Keurig K-Cups Life Hack

We recently picked up the new Keurig 2.0, which was a huge step up from Mr. Coffee.  Love love love the convenience of the machine, but was disappointed to find it was super picky when it came to K-cups.

I knew that this particular model was more advanced and we wouldn't be able to fool it with some of those re-usable k-cup things that look like a tiny coffee filter.  So I was always very careful to make sure we only picked up the k-cups that had the Keurig logo on them, as directed.  Well, unfortunately we came across some that didn't work.  You can see in the picture below that we had 2 types of Green Mountain Coffee, both in Keurig approved k-cups, but the green one is solid green across the top, whereas the brown one has a white-ish/lavender ring around the brown.

We popped the green one in the coffee machine and got this message.

"...try one of the hundreds of packs with the Keurig logo"????  But we did?  So I called the number on the screen and was informed that some k-cups are produced without the white or off-white band around the cover and those do not work with the 2.0 machines.  The customer service rep I reached indicated that you could somehow tell by some marking on the outside of the boxes whether they would work or not, but I can honestly say that I've scoured boxes looking for something that says they are compatible, and haven't seen anything so far on any box I picked up at the grocery store.

Since this was our first issue, the rep nicely sent us replacement coffee for what we had purchased.  But for the future I developed this little hack so that even if I pick up the wrong kind of k-cup in the future, I won't have to make another trip back to the store (with screaming children) to return them.

Note - this only works if you have a used k-cup that had that special perimeter band on it.

For this project I just needed the dud k-cup, a used k-cup with necessary band, glue dots, and a utility knife.

Using a very sharp utility knife, cut around the hard plastic rim of the k-cup.  Don't bother trying to remove just the foil lid as those things are so flimsy that I imagine it would tear pretty quickly.  Instead make you incision just under the lip of the lid.

It gets a little messy when you get the whole lid cut off as some of the coffee will spill out on the counter.

Toss out the used k-cup.  Rinse and dry the chopped off lid.  Next you want to apply one of the glue dots to the backside of the lid.  You can get glue dots at a craft store, or I guess you could use something like double-sided foam tape.  It's really just for sticking the old lid to the top of the green k-cup, otherwise the lid will slide off before you can close the hatch.

Finally, stick the dummy k-cup lid on your non-functioning k-cup and close the hatch to brew your coffee.  Yeah!  No error messages this time.

 

As a side note, I suppose the reasoning for the white perimeter band is so the machine knows how to make whatever hot beverage you are wanting.  So if you were wanting tea, you would need a stick on top that was from another tea k-cup.  This system has served us very well as we primarily use the Keurig for coffee, so a replacement top from another type of coffee seems to brew the green-top coffee with no issues.

Our Chore Chart and Elementary School Commission System

Being done with school for the past 6 months has afforded me the chance to do more pleasure reading and catch up on non-fiction reading that I've been putting off.

Lately I finally read through Dave Ramsey's books, The Total Money Makeover and one of his newer books that he wrote with his daughter, Rachel Cruz - Smart Money, Smart Kids.  I've listened to Dave Ramsey's radio show for quite some time, so the theories weren't new to me, but it was nice to see everything laid out in the book with lots of personal stories to break up the information.

The Smart Money, Smart Kids book was really inspiring too.  I've long watched my two boys often acting as though they deserve to have things handed to them, and I wanted to change that.  It's funny that they could even act entitled to anything, when they've spent so many years of their lives having to hear that "it's not in the budget".  The book gave me lots of great ideas to start incorporating now when they're at the tender young ages of 6 and 8.

The most important idea, for me, in the book was teaching them that money comes from work.  There would be no "allowances", or entitlements.  Instead, we would offer them commission.  We put together a set of chores that could be done each week.  Some on a daily basis and others just 1-2 times per week, and each with a set price tag.  Each day when they completed a chore, they would mark it on the chart and at the end of the week they have to count up what commission they are owed (this is also great for helping them become better at counting money) and then they are paid in cash.

I took a couple pictures of the chart I created and then list of chores we make available, just give others some ideas of how to get started.  I created our chores and put them on magnetic business cards that I had cut in half.  I opted to use just plain paper for the chores themselves because it allowed the magnets to have enough power to stack/stick to each other, thus taking up less space on the fridge.  I made enough magnets for the maximum number of times that each chore could be done each week.

   

If you would like to use the chores I created, you can download the pdf that contains these 4 pages of the chores as seen above.

Then we picked up a dry erase board that measured 14 inches wide x 11 inches tall.  This actually worked out to be a perfect size because there was just enough room for each day to have a space that was exactly as wide as each chore magnet.  There certainly are lots of ways to put a chart together, but I will say after a few months of putting this in place it continues to go amazingly well.

 

We haven't had the most success so far with convincing them to spend, save and give.  My 8 year old does a great job of selecting something he wants to save up for (totally thought he would have been more of a spender than a saver), but then doesn't want to use one cent for anything other than saving up for his goal purchase.  He also doesn't seem to "in to" giving.  We've done a better job of demonstrating giving, by picking up some non-perishable foods to give to a food drive or donating out-grown clothing to the thrift store, but neither of them really want to part with the money they worked hard to earn.  I'm sure with gentle persuasion it will come.

It certainly has stopped a lot of crying and whining fits that used to result when they were denied something that they felt they really needed to have.  We had an instance of this about a month ago.  My 8 year old had seen a pair of shoes someone else got, and desperately wanted a pair.  I told him we had just bought him shoes and that we were not spending more money on shoes for him when he hadn't outgrown his and simply didn't need them.  He threw a momentary tantrum and then he decided he would print out a picture of the shoes he wanted, and would do extra chores to save up for them.  After a month of hard work, and with a generous holiday gift card, he was able to purchase the shoes himself.

There are a few things that money cannot buy, and one of them is the look of pure delight and satisfaction when his dedication has enabled him to purchase something he wants that we were not willing to provide for him.

Now I Remember Why I Hate Trying to Sell a Car

Selling a car can be a pain in the butt.  Not as stressful as buying/selling a house, but it's typically the next most expensive thing we seem to own and selling one is such a headache.

We recently listed our 2012 vehicle for sale.  Nobody seems to read the newspaper anymore so we are sort of forced to list it online as putting a sign on it will reach no-one (we live at the far end of a cul-de-sac).  Back in Maine we had more options aside from just Craigslist, we had the fabulous Uncle Henry's Swap/Sell Guide - best place to find the weirdest things.  So we cleaned her up, took some nice pictures, and then put together the most comprehensive description and put her out there on Craiglist in hopes someone would want to snatch her up immediately.

It's been a while since we listed a car for sale that was worth anything.  So I had pleasantly forgotten about all the scammers from Nigeria that start to roll in when you list a vehicle for more than $20K.  Last time we did this it was a truck.  We were contacted by the usually scammer, suggesting they had a buyer and would send us a cashier's check for more than our asking price.  We were then supposed to cash the check and the extra funds were to be paid to an auto shipper of the buyers choice.  I knew it sounded fishy, so I declined the deal.  A week later an envelope arrived with a huge cashier's check, and nothing else.  Apparently their broken English not only made it difficult to speak the language, but also to understand the word "NO!".  Out of curiosity I took the check to the bank.  I knew it couldn't be legit, but it sure did look real.  My credit union dug around and ultimately called Bank of America (who was supposedly the creator of the check) and discovered that the color of the check (I think it was blue) was wrong for BOA as their cashier's checks are green.  So the gist of the scam is that they send you this check, you cash the check and send on the funds for the shipping (if you're trusting soul) which is around $3000-$5000, and then the check never clears the bank (because it was fake) and you are now out the $3-$5K.

Well now they've advanced their technology.  Now the scammers are still at it with the same old scam, but try to lure you in by saying they can pay you via paypal; as if this is a safer transaction.  There have to be a ton of marine biologists working on off-shore rigs (thus unable to come to pick up the vehicle) and a whole bunch of really generous engineers who are on business trips to Boston and wanting to purchase the vehicle for a relative out of the goodness of their heart.  Unfortunately, for them, I'm not a sucker.

First, nobody calls you up, after seeing your vehicle listed with every detail imaginable, and asks what condition the vehicle is in... and then takes you at your word.  Second, nobody tells you that they have a buyer for your vehicle that is willing to pay exactly your asking price and a few thousand on top of that to have it shipped to them (because this is not a classic car we're talking about, it's a mass produced 2012 Dodge Journey!).  Third, if you select the name "Gary" as your uber American name, you best be able to pronounce it!!!  Fourth, if they want you to make a transaction via paypal this whole thing is fraught with trouble - 1. Someone has to pay the transaction fee, right?  Well don't you think that would be a large amount if the money transferred to another person was over $20,000?  I sure do.  So the fee to wire funds directly to a bank account would be much less expensive and if you suggest this as the only option you'll entertain, you won't hear from them again.  2.  They are wanting you to make the transaction via paypal and asking as though this offers some sort of safe-guarding for this transaction.  IT DOESN'T!  Paypal doesn't protect purchases of vehicles made off of Ebay, and I'm sure if I continued digging deeper I'd find a notation that indicates it doesn't protect vehicle purchases made anywhere.

The most recent phone calls I've received were a recording saying they were interested in my "classic car" listed online.  Classic?  A 2012 Dodge?  What?   Ugh.  This whole ordeal is enough to make you never want to do anything but buy a vehicle and drive it into the ground so you only have to deal with buying from someone and then carting it off to the junkyard in the end.  Clearly these soulless @$$-clowns are making money off people somewhere, otherwise they would have moved onto a new scam, so if you're looking to sell a car, be on the lookout.

Fixing the Windshield

So my husband and I decided that as part of our journey to become debt-free (I <3 Dave Ramsey) we would sell our crossover SUV.  We really like the car, and thanks to the new job I took back in June, the payment is do-able.  But I just don't want to DO it anymore.  I'd much rather just drive around a piece of garbage car, with mismatched doors and an 8-track radio than shell out this car payment every month... just to ride in luxury... and look like we're winning when in fact we've only just now stopped drowning!

Anyway, I digress.  So to get the car ready for the market, we want it to look its best.  And as luck would have it, I was driving the other day and the truck ahead of me threw a rock at the windshield and gave me a tiny little spider-like ding.  CRAP!  No matter how good the car looks, anyone who gets behind the wheel is going to see that chip and instantly the car will be worth less in their minds.

I picked up a RainX Windhsield Repair Kit.  It looks like it will fix those little spider marks, and bullet marks, you name it... as long as it's not too massive or longer than 12-inches.

First I cleaned up the chip with some Windex.  If there are any little fragments of glass still in it, they suggest that you clean those out with a razor blade.  The kit didn't come with a razor blade, so be sure you have one handy before starting the process, because you'll need one at the end.

Chip clean and ready for repair.

Next step is to fasten this little suction cup device to the windshield with that middle hole centered over the problem spot.

Then you'll screw in this little bolt-like thing.

Go until the end is flush against the windshield.

Squirt a few drops of epoxy stuff into the tube.  They said 3-6 drops depending on the size of the problem.  Mine wasn't all that big, but I went for the 6 drops just because it seemed a little deep and hollow.

Then follow that up with this smaller bolt that screws into the threads within the bold that is already in place.  This one is driving the epoxy down into the crack.  One you have it cranked pretty much all the way on, check from inside the car.  You may still see some little air bubbles.  Back out this screw to release the air, and then screw it back on again.  If you still see air bubbles, add some more of the epoxy and then I used a heat gun on low heat from inside the car to help draw the epoxy into the crevices.

Let it sit for a few minutes.  Then turn the bolt (and inner bolt) about 1/2 turn counter-clockwise to release them from the windshield.  Then remove the whole apparatus.  I then placed another drop of epoxy on the top of the ding and put down the plastic sheet that came in the kit.

After a few more minutes of letting the resin set, while the car was positioned in the sun, I removed the plastic piece and used the razor blade to scrape off the excess epoxy.

I honestly had a really hard time taking the final picture, but I cannot see where the spot had been.  So I'd say that was a pretty successful project, done in 15 minutes, for a whopping $15 or so.

Careful! The pictures in this post might turn your stomach a bit...

... so you've been warned.

I've never written about something that happened to me in February 2013 (so about a year and a half ago).  I've never had a problem talking about to people, because the shock factor is fabulous, but really sitting down and thinking about it is hard.

On my birthday, October 2012, I got my very own table saw.  I loved it.  I'm sure my Dad thought it was a little silly as part of the way I selected it had to do with it matching the majority of my other tools... but just because I like DeWalt tools, not because they had to match color-wise.

This table saw is great, because it stores somewhat compactly, but then had a little stand to set it on when you wanted to cut something.  The guide also expands out to 26 inches which is seemingly perfect for cutting any size of wood you need, provided the piece starts out at 4 feet or less.

It also has some great safety features built into it.  There is a little metal piece that attaches behind where the blade spins.

So it comes up and mimics the shape of the blade, but then is the exact same width of the blade.  This is so when you're making cuts, the portion of the wood that gets devoured by the saw blade also makes room for the wood the smoothly pass by this piece.

Then there are two pieces that attach to this little metal piece.

This little piece has teeth in it.  When the wood gets past the saw blade and the metal piece, it runs into this piece that hinges and lifts up to accommodate the wood moving under it.  If the saw tries to kick the wood back towards you, this piece will prevent that because those little teeth dig into the wood so it can't move backward.

This is the other safety piece that attaches.  It lifts up some to allow the wood to slide under, towards the blade.  The whole function of this puppy is to keep things from landing on the blade.  Seems smart enough.

So theoretically, there should never be a reason to remove any of the safety devices unless you were making a rabbet or dado cut (a groove cut) where you are passing a piece of wood over the blade but the cut doesn't make its way all the way through the wood.  For a cut like this you would have to take the safety devices off the machine because they would not allow the wood to pass beyond the blade.

BTW, my hands are starting to shake already and I haven't even made it all the way to the story!!

Okay, so I said, "theoretically".  But I was having a slight issue.  Sometimes the wood would bind up a little bit when it got past the blade and was having some interaction with that metal piece.  It was bugging me.  Binding up of the wood was making it more difficult to push the wood all the way through the saw.  So I took them off.  No, I wasn't making those nice groove cuts.  I just figured that since I was very safety-conscious, it was enough.  I was wrong.

This one fine morning in February 2013 I was busy trying to build a bookshelf to go above a desk I had put together.  I wanted to get it done.  I had family coming to town.  I dropped my first grader off at school, and then had my preschooler with me for the whole day.  We stopped to pick up the wood I needed and had the attendant at Home Depot cut the plywood sheet down a bit, the sheets are 4x8 feet, and that's tough to manage by yourself on a table saw because they're huge.  Got home and now had these perfect 8 foot long pieces that I was systematically cutting down to size for my project.  I had an 18 inch piece to cut.  Now if you only have 18 inches on the right side of the saw blade, you aren't going to need to trouble yourself with a "pusher" stick, so that was a non-issue.  But it did mean I had more than 6 feet of wood going off to the left of the blade.  That's a fair amount of weight, so my right hand was going to guide the wood through while my left hand was supporting the weight of the wood on the other side.  I wasn't centered on the saw blade, but I was super close.  My preschooler was sitting on the other side of the garage where he was commonly sent when I was cutting things to keep him out of harm's way.

....  hold up...  my stomach is starting to squirm.  Must take a 10 minute break to calm down.

Deep breath... and I'm back.

So I started the cut.  The wood bound up a bit between the side rail and the blade.  It was going to kick the wood... it did kick the wood.  It tried to send it backwards, but my body was trying to push it forward and the human brain sure does react a whole lot slower than a saw blade.  The wood kicked, my arms still pushing it forward meant the wood couldn't kick backwards.  Instead it came up off the table and then landed back down on the blade because my arms were pushing it that way.  The wood bounced off the table.  Something was wrong.  You know that feeling like you can't put a finger on it (that's a really bad joke), but something seems off?  That's what I felt.  I looked down.  "Oh SHIT!  Oh no, oh no, oh no.  I cut myself!  I cut myself!!!!  My hand!!  It had bounced off the blade too!!  AHHHHH!", that's was the quote of what went down in my head.  What came out of my mouth was very different.  I had a 4 year old sitting 8 feet away from me (behind me, and to the left), that had no idea what just happened.  I didn't want to scare him.  I pulled my right arm into my shirt and covered it with my other hand and turned to walk towards the door into the house.  I asked my 4 year old, "could you please turn off the saw?  We're done cutting things for a little while.  Let's go watch Curious George."  He didn't know anything was wrong, so naturally in typical boy fashion he said, "No".  It was an inconvenience to whatever he was doing in his corner.  Clenching my jaw, I walked back to the table saw and turned it off with my foot.  Blood was starting to drip at this point, so now I was leaving a trail back into the house, all over the door knob, etc.  

My son followed me in.  I grabbed the phone, a dishcloth (which I wrapped my hand up in), and while I dialed 911, I turned on PBS for him.  I calmly asked him if he could go next door to our neighbor's house for a little bit while I made a phone call.  I was scared with what I had just seen.  I was glad it was wrapped up now because I couldn't bare to look at it, and I was afraid that I could only maintain my composure for so long.  And I didn't want to scare him.  He refused to go next door!!  I sat down in a chair near the front door and talked to the dispatcher.  The ambulance arrived quickly.  I explained what had happened.  They wanted to look at it, and that's about the point that I started having trouble stopping tears.  It was grotesque!  I didn't want to take that towel off until my son was out of the house!!  But now he was nowhere to be found!  The back door was open, the EMT's went next door to look for him.  I was afraid he was hiding in the backyard somewhere (he had taken to hiding very quietly from me lately).  I was wandering around in the backyard calling for him, and starting to get light-headed.

I wandered back into the house and my neighbor had come over to let me know that he was next door with her and she would take care of him.  Apparently he had wandered over there and told her "my mom cut her hand so I'm going to hang out with you for a little bit", as easily as if he had said that I was taking a shower.  Good, he was unaffected.  I called my husband.  He is routinely not available for a multitude of reasons, but on this day he was in his office.  Told him I cut my hand and was going to the ER.

I went for a little ride in the ambulance.  I hadn't really looked at my wound yet.  They kept trying to ask me if I cut all the way through.  What did they mean?  They gave me a pain patch... no idea what variety.  But I wasn't in pain.  I was mortified... but no pain.  The pain patch must have had a little extra calming bonus to it.  I could no longer keep my hand covered, but until the patch really kicked in, I wasn't looking at it.  Once I did, it seemed unreal.  It looked like some elaborate make-up application for Halloween.

The saw blade, that spins counter-clockwise towards you, had first grabbed the muscle of my thumb.  It tore in deeply there, and then must have flipped my wrist to nick the other side of my thumb too.  You can see how they thought, at first, that I had cut all the way through.  Amazingly, aside from a small nick on a tendon on my thumb, it was mostly just a flesh wound (Monty Python reference, so you have to read that with an English accent).  What actually hurt the most was when they had to dig around in this wound with the "numbing" medication syringe that would allow them to stitch it back up.  Yow!  

While I was waiting on a consult from the doctor regarding any damage to that tendon, I got to listen to a lady in the next bed.  Do these people not realize that I can hear through the flimsy curtain?  She was complaining of shoulder pain.  Apparently she had been out shooting her rifle preparing for a zombie apocalypse!!  I also got to taunt my husband with my nasty hand... because he has a super weak stomach.  The calm-you-down medication was wonderful because it made it possible for me to deal with this insanity.  I even told the ER staff that I was just really upset because my career as a hand model (Seinfeld reference) was officially over... and what was I going to do for work now?

17 stitches later it looked so much better.  To this day I tell people my grandmother was watching over me.  She swore we would eventually evolve into a species that only had thumbs (because she constantly saw people using just their thumbs for texting, etc.), so clearly she knew I was going to need mine - she was such a feisty, smart lady.  It wasn't perfect.  I did have a little damage and spent a number of months going through occupational therapy (OT) to get to the point where I could almost bend my thumb as much as I once had, and it gave me back some of my grip strength which I will have to continue to build back up over time. 

Once the stitches came out I started using some Booboo Balm to help with the healing and it also helped with the itching that always goes along with wounds.  For the most part these days, I would say my wound is unnoticeable.  Either that or people don't want to ask, or they figure it was a surgical scar... yes, my own operating room in the garage.  I did spend a number of days in disbelief.  I couldn't understand how I could have let something like this happen.

Things that have changed for me as a result of this?  It took me a while to be able to use my saw again.  Initially this was because I didn't have the strength in my hand to push wood through it.  And then after that it was fear.  I talked for a while about it with my dad.  About how anyone goes back and uses a tool again after it has done something like this.  He calmly (because I've never known him to explain things in any other manner) suggested that it gives you more reason to set yourself up for success.  You don't stand in a place where wood would hit you if the saw kicks it.  You create systems that make it so you don't have to juggle the wood you're cutting.  You think about every scenario that could go wrong so you can systematically avoid each of them.

I can't make a cut, where I'm forced to stand in front of the saw blade (all safety attachments in place) without my heart stopping.  I first spend a few minutes thinking about how to make every cut without standing there.  If I have to make one, while standing in the same position I was in when I cut myself I literally have to walk around for a few minutes to psych myself up to do it.  Every cut I make with that saw, since that fateful day, has become a little easier and a little easier, but my mind never stops thinking about every bad possibility so I'm constantly on high alert.

I don't relay this story to make people afraid of their equipment.  But you should be very aware of what can happen.  That saw doesn't care if it's cutting wood or flesh.  It doesn't mean you stop doing it, but it does mean I never do it without taking every possible safety precaution, and I will never again think that I can outsmart the machine.

From stinky dog couch to reading nook heaven...

This has been a bit of an ongoing project that I finally wrapped up this weekend.  We have a nice little office nook area where I built a desk and shelving.  We wanted to have an area where we could sit and read, but also wanted to have a pull-out / hide-a-bed couch for when guests come to visit.  The problem was that there wasn't a ton of room for the bed to pull out and we didn't want a massive couch in this spot.  Instead I more wanted a reading bench with some cushions that had a handy bed built into it.

First I looked online for the mechanism that those hide-a-beds use.  It really seems like just a big hinge and spring.  To buy just that part was going to run around $500!!  No way!  I'm far too cheap for that.  So I started looking on craigslist for someone getting rid of their sleeper sofa, because naturally one of those would theoretically have a working mechanism in it that I could pull out and put into my bench seat.

People really didn't want to part with their ugly old furniture for cheap.  There were some nasty couches I came across and I was not going to give someone a few hundred dollars for them.  This couch I lucked into.  It showed up in the "free" section... which is of course one of my favorite craigslist categories.  As it turned out it was a friend of mine who was trying to unload this thing that their dogs had loved... a lot.  She thought I was messing with her when we called up and said we wanted it.  I think her exact words were something like, "I thought I was going to get rid of that crappy old couch.  You're totally messing with me."  and I had a hard time convincing her that I really wanted her piece of sh!t couch... not to compliment my decor, but because I'm cheap and wanted that damn spring/hinge!  

So here it is, in all it's glory in the top picture.  I think pictures don't do things much justice.  It certainly did have a lovely scent of wet dog mixed with about a gallon of febreeze... hahaha.  

First step was to tear it up.  Pulling off the fabric is time consuming.  It's clearly attached before they add the sleeper bed part because there were a few pieces that I just couldn't remove as they were screwed in under the hinge.  For this part I used my utility knife, my multi-tool, and occasionally a hammer and pry bar.  You can get most of the fabric and padding off by making a few slices with the knife and then pulling/ripping.

   

You'll find that the fabric was held in place really well with a lot of staples.  While you don't necessarily have to remove all the staples, I like to remove the majority of them because I was going to refurbish this with wood and I wanted the wood to lay flat against the couch frame.  This is where the multi-tool is handy.  There's usually some sort of flat-bladed tool that looks a bit like the head of a screwdriver.  Mine also has a can opener function on the same piece.  Using this you can work it under the staples and twist your wrist 90-degrees to create some separation from the frame.  Then using the wrench function, you clamp onto the staple, twist your wrist 90-degrees again to get the staple out.  There are literally hundreds of these things.

With the staples out of the way I needed to adjust the couch some to make it fit like a bench.  We have a low window sill that I wanted the bench to fit underneath.  Ours wouldn't fit flush against the wall, because there is still baseboard trim in the way, so I wasn't concerned about getting the couch low enough to slide under the entire window frame, just the most prominent piece.  In the top picture, where I started destroying the couch, you can see how the back of the couch runs into the window sill.  Then in this picture you can see how I shortened the frame so it would slide under it.  It now sits flush against the lower piece of the sill and the baseboard trim.  Perfecto.  To make this work I had to remove the back of the couch - the part that is covered in fabric that the pillows rest against.  This piece isn't necessary for me because you can rest the pillows against the wall and window sill.  For that job you're going to want your hammer and pry bar because the back is really well attached to the sides of the couch.

With the couch completely stripped, I could now build it back up.  I wanted to match the type of trim we have in other parts of the house as well as the look we have for our entertainment center and kitchen cabinets.  It's a very square, shaker-style trim.  Which is pretty simple to put together.  For this I picked up some HDF (high density fiberboard), which the kind of material they use for clipboards, and some primed 1x2, 1x3 and 1x6 wood.  If you were wanting to stain your finished project these materials would need to be more expensive, selecting sandeply (nice, smooth sanded plywood) instead of HDF and then some "select" pine (or whatever wood you like) in the placed of the primed wood I chose.  For a painted project I like the primed wood because the priming means the wood isn't going to be quite so thirsty for whatever paint you choose - that means less coats of paint.  The trim that's primed is also less expensive.  It seems like that's because they are using pine that has been joined together.  

See in this picture here all those chevron marks where the different wood is joined together?  It makes no difference for this project, but you can see how that type of wood would be garbage if you were wanting to have a stained product.  All these materials can be found at your Home Depot or Lowe's.

The HDF goes on first.  BTW, I choose HDF over MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) because I have 2 young boys and they are constantly seeing if they can destroy the house, so the tougher the materials I choose, the less often I have to fix things.  :)  The HDF is covering the biggest parts of the couch.

The sides...

The inside edge of the arm rest...

And I thought I took a picture of the front of the couch where you legs would hang over, but I guess I didn't.  For your project, you'll have to take a look to see where you have open areas that had once been covered by fabric and padding and determine how best to cover it.  I cannot imagine many couches not being able to be covered in this same manner.

Next went on the trim.

You can see in this picture how the part your calves would rub against has one vertical piece of trim in the middle, 2 horizontal pieces of trim (all of these are cut from the 1x3 lumber) and they are covering the area where I had applied that other piece of HDF... the one I failed to take a picture of earlier.  The arm rests and the vertical piece extending down from the arm rests were cut from the 1x6 lumber.  The inside of the arm rests used the 1x2 and the outside ends of the couch is where I used the 1x3 lumber.  I had considered adding another vertical piece on the outer edges in the middle, but there was nothing to nail it to.

When you're measuring for your trim pieces, especially those for the arm rests, you need to decide if you want things to line up perfectly or if you want a little overhang.  You can see in the picture below that I opted for about 1/4-inch of overhang.  I prefer to have a little overhang here because I know if I was trying to line it up perfectly, I would probably miss and that would look dumb.  So instead, I made it more intentional looking.

Next step is sanding.  You can use an electric sander if you want.  There isn't a ton of sanding to be done, though, so I opted for my arm-powered sander.  You want to round the sharp corners of that trim some and knock down and roughness in the wood before painting.  That way you get a nice smooth finish.  For paint I used a Sherwin-Williams oil-based paint with the color Domino.  It may look black in the picture, but it is really more of a deep, rich mahogany color.  So nice.  I like the oil-based variety because it is way more durable than latex, so I can scrub the crap out of it, and you won't have any of it coming off.  And I stink at cleaning paint brushes, so I always go into it knowing I will be tossing the paint brush when I'm done.  I also make sure to paint in a nice warm house (like around 70-degrees) because it keeps the paint liquid a little longer and lets it flow more, thus creating a smoother surface.

The last step I did was to grab a clearance rack bedding set.  I found a twin sized one which was the perfect size, but you may want a slightly larger one just so you have room to make a mistake or two.  Then I cut up the comforter and sewed it into pillow-case type covers for the butt cushions and the back cushions.

All-in-all I think it turned out pretty well.  My boys, naturally, think it's super comfortable now... just because it looks better.  :)