Over the last year we have taken on a ton of home improvement projects. Some DIY, some with the help of professionals. Some planned, some not. A few projects are totally complete (yay!), while others seem to linger on forever. I have vowed to not start any new projects (including purchasing ANY supplies) until I finish the projects that are currently underway. So hard! Must. Resist. Pinterest. Thought it might be fun to walk through all of the home projects we've tackled in the last year, and a bit about the status of each. Let's start with the floors, which is by far the biggest project of the last year. We decided to replace ALL the existing flooring in the house, with the exception of three of the four bathrooms. To minimze costs, we thought it was a good idea to stay in the house while the work was underway. Hindsight is 20/20, but we did all make it out alive. Above is a picture of what our living room looked like mid-demo. Not pretty. In some areas there was more than a foot of mortar under the tiles. Super dusty, really loud, and a general pain in the butt to live in. Thankfully we did a good job of protecting the kitchen from dust, and our crew was amazing at cleaning up every day so that we could have some sense of normalcy in the evenings. There's always some surprise waiting to be unearthed during demo. We had to make a decision mid-way through about keeping the sunken living room and game room, or leveling out the entire first floor. Paul and I couldn't agree on what to do, so we turned to our friends on Facebook for advice. As you can see, we decided to make the floors all one level. It added about a week to the overall timeline, but we made it through. And we love our new floors! Another project we tackled was updating the downstairs half-bath. Once the new floors went in the old wallpaper and fixtures appeared painfully outdated. We've completed lots of DIY projects, so we figured this was one we could handle. Down came the old wallpaper, counter-top, and brass light fixtures and in we went with new paint, lighting fixtures and a cool concrete counter-top. We are 80% complete. We need to pick out and install the back splash tile, install the new sink and faucet, and hang the new mirror. It'll look great when it's done! Another project on the incomplete list is updating the kitchen. It's not as much of a burning need with the new floors (so much better than the old gray tile!), but there are still a few things I don't love. I'm not a fan of the finish of our existing cabinets, but I think new hardware will help us avoid a full-on kitchen remodel. The hardware is currently sitting in a box in the garage, awaiting installation by yours truly. I've got one drawer and one cabinet switched out, and about 50 left to go. The ability to replace the old dishwasher was an awesome bonus from the new floors, as the old one was locked in place by the old tile floor. I love our shiny new dishwasher, and it's so quiet! We ran the floor all the way under the dishwasher, so if we ever have to replace it again it won't require any floor demo. Hopefully we can swap out the ovens and the outdated back splash tile in the not too distant future, although I'm calling the kitchen done as soon as the new cabinet hardware is in place. The floors led to other "scope creep", such as new shelves and paint in the living room. Wish I had a good before picture of the hideous mirrored walls with built in shelves that we started with. The shelves were really narrow and made of glass, so I think they were designed to display nick-knacks. The thought of dusting an entire wall of nick-knacks makes me crazy so out with the mirrors and glass shelves, and in with paint, hand-forged metal shelf brackets and simple wood shelves. One day soon our books will be liberated from their storage boxes and accessible for all to enjoy. The last floor related project is the stairs. Sadly, this is a much bigger project than we initially planned for, and I am totally dragging my feet on engaging with stair contractors. If we're lucky the project will be complete by the end of the year. We had hoped to stain the existing stringers and treads to match the floors, but unfortunately removing the old carpet revealed that the existing floating treads are just two pieces of plywood nailed together. We will likely need to completely demo the existing stairs and rebuild from scratch. It will be awesome when it's done, but I personally wasn't prepared for a full demo and rebuild. I'm still holding out for a creative solution to keep the existing stringers in place. In the meantime, we are living with the oak and plywood. And we kept carpet on the bottom two stairs, because the plywood wasn't ugly enough. We've also been busy replacing the brass light fixtures in the living room. We're about 60% done replacing the recessed lights, but we have yet to pick out the fixtures for the entryway. After ridding our home of brass lighting comes updating the brass fireplace surrounds and the brass door knobs. So much brass! If we leave it long enough, maybe it'll come back in style. Amidst all of the planned projects, we also experienced a disgusting unplanned project. The plumbing in the upstairs toilet went haywire, and we had a flood of toilet water that destroyed the downstairs ceiling. Yuck. At least we were home when it happened, so the damage was minimal. Paul's experienced at hanging drywall, so he was able to patch it up nicely. Unfortunately the plumbing malfunctioned again halfway through replacing the drywall, so we had to start over again. At least we hadn't completed mudding and painting. The final big project we tackled this year was replacing the arbors in the back yard. We put it off for several years, but when they literally started falling down we couldn't delay any longer. We had an excellent contractor who did all the demo and build out. If we had taken on the work for this project ourselves, I think we would have lost it. Now that the arbors are back up, we can finally replace the solar heating unit for the pool! Another item to add to the home improvement wish list. Phew! That's a lot of home improvement. I have a mental list of future projects, but I'm trying really hard to focus on completing the projects we already have in progress. Wish us luck! And any time you want to work with power tools or get your hands dirty, you are welcome to come over to our house!
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Quick post to let you know I'll be the featured artist at Lori's Frame Shoppe this month, which has it's grand reopening within the next week. The shop is under new management and it's going to be awesome! The store itself has received a massive facelift (thanks to Lori's amazing design skills), as well as some new offerings. Lori will be showcasing local artists, and I'm her first featured artist! If you're in the area, come check it out. Or even better, attend the Sip and Shop event taking place in downtown Oakdale on October 12th. I'll be there and hope to see you!
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About the ArtistI am a self-taught mixed media artist with a passion for vibrant color and lots of texture. My hope is that my paintings will inspire joy, and encourage others to connect with their inner artist. Archives
March 2020
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