DIY Hot Wheels Organization

Needed for this project:

Shoe Rack from Amazon or something similar

*Each rack came with 4 shelves. You need to double them up, so each rack would make two complete hotwheels shelves (100ish cars). I purchased 3 racks, giving me 12 shelves and 6 hotwheels shelves when doubled up (400ish cars)

Spray 6 cans of spray paint (This is optional. You could certainly leave the pine unfinished and this would shave at least 2 days off of your project time, but I chose to paint mine satin white)

24- 2" screws

Wood Glue

Tape Measure and Leveler

220 Grit Sand paper (optional)

Project Cost: $67.18 ($25.48 for 6 cans of spray paint and 3 shelving units at $13.90 each) 

Total time invested: 2 days total (1 hour of intermittent spraying + overnight drying time and 45 minutes of family time measuring and screwing into the wall) 

Storage for 400+ mini cars!

We are in the middle of transitioning our 9yo into his "older room" and with that comes the conversion of our junk room, aka 4th bedroom where we threw things to be out of sight, into a new and organized hangout room. My goal in doing this is to hopefully then convert my sunroom from a playroom into an adult(ish) room. You can read more about the sunroom here.

So, if you're a Boy Mom like I am, you are probably swimming tiny cars. To be more specific...hot wheels, matchbox, or any small scale die cast car, and one of the issues at hand is how to organize the over abundance of hot wheels in the new hangout room.

I have scoured the internet for ideas, and came across several...magnetic strips, metal flashing, shelving, etc. but could never get behind these ideas. Mostly because they all hinged on the cars being magnetic and it was still a kind of disheveled way or organizing being just thrown up on the wall. I came across another DIYer who mentioned using the shelves from a shoe storage rack and this was an idea I could get behind. So, I ordered this Shoe Rack from Amazon and then picked up some white spray paint from Home Depot.  

I started by unboxing the racks. They do not come put together (which is perfect for my project), so I just laid them out face down to begin spraying. I chose the side where the staples are exposed as "The Back" and laid the racks out with "The Back" - up, so that the front would be the last thing I sprayed. Looking back, I should have sprayed "The front" first because the spray bled a bit onto the front, which took a bit of extra attention and time. If I had done the reverse, it would've bled onto the back and wouldn't have been an issue.

Follow the steps below to turn

                   this...                 ...into this!

I picked up 6 cans of Satin white spray paint from Home Depot. This was not necessary, as the shelves could've been hung unfinished. 

Also, if you have one of these I would use it! The slats were no joke. I used an unusually large amount of spray paint quickly because I was using the ole spray everything method, then I realized that I needed to slow down and do each slat one at a time and from all 4 angles. Needless to say, my fingers were tired, but this little guy helped tremendously.

Here they are laid out to dry. I will flip later and finish them off with another coat of paint.

After flipping and applying a second coat of paint + dry time overnight, we were ready to hang.
*I did a light sand with 220 Grit sand paper (this was not necessary, but I couldn't stop myself-this added another 15 minutes to the project)

Measure you wall and decide where you're hanging. Mark lines according to level.
* I chose to leave space between each set of shelves, both on the sides and the top to account for any imperfections there may have been in my measuring. Additionally, if you leave space at the top between the shelves, it gives you a spot for the larger hotwheels that may not fit on the other shelves.

We drilled pilot holes on the shelves that would be on the top. Only one corner is shown in this photo, but we did all 4 corners as this pine is very soft and we were afraid of splitting.



Then we wood glued each corner for added security.



We chose to put 4 screws into each section and used 24, 2" screws.

After measuring and marking our spots, we began hanging the shelves-2 pieces deep. We did a screw in each corner and made our way up the wall.



And here's the finished product!

             

I am overall happy with the way this turned out. The shelves were far from perfect, mostly due to the poor quality of the pine and really could've used another coat of paint, but I wasn't willing to invest any additional time (or money into the project). My OCD and anxiety about having things perfect had to cool it on this project. I reminded myself many times that I did not have to look at this each day, so some imperfections were okay. It is serving an awesome purpose and my boys are happy! Win, win! Next up...storage for the mini figs using leftover pieces of this shoe rack.

Operation take over (not back) my Sunroom!

We moved into our first home almost seven years ago and since then the Sunroom has really be a toy room, overflowing from all corners with the kiddos things. Including nerf guns, hot wheels, board games. You name it, we've likely got it. 

With the addition of the patio and pool last summer, we have been gathering and entertaining more and Jack's desire to makeover the "lego" room has led to my desire to take over (not back) my sunroom. Why do I say "take over (not back)?" because it was never mine to begin with. The couch is stained, the chair is a nursing chair and every item in the room most likely belongs to the kids.  The ottoman is even full of toys. So it's time to take it over and update it into something adult(ish)...because let's face it, we do still have kiddos and a dog and we entertain where there is typically alcohol involved (especially red wine), so lets not get carried away with the whole "adult room." It just needs to be adult...ish.

Here's what the Sunroom currently looks like. First priority before moving the toys up to the play room is finding a storage solution for these nerf guns and the hot wheels situation we have going on. The photo here doesn't even come close to the actual amount we have, my kids are hot wheels and nerf gun hoarders.

Sunroom 1

Sunroom 2

Nerf Guns in their current home:

Hot wheels in their current home:

Packing for a Condo Stay: The Beginning

One thing to know about me is that I like lists. I don't like to re-invent the wheel, so when I pack for a vacation, I work off of a list that I compiled once and just kept adding to it. Right now, she's 2 pages, front and back. Anal (maybe) but I can 99.99% guarantee that everyone has everything they need when we reach our destination. Thanks, mom!

Here she is in all of her (wrinkled, coffee stained, likely even dowsed with some spit up) glory! She is covered head to toe (back too) with lead and the crazy thoughts from my brain. I have always preferred pencil over pen. The commitment of a pen scares me some times. When I'm not using her, I put her in one of those clear slip cover thingies and shove her into a basket for safe keeping. Maybe I should name the 'ole girl...

The other thing to know about me is that I despise the grocery store. So when we travel, I take everything I need. IMO the worst thing to have to do, once you've reached your destination is to go to the store. Especially for the extra large glass of chilled wine that I am so desperately craving (after the kids and hubby have grated on my last nerve for a 7 hour drive). No offense Babe. I love you...and you do an awesome job getting us safely to our destination. I am however, usually very high strung by the time we've made it, let's not kid ourselves. It would be doing everyone a favor, if you just got me the glass of wine...then I can move on to being a normal person again. Wine is to me as a snickers bar is to someone hungry. I get WINGRY? WANGRY? WISSED? Work in progress, lol.

Today I started to compile my list for food packing. I've watched these two videos and gotten some ideas, but I will keep digging and create my own list. I may even make my own video ;) Stay tuned...

Simple Beach Packing: I have always used two large collapsable bags. I believe I may try the tub thing for this trip. I'm sure hubby is over there rolling his eyes right now, thinking about all of the sh*t that I give him to pack into the back of our SUV.
Packing a Cooler for the Beach:  I like the frozen bottle idea here. I usually bring a case of water, but if I can use those to keep the cooler items cold AND take up less space while packing, it seems like a win win!

Blast from the Past!

Holy cow! Talk about digging up buried treasure.

We booked a beach trip during Jack's winter break and as I'm searching pintrest and youtube for ideas on packing for the condo, I remembered..."Hey, I have a blog!"

It took a few minutes and some clever password recovery, but I'm in!

Ironically, the name "Where is the Owner's Manual?" has applied to so many things in my life since I started this blog 8 years ago. Marriage, children, self growth, finances, vacationing, home repairs, just to name a few, but they ALL have needed an Owner's Manual.

So...what has inspired me to begin blogging again?

This is why: Usually before I compile a list or start a project, I do a ton or research. Whatever the list is for, whatever the project is, I research, research, research. My goal is to begin sharing that research with other people, and maybe I can make their life a little easier. Maybe I'll end up with an Owner's Manual after all. :)

Sharing a few photos...

Last week we participated in our first 5K, the Huddleston Hustle. We all finished, and Ben even finished third in his age range. We even tie dyed our team shirts!

Pete, Ben and I started P90X two weeks ago, and one of the videos Yoga Extreme. Here is a photo of Jack and Pete in Half Moon Pose...well sort of. :)

I LOVE this video! Jack has recently started playing his guitar (a golf club). It is so cute how he gets into it.

Well...we were packed into the cars like sardines, but we made it to Gatlinburg, as a "Faaaamily!"

I have spent so many Christmas Holidays in Gatlinburg, with my mom and dad, that it is almost like a second home to me. I love the city and I have created so many fond memories there...the beautiful Christmas lights, adding sparkle to the city, the crisp cold air that freezes you to the bone and forces you to drink hot chocolate as the only way to warm up, the bantering back and forth about who will win the next game of putt putt, and many more...that I was so anxious to get there and start creating those same memories with Jack and the boys.

We left after school on Wednesday and arrived late, but got everyone tucked into their beds and resting for the big days ahead. Ben and I got up early Thursday morning and did a jog around the city. Clayton was up when we left, and I could tell that he was a little disappointed that he wasn't going with us, but it was a nice time to spend with just Ben. He is turning into such a wonderful teenager, and he seems to genuinely enjoy our company just as we enjoy his. It was nice to have this time with him exploring the city as the stores opened up, and listening to all of the things that he wanted to do while we were there.

Breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, a ride on the Ripley's Moving Theatre, and the Skylift were on the agenda for the morning. Here are some photos.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel for a break, and we were enjoying snacks out on the balcony when Clayton blurted out, "this is the best get together money could buy!" How sweet, that was like music to my ears!

I'm sure that the kids would say differently, but my most enjoyable time was in the hotel room visiting and cutting up, rather than walking the streets, and after dinner Thursday night, we did just that. Even Jack got in on the action.

We also spent time putt putting, ice skating, and just hanging out. Here are a few other photos from our trip...

Riding the tram to Ober Gatlinburg

Jack Snoozing

Ice Skating at Ober

Goofing off in the hotel room

Clayton's Santa Beard (our faces were very wind chapped)

Pizza on our last night

...and playing in the snow.

I am so ashamed that it has been almost a full year since our last post, but we are excited to say that 2010 has definitely been exciting for the Bains family.

Today was such a beautiful day, so we headed to the park with Clayton (Uncle BF) and Reece from next door. Jack had such a good time climbing and sliding, we even played on the swing a bit. I was amazed today of how quickly he made it around the jungle gym, climbing all over the place. I can't believe that his 2nd birthday will be here in no time.