When One Door Shuts, Another Opens

“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”

― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I live in a Colonial-style home that was built in 1925. The doors in my home are from the 20s with glass door knobs and heavy brass hinges. They are lovely—all except one door, that is.

The door leading to the basement/laundry area is the abnormal one. It is a hollow-core door with peeling laminate from decades gone by and I positively hate it. For a while now it has been my goal to one day change out this door to match the others in my home.

The door to the basement. YUCK!

One day, about a year ago, my neighbor (who had done extensive renovations on her home prior to moving in a few years ago) happened to mention that she had a door that matched mine laying in the rafters of her garage that I was welcome to have. I couldn't believe my luck! It was the perfect size! And it was already stripped of all of its years of paint! I rushed it home before she could change her mind! :)

The new old door! In this shot you can see I've been doing some repairs—wood glue here and there as well as wood filler in spots.

The door leaned against my kitchen wall for a year until I was finally ready to install it. I've never done this before! It took me a while to work up the nerve and sort out my plan as to how I was going to do this, after all, this was the only antique door I had on hand—no room for error!

In the meantime, I scoured antique stores looking for hinges that matched the ones throughout my house. I picked up these beauties for a couple of bucks! I also picked up a new antique-style doorknob set for the door at Lowes. Now I had all of my parts! Let's get to work!

The paint was on thick and cracked and came off without much encouragement.

Woohoo! A stripped hinge!

And... VOILA!! My new old door to the basement! I did it!! I am so pleased with it!! It even has a lock—THAT WORKS! So exciting... Now I just need to take it back down and get it painted.

My new old door to the basement with gorgeous glass door knobs and working lock!

For a future project, I've got that wretched paneling in my crosshairs... stay tuned...

The Fairest of Them All

Our school is putting on the play "The Rockin' Tale of Snow White" later this week, and I have been tasked with making the crown for the wicked queen. The director told me she wanted it to have lots of spikes!

I scoured the internet for an inspiration crown. I found a site where someone else had made one out of Styrene that reminiscent of the crown worn by the queen in the recent hit movie "Snow White and the Huntsman".

Pics I found of someone building a crown from styrene

Wicked queen from "Snow White and the Huntsman"

I didn't have any Styrene handy, but I did have access to heavy paper! The paper I have is heavier than card stock, but lighter than chip board. I think it will be perfect!

Figuring out the right size for the ring of triangles that the spikes will set into later.

First I used a regular sheet of white paper to make a small pattern and get an idea of the size I wanted my shapes to be. Once I got my template made, I traced my shape on my heavier paper, cut out the pieces, scored them, and gently folded them.

Left and right triangle pieces waiting to be taped together.

I taped my scored shapes together with white duct tape. Then I cut a little notch in the bottom of the taped shape so it would sit on the head ring in the appropriate spot. Once I had all of my triangles sitting on the ring evenly spaced, I glued them to the head ring.

Ring of triangles adhered to the head ring.

Now it's time for the spikes. After some measuring, scoring, folding, and trimming, I had a shape that I was ready to adhere to my triangles.

And... VOILA! Here's where we're at for now! Now to strengthen it up and get it painted!

UPDATE:
I wanted to seal the seams where there were gaps between the pieces of paper, so I decided to decoupage tissue paper to outside of the crown. I thought this would also lend some texture to the crown so that the pewter effect would be more apparent after being applied.

After the decoupage had dried, I painted the crown a silver grey color. Much to my horror the crown looked like it was made of tin foil! I have worked too hard on this crown for it to look like it was constructed of tin foil! On to "Plan B"!!

Plan B consists of repainting the whole crown black and applying black glitter. I also have some silver glitter spray that I intend to use to highlight some of the various shapes, like the "V's" that the spikes fit into.

So this is where we're at tonight. Need to finish this up by tomorrow! It's needed by Wednesday morning!


YET ANOTHER UPDATE:
And... VOILA! Here's the finished crown!

I doused it in black glitter and barely sprayed a silver glitter paint over the smaller V's so that the audience would be able to see some definition from afar. It turned out pretty good, I think! And it lasted all three performances without being damaged (thank goodness!)!

Living the Dream

A year or so ago I came across a website that really got me excited. It was a website begun by a fellow stay-at-home-mom and DIY'er named Ana White. Long story short, she began building and drawing up building plans of expensive furniture pieces she had admired in popular home decorating catalogs and started a blog on which to share them with fellow DIY'ers like me! In reviewing her site, I found SO MANY projects that I would love to try and build one day—bookcases, headboards, night stands, etc.

Well Sis and her handy husband have been looking around for a nice headboard for one of their guest beds. I told them about one of my favorite finds on the site (Ana's Farmhouse Bed) and he decided to make it for their guest room (I am so jealous!)!

Here sits the pile of lumber that will become the Farmhouse Bed.

I was too busy painting the master bedroom to get pics of Handy Hubs building the headboard and footboard, but here Sis is sanding away on the assembled pieces. I think they turned out pretty good!

That headboard is SO HEAVY!

I caulked some of the gaps where the boards came together.

Time to get the pieces painted up! Big Goonie wanted in on some of the action too, so we let her do some priming.

And... VOILA! Here they are with finish coat painted on them!

Sis will put on a second coat of finish paint before the pieces get moved to the bedroom.

I had to head back home across the mountain before they were moved into the room and can't wait to see them in place! Will post a pic of the finale when it comes!

In the Closet

This week's episode is brought to you from the closet. I know that sounds odd, but it's true! I went to my parent's house a few days before Christmas to help my dad get a new shelf and rod system installed in the closet in their home's new bedroom so it'd be ready for Christmas guests. Here's a shot of our "canvas":

The carpet's not really that weird mustard color—just looks that way because of the fluorescent lighting in the closet.

We decided that we would build a shelved tower in the center and have additional shelves above rods flanking the tower. To make sure everything was even on each side of the tower, we decided to start our project off with the tower shelving first. Dad measured our first board, cut it in half, and cut the halves in half leaving us with four small shelves.

Here Dad is measuring the board and prepping it for cutting.

After finding the center of the shelf, Dad measured the wall to find the halfway point. We'd line up the center of our shelf with this point on the wall.

We had to pry the baseboard moulding off of the wall so that we could cut the board down so that the vertical parts of the tower would be flush against the wall.

Now the tower's done! Here's dad installing the shelves.

You can see that the baseboard moulding has been trimmed down and replaced on the wall.

And... VOILA! Here's the closet with tower, shelves, and rod (a second rod was installed on the right side of the closet later).

Plenty of storage space for a future occupant!

I DID IT!

 I GOT ALL OF MY BALUSTERS INSTALLED TODAY!!! YAHOO! :)

(Special thanks to my sweet brother in-law for loaning me his finish nailer! xoxo!)

IT'S HERE!!

That's right! Baluster installation day has arrived! I had to take a break after installing the first one to make this post—the anxiety over starting the project and the excitement of getting one installed was driving me crazy! Now on to #4...

Baluster #2 is in! Here's #4 lined up and waiting to be marked for cutting!

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!