Dog Gate

We had been using a baby gate for a bit after getting a new dog, she's a big girl and unfortunately likes to snuggle in everyone's beds upstairs.  The baby gate may not sound like a pain, but having to hike your leg over to get up and down got old really fast.

So we decided to make a new dog gate that matched the bifold window shutters that we put in the kitchen.  The shutters for the kitchen has more detailed explanation than what this post will have, feel free to check it out.

Here's the baby gate we used.  As you can see it was nothing fancy.

Originally we were going to build 2 of these gates but ended up only going with one (that would explain why there are so many boards down there, also due to another project going on in the kitchen).

We went through some trials and errors with the hinges, and had to add a board on the wall so that the gate could fold all the way against the wall.

Even Maggie approves.

Overall, much happier with the appearance and functionality of this gate.

View from the top of the stairs.

Under the sink

Picture this, going downstairs to do laundry and noticing up above your head on the ceiling is all wet...yep, that's what happened to me.  I had a huge leak in a pipe underneath of my kitchen sink.  I almost feel like it was my house's way of telling me that my ugly setup under the sink needed some TLC.

Here's a picture after already tearing some of the stuff out from under the sink.  That plywood piece was soaked to the bone, and so was the stuff on top of it!  Around the sink area, in my house, has always bothered me...mostly because of the trim.  It used to have this bowed outward piece of trim that your foot would kick each time you went to do the dishes.

A trip to Lowe's was all I needed for a little inspiration to get this project underway.  (Seriously, I need a truck)

After replacing the plywood, I used some 2x4s (they are installed incorrectly in this picture) for the braces that my wood planks were going to sit on.

I also thought I would get super fancy with it and put beadboard on the back and sides (turns out the sides were the only areas that received this treatment due to the pipes).  See that garbage disposal?  Remember it, it comes into the story later.

Here we go, the 2x4s are installed correctly in this picture...

Just another view...

Because every single thing got wet under the sink (it was a pretty big hole).  I had to tear out the insulation and sheetrock.  So here, you can see the new stuff going in.

Decided to go ahead and update the electrical outlet while I was down there.

One thing about dry wall, is it takes FOREVER!  So much waiting time for stuff to dry...and we all know how much I love sanding.

Okay remember that garbage disposal I was talking about earlier?  Here's where it comes into play.  While caring for my under the sink problems...I thought to myself...why not make the actual sink a bit prettier while I'm at it?  So I ordered some new flanges on Amazon, they arrived just a shiny as could be.

So here's one of the new flanges next to the old...after I removed the old one though...I noticed it had this extra piece attached to it.  It was a black plastic piece that had rivets in it that would allow the garbage disposal to be attached.  Odd thing was, the new one didn't have the same attachment part.  No problem, I'll just take that plastic piece off and attach it to the new one, right?  WRONG!  After I got it off the old flange (with a flat head screw driver and a hammer) it was too small to go on the new flange.  So, what did this mean for me?  A broken garbage disposal.  I feel like I took every reasonable approach to rectify the situation without buying a new disposal.  All the home improvement stores I went to did not have the piece I needed, nor did the internet or my trusted Amazon.  I even tried using my drimmel to sand the plastic down so that it could fit the new flange.  Nothing worked.  Needless to say, I ended up purchasing a new garbage disposal...which by the way, comes with a shiny new flange of it's own.

The stuff I ended up destroying...

I found some pretty helpful YouTube videos on how to use plumbers putty to install flanges.  I will say that my deep dish flange for the non-disposal side of the sink worked out perfect.  It even has this cute little strainer basket to catch food.  Here's a little comparison, the top pictures are the old flanges and the bottom are the newly installed.

The old disposal versus the new...

Here we catch a little sneak peek of an ongoing project, I'm painting the kitchen cabinets, adding some trim and in the picture below you get a glimpse of the furniture feet.  I used 2x6 boards for the planking to set on top of the 2x4s.  Had to cut out some holes in 1 of them due to the pipes that run through the floor.

Since the back could no longer be bead board, I decided to paint the back wall and the bead board the same white color.  Looking back I wish I would have just bought the white bead board.  At my local hardware store I usually go to, they were out of stock...turns out the Valspar paint peels off it pretty easily.

So 3 coats of paint later, and after staining and using polyurethane on the 2x6 boards...it was time to screw them down (I did drill pilot holes in everything, I used to think that was such a time waster...I can't go without doing it now).

This project stretched out way longer than it should have, but at last...she is finished!

The before and after