A Little Repurposing

As you can tell by my absence - we are really busy and working hard around the ranch.

In July our contractors come back to start a big project on the exterior of the house - we are getting a new roof for the porch, extending it and enclosing it - can't wait.

I'll fill you in on the details of that later Now I want to tell you about this project, that has something to do with the porch.

When we bought the house my mother in law gave us several boxes with stuff "that we might be able to use" but just never got around to looking at….On this trip I did and deemed that a lot of it was yard sale material and I almost put these in the yard sale pile when an idea hit me…

I could make something out of these….just had to see if I could get the other part I needed.

Went to several stores and finally found what I was looking for at the world market store.

Click photo for source

I picked the 30 light set and I'm thinking right about now you are getting an idea of what's going to happen here…

Right!

I'm going to use the jello molds as lampshades!

But I didn't have enough. I got really lucky at the thrift store and got a bunch for less than two dollars, but it still wasn't enough.

I checked eBay and there were a lot to be had there, just the prices were all over the place and I would still have to pay shipping.

Wound up getting the seven I needed at an antique store for 8.-, so so far we are at $40.- for the lights.

Once I got them home and looked at my drill bits I noticed that even my largest wasn't big enough for the task so I wound up getting this puppy (which cost another 40 bucks….any suggestion what I can make to get some use out of it???)

Oh my dad is so proud that his girl likes fancy tools.

I was able to use my new to me drill press that I bought at an estate sale when we first got here.

The only way that I could drill them was by cutting a piece of wood for the inside so it doesn't get all bent out of shape when I secured them with the vice.

After they were drilled I took the bulb out and put the "shade" between the bulb and the socket…some holes were a tad big, others I had to work a bit to make it fit, but over all everything worked out fine.

Now these are my "I'm so excited that they're done and look cool" pics, I'll share better ones when we have them hanging out on the porch

So that's my project - hope you like it! But stay tuned, another idea hit me,  to be continued!!

Aloha A Hui Hou!!

DIY - Welcome Table - Take 2

In my last post I left you hanging...waiting for a call back from the lady selling the vanity mirror for $65.-.

Well, I waited and waited and waited and she didn't call back. I was disappointed.

I went back to the post and saw that she only had her shop open on Thursdays, so I gave it another shot and guess what? She picked up the phone!

Now the bad news. She said she didn't get my message and sold the mirror the day before.

But here is some good news, she sold it to another antique shop. She was kind enough to give me the contact information of the shop that bought it and I called there.

They picked up right away and found that they still had it and wanted $100 for it.....Wow! what a profit in just one day! I asked them if that was the best price and they said yes. I thought a moment and decided to ask them to hold it for me and let them know a friend of mine would stop by to take a look at it.

Since my friend was in the neighborhood she was there in nothing flat. She called and said the mirror had a bit of hazing, but the frame looked really good. It was up me, if it was worth $100.

We talked back and forth a bit, and then I talked to the lady and was able to get the price down to $79...which was ok.

So now this beauty is resting in our shop and waiting from me to give it a new purpose! Woo hoo!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Welcome Table

Browsing thru the blogs I follow I found this at Domestic Imperfection

Photo from this blog

and I love it! She made it out of this

Photo from this blog

Since I saw it, in my minds eye I've been seeing it on our front porch, the table top a bit wider so I could put a vase on it, some seasonal decorations.....

This morning I was cruising Craigslist and found this:

Tell me, what are the chances of finding THAT close of a match?

Slim!

I know, right?

I called and left a message. So hope they get back to me and still have it.

Keep  your fingers crossed for me!

Aloha A Hui Hou!

To Paint the Porch Ceiling Blue

The couple of times we have been at the house we have had LOTS and LOTS of wasps trying to nest in the corners of the ceiling of the front porch and the back Lanai.

Last year when the contractor went up to fix the roof he was attacked by wasps.

I'm sure part of it is because there was no one there - to them it was a nice, quiet place to call home.

But it isn't anymore.

In many HGTV episodes people have mentioned that if you paint the ceiling of your porch blue, bugs think that it is the sky, where birds could easily catch them and they fly for cover...or something like that.

photo from this site

I was kind of torn between wanting to believe it and thinking that bugs would never fly out in the open if they were afraid of the sky.

So I did a little bit of research and this is what I found out.

Way back, some people believed that if you painted the porch ceiling a soft blue-green color it would keep Haints, restless spirits, away. The color was actually called Haint Blue.

Then there was an article that mentions that back in the day, when they first started painting porch ceilings blue, people used milk paints and in most cases lye was mixed into the paint.

That explains a lot. Lye is known as an insect repellent and THAT's why bugs would avoid spending time and building nests on the porch ceiling, lamps or ledges. You also have to know that milk paint fades over time...and it gets painted over with more milk paint = more lye. It was like a new treatment with every coat of paint.

So I guess, when we redo the back lanai (it has a poor slope), we'll be painting the ceiling with milk paint (I might have to research if lye may cause a health hazard for humans - I'll keep  you posted).

....and now you know the rest of the story!

Aloha a Hui Hou!