Tag: diy
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Our new butcher block countertops
We decided on butcher block countertops for the new kitchen; they are affordable, fit our style, and are perfect for our level of DIY skills. Going forward we will have to take good care of them; the countertops are properly sealed, but we have to be cautious when it comes to letting spills sit for […]
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Toddler Watercolors and a Valentines Day Gift for Dad
Having a newborn in the middle of winter has been a challenge. This year both RSV and the flu have been widespread in Louisville and I didn’t want that anywhere near Goldie, so we decided to keep Penny out of her daycare for Goldie’s first couple of months home. The whole point of keeping Penny […]
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Goldie’s DIY Nursery Closet Renovation
Well, we are officially one week from Goldie’s due date! As I type this she’s still nice and comfy on the inside, but she could come at any time! After Javier’s family left back in November we got to work with the final nesting stages – sorting through Penelope’s old newborn-6 month clothing to see […]
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A Special 10-year Anniversary Gift
Ok I have to take a moment to share this incredible gift that Javier gave me for our 10-year anniversary. It’s been hanging in our house for a week and I still have to stare at it every time I pass! It’s a handmade wreath with meaningful mementos from our lives as individuals and together […]
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Before and After: Three New Doors!
Ok, so we can’t DIY EVERYTHING that our house needs. Just like these projects back in 2017, there are a few things around the house that we needed to contract out to the professionals. This year we had a company come in and insulate / ventilate our house so that we have proper air flow […]
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DIY Kitchen Nook with reclaimed lumber – Part #2 / The Table
I have so many childhood memories of my home in Punta Arenas, Chile. One prominent memory is spending a ridiculous amount of time lying down on the kitchen’s peninsula in our home – for some reason I didn’t like to use chairs or sofas. It was huge table (at least young me thought so) made […]
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Wall Paper Mural – Before and After
I’ve had wallpaper on my mind for over a year now thanks to blogs like A Beautiful Mess and Young House Love. I know I want to use some peel-and-stick wallpaper in our dining room, but I needed a trial run in a smaller space before committing a whole room to wallpaper. Last year Young […]
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DIY: Wood Poster Hanger Tutorial
We scored two beautiful Christmas posters today for less than $10 at Scout in NULU and decided to make our own wood poster hangers! We made a little tutorial video, and the materials / steps are detailed below. If this tutorial is useful to you, please pin it / share it and help spread the […]
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DIY Reclaimed lumber Kitchen Nook – Part #1 / Bench with storage
One of my objectives when I changed the floors of the second story of the house was to save as many of the old pine floor planks as possible with the idea that I could use the wood for other projects. The wood is old and dry, and although it’s not hardwood, I believe it […]
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(Some) Home Improvement 2019
Lest you think Javi has spent even one day this entire year without SOME kind of project in our house, let me bring you up to speed on all of the ways our house has transformed since January! The first big project was building all of those beautiful cabinets that cover our open shelving in […]
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DIY Big Face Poster – Reprise
Back in 2012 Javi and I wrote a post about how we made DIY Big Face Posters for my dad and brother’s 30/60 birthday party. I put the post up on pinterest without knowing anything about how pinterest works (I still don’t really know much) and since then the post has brought over 200,000 views […]
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We swapped our carpet for vinyl planks and EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL.
When we moved into our house last year we tore out carpet, painted, redid the stairs, replaced 18 windows, and added a fence and started a garden. Everything ground to a halt when Penny arrived. Besides a new baby, what really stopped us was the fact that all of the rooms we now want to […]
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Pile Composting: How and Why
Composting is great for the garden and beneficial for the environment in general as we reduce the amount of trash going to landfills. Composting can be done on different scales; from huge industrial operations to small home-based systems. In this series of posts I want to share the 4 ways I compost. I already discussed […]
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How Trench Composting Fixed My Garden Soil
The Los Rodriguez Mansion garden has officially exploded. When I started building this garden and ordered the soil, I was not impressed with the quality of the soil I received…to the point that I simply called it dirt. Soil entails having an ecosystem; fungi, bacteria, bugs, nutrients, organic matter, etc. living in harmony while facilitating […]
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Five Tips to Prevent Flooding in your House
Not everything in Los Rodriguez life is glamorous…actually, there is not that much glamour in our lives, period. We try to highlight the great times, but as Dr. House would say, life isn’t always sunshine and puppies! Up until last Friday it felt like it rained every single day for the past two weeks, which […]
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Penelope’s Nursery Tour
Penny’s room has been a work-in-progress since we moved into the house, and we are adding to it all the time. There was no rush for us to finish P’s nursery before she was born because we didn’t really use it for anything besides diaper and clothing changes until she was about six months old […]
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My Moravian Workbench
After preparing the woodshop space, I needed to build a woodworking bench. The important feature about the bench I wanted was portability. Many of the plans I saw online were for beautiful benches that would never move from the place where they were built. You want a sturdy bench, and in most cases sturdiness comes […]
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Javi’s Workshop
I have wanted a workshop in our house for a long time, but I haven’t found the right space. Our house in Louisville has a garage, but it is not in the kind of condition I’d need for a permanent wood shop. There are several holes on the walls, it is not insulated, and there […]
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Arts and Crafts Weekend
We are officially 39 weeks and two days into this adventure and still waiting on miss Penelope to make her debut! I have a feeling she’s just going to make me wait. Is that a Virgo thing? Javi and I have our fingers crossed for Tues-Thurs of this week because he has Friday off. Come […]
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We Have a Garden!
Back in Nashville, Javier spent an immense amount of time and effort building up our garden from summer 2011 after we moved in right up until fall 2015 when we moved away. Every year he’d add a raised bed and fence it all in again with chicken wire. He’d come home from work or class […]
Los Rodriguez Life 