Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Busy, Busy, ...Decisions, Decisions!

Been busy these last couple of days. Yesterday I started scraping one of the doors that leads to the outside. It resembled this door when I started:

Now it looks like this (pardon the tools and my mess!):

I was impressed with how clean it came with just my putty knife and my paint scraper. My neighbor has her doors stripped (with white trim) and I really like the look. I am tempted to have just my two doors that lead to the exterior stained similarly to my neighbor's, but have all of my other doors in the house be painted white (as they currently are). What do you think?

You can see below that I have made some progress on the stairs as well. The skirting is scraping clean better than I expected (where the phone line used to be tacked), and I am almost done scraping all of the risers. You can see that I have also been busy filling nail holes on the risers. Maybe I'll sand and prime those tomorrow.

Today I started off my day by applying the glazing finish to the top of my dresser. I really love how this is turning out! When you look at it up close, it almost seems to resemble woodgrain. You can see I still need to apply the glaze to the vertical surfaces:

Once that was done I primed and painted the newel post in Ultra White. All of my home's doors and trim are currently painted a soft ivory color. I want a fresh clean look, so I am planning on repainting ALL of the woodwork in Ultra White. I think the white trim will make my wall colors look more vibrant and fresh. I'll put a second finish coat on the newel post tomorrow.

I will eventually paint the lower portion of the newel post—need to scrape and prime the quarter-round at the carpet, but this would be much easier to do if the carpet wasn't there. So I'm still working out a plan for this—I'm not quite ready to rip up all of my carpet, but might consider ripping up the perimeter and carpet tack strips so that I can scrape my woodwork throughout the room that's currently embedded in the rug.

And lastly, today I scraped paint off my baseboards and removed layers of painted wallpaper from a small wall. I plan on replacing this purple color with the cream color on the walls in the stairwell. My home has plaster walls and I'll have to do a little bit of wall repair before I'll be ready for paint here.

I'm still pretty stoked about finding those balusters yesterday! They had exactly how many I needed in the sizes I needed and I really like the detail in them—and I got them for a heck of a price! I think I'll paint them white. Such a shame to do since they're lightly stained now and would probably look equally nice with a darker stained finish like I want to use (I love woodgrain!), but I think the contrast of having white balusters with stained treads and railing will look nicer.

Guess we'll see what projects tomorrow brings!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

SUCCESS!!

I found turned balusters today! Now the question is, should I stain them or paint them?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A Dressed Up Dresser

We bought a new unfinished dresser a few years ago. The price was right, we needed the drawer space, and we had no design direction in our bedroom anyway. With an unfinished piece, the design sky was the limit! As it happened, the design sky was "natural" for a few years; I needed to contemplate my new "canvas".
Finally, I decided to paint it brown (should've shot this sooner for a better 'before' shot! Believe it or not, this brown color is actually much darker in person. The flash makes it look much lighter than it truly is!).
Then I needed to replace the stock wooden knobs with something pretty, after all, pretty knobs are like jewelry for furniture! I searched the box stores, and scoured the internet—even bought some knobs on eBay!

Had a hard time finding just the right knobs until I finally found these little gems—on clearance! Oh, the luck!
I loved the details in these knobs. Only problem was, they were BLACK and virtually blended into the dark brown color I had painted the dresser.
I like to follow other DIY'ers and a gal I follow posted about a product with which I was unfamiliar called Rub'n Buff. It's a wax/paint/finish that comes in a few different colors. You just barely rub some onto a textured surface to bring up the highlights.
I chose a silver color. After a little bit of rubbin' and a little bit of buffin', my knobs now have a pewter look to them and pop against the brown a little better. Noticeable, but subtle. I like it!
Lastly, I am applying a glaze over the entire dresser to give it some more interest and character. It's a black glaze I'm applying with a sponge brush. In the pictures below you can see the difference it makes—in these shots, I have applied the glaze to the drawers, but not the vertical surfaces.
I think it's going to look great when it's done! One thing this project has taught me—it's very difficult to photograph BROWN!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Have a Seat

This was a fun project (and it was done before I decided to have this new blog, so I don't have any before pics ...bummer!). You see, I found this old chair on the side of the road. Just sitting there with some other forlorn unwanted items, waiting for the trash man to take it away.


It didn't have the beautiful red finish you see here today. It was unpainted, cushion-less, and quite rickety. The carving on the back slats caught my eye right away—I immediately knew I had to have this chair and right where I'd put it!
I took it home, put some screws in here-and-there to help stabilize it some, painted it red, and then applied an antiquing finish to help highlight the carving detail. Then I screwed some L-brackets into the frame to hold a piece of wood that would support a pot of flowers, and... VOILA! A pretty red chair with flowers for the front stoop!

I can't help but wonder sometimes, if the original owner of the chair has ever driven by and seen it in its newfound glory and regrets pitching it? Ah, well... his trash, my treasure!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Let There be Light ...and AIR!

This is a picture of my living room light. I love this light. This was the first thing I bought for this old house. I love it so much, that for seven years we'd bring box fans up from the basement to help move cool air around in the summer instead of having a ceiling fan.

Well one day this summer, I took my little one to a neighbor's house for a play date. They had a ceiling fan in their living room, and it truly made a noticeable difference. And it didn't make all of the noise that a box fan makes. I decided then and there we needed one, and hubby agreed.

I searched the internet and box stores for a style I liked and had a high cubic feet per minute rating. I wanted this thing to move some air! This is what I ended up with (all installed by me!):

I still have my beloved ceiling light—now it resides in the dining room. : )

The Grand Staircase

I finally began renovating my staircase this week. I ripped up the carpet that was on them a year or so ago and have been putting off painting the woodwork and refinishing the treads. Our woodwork has many layers of paint on it and I have been putting off painting it as I decided how much effort I wanted to put into the project (ie., stripping it or just painting yet another layer on it). I have decided that some woodwork will get more attention than others.

I started with the newel post. It appears that at one time it had been stained and sealed, but when it was painted, it was painted with latex paint (which doesn't adhere well to oil-based finishes), so in many spots the paint came off in large pieces. In fact, I was using my shop vac to clean as I went, and often times the vac could pull the paint up itself. VERY COOL.

I'm going to paint the newel post and the balusters ultra white, but stain the handrail. I'd really like to replace the balusters with turned ones. Got a couple of building salvage places in nearby towns to check out in hopes that I can get used ones for a decent price. I need 30 of them.


Managed to get the newel post stripped in a day. The railing was done the following day. Making good progress!

I have started to focus on scraping my risers. There doesn't seem to be many layers of paint on them, so I'm just evening it out—sanding it down after some scraping—and going to prime over it. I also have a lot of hole filling to do from where I removed nails that held the carpet to the risers.

I am going to refinish the treads myself. I read that it can cost $45-65 A TREAD to hire someone to do them. I'm too cheap for that. I bought an orbital sander and plan on starting that project soon. I want to get my paint scraping done first though. After I've refinished the stairs, I'll assess how badly I want to refinish the other hardwood floors myself. To hire it out would cost about $1-3 a square foot. I am sure I can do it myself, just a matter of how badly do I want to? We'll see...

Prepping the skirting for paint will take me some time to do. There used to be a phone line tacked to the board that was then painted over many times. Consequently, the woodwork looks terrible where the phone line was. This part is going to be tedious! But it will be well worth it.

Also, a couple of the treads have cracks along the grain. I've been doing some research on how to address that issue. It will take some time for me to do, I think. Also, virtually every one of my steps is noisy as can be so I am planning on screwing/countersinking them down to the risers so the wood won't rub on the nails. Lots of prep work to do! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Sew Into You*

My little one tested for her yellow stripe for her Kung Fu sash the other day. She had to demonstrate to the Sifu that she could do the material that she and her fellow students have been working on these past few weeks.

Here they are in the midst of their test.

She earned her stripe!

Project for today? Get that stripe sewn on!

*I was listening to Atlanta Rhythm Section's "So Into You" song when I did this sewing project, hence the post title! : P

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

A Plumbing Super Star is BORN!

Today ALMOST started like any other day. Woke up, took a shower... and then, lo and behold, a new project presented itself!

When I went to shut off the cold water, it continued to flow out of the faucet! Not a drip, mind you—A STEADY STREAM!?! I shut the water off at the main where it enters the house until it could be dealt with.

I explained the situation to my husband and promised him I would take care of it. A look of dread spread across his face, perhaps due to a memory flashing through his mind as he privately recalled an $800 plumbing fiasco I was responsible for a number of years ago? After THAT little episode he banned me from plumbing projects indefinitely.

He didn't shoot down my offer to attempt to fix the handle, so I eagerly went and retrieved my toolbox. "Just don't start until I'm out the door," he said as he continued to get ready for work. "Your 'projects' make me nervous." (tee hee hee!)


Home alone at last, I started by removing the center screw which then let the knob separate from the rest of the fixture.

I tried to remove the end of the fixture that was exposed, but it wouldn't budge. Was I missing something? I took some pictures of the situation and headed off to Lowe's.

Jim assured me I was on the right track. He offered some suggestions to try and get this thing further taken apart.

SUCCESS! Okay, now what? More pics and off to Lowe's again. "Remove the grey (thingy?) at the end of the pipe. There are some 'seats' behind it that needed to be replaced to solve your problem," he explained.

Once home, I was able to get the fixture further taken apart. What do you know? There WERE some little black gasket thingy's with springs in there. And upon further inspection, it appeared that one of them was broken!

Off to Lowe's again with parts in hand to be sure identical ones were purchased. Whew! They had what I needed! But these parts were so TINY! And inexpensive! Could they really fix my problem? I must admit, I was skeptical.

Well, after a little bit of squishing, sticking, and wrenching, I was ready to try out my repair. I cautiously turned on the water, and what do you know! NO LEAK! I FIXED IT! All for only $2.39 (and three trips to Lowe's)!

Needless to say, my husband was more than relieved it didn't cost more than it did to fix and was especially glad the problem was resolved! (Do you think this means my plumbing ban has been lifted?)

For today, at least, I am a PLUMBING SUPER STAR!