The Little Things

I have been sick. Coughing up a lung sick.

Not awesome.

I have also been a bit busy with my shop. Nothing horrific, it just takes up extra time that I could spend doing other things.

But there is something about sitting at home and seeing all of the little things that are not getting done. Things that no one else probably thinks twice about, but bug you endlessly.

My list:

1. The paint on the wall going down the stairs. The paint didn't go all the way down to the new stairs because there used to be carpet there. With the carpet gone there was still part of the wall that needed to be touched up. I finally did it this last week. Woot!

2. The main bathroom has a "window" at the top of the wall. It lets in light from the master bathroom and gives the bathroom daylight that it otherwise wouldn't have, because it is in the center of the house. Around the edges of the window was paint.

The previous painter was not especially careful. It bothers me every time that I look at it....and yet...here it is 7 months later.

Because our kids just had spring break, and because I believe in slave labor, I made the kids clean the bathroom while I got to scrape old paint off of a window.

It probably took about an hour or two to scrape all the paint off, and my fingers were screaming by the end. Old paint does not come off gracefully. It is mean, and sticks around, and really puts up a fight.

Good thing I was determined. Now our window doesn't look like I don't know how to paint.

3. Our front windows next to our doors.

In all honesty they weren't horrible, and I feel bad covering them up because the previous owner was so proud about how he "got them professionally etched." But roses...they ain't my thing.

I knew I was taking a risk that might not work. Luckily, the paint that I was using was removable with paint thinner and only cost $4 for the can.

At Home Depot I found the frosted glass spray paint, taped up my windows and got to spraying.

About 30 minutes later, I had frosted glass windows that had stripes going down them.

Surprisingly, it worked much better then I had thought that it would. The upside is, if I get tired of it I can just remove it.

I also have a lot of projects half started right now. You should see my laundry room...it is nuts.

At one point last week our living room looked like a furniture store. It had two extra dressers sitting in it, a new chair, our green bench, two nightstands, my white cabinet, and all of the regular furniture that belongs in it.

Here is a really quick breakdown of the madness:

Our dresser and nightstands were just too big for our bedroom. I have been looking for small dressers online to act as nightstands, in order to get rid of our current dresser and nightstands.

I found this dresser online and was excited because we had a dresser exactly like it that would match, so I bought it.

The dresser that matched it was in the downstairs bathroom.

So I moved our nightstands and dresser out of our room and moved these two dressers in to act as nightstands.

(This is how it is, for the moment. Although, there is still tweaking to do.)

Then came the problem of our missing dresser in the downstairs bathroom. The dresser in the bathroom acts as storage, but also blocks the ugliness that is our fuse box and water softener.

Insert this $15 dollar dresser that I found at the DI.

So...right now I am working on...

Striping off the paint from the dresser and then redoing it.

I also need to paint our bedroom dressers, and the boys new dresser, and the new laundry cart that I bought.

Now you understand why our laundry room looks like a war zone. Removing paint is a messy business.

Mother Knows Best

Our kitchen has managed to have a couple of paint jobs already.

Hello. My name is Hannah, I am indecisive and I like to paint.

The two combined make for some pretty entertaining conversations around our house.

"I think I am going to paint the kitchen green."

Blake: "OK."

"I really hate the back splash, let's take that off and then I'll just paint the wall."

Blake: "OK."

"Actually. I am going to repaint the kitchen floor."

Blake: "That is going to be a lot of work."

"Now that I have painted the floor, I don't really like the grey with the green. I think I am going to paint the walls white."

Blake: "Really? White? OK."

"I didn't really like the white, I think I am going to paint the kitchen grey instead."

Blake: "If you think you will like it..."

So do I like it?

So far...yes.

I need to be able to find some things to go on the walls but in the meantime I am happy with it. 

I painted above the cabinets white which seems to draw less attention to their oddness.

The grey feels a bit more soothing, and a little less...in your face.

After we got back from our cruise my Mom stopped by real quick on her way back to Washington. She hadn't seen the house in person yet, so I gave her a quick tour. When we were in the kitchen I showed her our "fridge nook" that had no fridge in it. We had opted to use our bigger fridge upstairs, and take the fridge that came with the house downstairs.

My mom asked me, why if I had two fridges, why it mattered if we had the smaller one in the kitchen?

Ummmm. I didn't have an answer for that.

After searching high and low for a picture of that corner of the kitchen I found only a few to show you.

This is where our fridge was.

Here is the fridge nook where I had put a shelf that could act as a pantry for us.

If this is helpful...I don't know. But, this is where the nook is.

Got it? Maybe?
Let's just pretend that you do.
So my Mom posed a very interesting point. I truly didn't know why it mattered what fridge I had upstairs.

So I made Blake move them.
Downstairs fridge upstairs, upstairs fridge downstairs.
Now all of the sudden I have oodles of room. Plus, I am not blocking the window.

The spacing in the kitchen is a little odd but I am not sure there is a way to fix that. Although, I think curtains may help.

After a good scrubbing of the smaller fridge,

and adding some of my favorite pen holders. The smaller fridge was ready.

Two things are evident.
1. Dance party in the kitchen is going to happen. There is totally room.

and

 2. You are never to old to listen to your mom.

Round About Way...Back To The Beginning.

Our kitchen is a far cry from where it started from.

It never ceases to amaze me what a little paint can do.

However, this is not a tale of back patting. It is more of a cautionary tale.

Before we moved into the house we were working night and day to try to get as much done as we could. We wanted it to be nice when we moved in.

I worked on the kitchen for probably about a week off and on. We meticulously primed, taped and painted every square. It looked pretty and clean.

I knew that we were running out of time and I still needed to apply an acrylic topcoat to protect it. One night, before leaving for the night, I decided to just do it...real quick.

Real quick.

Oh how I regretted that. I used a roller and rolled that acrylic on. I saw in the first little bit, that it was creating tiny little bubbles but I didn't think that it would matter in the long run. 

The next day I put a second coat on, the same way. I needed to have the acrylic have 7 days to harden before we were supposed to put stuff on it and I was at 6 days. Desperate times.

If there is one thing that I have learned, it is this:

A rushed job is never as good as you would hope it would be.

Those tiny little bubbles eventually popped. (Not that you could tell.) But...over time dirt collected in those tiny little holes and no matter how much I washed the floor I couldn't make it look new again.

(The bottom half of the picture is how the floor looked--kind of speckled. The top is where I sanded it smooth.)

One day I walked into the kitchen with my sander and got to sanding my pretty floor paint off. It was not quick work, I knew it wouldn't be. Thankfully, I have stubbornness on my side.

Then I taped off a section of our floor, and barricaded the entry, so that little feet wouldn't walk were I didn't want them too.

Since my love affair with oil based paint is still strong, I decided to use that, and save myself an acrylic topcoat. With only one coat on a few squares, I knew that I had made a good choice.

Painting a kitchen floor when you are still trying to use the kitchen is a tricky business. Each coat takes 1 day to dry, and each color gets 2 coats each. That takes 4 days for each section to be finished.

When I removed the tape from the first section I was so so so happy. It was shiny and smooth and lovely.

The floor painting was not without its setbacks. I managed to put my hand in the paint one day, and Blake stepped in the paint on numerous occasions.

When a lot of the floor was done, I went back and left little tape sections on the floor to help me remember where to touch up.

It was about 1 1/2 weeks from start to finish, and a few meals that didn't require much effort. I made a conscious effort to go slow and make it nice, no matter how many times I just wanted it "Done!".

Take it from me. Taking your time yields better results.

Want some before and afters?

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

For anyone that is curious...we have lived in the house for 6 months and the painted floor has been great! If given the option, I would recommend a painted floor in a heartbeat.