Home Office: DIY Chalkboard Door

Today I am starting on a project to vitalize my home office space. I have been working in this space since we moved back home and now I'm feeling motivated to start making it a remarkable and motivating workplace!

I've been gathering ideas from all over. One idea that I have always loved is making my own chalk board wall. We have these great craftsman-styled 4-panel doors and I thought, What a great place to apply my chalk board idea? Each Panel can be used personally... In a way similar to Pinterest and their categorizable 'Pinboards', I can use each of the 4 panels for organizing ideas and todo's.


I have aspirations to be very calm and patient with this project. I am positive that my undiagnosed A.D.D. will interup my progress at some point and focus me in four directions before completing this project! 

Supplies needed:
1" Painter's Tape: $3
(1) QT-Valspar's Chalkboard Paint: $20
(2) 2" Foam brushes: $1
(1) box Chalk: $1.50
(1) reused plastic tub
Several plastic or paper grocery bags to use as drop cloths

Total Spend: $25.50...and I have a lot of paint left over!

Step 1: Wipe the surface with a damp cloth to remove dust. Let surface dry completely. If your surface is not already smooth, you will need to sand it down prior to painting.

Step 2: Carefully tape the edges of your painting area. Take time and diligence with this as it is the most important step to making this look really nice.

Step 3: Lay out a plastic or paper bag down and bring together all your supplies. Pour a small portion of paint into your reused (mustard salad) container. It is best to pour small amounts so as not to waste paint as well as keeping your usable paint from drying out.

Step 4: Begin painting your first coat. Use broad strokes and slightly lift the paint brush as you finish a stroke. By adding this little lift to the end of the stroke will keep from creating painting lines that may be hard to cover with future coats. Watch corners and edges for paint build up. As the coat begins to dry, take your foam brush and lightly brush away from the edges to smooth any goopy spots.

Step 5: Apply additional coats until your desired finish. I needed to do about 4 coats before I had a slate black finish. Allow coats to dry for 30 minutes. Allow the final coat to dry for about 2 hours. 

Step 6: Remove the painters tape.

Step 7: Using white chalk on its side, rub the surface from edge to edge and evenly coat the chalkboard surface. Wipe away with a dry paper towel.

Viola! The finished Product!

I'm really happy with how this turned out! Peewee even got a space for her busy life...

Water your house!

Photo Courtesy of Dan McGreevy

Yesterday I watered my house, YES, I water my house... That might sound crazy, but I think it summoned the rain gods to tease us with today's showers!

For real though, it is so important to take care of your house's foundation health. The simplest way to do this is to maintain a hand watering schedule. Once a week I walk the perimeter of my home and water the foundation. The Husband tells me that it is not necessary due to our 'commercial grade' foundation, however I still see our new house as if it was the old house. ... Constantly breathing with the weather!

So, do yourself and your home a favor and give it a drink at least once a week. Doing this will preserve your foundation, whether it be slab or pier and beam. Just Do It!

Today, I get my driveway back!

After a two month wait we were finally given access to our driveway again. It has been such a mess around here, not to mention the ever so irritating sounds coming from the tonka trucks 25 feet outside my front door.

Peering out from the upstairs bedroom as they lay 4'x7' culvert deep under the road

Our section took a bit longer to pass due to the transition from 6'x8' foot culverts to (2) parallel 4'x7' culverts.

I really had no idea what to expect when the procession of tonka trucks and orange vested workers arrived to our section of the road. While they approach I could here what was going on down the road, but I just had no idea what it all really entailed.

Our yard became a temporary staging area for the culverts, no doubt because the front of our house still looked like a construction zone without any grass installed yet.

...Our section of road proved to be more complicated then previous sections. Once they got in front of our house they hit a deep shelf of limestone bedrock, thus causing them to bring in the big guns. I'm serious, my front yard looked like a scene from transformers. It was amusing for a while until one day while reading in the back bedroom I started to feel a series of rumbles and shakes. Much to my dismay the 21 foot concrete piers that anchor our home were feeling the reverberation from the rock blasting going on in the street. My thoughts began to fall back to the days of the old Bull Creek house. The constant 'breathing' we lived with that eventually led to us wedging a kitchen chair up against the front door as our 'vintage security device'. It seems like a novelty now but I couldn't help but worry that with all the rock blasting going on outside that I would regret selling that chair in last years yard sale. So the procession of equipment and hardhats has now moved northward. I've been waiting for signs of damage in our new home and much to my dismay I did find some. We have a hairline crack in our guest bathroom and one of the bedroom doors is sticking pretty badly. Interesting enough when I shared my discoveries with the City of Austin Project Manager he said, "We have a legal department in place to take your claims". I was quite shocked when he so flippantly replied with that. I guess that means Im up for a battle with the city.  ... I just really hope those two little details are not signs of a bigger problem???


So on the brighter side of things this storm drain installment project IS a really good thing. With the littlest bit of rain our street would flood from curb to curb and on larger rain falls would flood into our yard about 2 feet. The City says the project should be wrapped up by Jan 2012. I just hope my claim for damages doesn't last longer than that!

May 2011. A 20 minute rainstorm caused this.

In the meantime, I don't have to lug my groceries from 3 houses down any longer. Cheers to that!