Ditto for cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, rinsing out dishrags. As I type this I am stringing things together and getting the feeling they have a selective sense of smell to go with selective hearing. Teenagers! Have you ever had a phantom smell in your house? Come on, admit it, I won't tell. You know what I mean. It is when you can smell something is funky somewhere in the house, but you can't find it. That is when you need me for a friend. I can find it.

Regal Red. It took three coats over a weekend, but they look amazing! I followed it up with some spray on poly to help protect it. It's been nearly a year and no chips yet. I used a silver paint pen to add my settings. What I should have done there was placed tracing paper over the knob prongs and meticulously copied my settings, because I left a lot out. Then I could have added a vinyl transfer or used a fine tip paint pen. I may scrape off the paint around the dials and redo it later down the line. Otherwise it was a cheap and easy update! More photos and details here http://www.killerbdesigns.com/10-appliance-m...

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root up against our above ground pool, and my pool means much more to me than privacy. I didn't need roots poking up through the vinyl liner.

The way we got rid of them was to cut them down, and then spend the entire summer applying TORDON stump killer to the shoots. There were shoots everywhere, even 15 feet up into the yard, in every direction. The drought we had last year was a blessing in disguise for us, because it helped in preventing more roots, since they like water. Tordon works fantastically in immediately killing the shoot.

So, if you like these and want to plant, I would suggest you do it out on the back 40 where it won't bother anything.

So, share your home improvement resolutions with us today! And learn what resolutions WE suggest at http://www.moneypit.com/article/new-years-re.... Contest ends December 31st and a winner selected at random will be announced on New Year's Day. Good luck!

Basically, I assembled 2 Billy Bookcases, 1 Billy Wall Shelf, 1 Smadal TV Console from IKEA and attached them to the wall up against a section of beadboard forming an inverted "U" shape. I also attached the bookshelves to the wall shelf for added stability. I left the TV stand free and just pushed it against the wall (as a bench and shoe storage) so that I could remove it to sweep under it. I did reinforce the TV stand with some metal L brackets to support the weight of my kids sitting (and standing and jumping) on it.

Where the shelves met the wall, I added quarter round trim and added corbels under the wall shelf for architectural interest. I also added crown molding along the tops of the shelves.

I had paint color matched and painted all the trim, beadboard and crown molding "Ikea White" (which is actually more of a cream color)

Lastly I added coat hooks and my mudroom built in was complete.

Total cost (shelves, hardware, paint, hooks): $309

project was less than $40.

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