What have I been doing (home improvement/decorating edition)... 1/2 bathroom fixtures

So you may remember on an earlier post, I talked about painting our 1/2 bathroom a soft gray color and spray painting some accessories and picture frames in an oil rubbed bronze color.  I got all the accessories put in and it looked fabulous with one exception...

In case you are not familiar with what that "lovely" thing is... it is a builder's grade faucet in shiny chrome from the very early 2000's.  I decided to change that bad boy out.  This makes the 5th faucet I have replaced and honestly, this is one of the easiest home improvement projects that ANYONE can do!!  I did take step-by-step pictures, but somehow they are gone off my camera, so you don't get instructions.  I apologize!!!!

Everything you need comes with faucet in the box... even very nice and easy to follow instructions!!

The first step (after turning off the water to the faucet obviously!) is to remove the old faucet.  Now just be ready!!  If you are at all like me and have lived in your home for 10 years and have a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old boy and this is the bathroom that they always use to wash their hands when they come in after playing, it will be yucky... like this...

Do you see that dirt ring??  Gross!!  Here's what it looks like after being scrubbed with Clorox wipes...

 Much better!!!

And here is the after picture with some of the spray painted accessories (they both used to be shiny chrome).

LOVE IT!!!!

Then I had to change out the hinges and the handles for the vanity... here are the old ones...

and here's the after...

**Sorry these are not the best pictures... the bathroom is TINY and there is no window anywhere close so the lighting is just horrible!!!

What I've been doing... Weekend edition!!

Alright so I will start this post off with Friday night... we had someone come look at our last appliance listed on Craigslist.  He looked at the stove, paid us cash for what we were asking, and said he would be back Sunday at 1 with a pick-up truck to get it!  Woohoo!!  No more "spare" appliances in the garage!!

So, on to Saturday...

-Slept in a bit, woke up

-Fixed the kids breakfast

-Showered and got all dressed

-Headed out to the THUNDERBOLTS game!  (Never heard of the Thunderbolts?!?!?  They are a team of the cutest... maybe not the best 1st grade boys basketball game.  I'll be honest with you, the game was rough, one might even say bad!!  Our leading scorer was held scoreless, and it just seemed that with the exception of a few, that the rest of the team just wasn't really in the basketball playing-mood.  And that happens sometimes!!  Except for my child, who had a bee in his bonnet!  If you know my child personally, you know he is very competitive, but not very aggressive!  And he definitely does not have height on his side (look at his parents!)!  Something got into him and he was more aggressive than I had ever seen him... he scored, he blocked SEVERAL shots (hello, shortest kid on the team?!?!), stole a couple passes and had his hands up almost everytime down on defense... he may have even thrown in a double team or several!  As disappointing as it was to lose (we all know we lost even though they don't technically keep score), I was so impressed with my kiddo's playing on Saturday!  OK, enough "bragging"!!

- Ate lunch with the family

- Ran to Target with the family to pick up a few things and a birthday gift.

- Started on what may be the project of the century... our basement storage room...

 I am so embarrassed to be showing you this picture.  If you remember one of my posts before Christmas, I was talking about going through all our old filing and shredding and making new hanging folders, etc.  Well I got about 1/2 way done with that project before the kitchen started, then there was Christmas, then back to school, then... well you get the point.  During that time, a whole stack of files, paper and other stuff fell off the table onto the floor, breaking a fan.  This is also the room where things get thrown, when they don't have a specific spot.  This is also my "sewing room", so there's a ton of fabric, and stuff.  I have several projects that I want to do that involve my sewing machine which you can maybe see is located on the table, which can't be reached right now!!

-Got bored of cleaning/organizing after 15 minutes so I took a nap while watching the KU bball game (which was almost as rough as the Thunderbolts game!!)

- Made a quick dinner (well let's be realistic... warmed up leftover pizza) for the boys and the hubby so they could go to a birthday party followed by a professional indoor soccer game.

-Got the boys out the door!

-Opened the fridge, got out an apple, a pear, a Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade, and a banana and had dinner myself!

-Vegged in front of HGTV (they were all new episodes)

-Caught up on my google reader (which had 1500+ posts (I wasn't online much in the last 2 weeks!)

-Took a bath, read for a while, chatted with the boys when they all got home, went to bed

SUNDAY 

-slept in a lot!!

-washed, dried, and put away 6 loads of laundry

-started in again on the cluttered basement storage room.  One of the things down there is a filing bin with all our appliance instruction books, warranties, etc.  This file used to be super-organized, then we had kids and everything just got thrown in there, so I decided to go through the whole thing and organize it again!  Here are piles of books!!

 Found some super old things... an instruction book for a VCR?!?!?!  We haven't owned one of those in many many years... did a whole lot of recycling with this project!!

 After I finished that project (which I forgot to take a picture of the finished files), I did some meal planning and grocery list making...

- Went to dinner with the family... Cactus Grill!  Yummy!

- Did our grocery shopping for the week (Trader Joe's and Whole Foods)

-Read a little bit

-Went to sleep!!

A somewhat productive weekend!!!

What I've been doing lately...

Well I think in the last 2 days, I have had 4 different people ask me if I was ever going to blog again!  I was pleasantly surprised (and happy!).  I didn't realize that anyone really cared all that much about what kinds of crafty things I've been doing and what kinds of books I've been reading, but I guess there are a few who do, so I'll come back!!!

Ok, so what have I been doing??  Ok this little "story" has many steps that all inter-relate so I will try to keep it brief!!  We used to store all our luggage under our master bed, but it was really crowded under there, and our bed is really tall so when you walked in the room you could see some of the stuff under the bed and no matter how nicely and neatly organized the luggage was, it still just looked junky, so I started looking for a new place to put all the luggage.  I came up with the guestroom closet.  Perfect!!!  Right?!?!?!

Well the guestroom and it's closet were completely full of supplies for different projects that I am either in the middle of or planning to do (the husband calls it my staging area!).  So in order to get the luggage into the closet, I had to clean out the guestroom.  This whole process took about a week!  I took about 4 rubbermaids full of stuff to Goodwill (mostly old kids clothes, etc.).  Then I had to find a place for all my project supplies, so the only room currently not really being used in our house was the dining room, so I moved everything from the guestroom to the dining room.  This took about a week!!

So here are the pictures for this fun project...  The first is the current view under our bed... it's empty and clean!!!

 This is the picture of our guestroom closet... see all the luggage??

 And I really can't believe I am showing you this picture, but this is the current state of my dining room table, with all my projects in process and waiting to start on just hanging out on the table!!

Alright, let's move on to books!!  I just finished reading this book...

 It was fabulous as all of Adriana Trigiani's books are... I highly recommend them if you are looking for something medium to read (by medium I mean, not light and fluffy chick lit, and not dark deep thriller).

The 7 year old and I are reading this book together...

I absolutely LOVE Beverly Cleary.  I think she's a fabulous author, and the 7 year old seems to like this one too.  I read the pages on the left and he reads the pages on the right!!

So what else have I been up to... a little bit of this (although not as much as I should do)...

 quite a bit of this...

 and this...

 a bit of this, although the 7 year old says I don't know how to build with K'nex very well, so maybe I should just let him do it!!

 and yes, I have renewed my relationship with this guy...

While cleaning out the guestroom closet, I found this guy that I had made when I was still a consultant for Uppercase Living...

 so I hung him up here (this would be the boys' bathroom...

And lastly, I finally got my kitchen put back in order, and I've had a ton of people asking to see pictures of the completed project so here you go...

I love it!  I think it's beautiful!  So that's what I've been up to lately!  I will try not to make it so long before I post again!!  Thanks for reading!!

Friday Cabinet update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

Here's what they look like now!!!  BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!!!!  The crew is here right now as we speak putting on a polyurethane coating on, then they will put all the handles back on and it will be FINISHED!!!!

So, if you are my friend on facebook, you might have seen my post yesterday about being a little bit down.  There are several things that have been going on that have all contributed to my "downness", but I am feeling better now.  One of the things is the complete upheaval of my house right now.  It's all for the greater good, the cabinets will be fabulous when they are finished, but right now here are some pictures of what my house looks like... the fridge is in the middle of the eat-in kitchen.  The kitchen table is in the middle of the living room along with 1/2 of all my kitchen supplies.

The other half of my kitchen supplies is in the dining room... the table is completely covered with stuff and on the floor are huge rubbermaid bins full of dishes.  It is driving me crazy!!  Only one more day!!  

Thursday Cabinet Update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

Oh you guys... the cabinets are looking SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!  They got the first coat on yesterday and will be back today to do the second coat... It looks so good especially against the blue of the wall!!

Here is the cabinet that I've been taking pictures of to update you guys... you can still see the brushstrokes, but that's pretty common after the first coat.  The granite countertops pop so well against the dark brown!!

I am so excited!!  It's looking so good!!  I'll be back tomorrow morning with another update!!!

Cabinet update... (Home Improvement Edition)...

So far we have gone from this...

 To this...

And now, we are here...

SURPRISE!!!  We are getting blue cabinets... I have decided to go with a country look!!

Just kidding, that's just the tinted primer... it's actually a beautiful color of blue... a very pretty bluish-gray!

Since the refinishing team had to miss Monday due to illness, they stayed later last night to make up for it... they got all the cabinets degreased, sanded, and primed so today they will put on the first layer of color!  I will update either tonight or tomorrow!!!

What have I been doing... (Decorating/Home Improvement edition)...

So, I know all my faithful blog readers have been waiting with great anticipation to know what the big project is that I'm working on that requires many layers of spray paint.  We built our house 10 years ago and when we did that, everyone put in brass doorknobs and accessories.  Like those in the picture below... and they are ugly (in my opinion).  We priced out how much it would be to get all new door fixtures and with over 22 doors it was going to cost a lot!!  So I decided to spray paint them all!!!  It's actually a really easy process, there's just a lot of waiting time in between each layer and you have to completely take the entire door off the frame!!

Here are the steps to spray painting your doorknobs.
1.) Gather your supplies... screwdriver, hammer, sanding paper or pads, primer, paint, clear coat (optional), styrofoam, dowels boxes.  I am using the Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint with clean metal primer in white.

 2.) Remover the door from the frame, and remove all the hardware from the door.  If you've never removed a doorknob before, you may want to google "removing doorknob" because it can be a tiny bit tricky.  You also need to clean all the hardware after removing it from the door.  I usually have a bucket of soapy water and just toss each piece in as I remove it.  Let each piece dry completely.

 3.) You need to fully sand every area of each piece of hardware.  I use 150 grit sand paper or sanding pads.  You don't need to fully scratch off all the brass, you just need to rough up the surface so the spray paint will adhere.  You can see in this picture the difference between the sanded and the unsanded (sanded knob and hinge are on the left, unsanded on the right).

 4.) Now this is where technique can differ.  I usually save some styrofoam from packaging boxes and put all the screws upright in the styrofoam.  I also put dowels in and "hang" the doorknobs on the dowels, so if you do have any drips they will drip right off instead of staying on the knob.  I put on one coat of primer, follow the directions letting it dry then flip the hinges over and turn the knobs and put on a coat of primer onto the areas that didn't make the first pass through.

 5.) After the primer has dried (follow the directions on the spray paint), complete the same process with the your main paint color.  I usually do 2 total coats of the color so for 1 hinge it would be coat 1 side A, then coat 1 side B, then coat 2 side A, then coat 2 side B, being sure to let the paint dry as directed on the directions for the spray paint.

 6.) AFter this step, you can also add a clear coat if you want, on my first knob that I completed, I did put on the clear coat, but it dulled the colored finish so I don't think I'm going to put on the clear coat anymore.  Once everything is all dried, just reattach all the hardware back to the door and here's what you will end up with...

What am I up to... (Miscellaneous edition)...

I am currently working on a mass undertaking decorating/ home improvement project that requires many many layers of spray paint (I will post about this project later today or tomorrow).  As I wait for each layer of spray paint to dry, I am trying to complete a few organization type projects here and there... including...

 - taking everything out of all my cabinets in the kitchen because the cabinet refinishing project starts Monday!!!

- Working on my Christmas cards (yes,  I hand-make them every year)

- Reorganizing our bill filing system with the aid of my Dyno Label Maker (possibly the best thing EVER invented)!

 - And shredding all kinds of old papers from 2007-2009 (Apparently I haven't shredded any old stuff since before the 4 year old was born... oops!!  The paper recycling in town will be full this month!!!!

These projects on top of ER visits, dentist visits and pharmacy visits have been keeping us super-busy!!!

What I have done... (Home Improvement Edition)...

As promised a while ago, I mentioned I was shaving down the doors for the rooms I tiled.  I am finally almost finished.  It really shouldn't have taken this long, but it's a boring project so I kept putting it off!!  I know you don't really want to see pictures of me shaving down doors so here is only one...

 Now I will show you my finished tiling projects... The first one is the boys' bathroom.  This one had linoleum to begin with and it now has ceramic tile...

 The second one is the master bathroom which originally had carpet... ooohhh gross!!  Carpet never belongs in a bathroom (especially in a house with the majority of boys) in my opinion.

 And the last is the dining room.  It originally had carpet, which I don't like in a dining room either.  Sorry about the poor quality of the picture.  It's had to get good lighting in there and the white grid-like thing is the under-rug anti-slipping thing.  I rolled it and the carpet up and it fell right as I was taking the pictures.  The green squares are glass tiles so there were 3 different sizes/types of tile in this room.

Enjoy! and I will be back with several more posts today!!!

What I have done today... (Decorating edition)... NEW GRANITE COUNTERTOPS!!!

I know all my faithful blog readers have been waiting so anxiously for my updates about the kitchen remodel.  It officially started today!!!!

We built this house 10 years ago in December so everything is pretty old and out of date.  Here is a picture of what we are starting with (please excuse the missing drawers... I had to take them out for the installation and forgot to take a picture before)...

 This is the lovely oatmeal colored laminate on the lovely oak cabinets.  Starting on December 5th the cabinet refinishing will commence and they will become a lovely dark dark brown color (almost black).  Then after Thanksgiving we will be ordering all new stainless steel appliances!!

 And here is the new granite countertops... excuse the bad quality of picture.  It was dark when I took the picture.  The countertops don't look all that fabulous with the oak colored cabinets, but remember they will look a lot different in a month!!!

 Here is an up close view of the granite...  It is called Giallo Ornamental.  It's beautiful!!!!

 And here is an even closer up view.  There are veins of the dark dark brown and veins of a reddish almost purple color.  It is beautiful!!  And I love it!!!!!!!

I highly recommend the company we went through... Granite Center.  Some of our neighbors have also used them... if you are local in the KC area and want their contact information, just leave a comment or drop me an email!!