Sally Schoepke Griffin, House Handygal

Sally Schoepke Griffin, House Handygal I RETIRED! Working full time in Real Estate for 39 yrs my Experience with House details is Priceless!

So in the year 2025, I am concentrating more of my time on handy woman projects- cooking, gardening, repairs and general maintaining of our homes.

GET RID of those 80’s wood trim laminate cabinets without spending a lot of money! When we show a home built in the 80’...
07/12/2021

GET RID of those 80’s wood trim laminate cabinets without spending a lot of money! When we show a home built in the 80’s and the kitchen has the old outdated cabinets, well it either stops a sale or the value goes down. Here is the products I used in the recent lake rental remodel to paint 2 bathrooms. The end result was really nice. I used 3 products- first Zinsser Bullseye 123 primer, then Behr cabinet and trim enamel & Benjamin Moore Advance Alkyd. The first photo is the Benjamin Moore Advance in Black Pepper- (I did not have a before photo of this bath) I think this is the better product of the 2 paints. The 2 photos on the right are before and after. I took off the tall cabinet doors, left open and puttied the hinge holes. The bottom left photo is from Pinterest, where I learned the DIY project.

06/29/2021

Here is the video of the finished landscape. Thank you Ricky S. owner of Northwoods Landscaping Co of Rice Lake WI. Excellent work. And thank you to Arborjack, Birchwood Wi for the extensive tree removal.

UPDATING A 1988 HOME, CONT. Before and after! Northwoods Lake home. Possibly future guest rental or potentially for s...
06/28/2021

UPDATING A 1988 HOME, CONT.
Before and after! Northwoods Lake home. Possibly future guest rental or potentially for sale? Paint is Sherwin Williams Light French Grey. Upper bedrooms are SW Repose Grey. Kitchen cabinets are SW Drift of Mist. Furniture is from Furnish 123 in Rice Lake. Thanks to Alicia Interiors of Waukesha for repairing drywall and painting walls. And thanks Barefoot Painters in Ladysmith for completing an amazing job glazing the old oak cabinets.

FIXING water issues the very expensive way! Well not what we planned but buying the house next door-a 1988 house with o...
06/26/2021

FIXING water issues the very expensive way! Well not what we planned but buying the house next door-a 1988 house with original interior- afforded us a 9 acre parcel across the road for a future barn. This landscape project is now finished and was rather fun! I will post photos before and after for the next several weeks. First the reason to buy:
Water/ lots of water every rain
View- both homes have fabulous water views now (44 trees were cut down).
Huge lawn for kids ball games
Created a weekly rental guest house 

Photos are before, video in comments is after (and of course our area had no rain from May 21 till June 20th. Watering was a monumental project).

Update: In my last post I cleaned sunbrella cushions- some stains seemed tough, showing while wet (after cleaning), but ...
06/12/2021

Update: In my last post I cleaned sunbrella cushions- some stains seemed tough, showing while wet (after cleaning), but I dried the cushions in the hot sun and all the stains faded out and were gone. Even the old chocolate milk stain- I was amazed.
Also, on my deck I renewed the top of the gas fire pit table, which had chipped and started disintegrating over the winter. I painted the top with 2 coats of Zinsser 123 primer and then sprayed painted with Rust-oleum Hammered Brown. Looks great! (Oh, in the background you can see our drainage repair in process).

Finally! After years of trying I found the perfect outdoor cushion cleaner. (1st tip don’t order light blue cushions fo...
06/05/2021

Finally! After years of trying I found the perfect outdoor cushion cleaner. (1st tip don’t order light blue cushions for the woods). My 7 yr old cushions now look brand new, all old stains are gone on the Sunbrella fabric. First, I used a solution of Oxi Clean and water, dabbed on the stains. Then I used the new Dawn Powerwash (which I love) and scrubbed with a brush. Just a little elbow grease and a hose spray rinse after all appear clean and fresh!

UPDATING A 1988 HOUSE AND SOLVING A WATER ISSUE: Last August I took on a huge project, and can announce today I am final...
05/29/2021

UPDATING A 1988 HOUSE AND SOLVING A WATER ISSUE:
Last August I took on a huge project, and can announce today I am finally finished. The next few weeks I will post all the big and small repairs. When the house right next door became available, we realized this was our chance to solve our basement water issue. Our 2000 built home (which we have owned for 7 years) basically had about 5 acres of land funneling huge volumes of water -anytime it rained - to the lowest part our basement! - Which, fortunately or unfortunately, had a unique overhead door in the walkout basement. Perfect for water toys, but bad for potential water intrusion. And this house had an original 1988 interior, badly in need of updating. So for now (now all fresh) before we resell it, guests can enjoy our lake with us. (Under comments, I added a video from this morning, showing the finished yard- turn up the volume and enjoy the early morning song birds!)

RENEW DATED FURNITURE: It is very common in Florida to buy a furnished home. My oak bedroom set probably from 2000 was ...
04/07/2021

RENEW DATED FURNITURE:
It is very common in Florida to buy a furnished home. My oak bedroom set probably from 2000 was not one of my favorite pieces. Recently, I was able to acquire from my neighbor a beautiful cherry dresser and matching end tables- solid, dovetail drawers, in perfect like new condition. So not wanting to buy a new bed frame, I was able successfully stain the frame to match! Minwax PolyShades is a great product and so easy to use. (In 1988 I even used this product to stain all the oak woodwork in a past house).
MinWax PolyShades is is stain and varnish in one. Clean the wood with Mr Clean, let dry over night. Using a Purdy brush, stain. This product goes on fast, brush marks soften. 2 coats dry very smooth and attractive. Again, so easy!

03/31/2021

Well I learned something new today...
Course I had a ill reaction to my 2nd vaccine shot- fever, aches, slept a lot. So now resting, watching Barnwood Builders on demand ... as I said I learned something new today...

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Brookfield, WI

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+14145070566

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