It's the Little Things

Sometimes, it's the projects that are (relatively) small, that make me smile the most when they are completed.

BASEMENT DOOR

After replacing the garage door and the pantry door, the door to the basement was painfully, obviously, begging to be scrapped. All three are in a line in the kitchen, so the ugly hardware and dirty door stuck out like crazy.  Also, it didn't close - that's kind of a theme around here apparently.

The above photo was taken before we moved in, while we were working on painting the downstairs, so the pantry is still in its original state as well. Those old window treatments from the living room sat in the hallway like that for an embarrassingly long time, by the way.

It makes me a lot happier to look at those doors now that they are shiny and new.

The unmatching hardware is totally my fault.  A long time ago, I decided that the pantry door should have a different handle to distinguish it as a closet, not an entrance.  Then, when we worked on the pantry, I decided I liked the way the knob looked more than the handle.  Then, I refused to buy new (matching) hardware for the basement door, because it seemed like a waste.

I'm a crazy person.  Moving on...

ENTRY TABLE

This may seem like a very minor change, but I searched for weeks and weeks for a table to sit next to our front door.  We made-do with a moving box for a while, but it just wasn't the "look" we were going for.

There is a 16" vent on the baseboard, and an outlet that I didn't want to cover just above it. This spot is also right at the foot of the stairs, so the table couldn't protrude too far from the wall. I didn't think it would be an especially tall order to find an appropriate little table, but weeks of searching my usual favorite haunts and two returned purchases later (darn vent!!) showed me otherwise. Then, one fateful afternoon in World Market, Mum spotted this gem in a corner back by the rugs.

I ended up getting 10% off the sale price because it was a floor model and slightly scratched (nothing a little stain pen didn't fix), and they let me use a coupon on top of that so I paid $32 out the door.  After looking at wobbly, not-even-real-wood, crappy pieces that were upward of $100 it was such a steal!
I know it's just a table, but I love her so much. Of course she's a she. Look how pretty and perfect she is - she was made for that spot.

LINEN CLOSET

Before we could put away all our sheets & towels, we desperately had to do something about this:

Why do the closets in this house give me the creeps so much?! Why do the shelves look like they're melting?!

So, after a couple of cut-to-size shelves and 2 coats of paint, I no longer feel the need to hold my breath when I open the door to the linen closet.  The paint was just leftover from the dining room, so this transformation was totally on the cheap.

If only I could make it look as neat now that there is linen spilling out of it...

I might be a towel hoarder.

These projects were by no means the most thrilling or grand, but they make a huge difference in ridding the house of that "we just moved in last week" look, that we're so good at.

Pantry Overhaul

Here's the thing about dirt: it's gross, and it's much much grosser if it's someone else's. 

Cleaning the house before we moved in was not a fun job, but the previous owners were clearly not dirty people, and relatively speaking, the whole place was already in really good shape.  

Even so, there was no way I was putting my food in here:

PANTRY UPDATES

Step 1: The original plan was to replace the contact paper and call it a day, but the shelves looked even worse underneath.  They were porous, and bowed, and honestly, a little smelly.

So we ripped 'em out.  It was pretty fun.

Step 2: Painted the floor, spontaneously, without priming - oops. It turned into a sticky mess.

Step 3: Spackled and sanded a bunch, and painted the inside of the pantry the same green as the dining room, and primed and repainted the floor.

(This was taken after only one coat on the walls; the second looked perfect, I promise)

Step 4: Replaced the door.

Did you catch how I said that as if it was a simple, quick, easy little task?  It wasn't.

Even though the door was the appropriate size, it didn't close.  After a lot of planing and sanding, it did close, but after repainting the sanded edge, it didn't again.  We were frustrated, so we abandoned the cause for a while.  Then autumn arrived early and the temperature dropped by 25 degrees, so the door now works.  I guess we'll deal with it next summer...

 

Step 5: Installed melamine shelves from Lowe's.  Lesson learned: they will not cut this particular kind of shelf to size for you.  Husband cut them with a circular saw, and yes, he still has all of his fingers.  I know, it's quite impressive.

Step 6: Sealed the floor with two coats of polyurethane to make it super hard and durable.  It was supposedly "clear gloss", but clearly tinted my floor yellow.  I considered getting a rug or something to cover it, but ultimately decided that I don't care that much.

Step 7: Collected some baskets and shelves, threw the food in there, and have since spent many hours trying to figure out the best way to organize it all.  It's still a work in progress, but here we stand at the moment.  Ignore the mess, please.

Project: Pantry reno.

Cost: Low-Moderate

Payoff: Well, we have a place to store food now, so there's nothing to complain about.  I think it's a big improvement!

BEFORE                                                AFTER

      

About A Door.

A lot of things in our house have been painted over (and over, and over), which is a little annoying if you don't want your outlets to be blue or your light switches to be brown.  It's even more annoying if you plan to actually use the deadbolt on your door...

We weren't really willing to live without the option to lock the door from our kitchen to our garage, and it stuck in the frame so badly that I had to use my entire body weight to get it open.  It also was the original door from when the house was built, and therefore not appropriately fire-rated.

HOW TO REPLACE A PRE-HUNG DOOR WITH NO EXPERIENCE AND MODERATE SUCCESS:

Step 1:  Assess your existing door and determine that it just won't do.  

Step 2: Consider all replacement options, and watch a lot of youtube and ehow videos to inflate your DIY confidence (we primarily used these).  Buy a new pre-hung door (steel, fire-rated), and other necessary supplies & tools.  Realize that every home improvement project costs twice what you estimated it would. 

Step 3: Remove the gorgeous screen door by unscrewing the hinges from the frame.

Step 4:  Pry off the interior trim and the exterior brick molding with a putty knife and hammer.  Hopefully your garage door openers won't be stuck to your brick mold with some kind of impenetrable adhesive like ours are.

Step 5: Breathe a sigh of relief when what you discover underneath the trim looks exactly like the videos said it would.  Seriously, phew.

Step 6: Knock out debris and shims in the space around door frame.  Cut through big scary nails holding it in place with a reciprocating saw.  Remove the whole frame. 

Step 7: Unscrew threshold.  Marvel at three layers of linoleum under current flooring.  Worry briefly about tearing it all up someday...

Step 8: "Dry-fit" the door (make sure it fits and works properly in the space), and check plumb & level approximately 210 times.  Adhere the threshold to the floor, and use shims to keep the door in place, and some really long screws to attach the door frame to the house framing.  

This is where things went a little wrong for us.  The first screw went in too tightly, pulling the door slightly off center within the frame.  We were so focused on making sure it stayed square, that we didn't pay much attention to this, and by the time we realized, we already had 3 screws on each side, and 2 along the top.  We tried to correct it by loosening/tightening screws, but this only pulled it out of plumb because the floor adhesive was doing it's job.  Consequently, the door frame was slightly off center, and stayed slightly ajar when it should have been closed.  Sad^2.

 

Step 9: Spray foam insulation into the open space around the door.  Wait 8 hours for it to grow by "more than 50%".  When it doesn't (above photo), use up the rest of the can and squeal with amusement (below photo).

Step 10: Shave off the excess foam, and break off the shims.  Here's where you can see why the fact that our door frame is not centered is going to be a problem.  I love love the shelf which runs the length of our kitchen, but the left bracket is now too close to the door hinges for us to replace the trim around the door.

You might also have noticed that we changed the direction the door opens - it just made more sense to us.

Step 11:  Paint the door.

Step 12: If you're classy like us, stuff the holes with plastic bags and do nothing for several days.  Yes, the door was still naturally slightly ajar.

Step 13: Caulk around the exterior brick molding, and along the base of the threshold.

Step 14: Install the hardware, and celebrate the fact that your kitchen door has a working deadbolt, and now successfully stays closed.

 

Step 15:  Avoid doing anything about the trim situation for several weeks indefinitely.

As you can probably tell from these photos, Husband did 90% of the work, and I mostly manned the camera, spray foam, shop-vac, and said encouraging things like "uh-oh", "that doesn't look right", and "oh my god, that saw is loud".

The final photo is still the situation we're living with at the moment.  When we eventually do something about the trim, I'll post an update.

Any suggestions?