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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. 

Never in my life did I ever imagine myself building a wall, but here in my sixties, I've just helped build one! It's very gratifying to have researched how to build a wall, participate in the planning and building and then to see that the finished wall is strong, plumb, and in NO danger of falling over! Yes!

Let me back up a bit to tell you why we built a wall. As you may, or may not know, we are in the process of giving my garage a complete makeover. It started as a cluttered mess usable only for storage of more clutter. We are slowly making it over into a space where we can work as well as store things. 

That's where the wall build comes in. We wanted part of the garage to be a storage space, and since most storage spaces are not very attractive, we wanted to be able to "wall off" the area so we wouldn't have to look at all the stored stuff while we work. 

Now, if you're a professional reading this, you may be shaking your head at why we built our wall the way we did. I will explain as the tutorial progresses, but know that our design choices were made based on our skill and strength level, as well as the tools we own. 

Let's get started. You can start with the video or head down to the tutorial. As always, the video will show you exactly what we did!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. THD provided the end nippers used in this post. We would also like to thank DAP for sponsoring the giveaway!

One of the most neglected, but one of the most important home maintenance tasks a homeowner can DIY, is caulking. The use of properly applied caulk keeps the outside elements out and the inside ones, like a/c, inside. Caulking is a very easy and inexpensive DIY that can prevent damage to your home.

A little bit of caulking can be the difference between a very inexpensive repair and a much more costly one. Without caulking, water, bugs, and weather can get into your home and cause damage, unwanted insects, and loss of heating or cooling. 

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Last summer we tried out Wet & Forget, an outdoor cleaner that works over time. We shared that experience in this post. In this follow-up post and video we are sharing the results of that initial use of Wet & Forget. In our first application we sprayed a patch of siding at Steph's house as well as some pavers and garden blocks. 

Take a look and see the results, six-months later! 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Smart home technology has been a part of Steph's home pretty much since she became a homeowner in 2013. For example, Phillips Hue light bulbs went in almost as soon as she closed on the house! So, partnering with The Home Depot on their Smart Home campaign is a natural fit. Over the next year, we will be reviewing and installing a variety of smart home devices.

​Up first is the Ring Video Doorbell Pro. The Ring comes with almost everything you need for installation. We only needed to provide a drill and a small bit. It comes with a screwdriver as well as a drill bit for drilling anchor holes if needed. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

We always knew some kind of garage floor treatment was going to be a big part of the #garagemakeover project. We have only had experience with a paint-on metallic look epoxy product so we knew we didn't want to tackle that again. Plus, we did not have the luxury of taking everything out of the garage for the amount of time it would take to prep and apply a painted or epoxy coating. 

I researched various options relying heavily on the website allgaragefloors.com which has a wealth of great information and reviews of various kinds of flooring options. I ultimately settled on G-Floor vinyl flooring as the best option for my garage. It needed very minimal prep and was ready to use as soon as it was positioned onto the floor. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

The most important thing I wanted in my garage makeover was good lighting! I've been in my house for 20 years now and the lighting in the garage has always been terrible. The two overhead lights didn't give complete light coverage so there were lots of dark corners. It was a chore to work in there. 

Steph did a lot of research to determine what fixtures would be best to give wall to wall light coverage. She found these LED lights that only needed to be plugged in and not hard wired. Plus, up to 9 could be daisy chained together to work together. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

A long overdue makeover of my garage is well underway. We've partnered with The Home Depot to  transform my garage from useless and full of clutter to an organized workspace that will also have room to park my car! Along the way we will be sharing videos about each step of the process. In the videos and posts we will share the tools, supplies, and products we are using. 

In this video, we are sharing some of the painting tips we have learned from our many DIY painting projects. Please add your own tips in the comments so we can learn from each other! 

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A simple trip to The Home Depot to buy spackling had us standing in the aisle a lot longer than we expected. We fully expected to quickly pick up our standard DAP DryDex with the pink lid and be on our way. However, the red lid variety caught our eye and we paused to take in this different and very lightweight product. 

We were intrigued enough that we ended up buying both varieties to try them in a side-by-side comparison. 

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We have been using the recipe service, Hello Fresh (#notsponsored), for about 8 months now. Since we work from home, the service gives us the option to have a fresh, healthy lunch in around 30 minutes rather than having to go out or to rely on sandwiches or reheated leftovers. We’ve worked it out that one of us takes a break to cook while the other continues to work. Since I don’t like to clean up the kitchen, I usually opt to do the cooking!

Hello Fresh comes with most everything you need to cook a meal including very well thought out and organized step-by-step instructions. A full color picture of the dish is on the front and the steps, complete with pictures, are on the other side. The size of the instruction card is a little on the large side. We’ve dealt with this minor inconvenience by propping it up where we cook, but really were looking for a more elegant solution.

I follow the blog, My Repurposed Life, and when I found this post it became the inspiration for this project!

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Dixie Belle paint is Florida based, as are we, and they recently reached out to us to try their products. Since I was not familiar with their inventory, I took a bit of time to check out what they had as well as watch a few videos. 

In my exploring, I found a product called Slick Stick. It was an 'Aha' moment! Back in 1991 when Steph was in kindergarten, I found some bedroom furniture through the newspaper classified ad. That was a time way before Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist! Used furniture was a little harder to source back then. Anyway, she used it for a long time and even moved the desk to her new house in 2013. 

The desk is long gone, but I still had the dressers and hutch pieces at my house. I had been very reluctant to get rid of them since they are so well built. I always thought I'd do something with them, but was stymied because the tops were Formica (plastic laminate) with plastic edging. I never knew what would work on these to allow me to paint.

Back to that 'Aha' moment--the Slick Stick would work and I finally could paint and reuse the furniture!

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This past summer we were introduced to a new type of fan by Stile. We thought it would be a perfect fit for the studio at Steph's house. The space is small and the existing fan overwhelms the space. Also, it doesn't provide much overall light at all.

Over the Easter weekend, Steph decided on a whim to go buy the fan and install it with a little help from Andrew, Steph's nephew, my grandson! 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the DeWalt Compressor used in this post.

One of our new tools is the DeWalt Cordless Compressor. Rather than just review the tool, we wanted to show you a real life project on how you can use it. Our favorite use for a compressor is for upholstering with a pneumatic stapler. Using this type of stapler takes all the effort out of upholstering. I find it very difficult to use a standard manual upholstery stapler. The electric ones I've used have not been able to drive the staples in completely. 

A pneumatic stapler with a compressor saves your hands and efficiently drives the staples into the fabric down into the wood. This is the only method I'd use to upholster now and in the future!

We were very impressed with the new DeWalt Cordless Compressor. It filled quickly with air, it was as easy as turning a knob to set the output force, and refilled quickly. It is loud, but not any louder than others we've used. Hearing protection is a must as far as we are concerned. 

The project we decided to make is a folding screen. I decided on this after I observed my yoga ball and mat are always in plain sight when not in use. I thought with a screen, I could place these in a corner with the screen in front and not have to look at them during the week! Bonus, I found a piece of mid-century looking vinyl for the screen that has jumpstarted the redecorating of my bedroom.

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign.

Have you ever...

• Had to vacuum cheerios out of the carpet in your car?
• Had to change a damaged tire because you accidentally hit the brick on either side of your driveway?
• Had to help someone jumpstart their car?

With the success of the organization of our craft closet with Wall Control and other pre-made components, we were eager to organize another small space as soon as possible. We found that few tools are needed to install the panels and only a little skill with a drill is needed making this a project that is doable for many DIYers. 

We contacted Wall Control, the family owned and operated business making metal pegboard, to see if they'd like to provide product for our next project. As well as being family owned, the pegboards and accessories are made right up the road from us in Georgia! Family owned and "made in the USA!" We love that. 

We decided to add a Wall Control Laundry Value Kit to Steph's laundry room. This room is very tiny making it a good candidate for wall hung storage and organization. 

Take a look at the video to see how it came together. And, yes, it probably only took 20 minutes or so to install the panels!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot as a part of The Home Depot’s ProSpective Campaign. THD provided the Makita Saw, Ridgid Sander and Husky Wrenches used in this post.

We have a growing need for paint and battery storage so we decided to build a storage unit to house them. You're probably wondering why we chose to put these two things together. Well, both paint including stains and rechargeable batteries are best stored in a controlled environment. Here in Florida, storing those thing in the garage means they are subjected to extreme changes in temperature. Neither paint or rechargeable batteries lasts as long if not stored properly.