where you can glue the parts together, but of course I liked how it looked the harder way. Luckily, I found some extra support from an Etsy store, Teatime Creations, that sells special drill bits, hardware and step-by-step instructions. So i took the plunge and bought the kit.

It was really easy. The hardest part was measuring the center of the plate to drill. Other than that, it just took a steady hand and lots of patience. I tested out my drill skills on a plate that I bought at Boomerang's in Central Square for $1. (Actually, I bought two for 50 cents, but one of them broke in transit).

There's a hole in this plate!

 Then I disassembled a candlestick that I bought for $1 in Brooklyn. There is a long screw holding all the pieces together, so I unscrewed it and then reassembled it with the plate in the middle.
 

Candlestick Cake Stand #1

After my first successful plate drilling attempt, I went out and bought three more plates. Here's the first one:

Here you can see how I marked up the plate with masking tape. I found it easier to mark the center of the plate on the tape, that way there weren't little dots all over the plate where my center measurement was off. Then I stacked a few more pieces of tape around the center so the drill bit wouldn't jump around on the ceramic. The bowl in the corner is filled with cold water to cool the drill bit every few minutes because it gets very hot!

The Finished Product!

And here's the finished product! After drilling the three plates, I just had to screw in the hardware and it was done. Super easy, super not-scary.

Time to eat cakes and sandwiches! Cheerio!

DIY Upholstered Dining Chairs

Finally! I have completed a DIY project appropriate for this blog. And it wasn't that difficult.

Remember these chairs that I got from my Craigslist windfall?

Well, I wasn't a fan of the rush seats, and they were a little dusty and squeaky. So I did a little google research, and it didn't seem like it would be that hard to upholster them without completely tearing apart the seat. I went to Fabric Corner in Arlington, MA. They have an amazing selection of fabrics, notions, etc. and the salespeople were really helpful. They had a great section of these quirky Japanese vintage prints in linen cotton. This is the one I picked up:

Did you know? Birds = Crafty!

I forgot to take pictures of the process but it was really quite easy.

1. Cut 1" foam into shape of the chair seat.

Some online tutorials start with taking off the seat, but since mine is attached to the frame with the rush, that wasn't really an option. I traced out the chair seat on some scrap fabric, then cut that out and traced it onto the foam. The guy at Fabric Corner recommended using a regular kitchen knife to cut the foam. Just make sure you have a cutting board or cardboard underneath so you don't scratch up the surface below. I used scissors to cut out the round corners of the seat. It wasn't a perfect match, but good enough. This was definitely the hardest step!

2. Cut fabric with about a 3" allowance around the sides of the seat.

i.e. you need enough fabric to cover the seat plus an additional 1" for the thickness of the seat, 1" for the foam, and another 1" margin of fabric to attach to the bottom of the seat.

3. Cover seat with fabric and staple gun to bottom of chair.

I folded the corners under and then just stapled all around the bottom of the seat. It was as easy as that!

Of course, I don't know how long the fabric will really stay attached to the seat like that. But I'm hoping it will make it at least through the baby shower I am throwing for my friend in a few weeks. So far, it has managed to stay put even with my butt parking on it.

Et voila! My first posted DIY project!

It was super easy and didn't take that long. Cutting the foam was the most labor-intensive part. I had also toyed with the idea of painting the wood on the chairs, but couldn't decide on black, white, or restaining it a wood color. Plus, I had a deadline. Luckily, the staples are easy enough to remove that if I feel like rehabbing the wood, I can just redo the seats. And I have enough fabric left to do the four other rush seats I bought off CL - or placemats, a runner, purses...the possibilities are endless!

One more shot of all the chairs around the table: