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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Our #garagemakeover project was designed out of necessity. When we were in the planning stages of the garage makeover, I said I wanted a way to store the grandkid's toy car. I needed it out of the way, but accessible. Toy cars are notoriously difficult to store efficiently! 

The car storage started out as a simple box with a little open storage on top. I had envisioned it sitting next to our large shelving unit right beside the door. Well, as things do, the project evolved into something totally different and way more functional!

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Most of our projects are planned out, weeks or months in advance, and we complete them as scheduled. And then there are projects that we do right away because life happens! This is one of those projects!

A few weeks ago, the flushing handle on my toilet broke! As you may know, you can still flush the toilet by taking the lid off and physically pulling the lever up. Well, I did that a few times and then I realized I needed to take a trip to Home Depot to see if I could find a replacement. To my surprise, this is a fast and easy toilet repair, and under $6!

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

There's something magical in my garage! All I have to do is say "Alexa, garage on" and all the fans and lights just turn on! It's magic, I say, magical!

Really, its just smart home technology at its best! With only two different Leviton smart home products, we've been able to automate four fans, and 8 lights in the garage. These of course can be individually turned on, but Alexa gets the job done fast and the garage starts to cool off almost before we've closed the door.

Read on to see how we used them, and then think about what you might want to automate in your home. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

When it comes to upcycle or repurposing projects, this drum table lamp was a pretty straight forward transformation. You only need a couple of power tools for this project. A  jig saw, which is one of the least intimidating and inexpensive saws out there, as well as a drill and a hole saw bit. 

You may have seen our previous drum upcycle. It was a small tom made into a table/lamp. We liked that one so much that when we saw this drum on the curb on trash day, we knew we had to rescue it!

The drum we used is a floor tom, which means it already has legs. Because of this we didn't have to build something for it to stand on. That step alone eliminated a lot of work and need for additional power tools. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

We have had a small drum in Steph's garage for quite some time. We bought it at a thrift store a while back for $5. It never made it to the top of the to-do list for use in a project until now! 

As part of the #smarthome campaign with The Home Depot, we received two types of WiZ smart light bulbs to review. We didn't just want to review them for you, but wanted to use them in a project. What better use than to put them into some kind of lighting fixture!

That's where the drum comes in. We decided to make a little lamp/end table with one of the new bulbs. We have been using the lighted log end table for some time and love the way light is incorporated into that table, and wanted to do the same with our little drum.

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

We are continuing to bring you reviews of smart home products as part of The Home Depot SmartHome Campaign. Today's post is all about smart light switches. 

We got to try out two different switches by Leviton. You may not know the name Leviton, but you may have their products in your home and not know it! When we had electrical work done in the garage earlier this year, the electricians used all Leviton products. It's a company that's been around for a long time and they know their stuff! They have now entered the smart home market with a variety of products including these two switches. 

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Cleaning out the garage has been really hard for me. As a collector of stuff, sometimes I find it hard to let go. I commented to Steph during the huge purge of the garage that I really appreciated her not judging those things I wanted to keep. She didn't offer judgement on those things but simply put them aside in the "keep" pile. She was extremely kind and compassionate!

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After painting, the next step in the #garagemakeover was the installation of the Wall Control Metal Pegboard wall. I have been looking forward to having this pegboard in the garage after installing and using a mini setup in my utility hallway.

I am, by nature, highly disorganized and tend not to put things back where they belong. That results in me being frustrated by not being able to find what I need when I need it! I can't even express the joy I find in being able to find what I need on the utility wall pegboard! Bonus, now that everything has a place that I can see, I find myself consistently putting things back.

That's why I was so looking forward to seeing the pegboard go up in the garage. I was itching to get everything in place so I could start using it!

Many thanks to the family owned company, Wall Control, for providing all the pegboard panels and accessories for our project. Wall Control is made in the USA, right up the road from us in Georgia. 

Take a look at our Wall Control installation:

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot.

One of our favorite things about being part of The Home Depot ProSpective campaign (#THDProSpective) is receiving tools that we would never have thought to check out! 
When we saw the Ryobi Brushless Drywall Screw Gun on our tool list, we were excited to try it out-- especially since we were about to build a wall! But, if you checked out our wall build, you noticed we decided to not drywall it!

We still wanted to try out this tool, so we used a little drywall demo wall we made for a live presentation we did a year ago.

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This post is sponsored by The Home Depot. ​THD provided the Bosch bits used in this project.

If I asked you what home maintenance problem you have put off, I would venture a guess that probably 100% of you would immediately name one or more items! We all have them (those little pesky issues, we think that are going to be hard) that we need to get done so we can check them off the to-do list!

The replacement of the flag on Steph's mailbox was her small, but difficult seeming problem. You know, "how do you drill into brick?"

It was kind of embarrassing, her sad rusted and dull flag on the mailbox. Definitely a home maintenance issue that needed to be fixed.

When we got these Bosch drill bits, that can drill into all kind of material including brick, we knew we could finally take care of replacing that flag!

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We want to thank The Home Depot for sponsoring this post!

Earlier this year, we made over an underused closet at Steph's house into a highly organized and functional craft storage space. The last step in the makeover was to add lighting. We decided Philips Hue lightstrips. With these we could get the bright light we wanted, as well as the ability to control them remotely or to set them up to turn on with motion. 

Both Steph and I have been using Phillip Hue lighting for many years now and have been impressed with the simple setup and long term ease of use. These lightstrips are no exception--they're easy to install and require no attention once they are setup to active with motion. 

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When we saw these blue star shaped pool noodles at Target we knew right away we had to DIY something with them! With July 4th right around the corner, the stars would be perfect for a red, white, and blue patriotic theme!

We came up with four very easy to make ideas using varies slices of the pool noodle.

1. Flag centerpiece
2. Pool Noodle Garland
3. Hotdog holders
4. String light decor

Take a look at what we came up and then add your suggestions in the comments. 

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We want to thank The Home Depot for sponsoring this post!

The install for this Ring wired security camera is as simple as plug in and go! There's a little more to it than that, but not much more. The most difficult part of the install was deciding where to place it. Watch the end of the video to see who's placement wisdom won out!

This is the second Ring product we've installed. We've been using it for a few weeks now and couldn't be more pleased with its features and ease of use. 

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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. 

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.