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Farm House Dining Room Remodel

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When we walked in the first time, the wall paper on the ceiling of the dining room was loose and hanging down to the floor. The ceiling plaster was cracked and falling, held up on only a prayer.  We put a jack under the worst area. Some areas were able to be secured, but most of the ceiling had to be removed and replaced with sheetrock.  We didn't really need a dining room, but we did need a pool room. Without a basement, we decided to do it in here. This is our fun house, after all. The niche we turned into a cue holder. The mirror is original. I kept the trim, including the 80's plain chair rail. The simplicity of it off-set the more elaborate wallpaper I put up. I went with a paintable, thick, patterned vinyl. On top of the flat darker gray paint, I dry brushed a silver metallic. It really highlights the pattern, without being too gaudy. Time consuming, but well worth the effort. This wallpaper will ding. If I did it over again, I would put a matte clear coat on top. The lig
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Farm House Kitchen Remodel

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When we bought the farm house, it was listed as a tear down. It looked horrible. However, I saw the potential and once I was able to get Mr. DJ to see it as well, he got on board.  The kitchen was a freakin' nightmare.  The window into the added back porch had wire over it, as they had kept their dogs in the back porch. The wet wall to the bathrooms was open and they had added washer and dryer hook ups in that area. Not sure what they had been doing with the kitchen ceiling, a lot of it was wide open, but we fixed that. I initially moved the 80's chandelier that had been in the dining room into here, but then I found this AMAZING milk glass chandelier at a thrift store that matched the original sink light. It's just perfect. For security, we replaced this original front door with a steel solid door. I moved the front door back to here. So far I haven't painted it. I like the story of it. I will probably eventually repair, restore and paint. One of my clients was remodel
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Starting Transplants for the Garden - My Equipment Set-up

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I'm seeing and responding to a lot of chatter on the gardening and homesteading sites [including my own] about starting transplants, and I wanted to do a more in-depth tutorial on how I do it.  [This post contains affiliate links.] There are several key elements to a good transplant: Fresh seeds , seeds really shouldn't be more than 2 years old, unless they have been stored in the freezer, for proper germination. Proper growing medium. You need a good TRANSPLANT medium, not soil, not compost, not potting soil, but actual starting medium. You can make your own, but for most home gardeners it is more economical to buy it.  Enough, proper, light . A sunny south facing window is fine for a couple weeks, but if you are starting a lot of plants, and/or way early, you need a proper light source with a full spectrum light. Without enough light, your plants will grow too tall too fast and be spindly and weak, and often not make it. Enough space. You can start 200 tiny seeds in a singl
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How To Paint Glossy Wood and Paneling

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[Post contains Amazon Affiliate links] My parents had a residential/commercial painting company that I worked at for 4 years. Decorating trends were just getting into the white woodwork. At that time, most woodwork was dark '70's or golden oak '80's. Much of our residential work was painting entire houses of trim, cabinets and paneling. I did this for up to 14 hour days 6 days a week when business was booming. I've also rehabbed several old houses since then. The pics below are from our 100 year old farmhouse rehab. If you do it wrong, the paint will just peel off. You don't want that to happen. Believe me.  Rule to remember: Water based paints CAN go over oil based paints. Oil based paints can NOT go over water based ones. To keep it simple, just use water based paints unless you are sealing brand new wood, coating masonry or painting outdoor metal. Remove cabinet doors and hardware. Don't try to paint around knobs, hinges and handles. Just don't. It
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