Sponging, borrowing, storing... Furnishing on the cheap!

Circa 2005

We hear it all the time, "You guys are really making Dueselhouse look great, but how can a lowly teacher and decor coordinator afford all this?"

Truth is, we couldn't, if we weren't astronomically wealthy.

We, literally, have debts well into the hundreds of dollars on our credit card. We cut extreme corners wherever possible - this is why so many of you haven't gotten thank you notes for wedding gifts yet. Next month, I promise!

Rooms like the Man bathroom cost nearly forty four dollars to remodel. Our bedroom closet almost broke the bank costing over a hundred dollars, not to mention the intrinsic costs of two full days of work! The revamping of the kitchen (paint and the Ikea countertop)... well let's just say it was the equivalent of a dinner and several drinks at Smith and Wollensky's, for one person!

Point being, we have been mortgaging Frankie's future college fund in this pile of sticks and plaster. It's time to start cutting back and stop spending what we don't have in the first place.

It's election season, so we did what any natural D.C. citizen would do, grass roots furniture campaign! Those with the least are likely to give the most, right? You already know how we milked mother and father Duesel for the back door, Katie's brother for a table saw (do I still have to give that back?), my sister threw in a shopvac, and paint labor from Katie's sister and husband. The time had come to look for more suckers friends.

We began at the bottom of the barrel, former roommates, college friends, and generally people who wouldn't likely want whatever they offered returned any time [soon]. After an exhaustive few hours on the phone, Katie hit on our first donor,  John Birkhofer! Always the cautious optomist, staunch republican, and friend of over seven hundred on facebook; Katie and I were confident, that John was the man to abuse!

On the same Friday as the man bathroom remodel, John pulled up to the Dueselhouse donation center with a fancy futon with underneath storage drawers. Awesome!

"It's been in storage for almost four years," he revealed, "So you're welcome to it until I get my own apartment again." What John doesn't know, is that by the time he gets his own apartment, there will likely be a girl involved. We all know that women don't like their man to bring along his single guy furniture. Proven fact.

I expected a flashback to college, until we began assembling the futon. Solid oak construction, steel gliders, magazine storage in the arm rests.

No, we not on campus anymore, Toto.

As we finished tightening down all the screws, Katie paid the man. Cold beverages for everyone! Not a bad exchange for a futon; when a thought crossed John's mind. "Do you guys want a coffee table for up here too?" he motioned to the TV just sitting on the floor opposite the new couch. With that, he increased his donation to silver-status.

Already in the truck, we only had to walk downstairs and shuttle the generous "map table" up to the attic room. In minutes, the newly air conditioned space had turned into a room. We are greatly appreciative to John for all his generosity. While much of my phrasing is in jest, the appreciation is very real.

Next up at the loading dock, the eldest Indrisano offspring, Lynn, is going for platinum-donor status with a corner cabinet, and who knows what else, for Dueselhouse. But when you walk upstairs, it becomes clear that there is a real room for guests to settle into; or just escaping my random escapades - not that Katie ever needs a break from me.

Not a bad looking room either... it just needs a quick coat of paint. We could knock that out in a single evening, right?

Motivation via Impulse

Sometimes it is the little projects that mean the most.

Generally, Katie takes the lead on style and design, and I'm ok with doing the grunt work. The upstairs of Dueselhouse has a comically small half bathroom, it's more like a third bathroom, and we have some ideas to turn the upstairs into a master suite and another bedroom with another three piece bathroom; so the current bathroom will just have to function as it sits, for the time being.

Problem is, knotty pine is not very attractive, or clean looking. I'm really the only user of the upstairs bathroom, but even I like things to appear fresh and not like an afterthought. This exact point crossed my mind the other night at Home Depot. It was Thursday, we were expecting guests for the weekend, and someone would be sleeping in the attic room, which meant that with 5 people, there was no avoiding somene using the bathroorm in the attic.

Dueselhouse head decorator, Katie,
 sees the attic bathroom for the first time.

At Home Depot, Katie was looking at house plants, which I don't really care about - so long as it doesn't kill the dog. I wandered off. I grabbed a lamp to replace the broken one on the attic stairs, a weed whacker, a new mailbox. Little items I always am usually forgetting to buy.

As I meander, I pass through the paint section. There's always a shopping cart full of "oops" paints for super cheap, "Maybe there's a nice color that would freshen up my bathroom?"I think.

There wasn't. But I'll have Katie double check whenever I find her.

She liked an electric pink, but I didn't like the concept of having seizures on the toilet. "How much could a quart of self priming paint cost?"I finally ask, "Just to hide the knotty pine. Go pick out a color, something light, because it's a small space. Grey, maybe."

I find the fancy self-priming Baer, it's ten or twelve dollars for a quart. Sold. This thing will be painted tonight, and I will quick paint the trim first thing in the morning. It will look awesome! I find Katie holding a number of paint samples; light yellows, blues, greens and not a single grey.

"Those are good greys, for my bathroom, but how about a touch darker?" I took a light grey from the wall of rainbow. We "settled" on pebble grey. It's a quite stunning grey, if I do say so myself.

The guys in the orange aprons had the computer put some squirts of who knows what in the can of base paint, they will shake the thing, and we'll be off! By now it was twenty of nine, that little bathroom will be pebble grey before my head hits the pillow at ten thirty. Impulse purchase was literally in motion,  I thought looking at the shuddering can of paint.

Everything was taken off the walls (a wire-paper roll, and two plastic hooks) I grabbed a brush, tossed down a painting cloth, and with I Love This Bar radio playing from Pandora, I start slinging paint. A lot of paint.

Funny, as I finish the back wall, it's not looking very attractive. I start on the left wall. I'm making a bit of a mess, but who cares? When I look down at my paint bucket, it was almost empty. Two walls soaked up almost a third of the quart? Unreal.

Katie crowded the bathroom, she poked her head in to see my progress, "Why did you buy flat paint?" SON OF A -- Deep breaths. This will be ok... but how?

For those who aren't in the know, paint comes in glossy, semi-gloss, and flat. Glossy is what magazine paper looks like, and flat is what military vehicles are painted with. Glossy reflects some white light, where flat only reflects only the color and does not shine. When a space encounters moisture, it's best to use a semi-gloss at the minimum, as the flat paint readily absorbs moisture and is prone to mould... or something gross like that.

As I drifted off to sleep, around midnight, I decided that "we" would have to buy another quart of paint, this time in semi-gloss. The flat paint would be a great primer, so I would only need to do one coat of the semigloss. This would be fine, and by lunch I would be trimming the lawn with my new string trimmer!

Keep in mind we have a dozen people coming Saturday, and it's now Friday. Roosters crowing, Frankie pawing for breakfast, coffee perking and there I am with a roller and a tray of pebble grey. 

Magical.

Ask Katie left for work, I left to go back to Home Depot. I loaded up with another quart - this time in semi-gloss - some of those narrow rollers, towel and toilet paper hangers, and a roll of tape. I also went on a wild goose chase for an air conditioner in the attic, so it wasn't until almost eleven that I got home and back to work. (Special thanks for Best Buy for opening at TEN! Seriously, who opens at ten? Might as well open at noon, or tomorrow maybe.) As I'm getting back into things, using the last of the flat paint to touch up some misses on the left wall, my mom calls.

Nothing super important, they're on the road to visit mom's sisters. I found a moment to speak up, and had her ask dad (Dad was  doing the driving  to Michigan via Pennsylvania) about priming before painting the trim. Point being, yes, I should do it, especially on this warmed over attic pine. Mom got a hold of the conversation again and asked what I was going to paint the ceiling.

"Grey, of course!"I replied.

<<there was argument here that I didn't bother to memorize, but here's how it ended>>

"Oh no, Jeffrey, even slanting ceiling gets painted white!" Boy, I sure was embarrassed. It turns out it's one of those things that gives a room dimension, they didn't raise me to have same colored ceilings, and smaller places look bigger with white, and blah blah blah; how could I even consider ... you get the point.

On top of the flay grey ceiling, I splattered two coats of Killz Primer, which hid the knotty pine appropriately. At the same time I trimmed the ... well, trim, in a few layers of primer. It was about one or two before I cracked open my fresh can of semi-gloss! (Hooray!) I was a short afternoon away from 30 people staying at my house, and there was still lawn care, a blue room that was a mess, and the toilet needs to be cleaned out before I can let people sit on it! (paint splatter) I spread the proper-gloss grey paint onto the walls carefully - well, sort of carefully. I got some on the trim, but that was going to get a slathering of brilliant white, so I just let it go.

I let the primer and other coats of paint set and installed some new lights in the hallway and the bathroom. Tape was laid down around the trim, paint was cautiously shaken to ensure proper emulsification of the... ah whatever. I cracked the brilliant white open and slapped it down with near reckless abandon.

Everything went on smoothly, it started looking good. I was surprised at how great everything looked as I hung up a new [cheap] towel holder, fresh white toilet seat, and toilet paper roller. It was already four in the afternoon as I completed washing out my brushes and rollers and Katie came home from work. I couldn't wait to show off what turned into a whole days work!

As the masses started showing up the next afternoon, I found that Katie also carried my enthusiasm as she toured the house with her friends, "And this is Jeff's Bathroom!" she would say with just enough sarcasm to hide her pride in how well everything turned out, in my bathroom.

Sometimes it is the little projects that mean the most.