Stacking Stools: How to Paint Vinyl

The other day the whole family was sitting in the new living room enjoying one of our favorite TV shows.  I sat there thinking, "man, I need a foot stool."  I knew there wasn't room for an ottoman like I had planned so I thought for a couple of days about what would work in there.

It hit me that I needed a couple small stools and it would be wonderful if they would stack so I could sit them between the angle of the sofa and chair.  Dream on!  I sort of put the idea out of my mind because I didn't know where in the world to even find stacking stools and if I ever did I was sure they would be way out of my price range.

Well, I went to one of my favorite local antique stores to find a birthday present for my mother-in-law.  You will not believe what I found...STACKING STOOLS!!  I'm not kidding!  They were perfect other than the ugly colors!

I mean super cute other than the fact that they don't match anything in the living room!  I negotiated a good deal on them and thought I'd just have to figure out a way to make them cute.

Did you know there is paint for vinyl?!  Well, there is and it's wonderful!!  It's Rust-oleum Painter's Touch and it works like a charm!  I thought maybe the vinyl would feel weird after it was painted but it doesn't.  It's flexible and soft and you would never know it was spray painted!

Look how cute my stools are now!!

Who would have known those ugly stools could turn out so cute!  I just love them!

Here's how I did it.  The first thing I did was sand the wood.  I just took a medium grit sanding block and did a once over.

I then cleaned them with a degreasing cleanser like a 409.

 I painted the wood with a regular interior latex paint with a regular paint brush.

Then came the task of taping it off.  I used a painters tape.  This was the most time consuming part because of all the curves.  Why doesn't someone invent a flexible painters tape? 

Then outside I went to spray paint.  I used one can of the spray paint and put on about four thin coats.  The paint has a primer in it so I didn't have to prime first so that was nice.

After all the layers of paint were done I brought them inside and let them dry overnight.  I think they are just great and I couldn't have found anything more fitting for the space.

They look great next to my chair.  And you can sort of see in the close up photo that the vinyl is still soft and doesn't look painted.

So the next time you are out hunting for treasures and you come across a vinyl chair that has great lines but the color makes you cringe...grab it and a can of spray paint and have some fun!!

"Oh no! It's gone!"

We headed to Bear Lake for Spring Break the first week of April.  We were excited to get out of the mess of construction and have real bathrooms to use!!  We knew that half of the house would be knocked down while we were gone.

Here's what the house looked like before.  The little front porch had already been pulled off.

Here's another view

I of course wanted to see the tear down.  I mean, how often do you get to see your house knocked down?!  So we came back to see it happen.  I thought the kids would get a kick out of watching but after about 10 minutes they were ready to go.  What's up with that??

When we got to the house they were already about half way back.  They worked so fast and it was amazing to see how gently they used that huge equipment to pull it down.

For safety reasons were weren't allowed on the property while they were working.  We sat in our van across the street and watched.  We would go run errands for a while and then go back to the house to see what they had done.  When we came back the last time, they were just about done and our little 2 year old said, "Oh no!  It's gone!"  He even had a little tear in his eye.  I was thinking the same thing!

Here's what it looked like when they were just about finished.

We realized how tiny the original part of the house really is.  I got a little emotional thinking about the generations of Edwards who raised their children in that house.  I wondered if Grandpa Lee and Grandma Bonnie, and Alice were watching it all happen.  Oh, it must have been a sight for them if they were!

Living Like Pioneers!

Lately I have joked with a couple friends about the fact that my family is living like the Pioneers.  Though our hardships are not even close to theirs I have thought of them often in the last couple of weeks.  Let me share with you our living conditions at the moment.

A lot of neighbors and friends have asked how it is that we can live in the half of our house that remains during the construction.  The original half of the house has two bedrooms, the kitchen, the living room, and the mud room.  Yep, that's right, all six of us are living in two bedrooms with no bathroom!  How can that be???  Well, here it is.

All four kids are in one bedroom.  Two boys, two girls, ranging in age from 13 down to 2 all share a bedroom.  I know, we must be NUTS!  It's tight and a little tense at times but so far they are all doing better than I thought.

As you can see my husband hung some curtains for privacy among the boys and girls.  The baby's crib is behind the door.  Don't mind the mess, it always looks like that!

It has been good for the kids to learn to live together.  They have learned to  respect each other's space, work out differences, and spend time together.  Now, my children are like other children.  There have been fights, arguments, and touching other people's property but for the most part is has been just fine.

The bathroom has probably been the hardest part.  A family of six with no bathroom these days can be a bit of an issue.  We bought a camping trailer last fall to use as a bathroom however, we discovered it had a bad water heater and it sprung a leak this winter.  So, off to the fix-it shop it went on the same day the bathrooms were torn out!  Poor planning on someones' part!! The shower part was easy.  We belong to a gym so we just hauled everyone to the gym to shower.  The toilet is another story!  We found a toilet seat online that snaps onto a 5 gallon bucket.  Pretty nifty!  So while the trailer was being fixed that's all we had for a couple of days.  We found if you put a little kitty litter in the bottom it didn't smell all that bad, though the kids weren't too excited about using it.  Could you hear us cheer when the trailer come home?!

Here's our makeshift bathroom.  Kind of a site but what can ya do?

The other thing I am without is a sink drain.  I do have running water in the kitchen sink but no drain.  We put a bucket under the sink to catch the water and I have to bail it out to the back field.  I'm gaining such an appreciation for simple things like sink drains and running water.  Things I don't normally think about day to day.

There's my nice blue bucket under the kitchen sink.  And yes, that is daylight you can see in the back of the cupboard.  My two year old figured out the other day he could open the corner cupboard and see outside.  He was delighted.

Whenever I'm having a hard day or want to complain I just remind myself that I'm only living like a Pioneer for the summer.  The real Pioneers live that way their whole lives!  I'm happy to be reminded of all the modern conveniences we get to enjoy and I'm glad my kids get to do the same!