Window Tinting

When we bought new furniture for the Living Room, we were concerned about the sunlight fading the furniture. We installed shades on some windows in the back of the house to use when the sunset is a little intense, but we aren’t always home to draw the shades to protect from the sun.

Our answer = window tinting! I did research on tinting that is okay to be installed on double-pane glass. Tinting reflects the sunlight and it gets trapped between the double-pane glass and can cause it to crack or break the gas seal and allows moisture to get trapped and you have fog between the glass panels.

Our glass doors in the back became foggy within 3 months of moving in. It use to only happen in the Winter, but then it stayed. And when I contacted the manufacturer, they conveniently wouldn’t return my calls or emails. I received a quote to fix the glass, but I might as well buy new doors. It is on my to-do list in 5 years.

In the meantime, I used window tinting found at Home Depot to put on the doors. It’s awesome! It gives reflection from the outside, so it is harder to see in during the day, and it looks like we have sunglasses on in the house. The house is not as bright, but I have now gotten used to it.

Window on right is not tinted.

We installed the tint on the breakfast nook windows as well, because the sunsets in the Winter come through those windows as well and hit the living room. During the Summer, the sun shifts and it won’t be that much of an impact.

only bottom half is tinted

Windows on right tinted

In the picture comparison above, you can see how the inside of the house disappears with the tint. The bottom picture has the windows on the right completed and you can't see the window sill trim. But you can still see the trim on the left window. As long as the light on the outside is brighter than the inside, you cannot see inside.

Tips I learned while installing that I want to share:

1. Buy the install kit
   It comes with a razor, soap solution bottle, scraper and lint-free towel. They are all useful.
2. Don’t buy the liquid refill
   When the soap solution runs out, put a cap-ful of Johnson’s baby shampoo in bottle and fill with water.
3. Clean window
   Make sure window is extremely clean and if there is painted trim (like there was on our doors) that it is not on the window. Use razor to get excess paint off.
4. Measure window and add a half inch to the measurements on all sides for tint size
   I used graph paper to get efficient use of the film and have less waste. It is all about planning! Sometimes I only added 0.25 inch extra to the window measurements.
5. Mark tint with sharpie and cut
   Make sure your lines are not slanted. One side slanted will not be able to be installed on a straight line window edge. I used a sharpie to mark my lines. You have to work to get it off, but it should be on the excess that you will cut off.
6. Wet tint in sink
   To save on soapy solution, I filled up my sink or tub with water to dip the tint in before separating it from its protective film.
7. Spray window with soap solution
   Overload the window and film with soapy solution. This allows you to move it around freely while lining it up.
8. Use tape on corners to separate film from protective sheet
   A small piece of tape, facing each other become handles to separate the film from its cover.
9. Spray film as you separate it from cover
   To help with static and creasing as you peel away the two films, pull it down some and spray the sticky side with soapy solution. If the window is large, have someone hold the film while you spray it. This makes it less sticky while you install.
10. Work the air bubbles
    Spray the film outside with soapy solution and use the provided squeegee card to work out major bubbles. I kept a regular hand towel ready to get the soapy solution excess. I went back and forth getting the solution out and the air bubbles. I wanted to make crease of the edges so my razor knew where to go.
11. Cut corners with scissors, not razor
    The razor is great and takes time to figure out, but I noticed I had errors if I used it all the way to the corner. It would cut in. So I would start an inch from the top and take the razor down the edge until one inch above the corner and stop. Then I lifted up the corner and cut with a scissor along the crease formed.
12. Look for debris
    There might be debris that gets between the glass and film. If that happens, left up the film, spray it with soapy solution and use your wet finger to wipe it off. Spray the film again and repeat the process of getting the bubbles out.
13. Keep checking it as it dries
    You will think you have it perfect and leave. But go back and check ten minutes later. An edge might pop back up. When I noticed this happen was when my film was not cut exactly right and had overlap on the edge beyond the glass. The slightest sliver over makes a large air bubble.
14. Use ammonia-free cleaner for maintenance.
    Ammonia will break down the film and shorten its life. I suggest using the soapy formula used during install as your new window cleaner. Cap-full of baby shampoo with water.

Once you get the hang of it, it becomes very easy. Plan to buy extra because your first attempt will be a practice run (Even if you don’t think it will.)

We used this tint in the dormer windows upstairs, too. Not only does it block the UV rays, but it is suppose to help with heat transfer. Our ICF walls are awesome, but with so many windows, that is where you lose heat the most. I wouldn’t trade my windows, but even with Low-e glass, the tint should help. I’ll let you know how the Summer goes.

Book Jackets

I have loved my living room built in bookcases, but never found a way to style them that I liked. There is actually a funny story to this. Mr. JCrew learned what triggers me to make me made… move around items on my bookcase! He says he has never seen me madder than when someone rearranges my bookshelves.

We had the shelves made because that was one of Mr. JCrew’s few requests for the new house. He wanted a place for all his books. He loves books and buys so many. Our bookshelves were almost not enough space!

I see many style their bookshelves with little to know books. They look great when there is not a lot on them. As pretty as they are, I see wasted space!

Source: Young House Love

There is nothing wrong with displays on shelves. I love how they look. But when I struggle with "looks vs functionality," the functionality wins. I was looking for a way to make my functionality on the shleves look more pleasing.

I arranged the books to be in different spaces. I put some up and down and stacked others. It gave some variety. But the multiple colors were distracting. Mr. JCrew doesn’t buy pretty books. They are nerdy and have bright colors.

I liked the idea of sorting books by a color spectrum, but it wasn’t going to work.

Source: Rue

After I redid the other side of the bookshelf with different boxes and baskets for the kids toys, I fell in love with the color pattern.

Their toys are really hidden in there. I love it!

So, I searched from brown paper, grey paper and white paper. I was going to make jackets for the books. I used the contractors' paper they use to cover up floors for the brown. I found a white wrapping paper and the grey was bulletin board paper.

I spent a lot of time wrapping the books. I did this in October/November timeframe and the boys thought I was wrapping the books to give as presents. They knew Christmas was coming. I wrapped a few each night.

I then wrote on the spines, in fine pen, the titles. I didn’t want the titles to be seen from far away, because I thought it would be a distraction from the simplicity.

Some books are from my childhood, and are a little girly for my boys to read, but I didn’t want to throw them away. People buy books they don’t read just to be fillers on their shelf. That’s what my old books could be.

I really like how it turned out. It is much more soothing than all the random colors of the books. They are grouped in categories, which is more helpful for Mr. JCrew when he is looking for something. If I had arranged by color, he’d be on the hunt for a book forever.

I still have the top left shelf to recover. They will be in wrapped in the brown paper. I think it will really balance the white box in front of them. 

Shelves are hard. I am not good at styling them. What my eye is drawn to, is not something I can create. But I'm heading in the direction I like. Even after writing this post and adding pictures, I can see more changes I can make. Always a process, and enjoying it.

Laundry Drying Racks

It appears that my laundry room is my favorite hangout between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s not because we are home and I get to do all that laundry!But I have extra time that I can start and finish a project in one sitting.

Recap:

2016 – Backsplash the wall behind the sink in the laundry room

2017 – Backsplash behind the washer and dryer

2018 – Add a drying rack (this post)

All of my laundry projects have been at the top of my favorites list, but this year’s drying rack is really my favorite!

All the projects are making my laundry room more enjoyable, but this one really added function. We purchased and hung a drying rack based on recommendations from YoungHouseLove. It works great and we love it, but I was scared of hanging too much on it and being too heavy to handle. Plus, the bars are so close together, that I felt the clothes didn’t have enough room to breathe and the bars were actually starting to rust a little.

We still use the rack a lot, but not for heavy items.

In Mr. JCrew’s wardrobe, he has a lot of items he does not dry. He is fearful of shrinking clothes. But pants and sweaters are heavy. We were using the appliances to drape the pants over to dry. But then the whole room was covered in clothes. It looked messy. That’s when I went searching for options. And when I do that, I don’t find what I want and end up making it.

Sure enough, that’s what I did. I looked at the space in my laundry room and found very little. I then looked at the cubby that houses the laundry baskets. I could make pull-out racks.

I then measured the space to see the biggest I could make it and bought supplies. But then the supplies hung out in my garage for four months until I found time. I actually was slightly stalling this project because I wasn’t confident. On paper it worked, but I knew there would be a hiccup.

I finally tackled this project after Christmas. I wanted the front flush, so it didn’t stand out. Because there was a lip on the front of the cabinet, I had to build out the inside to attach the sliding drawer hardware to. I used wood glue and screws to attach scrap pieces of wood to the side of the cabinet, but I also used the drawer hardware to attach it to the back of the cabinet for extra strength.

I then built the box frame and then cut the dowel rods to fit.

The dowel rods are 1-inch diameter. I wanted large so that it didn’t create a crease in the clothes, but also allowed the longer pieces to not be touching themselves when folded and could dry faster.

The project ended up being easy! I put multiple coats of polyurethane on it to protect the wood from water. I then waited a few more days before use. And my first time using it was awesome!

The drawers open and close so smoothly with just one hand.

And with both racks in use, you can still open the door plenty to get in and out of the room.

Soooooooo, excited about this project and its function. I think I love the laundry task just a little bit more now!

Yard Spiders

We like to decorate for the holiday's, but Mr. JCrew and I differ on how far to go. He likes to go all out! I like to keep things simple. Part of this is because I know the work that goes into those elaborate scenes.

Mr. JCrew has always wanted to decorate for Halloween. I never celebrated Halloween growing up so it was never a big to-do I was experienced with. But Mr. JCrew got excited when I said I was ready to decorate for Halloween this year. I immediately said we had to have a theme. Our theme... SPIDERS!

We plan to put up cobwebs around our porch and relatively "small" spiders hanging from the porch vine, but the big effort was going to be from our huge spiders in the yard. I found a tutorial and made three! We are on a corner lot, so the main spider is on the corner to grab your attention. Then a second spider is right in front of the house, and a third spider is at the driveway on the side of the house for those that turn the corner, down our street.

No escaping!!

I appreciated the tutorial I found because he laid out exactly what to buy. I am going to change a couple things for my list.

Supplies for 1 Spider:

• 6 – 10’ lengths of ¾ inch PVC pipe
• 8 - ¾ inch PVC caps
• 16 – ¾ inch PVC 45 degree elbows
• 8 – ¾ inch PVC 90 degree elbows
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC 4 way T connectors
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC T connectors
• PVC cement
• Black spray paint
• Bouncy Ball (head)
• Pillow (body)
• Black yard trash bag (body)
• Black duct tape (body)
• Black Zip Ties (body)

He used different parts for the body, but I didn't like how it turned out in his pictures. So, I changed it on the cuff. While in Walmart, I saw pillows and grabbed three. They would be the body. Then I grabbed bouncy balls. They would be the head. I would stick those in a yard trash bag and I'd have my spider body.


I stuck the ball in the center end of the trash bag and tied it off with a zip tie.

I then left the pillow in its protective wrap it was bought in and placed it in the trash bag and tied it off with another zip tie.

This left a tail that I taped flat onto the body.

Mr. JCrew said we could use this technique to make "bodies." :/

The tutorial I found also told you how to cut the PVC pipe into the lengths you need. Having this already planned out made things go much faster. Longest part of a project is the planning!

I cut the PVC pipe and assembled the legs and 'backbone."

 

I glued the legs together and the backbone together. NOT TO EACH OTHER! I want to be able to reuse these, so I can hang the legs and it take up less space. The legs will stay assembled and the backbone assembled while in storage.

TIP! **** I glued the 45 degree elbows to the backbone and if I could change that, I would glue the 45 degree elbows to the legs instead. Gluing the 45 degree elbows to the backbone restricts the movement of the legs. When putting the legs on, you may have to adjust positioning to find balance for the spider and the 45 degree elbow is what helps you.

I used Mister Pfitzer's tricycle to hold the backbone as I attached the legs. You definitely need something to lift the backbone up as you insert the legs.

Now, my list says 2 4-way connectors and 2 T-connectors, but that is not what is shown in the pictures or what was on the tutorial I followed. I bought the materials as the list stated, but those 4-way connectors are expensive and I really only needed 2. The T-connectors can be the ones on the end.

At first, the weight of the pillow would make the legs crumble. I had to make sure the pipes were fully inserted. The boys helped with assembly, and they said it was frustrating. You'd get one leg in and another would fall out.

Once together, I spray painted. Spray paint was much faster than exterior paint I'd have to roll on. I made sure to get the kind with Primer built in. And I didn't sand the PVC pipe before painting. The paint I got said it would adhere to plastic.

With the spider bodies, I also taped the head "up" on the body. I used the black duct tape to make a "collar" that assisted in holding the head up closer to the body. Otherwise, the head would kind of fall down.

The boys then said the spiders were missing eyes, so I took their advice on four red eyes for the spiders. Scary!

This only took one morning to do and the spiders were on display by lunch time. I was so tickled with the results! Come Halloween night, the spiders will move to be closer to the walkways so that the trick-or-treaters have to be brave!

Drip Irrigation

I fully acknowledge I am a plant lady. It’s the first idea Mr. JCrew comes up with for a gift for me. I won’t turn down a plant. You can never have too many. I love to care for plants and talk to them.

I especially love plants in pots. Containers give height to a garden and softens the structure of a porch. 

But with containers, means more attention. Because they don’t have the ground for their roots to spread in search of water, they have to be watered more often than plants in the ground.

My collection of potted plants outside kept growing. I loved the look of a mass of different sized pots. Watering became a chore. I’d refill several watering cans. 

In the window box outside of Mr. Pfitzer’s room, I left a watering can in his bathroom to use. We just took out one of the screens to access the pots. Watering through the screen did not work. 

But it was when I came home from giving birth to Mr. Pfitzer at the hospital that I knew I needed to do something to help water my plants. My short time away, the plants in the windowbox had died. I looked into getting a “Plant Sitter” but it did not work. 

The water was not leaving the reservoir and my plants were dry.

 

I then tried the plant sitter on a larger scale and bought apple juice in glass bottles (instead of buying empty glass bottles). Once we drank the apple juice, I’d fill the glass bottle with water and put a tube in it. The tubing was not long enough, but it also was just too slow.

I even tried braiding scrap fabric and stuck it in the dirt for the water to travel up and into the dirt. This also did not work.

I finally researched drip irrigation. One of my friends from church had explained how her husband hooked up a system to water her plants in her window box. It sounded so cool!

I started saving things to my Amazon Wish List. I started the planning/design process and calculating the cost of all that I would need.

I then looked at HomeDepot and saw that they carried a lot of what I needed. I bought my tubing and sprinkler heads from them.

I used many types of sprinkler heads. I had many different size pots that would be on the same system. My larger pots had two sprinkler heads in them, and the water would need to be on longer in order for them to receive enough water. But a smaller pot would be on the same amount of time as the larger one, but I could use a lower-flow sprinkler head to make sure it was not over-watered. 

The smaller pots use a drip sprinkler head. 

The larger pots use a fan sprinkler head. There are many types of fan heads.

There is one main line that runs from the faucet. But off the large tube, a smaller tube is connected that runs to the pot.

I use elbow connectors to get my large tubing to take corners.

I use T-shape connectors to split tubing to go two different directions. When the big tubing coming from the faucet reaches the ground, I have some of it go to the front porch and some of it go to the back porch.

I buried my tubing in flowerbeds. 

I tried to make it minimal what tubing was showing, but it's not bad. I have gotten use to it and don't notice the tubing.

I checked the connections of tubing and sprayed it with the flex seal stuff to seal any little holes.

The large tubing connects to the faucet using a fancy adapter.

I tried to get fancy and use a timer on my faucets, but I just couldn’t get those to work right. I’d love for it to run itself!

Right now, all I have to do is go outside; turn on two faucets; sit on the porch for ten minutes; then turn the water faucets off.

Watering is done!

Now, there is one change I wish could be made to the sprinkler heads. I wish they would rotate while spraying. They currently are stationary. The water then goes in the same spot. I’m not certain but I think water is wasted this way. I turn on my faucet for ten minutes, but within 3 minutes, I am already seeing a flood of water leaving the bottom of my pots. Once that little area where the tiny spot of water goes down, there is extra water just going right through the pot instead of reaching the spaces in between.

At first, I only had two sprinkler heads for the large pots. But like I mentioned, they don’t rotate, so some plants were not getting water. About once a week, I would take the hose out and give the pots a good watering. The drip irrigation was a time saver for in between the hose watering. I really wanted to make the drip irrigation work for me fully, so I bought more sprinkler heads and designated one sprinkler per plant. You can change the flow on the heads, so that helped. 

In my large pots out back, there are three plants per pot.

In my large pots up front, I have five plants per pot.

I was nervous to put too many heads on the line because it would impact the flow. Having one head per plant, the flow did not matter as much. But I am happy to report, adding more sprinklers, the impact to the flow was minimal.

It is a time saver and I’m so glad I did it. I turn on the faucet, sit on the porch for a couple minutes, then turn the faucet off. So easy! 

When I saw my new sprinkler controller had an option to handle drip irrigation, it got me considering connecting my drip irrigation as a new zone to my sprinkler system and letting the controller handle it! That research is ongoing and I will let you know when I tackle it!

Items I used:

bubbler

drip

thin tubing (1/4")

thick tubing (1/2")

elbow

T-joint

Tube Cutter

End Closure 

Your sprinkler head comes with a coupler attached, so you do not need to purchase those separately.