Little projects

[mrsukyankee]

So, what little projects are you doing around the house currently?  I'm still working full time for the next week (go on 'holiday' starting next week, though I'll still check in with students via email) but I'm trying to fit in small projects.

- lined all the drawers in the built in unit with a lovely white and blue flower sticky liner.
- we fixed the gutter outside our bedroom (we have a terrace off our bedroom). It's been so rainy and the water has been pouring down onto the terrace floor and onto the sliding door. Finally gotten some sun so it's been a lot nicer.
- I'm trying to get my H on-board with a cleaning schedule, which he's not really responding too - but he'll have no choice as he can't get away from me. Hahaha!
- we've begun to design the backyard we want to have. I'm trying to decide between raised beds and a gated area (we're going to be getting another dog soon, I hope). I'm leaning toward raised beds for the aesthetic. My H also wants to get a pizza oven so we'll have to build an area for that at some point. We'll get someone in to put in artificial grass eventually. 

[ssmjlm]

I finally sanded, primed, and painted the door from the kitchen to the garage. Our dog hates the lawnmower and DH still sometimes forgets, so a while ago (probably a year) he kept her outside while mowing the lawn and she scratched the paint off of the bottom corner. I was so pissed, but my DH won't paint, so I had to fix it.

We're going to work on our pantry shelves next. We have wood shelves, but the paint has been scratched off a bit. So I'm going re-paint the shelves and then we ordered some plexiglass type material we've used before to put on top. This way they have protection from scratching and any spills.

We also need to figure out the design for our bonus room closet. That has been on the list for years now.

[bhnumbers]

We had some bigger projects we wanted to do this spring, but since the economy is shit now, we're holding off on big expenditures

In the meantime, as posted below, I want to:
-as posted below, update our main floor bathroom. It's basically our powder room and it's pretty blah, I'd like it to be a little more fun and fancy. so I'm going to repaint, replace the light fixture and mirror and find some pretty art.
-I'm finally going to get organized and hang some more art/photos throughout the house
-get our laundry room organized properly--we've been here for more than a year now and it's been a catch all for all kinds of things I'm not sure what to do with
-annual front porch deep cleaning. It's amazing how dirty it gets over the course of a year. Each year I wash the windows, take out the screens and hose them off, wash down the decking and railings, the porch swing and table and chairs we have out there. Once the pollen gets really bad, it needs to be wiped down almost daily, but that is easier to do after it's all been cleaned really well.
-we need to do yet another round of "which toys/book have the kids outgrown?" in our basement playroom.

[RockNVoll]

We've finally started hanging curtain rods and curtains (have been in this house not quite two years yet), but haven't done much else. I need to go around with a Magic Eraser to clean up some areas. I was hoping to hire help to finally get some landscaping done this spring (we have NO plants outside thanks to our shitty builder who simply decided not to give us any) but looks like that's not going to happen.

[trissie18]

We bought a small tub of mud yesterday to patch some of the dings in our walls and a hole from a falling roller blade wheel. There are two spots that the builders patched after our initial walk through that I have yet to paint a year later so figured I would do it all at once. We also bought some more shelving for the basement so I can get back to organizing. We had also started putting up plywood on the garage walls a couple months ago but finally got time this weekend to restart. Of course it was freezing outside and DH didn't have enough propane to run his heater so we gave up after two sheets and will try again this weekend when it's supposed to be warmer. lol

[carmenere]

Painting the room that will be H’s home office. There’s a chair rail (even though it’s a bedroom). H picked out a dark evergreen color. I think it’s going to be too dark once all the walls are painted but he insisted.

[bunnies]

I am continuing on my large project of painting this entire house (we purchased in December). By entire, I mean the walls AND all the doors/trim AND all the ceilings. I estimated it would take me at least 6 months. I'm not doing too bad. As of tomorrow, I will have all upstairs doors/framing painted, plus 3/4 bedrooms of walls/baseboards, plus ceilings in 2 bedrooms, hall, master closet, and 2 bathrooms.

The reasons why:
1 - I realized the ceilings haven't been painted since the house was built in the early '90s and they are dingy, beige popcorn ceilings. Bright white popcorn ceiling is considerably less offensive.
2 - Whoever painted the trim/doors used FLAT white paint, and some places are inconsistent with glossy pale yellow paint.
3 - All the walls are textured with satin finish and I hate both the texture and shiny walls.

I am making progress! Slowly, but surely.

[aprilsails]

Wow that’s a lot bunnies. We had to repaint our entire house last time we moved and it took us about a year to get through all of it. I have a couple of rooms I want to paint at this house but we were planning on hiring the painter to come in this summer. That can wait although I may prepay him a deposit to help him out since we could.

Since I am spending more time at home I am prettying up the place- I’ve been hanging pictures (we moved 9 months ago), making new couch cushion covers so they are all consistent, and organizing so we have less clutter.

Projects that are a bit more up in the air:

We’re holding off on ordering blinds for upstairs bedrooms ($3k) until we see how things look in a month. I really want them but it’s not critical as we have other curtains pinned up (a terrible look).

We need to sand and oil the entire screened in porch. We’ve let the red cedar air for a year but this summer we need to get it done. I was planning on doing this while DD was in school In June. We may hire it out to someone local who is not working if they want to. It can all be done from outside.

Same goes for painting our front door. Will probably hire it out. It could also wait.

I don’t think we will do any landscaping this year. I do want to get some more planters for veggies but I don’t know how easy it will be to get ahold of what I need.

[sandandsea]

We were planning on redoing all of our landscape and our back sliding door but it’s been put on hold until the economy recovers. We decided to put all projects on hold unless necessary. We may get our water shut off valve fixed as we found out it was broken about a month ago and never had time to call a plumber and be home for them to fix it.

Also we flushed the water heater and it’s fixed so we don’t have to replace that yet!

[sandandsea]

I did get a homeschool area set up in the front living room since that’s our new reality.

[bunnies]

Mar 24, 2020 4:57:07 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

Wow that’s a lot bunnies . We had to repaint our entire house last time we moved and it took us about a year to get through all of it. 

It sure is - I hope it doesn't take me a year (though maybe that's a more realistic time frame).

[InBetweenDays]

*weeding raised garden beds and getting seeds planted
*patch nail/screw holes in DD's wall and teach DD how to do it (we're slowly redoing her room)
*build a shelf in our laundry closet
*sand and re-oil our butcher block kitchen island (it's made with salvaged bowling alley floor!)
*weed pots on our deck and front porch
*wash windows

[mrsukyankee]

I'm sad because the blinds I ordered for the roof windows won't get to us until after all the restrictions are no longer in place - it means that I'll be using cardboard for the foreseeable time as it's far to bright in my bedroom w/o covering them somehow.

Yesterday, we put up "screen doors". There is really no such thing as a screen door in the UK. So we ordered and put in a magnetic screen door, so you can go in and out, while also protecting from bugs. We've had them in our last two houses and they work well with dogs and bugs. Not perfect, but better. (no screens on windows either, which is annoying - trying to figure out how to make them). They look like this:

[bhnumbers]

Mar 25, 2020 11:19:09 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I'm sad because the blinds I ordered for the roof windows won't get to us until after all the restrictions are no longer in place - it means that I'll be using cardboard for the foreseeable time as it's far to bright in my bedroom w/o covering them somehow.

Yesterday, we put up "screen doors". There is really no such thing as a screen door in the UK. So we ordered and put in a magnetic screen door, so you can go in and out, while also protecting from bugs. We've had them in our last two houses and they work well with dogs and bugs. Not perfect, but better. (no screens on windows either, which is annoying - trying to figure out how to make them). They look like this:

huh, why no screens? 

[aprilsails]

Sorry about the blinds @msukyankee but we’ve used those same screens at our cottage with little kids running around and they’ve worked great.

Our blinds order is definitely on hold as is the painting. DHs company just cancelled all bonuses, raises and 401k matches so our financial picture has changed a lot. It’s all gravy generally but losing all of that means we can’t hire out which we had wanted to do to support people who have been laid off. Ugh.

[mrsukyankee]

bhnumbers, I think due to not having any standard sizes of doors or windows in the UK, along with many windows not being sash windows (they open outward versus up and down).

[bhnumbers]

Mar 25, 2020 14:39:58 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

bhnumbers , I think due to not having any standard sizes of doors or windows in the UK, along with many windows not being sash windows (they open outward versus up and down).

I don't know why but I find things like that interesting. I have been to several places in Europe, but not the UK and, for the life of me, I can't remember if most of places I have been had screens at the windows. I know that the flat we rented in Paris didn't, but all the windows were basically doors, not true windows.

[mrsukyankee]

bhnumbers, in the, almost, 16 years of living over here, I've never had screens in a window, nor have anyone else I've know. I think you can buy something to put in for sash windows, but this is the first house I've lived in with sash windows. It truly is very weird to me having spent my first 35 years in the US.

[dr.girlfriend]

I have been self-quarantined in this house for 13 days straight and have yet to change that one burned-out lightbulb... :-D

[RockNVoll]

One of my first nights living in London I had to ask a local friend if I had to worry about mosquitoes since my corporate flat didn't have any window screens. Little did I know then that screens aren't a thing there in general, but luckily neither are blood-sucking insects for the most part

[mrsukyankee]

I just purchased primer and a few other items to try to start the process of painting the doors on the wardrobes and drawer units (and top/side of drawer unit). I'm hoping to begin in the next week or so. Should be interesting.

[aspentosh]

I feel like I should have a ton of time but with DD home full time it isn't working out that way, lol.

Hope to do:
-weed and mulch garden beds
-dig up one garden bed and see if we can plant vegetable garden (not sure it gets enough sun)
-paint the last few interior doors white (need better weather but it's on the list)
Adding in- redo stairway railing

Maybe:
-board and batten in hallways and stairwell
-French drain from sump pump
-built ins in office (trying to decide if just lower set or go up sides of window)

[ssmjlm]

Thought I would update with a finished photo

Mirror I redid for my daughter:


I also got our pantry shelves repainted.

[bunnies]

I'd like to update that as of yesterday, I finished painting all the upstairs ceilings! 

[mrspez07]

Not sure how little this is, but in the grand scheme of all the work we had done in the yard, this is something we could do ourselves, and we’re reusing old square pavers pulled up last year.

Walkway around the corner of the house to the side gate and compost, it also serves as a border between grass and beds, there were just uneven rocks there before.

[laterz]

Swept out the garage this weekend.

Kind of organized the basement - it's storage and our mechanicals - but now at least it's walkable down there. Now I just need my husband to go through his stuff down there and organize it and/or throw out stuff.

This week: clean up all the leaves and winter grossness in the gangway.

[idahome]

Ordered new windows. Can’t wait for them to be installed. Once in, this will be the first time in 10 years that I’ve lived in a house with functional bedroom windows.

Looking for a local contractor to build a basic front landing. We have a wheelchair ramp at our front door (for my dad) and I want to eat the “flat” part of the ramp to crest a front deck/sitting area.

Once we can go back in stores, will purchase new living room furniture (ours is more than 10 years old and it’s life expectancy has passed).

Need to start cleaning out the front hosts beds as the hostess are dead. Thinking about putting some “color”, to replace. Also need to replace a decorative wooden banister at the front door. Maybe the deck person can do that.

[mrsukyankee]

We put up a few pictures and built a mixed shed (1/2 is for storing fireplace wood, the other 1/2 is for storing other stuff). I still have to paint it with treatment, but that will take a while as my treatment paint isn't yet ready for pickup.

[simpsongal]

I finished off DD's room (posted on ML). Other than that the bar is super low, it's very hard to get projects rolling w/the kids here.

-I started spackling some holes from old curtain rods in our bedroom. I need to finish sanding and priming those, and eventually I'll hang the new curtains (that whole room is due for an overhaul that's on hold until all this clears).

[dr.girlfriend]

Mar 25, 2020 21:34:22 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

I have been self-quarantined in this house for 13 days straight and have yet to change that one burned-out lightbulb... :-D

Good news!  My husband changed the lightbulb.  :-)  In all seriousness, though, I think I am going to try to tackle our old bedroom that is piled with junk.  We don't care since we spend all our time in the new master suite, but it's embarrassing and I think most of it is stuff we can get rid of.  Maybe I'll commit to posting a before-and-after to keep myself accountable.