Home Decor - backsplash

 I've had this idea to use one of my Cozumel underwater photos somewhere. The photos often look abstract but on closer viewing, the details of fish or coral appear.

Sink side completed.

I have used a www.wallmonkeys.com wall decal before so I decided I would make my kitchen backsplash an underwater photo wall decal.

I cannot recommend www.wallmonkeys.com enough. Their work is fantastic and not as expensive as you might think.

I submitted my photo on their website with the request to have the largest wall photo decal which is 72" wide. I requested a proof and also the final dimensions. The final height meant I needed only one decal that I would cut to fit both the sink and stove walls.

They responded in just a few days. I approved the proof and received the decal in a couple of days.

Template in place waiting for
outlets and switches to be cut in.

At friends' suggestion, I made templates for the walls. With the cabinets, outlets and switches at various places along the walls, the templates were invaluable.

It was a leap of faith to cut the photo decal into the sections needed. The sink side is actually wider than 72" so I had to add 3" sections to each side. Because the photo is somewhat abstract, you cannot really see the add-ons.

The wall behind the stove is exactly 72" so you couldn't ask for more. Getting the decal behind the stove and under the microwave was very tricky but because the decal is removable, it can be positioned multiple times.

The decal is also a vinyl material so is waterproof and washable. Previously, the walls were just painted.

The finished project.

I love the outcome. And it looks particularly special with the under cabinet lights on.

This is the photo wall decal in full.

DIY - condo style

Living in a condo has greatly scaled down my DIY projects. That was intentional. So this project is small but one I've had on the short list for a while.

In my kitchen, there is only one lower cabinet other than under the sink area. It was sort of setup for pots and pans but wasn't very efficient or convenient for holding them or getting them in and out.

Of course, the solution was found on Amazon: a two-level pullout shelf system. It arrived in less than a week.

This photo is the before with my trusty assistant who appears to be laying down on the job. Maggie was super good at blocking any of the work that had to happen inside the cabinet :-)

The parts

The instructions said to be sure to align the center of the template to the center of the cabinet. The problem was that the template didn't have a center line.

I can measure and I can do math but it would have been way more simple if the template had a center line.

The other hiccup was the base (the part with the sliders) also did not have a center line. Measuring inside the cabinet was not simple.

As you can see, I did get everything assembled and working. Now the pots, pans and even lids are easy to reach.

My assistant ended up in her house while papa used the drill.

What I did this summer

I'll cut to the chase. Over the summer, the flooring in my new condo was flooded. The condo I purchased at the end of March came with an engineered wood flooring that was only 2 years old.

By August what I thought was a "feature" of the flooring, was actually something going wrong. It was definitively discovered when I had to hire an electrician to fix a GFI outlet that wasn't working. Turns out it was working exactly as it was supposed to. The floor outlets in the GFI's line were FULL of water. The water was shorting out the outlets. The GFI saved the place from completing shorting out and who knows what else.

From that discovery it was weeks of various contractors trying to figure out what and where the water was coming from.

Minneapolis and Minnesota for that matter had a very hot and humid summer. A top 10 for heat. I won't bore you with the 5 or 6 visits by 4 different companies, the trying to convince the building managers to take it seriously, and the final determination that there was a blockage in the building condensation line below my unit.

My unit is the bottom of a 27 story building. The HVAC condensation lines all converge and take a 90 degree turn to travel across the lobby below me. Somewhere between my and the final outlet, a clog was backing up everyone's condensation into my unit.

My wood flooring absorbed all that water over the summer when we had these hot, humid days and everyone's air conditioning was running above me.

I had a mold test done. The results came back as non-toxic everyday mold. When the damaged floor was removed, they did not find mold. Thank goodness. They also disinfected the floor and ran a high-powered dehumidifier.

The building is paying for the investigation and remediation including removing the damaged flooring and all the wet underlayment.

State Farm, my insurance, has denied my claim for the replacement flooring. The claim adjuster is saying it is seepage over time and therefore not covered. It is certainly not seepage. The time element is the time it took to figure out what was going on. If anyone knows a lawyer that handles insurance or condo coverage, please get in touch. I am serious.

I could not wait for the insurance to get resolved and proceeded to get new flooring. I hated the bare concrete and it was very cold to walk on.

The following photos are in reverse chronological order. I would rather remember the outcome (except the insurance part) than what I have dealt with all summer and fall.

The new flooring and furniture back in with Maggie supervising.

Cleaning the new flooring before bringing back all the furniture.

The new flooring. It is not this golden. The color matches the cabinets more. The flooring is oak and the cabinets are maple.

The new flooring going in. Those radiators along the window wall were very tricky.

After the existing flooring was removed, an industrial dehumidifier was used (that large stainless steel thing near the cabinets). It was loud.

The previous flooring was all removed from the main room. The wet is the disinfectant that was applied and allowed to dry.

So many different companies and people came through trying to figure out the issue.

For mine and Maggie's safety, the main room was sealed off during the remediation.

The previous flooring and the corner where the flooding came from.

I recorded this inch of water in the electrical outlet. This occurred in less than 24 hours on our last hot and humid day in late September. 

The water collected in two of the floor outlets causing the GFI to stay tripped.

Home Improvement - condo style

Storage is premium. I purged and purged from the house of 30 years. I am purging more. There are years of stuff to let go of.

But there is some stuff that you have to have. That includes towels and sheets for a two bedroom unit and impending guests. 

There is this space above the master bath toilet that isn't worth decorating. So I installed shelves to hold my towels and washcloths. I need a couple of baskets to make it look nicer.  

Thank goodness for having a Dremel tool. Wire shelves come in 36" length and the space was 35 1/2". Dremel with a grinder tool works wonders.

Having these shelves frees up space in the linen closet for the bedding.