DIY Projects

Saturday, 23 May 2015
Gulf Waters RV Resort — Port Aransas, Texas
Temps: Hi 83F (28C) / Lo 75F (24C)

The weather gods gave us a break of sorts this week, with just one major storm that dumped 4 inches (101 mm) in about two hours on Wednesday.  No tornado warnings; just thunder, lightning, and heavy rain.

All’s well here at GWRVR; no flooding as a result of that storm, but where the rivers and creeks are in flood stage in Corpus Christi, people weren’t as lucky.  At the moment, we are waiting for some more thunder-storms — Accuweather’s MinuteCast says it will start raining in 43 minutes … LOL!

Enough already with all this wet stuff — but saying so doesn’t make it so.  Sure hope, it will be drier when we get to Colorado in about two weeks’ time.

With nothing exciting happening, I thought I’d write about a couple of Mui’s latest projects.  The first — a home improvement project here at site 408 …

It doesn’t matter if you have sticks & bricks, or a motorhome pad — the work is never done.
In this instance, sealing the pavers to protect them from the elements.
Seems to be helping with the ant population, too.

The next project — the headboard.  We never cared much for the shiny fabric covering it, so when a stain we just couldn’t get rid of handed us an opportunity to re-upholster the headboard, Mui was on it like lightning!

The headboard — the way it looked until just a few weeks ago.
Note the pillow and the valance medallions as well.

What looked like a one piece headboard turned out to be made of three pieces, allowing us to replace the bulk of the fabric while retaining the trim piece to accent the new fabric and keep the cohesiveness with the rest of the décor.  All it took was the removal of a couple of screws hidden under the decorative trim to get the headboard off the wall — oh and there was some glue to contend with, but Mui managed to pry the headboard from the glue without damaging the wallpaper.

With the headboard in pieces, the next step is to get the fabric off the main piece by
removing the staples — pliers and a flathead screwdriver work well for that.

Instead of batting, Mui decided to use thin upholstery foam to add softness to the headboard.

Next came the upholstery fabric.  But Mui didn’t want me to see the headboard until it was done, so I was banned from the patio.  Suffice to say, this part of the project involved stretching, stapling, and making sure the pattern didn’t go askew.

And here’s the finished product.

As Mui was working on the headboard, I had the bright idea of incorporating more of the new fabric into the décor of the bedroom.  Why not change out the medallions on the window valances on either side of the bed while we were at it?  Sure, more work for Mui — but he thrives on this stuff ;-)

Four screws is all that attaches the valance to the wall around the window. …

… and four screws attach the medallion to the valance box; two are easy to get to, but two
are more or less hidden by the MCD roller shades and present a bit more of a challenge.

From this (gold dots) …	… to this (no gold dots)

And here’s the finished, finished project …

The designer’s rule of three successfully implemented … we have the same
fabric on the headboard, the medallions on the valance, and on the throw pillow.

(We don’t have a sewing machine; and even if we did, I’m not sewing-inclined … so we took our old throw pillow to a seamstress and had her alter it for us.)

Well, AccuWeather has changed it’s mind — no rain for 120 minutes.  We have a reprieve ;-)  I think I’ll go for a walk while I can.