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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. 

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We recently attended an outdoor tool event sponsored by The Home Depot. There were about 20 or so online content creators and media folks invited to the event. Although we didn't get a chance to really talk to the others attending, we did meet Leah from See Jane Drill and met a representative from This Old House. 

The event gave us a chance to see some new outdoor tool innovations, try them out and talk with brand experts. We took lots of video and notes so we could share all we learned with all of you. Here's a brief look what we experienced at the event (please watch the video above for more info).

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If you have sidewalks or driveways of a certain age you have these--wood expansion joints! These are important as they allow the concrete to expand and contract without cracking. Unfortunately, time and the elements take their toll on them. Eventually they rot and break and should be replaced.

There are a number of reasons to replace them. Having a strong solid expansion joint helps with the following:

1. Helps to inhibit the growth of weeds 
2. Helps to block water from getting below the concrete causing erosion. Erosion creates its own set of problems.
3. If the wood expansion joint has totally rotted leaving a gap, it can create a tripping/falling hazard.
4. Nice, clean looking expansion joints add instant curb appeal to your home!

There are at least three methods to replace the wood expansion joints. Each has its pros and cons but we settled on flexible vinyl gaskets due because it was very homeowner friendly, required no special tools or drying time. 

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Are you ready for a home decor project that is so simple it doesn't really need a tutorial?! This metal pipe and string light statement light fixture will do nicely! 

In December, we picked up this string of lights in Ikea's clearance section. They were marketed as Christmas lights, but we thought they were classic enough to use any time of the year. There are lots of these kinds of lights on the market so you shouldn't have to wait until Ikea has a sale to get a set. 

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

A while back I turned my office closet into an audio recording booth. It's been great to have the mic setup and ready to go when I need to record narration for our videos. Even with the recording setup I still had a little space left in the closet for storage. I've been storing plastic bins on the side, one on top of the other.

It worked for a while, but I got tired of having to move each bin, especially when I need to get to the bottom one. I decided to build some simple shelves to hold the bins and keep them out of the way when recording.

Here’s the plan I came up with. I made three shelves, but I might add one more in the future.

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This post is sponsored by our favorite, The Home Depot!

​There is nothing more frustrating when crafting or making than knowing you have what you need, but you can’t find it! I read a quote once that stated “if you can’t find it, you don’t own it!” I think of that often when I can’t find something and have to buy again in order to start or finish a project. 

Although we have lots of craft/maker supplies for Mother Daughter Projects stored at Steph’s house, they were becoming more and more inaccessible due to lack of organized storage. Over Christmas Steph decided she had had enough of the mess and started to digitally put together an idea to install an organizational system into the closet in her Lego room. The closet we are working with is 86" wide x 96" tall x 23" deep. 

Seeing that everything we wanted to use was from The Home Depot, we reached out to them to see if they wanted to partner with us on the project. We felt it had universal appeal to others like us who wanted to buy and install pre-made components to get the job done fast! 

We are calling this a semi-DIY because we are not actually building anything. With the exception of cutting a few pieces of closet rod, all the other components are ready to be installed and come with all their parts to get the install done.

​Please watch the video above to see how it came together, and get more details below!

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Recently, with Steph’s help and the help of a few volunteers, we planned and hosted a craft night for women at my church. A search of Pinterest and a picture on Facebook provided the inspiration for our Valentine’s Day craft. I’ll provide some tips at the end of the post for planning a craft night for a group.