Ideas

If you haven't been on Pinterest you need to get on it now.  If you have you know what I am talking about.  The idea is that you have electronic pinboards where you can post pictures which link to the websites they came from.  This website can be useful for so many things but the main reason I am writing about it here is to share with you how it can help you improve your home.

I have one pinterest board dedicated to things that inspire me or that I could do to my house.  There are a wide variety of things on their from gardening ideas to colors I like or tips and tricks for cleaning.  It can really be anything you want. Most of my "pins" as they call them I get from looking at what other people have already pinned. So what if I am not being super original? I do the same thing when I walk by a person's house and steal their ideas. This way I don't look all creepy walking down the street staring at people's houses!

So here are a few examples of what I have pinned:

A succulent wall hanging. Apparently you can hang plants on a wall.  I think this look really interesting and cool and for only a few dollars you can make great outdoor art.  Just get an old frame at Goodwill, tightly plant a few small and inexpensive succulent plants in it and hang. Great for a patio.

We have a small yard so any space saving ideas are welcome.  This one not only saves space it also reuses old materials and I am a total hippy in that I love recycling.  We have one area on the north side of our house that is wasted space because we never go back there and there is not a whole lot of sun.  But lettuce and some other veggies do fine in the shade so if I find some old gutters at the reuse store this spring I might have to try this.

There are a lot of great ideas floating around out there but it can take a long time to find them. Using pinterest I don't have to find them because someone else already has!  This is a great idea for a slow release watering system instead of just dumping a bunch of water on top. We have a rather slanted yard so a lot of the water runs off anyway!  This will keep your plants wet longer but it does take up a chunk of space if you are limited in that department.

I usually pin garden things because it is spring and that is my main focus right now. However, we do have an attic that could look a lot like this. I generally try not to dream to big because of my small budget but maybe someday we can finish that space and make it nice. Although I doubt it will every be this nice. 

This last photo is to demonstrate the fact that there is MUCH more on pinterest than just stuff about gardening and home design.  There are good and bad things, funny and sad thing, useful and utterly useless things on pinterest just like the rest of the internet.  It is all about how you chose to use it. I hope this post has inspired you to use pinterest or some other internet website to better your home and/or life. 

Fat Squirrel says "Get going!".

Welcome!

Welcome to This Ugly Old House! A blog about my ugly old house and how I am trying to make it less ugly and how you can make yours less ugly too. 

My goal with this blog is to share my home improvement journey and inspire you on your own path.  Almost a year ago today my husband and I bought our first house in the south end of Seattle. We have done a few projects to improve the place but there are many more to be done.  And although we were lucky enough to get the house we are by no means rolling in money for home improvements. This means we have to be very budget conscious and decide what gives us the most value and function for our home.

I know a lot of you out there are struggling financially as well and while money is tight all around no one wants to live in a house that makes them feel poor and helpless.  Besides, living in a beautiful space improves your mood and the hard work of home improvement can be great exercise.  If you don't believe me just try ripping out a bed of ivy!  Plus, certain easy improvements can add value to your home which we can all use.  But I will stop yapping now and show some pictures.

This is our Ugly Old House. Ok, it really is not that ugly from the front.  But inside it gets a little funky.  This photo was taken the weekend we moved in. Our dog Haggis who passed away recently was already guarding his new home.  At 990 square feet it fits two adults, a cat and a dog very nicely. 

The living room looks sad and small in this photo. We immediately ripped up that nasty carpet and found beautiful hardwood underneath. However, all the other rooms in the house have disgusting, and probably asbestos laden, brown or pink material of some sort glued to the wood. Therefore, even if we wanted to refinish the living room floor there is no way we could afford to make all the other floors match so we decided to buy some do-it-yourself bamboo flooring and just cover the whole house in it.

The living room looks like this today. We chose Zebrano raw bamboo for the flooring which basically means the bamboo was shredded, some of it was charred (creating the darker spots), and then 'glued' back together to from really strong planks with interlocking grooves.  So far this stuff doesn't have a scratch on it even with a 70lb dog running on it and us constantly moving the furniture. It was a big expense at around $3,000 to do the whole house but it will be well worth it when we actually get it all put in. 

We purchased the flooring from Simple Floors in Tukwila, WA and they were really helpful in telling how to install it ourselves. We 'floated' it so as to not damage the the floor underneath.  This is also an environmentally friendly product which is another reason we chose it as well as the fact that it is harder and more durable than traditional hardwoods. And less expensive. 

You can also see from this photo that I painted the wall to the left bright orange and the bookshelf nook white.  In the afternoon when the light comes through the west facing windows the room is really bright and cheery.  For $20 in paint you can change the whole vibe of a room. 

What have you improved on your house lately?