Buyer’s Guide: Showerheads

There’s nothing quite like the sense of clean and calm that comes with a great shower after a long day’s work. One of...

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Removing Wallpaper—It’s Easier Than You Think!

No homeowner wants to be confronted with ripped-up wall coverings as a day-in, day-out reminder of a job not yet fini...

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DIY Lite: These 1-Hour Wind Chimes Star a Few Surprise Materials

Looking to enhance your backyard escape with little more than an hour-long DIY project? Consider the charm of an acce...

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DIY Like a Boss Link Party #17: The Finale

Hello, friends! Welcome to the final DIY Like a Boss link party. We have LOVED hosting this link party, but this party will be our last. You can’t imagine how much we are inspired by all the DIY talent out there—thank you for sharing your amazing projects with us! We have decided to discontinue the link party due to concerns about potentially negative SEO impacts associated with hosting link parties. It has nothing to do with you all, we promise! (For you non-bloggers, SEO means “search engine optimization.” That’s nerd speak for “Google will penalize us and won’t let as many people find our websites because of all of the reciprocal linking.” It stinks. And we’ll miss hosting, but we hope you’ll stick around and continue following along with each of our blogs!

So, let’s move on to the final features. Let me tell you, they are amazing. It’s like y’all saved some of the best for last! These final features were picked by Tasha from Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body! If you love these features, be sure to click through to the source blog before pinning them!

~ Tasha’s Picks ~

DIY Geometric Globe Pendant Light | AttaGirlSays

Master Bathroom Reveal | She Holds Dearly

DIY – Built-ins Around Bed | Remodelando la Casa

Ikea Industrial Kid’s Shelf | Grillo Designs

Spray Painted Patio Furniture Transformation | Designing Vibes

Thanks again for linking up all these weeks! Don’t be strangers–we hope you will swing by our blogs and stay in touch on social media from time to time!

Brittany from Pretty Handy Girl
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram Tasha from Designer Trapped in a Lawyer’s Body
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram Erin Spain
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram Heather from The Heathered Nest
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram Emily from Table and Hearth
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Google+ / Instagram

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

The post DIY Like a Boss Link Party #17: The Finale appeared first on Erin Spain.

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Is Your Air Conditioner Going to Survive the Summer?

With the winter finally passed, savvy homeowners around the country are preparing for another summer of sizzling, swe...

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Master Bedroom Progress: Artwork (One Room Challenge Week 4)

Wow! It’s week 4 of the One Room Challenge and these six weeks are flying by. I’m still working on our master bedroom, but I have several things left to do. It’s going to be down to the wire I’m sure, but I usually work best under pressure so let’s hope that ends up being a good thing! If you’re just joining me, I’m participating in the One Room Challenge and making over a room from start to finish in 6 weeks, sharing weekly progress reports with a final reveal the last week. You can catch up by checking out the before pics and room plan I shared in Week One here, and view updates from Week 2 and Week 3.

Once again, here is the moodboard for the room.

This past week my focus was on artwork for the room. I’ve received a few pieces, and I’ll share specifics on all of them very soon. Here’s a sneak peek.

Each set of artwork/frames will get their own dedicated blog post because I want to share the specific details on the products and the generous brands who provided them.

I’m also working on some DIY art. I found these ginormous framed prints at a hotel furniture outlet store for $9 each, which was a total steal because they are huge! They’re 38 inches tall by 35 inches wide, and come with mats. Here’s one of them (I bought two), and just keep in mind that this is the BEFORE pic. (Nothing wrong with the print, just not the look I’m going for in the room.)

They aren’t going to look anything like this when I’m done with them, but frames are super expensive so I was excited to find large scale frames for such a low price. I’ve already pried them apart and removed the art, and I’ll be painting the frames and replacing the art with something else. These will go on the blank walls on either side of our bathroom door.

Our chandelier is shipping out this week and I can’t wait to receive and install it, and of course show it to you!

The other major project will be building the nightstand, which I hope to finish in the coming week or by next weekend at the latest.

So here’s our updated checklist:

• Paint 
• Hem curtains and add trim
• Add new hardware to existing furniture (maybe?)
• Swap out mirror with the one in Jonah’s nursery
• Swap out glider with something else
• Build a nightstand for one side of the bed 
• Add artwork to the walls (Making progress here)
• Accessorize
• Figure out lighting
• Install lighting
• Figure out what to do with blank walls on either side of bathroom door
• Repair barrel chairs at foot of the bed and decide whether to keep or replace with bench
• Swap out old almond color outlets & covers with white ones
• Order bamboo roman shades for the windows

It’s coming together! Can’t wait to show it all to you soon. Be sure to check out Calling it Home for the One Room Challenge link up to see what all of the other bloggers are up to!

Related Posts:

• One Room Challenge Week 1
• One Room Challenge Week 2
• One Room Challenge Week 3

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

The post Master Bedroom Progress: Artwork (One Room Challenge Week 4) appeared first on Erin Spain.

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How To: Cut Ceramic Tile

A small- to medium-size ceramic tiling job is a project that's well within the grasp of most DIYers. With careful mea...

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Clanking Pipes? Restore Quiet with a Water Hammer Arrester

Have you ever been spooked by strange banging, clanking, or thumping sounds coming from your water pipes whenever you...

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Quick Tip: Control Weeds Using a Propane Torch

How you choose to eradicate weeds depends on your patience, physical abilities, and environmental ethics. You could g...

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Solved! What to Do About a Leaking Toilet Tank

Q: Help! My toilet is leaking all over the bathroom floor, and I haven’t yet located the source. How can I find and f...

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Our Trip to Ruby Falls and Some Family History

Occasionally I like to share our travel adventures with you, and since we just returned from our spring break vacation, I thought I would share a little bit about our trip. We headed north to visit my family in Indiana (and we celebrated Aiden’s 8th birthday! How is that possible?), but we stopped at Ruby Falls in Chattanooga, Tennesee first.

Have you ever been? It’s spectacular. They even have a light show set up.

I hadn’t been since I was a little girl, probably around Aiden’s age, actually. I wanted to share this special place with our boys though, because we have some family history attached to it. A man named Leo Lambert discovered Ruby Falls in 1928 while exploring a cave in Chattanooga. He named it after his wife, Ruby, and it opened to the public in 1930. Leo was my great-grandmother’s brother.

The History of Ruby Falls

In the early 1900s, the Southern Railroad Company built a tunnel through Lookout Mountain, which sealed off the entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave (a popular public attraction at the time). Because of this, the cave was closed to the public. Leo loved exploring caves, and he really wanted to reopen it to the public. In 1923, he (with help from investors) decided to drill an elevator shaft into the mountain to access the cave from above. Construction began in 1928, at which point a worker drilling the elevator shaft felt a gush of air coming from a void in the rock while jackhammering the mountain. (This was at 260 ft., still 160 ft. above Lookout Mountain Cave.) They discovered an opening 18 inches high and 5 feet wide, so Leo and a small crew decided to crawl inside and explore this little cave. In doing so, he discovered the beautiful falls—the entire round trip to the falls and back took 17 hours. In 1930, Ruby Falls (named for his wife, Ruby Lambert), opened to the public.

Here are Leo and Ruby.

Source

Fun fact: Babe Ruth was one of the investors. Here he is with Leo.

Source

And here is a family photo my grandparents shared with me, taken around 1936 or 1937. I’ve labeled it, but Leo Lambert is pictured as well as my grandpa as a pouty little boy. (Haha!)

My dad and grandparents decided to meet up with us in Chattanooga for the trip, as they wanted to experience this fun adventure with our boys. Leo was my paternal grandfather’s uncle; and my grandpa’s cousin (Leo’s granddaughter) still runs a little gift shop up the road from Ruby Falls, so we stopped off there and met her after our tour of the falls. She showed us some old family photos, and told us stories about her grandpa Leo and grandma Ruby. She even has the boots he wore while exploring the cave on display in her shop. She was so sweet to us, and gave our boys t-shirts as souvenirs. If you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop in the Mountain Memories gift shop just up the road.

I had forgotten how long the walk through the cave is. The guided tour lasts a while as the cave leading to the falls takes a while to hike, but it’s well worth it. I can’t even fathom the fact that when Leo was exploring the caves, he entered through an 18 inch high opening and had to crawl through a narrow passageway for hours, until he finally came to a drop-off where he could stand. Jeannie (his granddaughter/my grandpa’s cousin) said that when he came to the drop-off, he thought he was dead. Then he realized he could stand, and walked the rest of the way to the falls. Can you imagine how claustrophobic that entire exploration trip would have been? But I’m glad he was curious and adventurous enough to do it, because it’s an amazing landmark and an awesome wonder to see. The most interesting thing is that to this day, they still have no idea what the source of the water is. They know that it flows into the Tennesee River, but they don’t know exactly where it’s coming from.

Find out more about Ruby Falls here. If you’re ever passing through Chattanooga, Tennesee, be sure to stop there for a visit!  Lookout Mountain and Rock City are nearby too, and we hope to hit those next time.

See more of our travel adventures here. For home and DIY content, feel free to check out my project gallery here. 

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

The post Our Trip to Ruby Falls and Some Family History appeared first on Erin Spain.

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New Delta Trinsic Faucet for the Kitchen

Disclosure: This post is in partnership with Delta Faucet. All opinions are my own.

You might remember last winter, I had the opportunity to visit the 2016 HGTV Dream Home in Merritt Island, Florida, thanks to the awesome generosity of Delta Faucet who invited me on the amazing trip. Part of our partnership allowed me to try out one of their beautiful kitchen faucets. Since we had recently replaced ours, they allowed me to extend the offer to my sister, Hayley, and her husband, Joe, as they have been working on making some updates to their kitchen. They live in Indiana, so during our spring break trip I was able to see the new kitchen faucet in action, and it’s awesome! They chose the Delta Trinsic faucet in the Arctic Stainless finish.

About the Delta Trinsic Faucet

The Trinsic is a single-handle pull-down faucet with Touch2O technology. This allows it to turn off or on with just a touch. It has an LED light that indicates water temperature, and automatic water flow shut-off after four minutes. It’s modern and sleek, and it comes in four different finishes. In fact, the Dream Home had this same faucet in the Champagne Bronze finish. I’m considering going with the bar sized version of this faucet for our wet bar room which we will be converting into a coffee bar at some point soon.

Hayley and Joe love their new faucet, and my niece and nephew have been enjoying it too! They like playing around with the “Touch” capability, which can also be shut off if you’re afraid of your children or curious kitties playing around with it too much. One of Hayley’s favorite features is the LED water temperature indicator light, because it allows her kids to see when the water is too hot for them to touch.

Personally, I love that this faucet incorporates technology to take a basic kitchen fixture to the next level. It has serious bells and whistles. I also love that it’s modern, but versatile enough to complement any decor style. As a mom, I also have a major appreciation for the safety feature. If you’re in the market for a new kitchen faucet, the Delta Trinsic is definitely one to check out!

What features are most important to you when shopping for a faucet? Leave a comment and let me know!

You can also connect with me here:

Thanks for visiting!

-Erin

The post New Delta Trinsic Faucet for the Kitchen appeared first on Erin Spain.

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