Our House "To Do" List (& would like to do)

So a long while back, I made a house "to do" list. I wrote down a bunch of the things the Mr. and I needed to do and some things that we would like to do. I also broke them down into price categories: cheap, modest, and expensive because that's how I roll I figured it would help us prioritize things correctly. Things in progress are highlighted. Things already done are in red and are crossed out. Anything in black is left to do. So, without further ado, here is the list:

	Things to Do in House:
Free	·      Prime & Paint doors/trim in house
Free	·      Paint & Put down shoe molding where needed
Free	·      Hang rest of pics in house (yes, we’re very late on this)
Free	·      Sand & Paint stools
Free	·      Sand & Paint window panes
Free	·      Paint garage (use leftover paint?)
Free	·      Keep siding clean with Clorox spray and water hose (Spring)
Free	·      Spray paint bathroom fixtures
Free	·      Fix closet doors so they don’t stick
Cheap	·      Finish fixing gate (both sides – they’re wompy jawed)
Cheap	·      Print wedding pic (8x10 – bc we still don’t have one up)
Cheap	·      Print 4x6 pics for window panes & hang in house
Cheap	·      Make a shelf over the washer/dryer to give some counter space
Cheap	·      Put light fixture in laundry room
Cheap	·      BASKETS, BASKETS, BASKETS! (Ikea?)
Cheap	·      Paint front door and shutters black
Cheap	·      Get 2 tall buffet lamps for buffet
Cheap	·      Paint desk and chair for sewing table
Modest	·      Make coffee table into bench (make pad, paint, wood)
Modest	·      Stain end tables
Modest	·      Build Shelf for TV
Modest	·      Backsplash in kitchen
Modest	·      Get cheap frames and prints for Gallery Wall
Modest	·      Paint living room/rooms/bathrooms
Modest	·      Get electrician – wiring for wall switches is wacky
Modest	·      Get white electrical outlets and switches – currently a cream color
Modest	·      DIY Headboard for our bed
Modest	·      Thrift 2 chairs for living room
Modest	·      Slipcover other furniture in living room?
Modest	·      Thrift & Paint one more dresser
Modest	·      Get another bookcase?
Expensive	·      Get/Build 2 pub stools for bar
Expensive	·      Change out bathroom faucets in both bathrooms (to nickel)
Expensive	·      New carpet?
Expensive	·      Put fans in house
Expensive	·      Vinyl Tiles in kitchen and bathrooms
Expensive	·      Refinish hardwood floors? (way off in future)

So, like I said... there's some things we NEED to do on the list, and there's a whole lot of things we WOULD LIKE to do. Obviously, this list is constantly evolving. We'd love for you guys to follow along with us as we attempt to mark things off our list.

Tootles!

On the road again...

Okay, okay... so I'm a horrible blogger. I haven't done very well lately keeping everybody updated. The truth is... I'm worn slap out. I feel like the Mr. and I are constantly on the go. Our schedules have been evolving over the last month or so since the Mr. got a new job. Don't get me wrong... I'm not complaining -- I feel so blessed that the Mr. is gainfully employed... I'm just worn out. Since the Mr. got a job closer to where I work (which is at least 30 minutes away from home when there's zero traffic), we're trying to save gas money by riding to work together when we can. Now, we have to LEAVE the house at 6:30am in order to get the Mr. to work by 8:00am (durn traffic!), and then I drive to work from there (which only takes about 10 minutes). Phew. Then I try to leave work by 4:45pm to pick up the Mr. at 5:00pm, and it takes us until 6:00pm or so before we're home. What a day. I'm sure this is a normal commute for a lot of people who live in bigger cities, but this guy and gal from smaller towns just aren't used to it. Needless to say, by the time we get home, cook dinner, and get everything ready for the next day , I'm pooped. I don't even have kids -- I just don't know how parents do it. They must summon some incredible amount of energy from somewhere deep down, or they're just tired all the time (my guess is the latter). I can't imagine having to throw baths, homework, and putting kids to bed into my already tight schedule. Props to all the parents out there. I don't know how y'all do it.

Just when we get used to this crazy schedule, it'll change again since the Mr. will be starting seminary. Instead of me dropping him off at work and then picking him up, he'll have to drop me off -- which means I'll be at work from like 7:30 to 5:30. Crazy, huh? Let's hope the change goes smoothly.

Also, the Mr. and I have been traveling quite a bit on the weekends the last two months. With Easter, Mother's Day, and the Mr.'s first sermon (he did great -- but I'm probably definitely prejudiced), we've been hitting the roads hard. As a matter of fact, due to an accident, we spent 7 hours in a car one way the Friday before last -- the trip should only take about 3.5 hours. BLAH! I haven't had much time to work on the house or anything else for that matter. The only project I've devoted any time to is couponing, which is coming along slowly. It's saving us money -- but I'm sure I've got a ton more tricks/tips to learn.

Even though we've been spending countless hours in the car, it's always great to see family. They're so encouraging, and seeing them gives me that little boost of energy that I need to get through the next week. Even though it's a short week, it's also a busy week for so many -- including us Hightowers! Here's hoping you guys have a wonderful rest of the week!!

What we've been up to lately....

Ok, so I admit it... I'm a really bad blogger.... like.... REALLY BAD. I read so many awesome blogs where they post once a day or so. How do they do it? I don't even have kids, and I find it hard to post once a week. Anywho, I just wanted to give y'all a quick update on what the Mr. and I've been up to lately...

1) The Mr. got into seminary!! Whoop Whoop! We're excited to start this journey to fulfill God's calling.

2) We're still priming and painting our little hearts away. We actually ran out of primer this past weekend, so we'll need to get some more before we can really finish up the trim & interior doors. This is possibly one of the biggest undertakings we've done so far just because it's so time consuming. I'll be so glad when it's finally over!

3) The Mr. and I are running three days a week now using the C25K program. It's tough just because I'm so out of shape, but I know it's good for me. We're on Week 5 of the 9 week program. We should be on week 7, but we got a little off track for a couple of weeks... whoops.

4) I've started couponing! I've found some great websites like savingwellspendingless.com which are definitely helping me. I'm definitely a newbie at the whole thing, but if I can get good at it, it can save us a lot on our grocery bill. I've even made this binder to hold all of my clipped coupons (Thanks to Kim, a lady at our church, for giving me this idea first).

So nice and organized... I love it. Sorry the pic is bad. The Mr. took it at night on his phone.

5) I'm still working on the whole sewing thing. I've bought some fabrics that I hope to make something out of soon. So far, I've only sewn lines on an old t-shirt... so actually making something should be interesting.

Confession: I'm notorious for starting something and not finishing. I get bored easily and have to change up the routine. Also -- I'm a perfectionist (yes, I know, it's not good.... but I am.) I do think I'm responsible when it comes to work (aka when someone is counting on me to do it). However, I find it a bit harder to finish things I'm doing for myself. I just easily frustrated, lazy, or (like I said before) just plain bored. So, since I've acknowledged that I have this problem, y'all should know that I am making an effort to remedy it. Therefore, I'm hoping posting this for the world to see will encourage me to finish/stick with something, be it couponing, sewing, running, whatever. Hopefully, I can stick with all of it.

Another thing I'm working on is trying to get up earlier, you know, so I have more time to ease into my day and not always be so rushed getting out the door. Needless to say, I'm failing miserably at this one... What can I say? This girl likes her sleep. But seriously.... I'm gonna need to work harder on that... ;)

I plan on posting a list that the Mr. and I made of things we'd like to do around the house. Also -- I plan to post pics of the house from before we moved in (aka in its original state). That way, you guys can follow along as we try to mark things off our list and spruce up our home.... it should be interesting...

Hope you guys are having a great day! :)

Seriously!?!

Ok... so you guys are NOT going to believe this. It's actually pretty ironic...

Someone hit and broke our mailbox.


No, I'm not kidding. Someone really did hit and break our mailbox. We thought it was pretty ironic since we had just posted about finally painting the hose clamps that were the "quick fix" in the first place.

One Thursday evening, the Mr. and I went out for a run in the neighborhood. A car passed us, headed down our street, and immediately came back out of the neighborhood. As we turned the corner, we realized our mailbox had been knocked down, completely broken off the post (which, in case you don't remember, is iron). The actual mailbox was dented up a little so that it didn't close completely, but whoever hit it was nice enough to set it in the grass behind the post.

After we realized what happened, the Mr. and I headed out to Lowe's and bought some more hose clamps. After using 4 more hose clamps, we managed to get it up so we could still receive mail, but it was definitely not sturdy. Unfortunately this is the only pic I got of all the hose clamps we had to use. I didn't even get pics of the mailbox all broken and on the ground... I was a little too ill to think about doing that at the moment.

At first, we thought we'd have to buy a whole new mailbox & post to the tune of $305 (as quoted to us since they had to custom build it... blah). But luckily, we squirmed our way out of that.

The day after the incident I told my boss about it and showed him a pic of the once standing mailbox. He realized the ornamental iron on the mailbox was a design that his grandfather made at an iron foundry in town. He still knew the owner, so he called for me. Sure enough, it was a design his grandfather had created. The iron piece was originally $8, but they gave it to me for free. I brought it home and the next weekend, the Mr. and I went to Lowe's and grabbed a $20 mailbox. We also grabbed some primer, glossy black spray paint, and a few more hose clamps. Then, we had to reconstruct the mailbox....

We started by unbolting the mailbox from the iron decorative piece. You can see how it was attached in this picture. 

It was attached to what I call a "t-bar" type of piece of metal, which was then attached the iron decorative piece.

 Since we didn't have the materials to make the little "t-bar section" that holds mailbox, we had to reuse the original one by prying if off the old broken decorative iron.

 
 You can see what it looks like once it's pryed off. It was simply two separate sections that were welded together.

Once we got the two pieces separated, and since we could't weld it all together, we used small hose clamps to hold the "t-bar section" to the decorative iron section as you can see below. 

Then the Mr. took our new mailbox and drilled some holes in the bottom of it so it would sit nicely on top of the "t-bar section." In this pic, he was using the pre-drilled "t-bar section" as his guide to drill holes in the new mailbox.

Then we used some nuts and bolts to hold the mailbox on the "t-bar." 

Then we used some more hose claps to hold the decorative piece the to mailbox post... as mentioned in this post. And then we primed everything.

Lastly, we sprayed it all with a glossy black spray paint.

And now for the big reveal. (Yes, I blurred our house number...)

(Ignore the icky fingerprints we left on it... they washed off in the rain... lol)

Not too shabby considering this what it looked like after we fixed it the first time.

It's all quite humorous looking back on it. It's a good thing we didn't go ahead and buy a new one when we first had problems with it. We're also praising the good Lord that we got a break by getting the ornamental iron piece for free. Small world, huh? So, all in all, we spent about $30 fixing it this time, and hopefully, there won't be a need to fix it anytime soon....

P.S. Our new neighbors actually just knocked down and broke their mailbox... we gave them some tips on how to fix it, but I guess it's just something about this neighborhood...

Update: Mailbox Quick Fix

A while back, I wrote about our mailbox suddenly falling of the post (read all about it here). Instead of paying out the wazoo to have it welded back on or to have it replaced, we used simple hose clamps to hold it all together. Surprisingly it worked well, and it's still going strong! We haven't had any problems at all with it. But as you can tell from the pic below, the silver clamps weren't blending well with the black post.

So, this past weekend, the Mr. and I finally picked up a can of $0.96 black spray paint. After a few minutes, we ended up with this:

Viola! A mailbox that's looking as good as new for about $5 buckaroos! I do think we should have used a gloss instead of a matte paint, so I may grab a can of that soon and just go over it. But for now, it's definitely looking better. Not to mention, I like the $5 price tag a lot better than the estimated $200 quote they gave us to fix it. Moral of the story: ALWAYS see if there's something you can do to fix it yourself before shelling out all that money! :) Hope you guys are having a great week!

Yes, I know...

I'm a horrible blogger! I haven't really kept you guys updated on anything that's going on, and that's because honestly, there's not much going on. The Mr. and I have been spending all of our "crafty time" painting ALL of the trim and interior doors throughout the house. Oh yes, ALL of it (read all about that here). And since our trim paint was oil-based, we're having to prime and paint it as opposed to just painting it. Blah! It was a huge undertaking, but I know that it will be worth it in the end (of course, that doesn't mean that I don't moan and groan the whole time... I'm sure the Mr. loves that part...). So far we've managed to finish the kitchen, living area and foyer completely (meaning primed and painted). We've also been able to prime the guest bedroom and the guest bathroom, so now we just have to paint that. BUT we still have the garage, office, the master bedroom, and the master bathroom to go. Phew.

I'm looking forward to the day when we can focus on wall colors instead of the trim! I will say though, that the trim is looking 100% better. The Mr. and I agreed that the cream colored trim made everything seem dingy and dirty. The white trim makes everything look refreshingly clean. Is there anything a good coat of white paint can't make look better? I'll have to post pics of our progress soon. Hope you guys are having a great day!!

Praying for Japan

I'm sure all of you know of the deadly earthquakes and tsunami that Japan has experienced. They've suffered tremendous loss and still have many more hurdles to jump. My heart goes out to all the Japanese people and to people in all countries who may have friends/family in Japan. Though we may not understand it, I fully believe that God has a plan and a purpose for this. God Bless You All!

The image says: "The nation of Japan needs our help. Lend  a hand. Say a prayer. Give support."

Coffee Table Makeover

This weekend the Mr. and I took a departure from painting interior doors and trim (see post below). I get a little extremely antsy to do other DIY projects, even though I know the crisp white trim would definitely be worth it. My attention span is a little... meh. And while I'm painting baseboard after baseboard and door after door, I tend to think of a gazillion (that's a number, right?) other DIY projects that I want to do. Since I already had all the tools/materials needed, this weekend I focused on this beauty:

Yup... that's my coffee table. The whole time Daniel and I lived in the apartment, we didn't have a coffee table. So, when a client offered to sell me this unfinished pine coffee table shortly after we moved into our home, I jumped on it. Even though it wasn't my "style," it was the cheapest, descent coffee looking table I had found since moving. Besides that, our furniture is... eclectic... to say the least (or hand-me-downs, if you will).

Over time, its chunky legs and country flower detailing wore on me, and I found myself asking the Mr. if we really needed it. We never used it for anything but setting magazines/the computer/books on anyway, and we have 2 end tables that serve the same purpose. I'm one of those people who, if I find myself not using a particular thing, want to get rid of it immediately by selling it or taking it to someplace/somebody who could use it more. Plus, I figured an ottoman would be better because it can act as a coffee table and extra seating. That's when I remembered seeing some blogs about turning old coffee tables into ottomans or benches. After talking it over with the Mr., we decided to go the bench route.

First, we primed and painted the legs and visible sides of the coffee table white (Valspar).

Next, we used some 2" foam that we bought half off from JoAnne's fabric. Avoid paying full price for foam if you can -- it can be pricey. I believe stores like this will cut the foam to the specifications that you need, but we didn't have that done. Instead, we bought 2 yards (for the price of one) and knew that it would be more than long enough. Luckily, the width of the foam was perfect for our table, but it wouldn't be hard to cut it down if you had to. At home, we cut the length to match the top of the coffee table with a serrated knife. Electric knives are definitely better for this, but a serrated one will work just fine. You can attach the foam to the coffee table top using a spray glue adhesive, but we didn't do this step -- I don't know why. If you decide not to do it, you can pull the fabric tight enough so that the foam doesn't move around.

Then, we cut the fabric to size, put it over the foam, and stapled it to the underside of the coffee table. Be sure to fold the edges of the fabric under when stapling to make a hem of sorts; it will prevent fraying edges. The corners were the hardest part to make look nice IMO -- but admittedly, the Mr. was way better at this part than me.... kind of weird, but I'll take it!

Lastly, staying true to my love of distressed furniture, we sanded down the edges of the coffee table.... er... bench. And this is how she turned out...

I'm in love with it, and it still provides the extra seating we need... since a loveseat and a chair don't always cut it. Ignore those frumpy pillows -- I'm planning on, eventually, one day, making some new pillows (four or so maybe?) to replace those.

Oh, and the pups are already loving it too...

Hope you guys have a great week!

Linked Up To: The Shabby Nest

Frame and Fortune

One day while visiting family, the Mr. and I meandered through Kirklands in the mall. They were having a pretty good sale, but we didn't go in with the intention of buying anything.... that was, until we saw this beauty...

It's a huge beautiful painting of a town setting, and I had the perfect empty wall for it. The original price tag said $130.00 (ouch), but it was marked down to $45.00. Why so much? Because it "damaged." Their definition of "damaged" was a scratched up frame -- nothing wrong with the actual painting.

See? The scratches aren't all that bad...

Oh, but wait, it gets better. Remember before when I mentioned that Kirlands was having a sale? That's right... an extra 35% off! Wahoo! That makes it a whopping $30, plus tax, of course. Still -- that's $100 off! That's my kind of shopping!! But the frame... what would we do about that? Well, seeing as how I'm all into distressing and antiquing, I figured we'd just try sanding down the frame to give it a distressed look. That way, the scraches all over the frame would just blend right in. We used some 80-grit sandpaper that we had on hand to sand all over the frame, and here she is all finished..

Isn't she a beauty? Well, I think so... and now that big empty wall isn't looking so lonely. Plus, I think the roughed up frame goes better with the painting than the chunky brown frame. That's not bad for $30 and 5 minutes of sanding...

Linked up to The Shabby Nest

Looky Looky....

Look what I got...

Yes, that's my brand new Husqvarna sewing machine. My sweet mama surprised me with it. She called me and told me to go to a nearby store to pick something up that they were holding for me. The Mr. and I hopped in the car and got there only to find a brand new sewing machine! YaY! Now, let me clarify... I've never had a sewing machine, and I barely know how to use one -- but I plan on putting this to good use! I've been wanting to learn to sew for forever, and I've been practicing on my grandmother's old sewing machine. But now, I have one of my own -- and it's sooooo easy to use. I'm really excited, and can't wait to try out my first sewing project on it! Thanks, Mama!!

A sneak peek...

What project is taking up soooo much of our time that we can't even do other little projects to blog about? PAINTING OUR TRIM & INTERIOR DOORS. Yes, we are painting ALL of our trim and doors. Originally our trim/door color was cream -- definitely not my favorite. It darkens the rooms, and it makes everything look a little dingy IMO. So, Mr. H and I invested in some latex based Behr Ultra White semi-gloss paint to repaint everything. Here's how we got started:

First, we went to Sherwin Williams to pick up a couple of little brushes that Sherry at Young House Love bragged about in this post. They're only $5 a piece, and she's right... they're perfect for painting trim. While we were there, we asked the Sherwin Williams guy a few questions about painting our trim. He said that we should first make sure we didn't have oil based painted trim because if we did, we'd have to take an extra priming step (if your existing trim is latex, then you can just paint right over it with another latex paint -- no priming necessary). In order to check, he suggested putting some denatured alcohol on a rag and wiping it over the trim (he said rubbing alcohol would work too). If the paint rubs off on the rag, then you have latex painted trim. If the paint doesn't rub off onto the rag, you have oil based trim. Welp, guess what. We had oil based trim. Boo.

After a minor pity party, we went to Lowe's to pick up an oil based primer because, after hours of Google searching, it seemed like that was our only choice; however the gentleman at Lowe's suggested Zinsser's 1-2-3 primer that isn't oil based (yay for no VOCs), but it bonds the oil based paint and the latex paint together. And the verdict? It works like a charm.

Working hard on the trim in the pantry

Ever since then, we've been patiently priming and painting all the trim and doors in the house. So far -- we've finished the laundry room, kitchen, and living room (including the fireplace). I know, I know, that's a lot of work to just change the color of your already painted trim. And there are moments throughout the process (especially when my back is aching and my hand is cramping) when I'm like, "Is this worth it?" Oh, but it totally is. I've even found a couple tricks to make it move a little faster (for anyone who's considering painting their trim):

1) Grab a mini roller from the store -- it makes makes painting the doors and other plain, solid pieces (like on the fireplace) go a lot faster.
2) Cut off the flap of a piece of cardboard and hold at an angle against the baseboard to prevent getting any paint on your floors. It also works well on carpet. It helps hold down the little carpet fibers so they don't get stuck in your paint. This was a tip from my grandmother (Thanks, Meme!), and it works wonders. Just make sure you wipe off the edge of the cardboard every now and then so paint doesn't build up and smear all over the place... not that I would know from experience... yea right.

Cardboard Box Method

Anyway, the new white trim is amazing. It makes everything look so much cleaner, and I feel like we have more decorating choices now. I'm ready to have it all finished so I can work on wall colors. But for now, we're working on one room at a time. We're about to start the bedrooms and bathrooms, so wish us luck.

Finally, a white fireplace. Yes, we have to clean up around the edges,
but it's so much easier to me to clean it up than to tape it off.

All-You-Can-Antique-Buffet

So as some of our friends and family know, we scored this super sweet china hutch off Craigslist for -- wait for it -- a whopping $75.

Not bad considering it was in pretty good shape. Really, I just wanted the bottom part of it to use as a buffet table. Buffet tables, even on Craigslist, can be pretty expensive IMO (=in my opinion). I also wanted to try to antique/distress it, so I definitely didn't want to spend a lot since I've never antiqued before. One problem though: we didn't have a truck or anything else big enough to bring it home in. But with the help of our sweet brother-in-law, we lugged it home in a borrowed truck. Then the fun began...

We washed it down, and since at this time I wasn't totally sure I didn't want the hutch part, we sanded, primed, and painted the entire piece an off white color (Valspar paint from Lowe's). Then, we glazed it using Valspar Antiquing Glaze in Asphaltum. Basically, the glaze is pretty easy to use. We painted it on in sections with a foam brush, then we wiped off the excess.

It was looking much better at this point, but see all the decorative mumbo jumbo on the drawers and the top of the hutch in the above picture? Well -- that's just not my style. I wanted clean, classic lines. I also wanted it to have an even more distressed appearance. Soooooo --- I sort of hinted to Mr. H that I wasn't feeling the whole decorative design of it. Being the sweet hubby he is, he immediately took the drawers out to the garage and removed the decorative pieces on the drawers. They were pretty easy to pry off since they were simply stapled to the drawer front. The next day, he sanded down the drawers, painted, and antiqued them. Oh, I should also mention that we hated that original bulky hardware, so we puttied the holes with wood putty and painted over those as well. Since we couldn't remove the decoration on the top of the hutch, and since I wasn't in love with it anyway, we axed the hutch and took it to the thrift store.

Now that I was seeing the clean lines of the whole piece, I wanted to add a bit more distressing. So, to give it an even more distressed feel, we sanded down the all the edges of the buffet, doors, and drawers. Last but not least, we drilled new holes for hardware and put on oil rubbed bronze knobs. Isn't this much better?

Sorry for the bad lighting and shadows. Mr. H took this pic at night.

It's definitely not perfect, but it's not too bad for our first attempt at redoing a piece of furniture IMO. Oh, and remember the hutch part that we axed? Well, as I did my daily scour through Craigslist today, I found this...

Yes... it appears someone bought it from the thrift store and now he/she is selling it for $85 -- $10 more than what we paid for the whole thing. Well, you know what they say, "One person's trash is another person's treasure."

And on a side note, it's snowing!! Snow is a rare occasion in the deep south, but yay for some snow..... and going into work late... :)

 

Linked up to:
The Shabby Nest

"Um... problem: our mailbox just fell off..."

The title of this post is a text message I received on Friday while I was at work. "Um... problem: our mailbox just fell off..." was all it said. Of course, my response was "Wait, what?" I mean, how often do you get a text message saying your mailbox fell off? The remainder of the text conversation went something like this:

Mr. H: "Mailbox fell OFF the post."
Me: "Snap. Um. How do we fix that? Homeowner's association?"
Mr. H. "Idk. It was like welded on. Three steps for fixing it: 1) Pray that God would fix it. 2) Call HOA. 3) Pray that God would fix it!"

Then I received this picture:

Apparently Mr. H went to get the mail and found our mailbox laying on the ground. You see, we live in a neighborhood that has a homeowner's association. You pay your fee every year, and they use the money to fix up the front entryway and whatnot... I suppose. They also require you to keep a certain look about your house. If you decide to do anything that would alter the curb appeal, you must submit in writing what you plan to do and then the HOA approves or rejects it. Crazy, I know. Why would someone want to pay to be told what you can and can't do? On the other hand, it also holds everyone in the neighborhood accountable so you don't end up with a junkyard next to you. Well, per the HOA, we're required to have the SAME mailbox and post as everyone else -- which just happens to be an expensive die cast aluminum mailbox post. As you can see from the picture above, we couldn't remedy the broken mailbox by just screwing it on. The whole decorative horizontal piece that the mailbox sits on broke off due to being weakened by rust. So, we called the mailbox people that the HOA told us to contact. We left a message. They never called back. So -- I checked out their website which says their mailboxes are designed to be "rust free" and should "last a lifetime." Welp, this one didn't.

Out of hopes of them returning our calls and saying they'd fix it at no charge to us since they're supposed to "last a lifetime," I didn't want to mess up the aluminum by screwing holes into it or anything. Also -- I needed a quick fix so we could get the mailbox up to receive mail (Mr. Mailman won't leave mail if there's no mailbox -- understandably so...). So, Mr. H and I hurried off to Home Depot to find a remedy. This is what we came up with:

Yes, those are hose clamps holding our mailbox onto the post. Might I add that it is very sturdy -- perhaps even more sturdy than before it broke off. Hose clamps are simple to work. They come in different sizes and have a screw on them. The more you tighten up the screw, the more the clamp tightens up. It worked for us. Oh, and the clamps were around a dollar a piece, so that makes this quick fix a mere $3 project. The plan is to spray paint them a rust-resistant black. Then, I don't think anyone would even be able to notice. It might not work forever, but it works for now!

Linked up to:
The Shabby Nest

Welcome Home!

Hey guys! Welcome to our blog. I never really thought I'd be a blogger, but it seems like a great way to keep people updated on what's going on in the Hightower household. In August of 2010, Daniel and I bought our first home. As a matter of fact, on our first anniversary, we woke up in our first home for the very first time (yea, that's a lot of firsts, but I love it). What a great way to start the second year of our marriage! As we spruce up our first home, we'd love for you guys to join us on the ride. I'm sort of addicted to looking at other DIY blogs for inspiration and ideas. I sort of, kinda, like LOVE doing things on the cheap. So, I figured why not show you guys what we're doing to our first home?! We try our best, but with the busy schedules of life, it's not always easy for our friends and family to keep up with us. This way, you can see ALL the Hightower happenings --- including the mishaps ;) Also, y'all have to meet my babies (from left to right) : Jack (yes, he has a severe underbite... but he's just too darn cute) and Charlie (yes, SHE has a boy's name).

Stay tuned for our first project!