The Worst Ever

This project was the worst ever.


After I got home from work on July 4th, we had a few hours to spare and I was MOTIVATED. I wanted to DO something. Somehow, Husband let me talk him into taking on a project that has been on the list since we moved in - changing the hardware (handle and deadbolt) on the front door. I take full responsibility for what followed. It went a little like this:


- Couldn't figure out how to get the old mechanism out - broke a pair of pliers.

- Got the old mechanism out, but bent it beyond repair - no turning back
- Faced with a gaping hole in the side of the door roughly 4 times the size of the new hardware - had to build a piece out of scrap wood to rebuild and screw everything into
- Old holes through door were smaller than needed - had to enlarge them by 1/2" in diameter - took an hour
- Lost a screw - searched the area for 20 minutes
- Strike plates didn't fit - chiseled for an hour
- Deadbolt hole too big, nothing to screw strike plates into - nothing to be done until we could buy wood filler

...and I think I blocked the rest out. Six hours of blood, sweat, and tears (yup, all three) later we showered and ran out to the BBQ we were 3 hours late for, where our lovely friends fed us and commiserated with us.

Ironically, here is the after picture:

You'd never know the trauma that led to this perfect looking door hardware.  Unless you looked at the side of the door...

Ha. Ha. I don't even have a picture of what the door jamb looked/looks like, but believe me when I say that it makes the above picture look neat and polished.

Obviously the most important thing is that the door closes and locks securely, and it does. It totally does; but that's also what made this project so stressful when it was all going wrong. Of course, the fact that our AC had stopped working but we were too preoccupied to realize until later in the middle of the night, probably didn't help things either.

Like I said, The Worst Ever.

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.

That New Formaldehyde Smell

Luckily for us, the hardwood flooring throughout most of the house is in pretty good shape.  We knew immediately though, that we would be replacing the two carpeted areas because they were old, worn, blue, and because carpet cooties give me the creeps.

Stairs - BEFORE

That is unfortunately the only picture I have of the original stair & landing carpet.

AFTER 

It's not actually as pale as it looks here, but we did have to go lighter than we expected due to the color of the floor - a lot of the shades we liked were too similar.  So, now we have borderline impractically light stair carpet, and a fierce no shoes rule.

The night before the installation, Mum & I hurriedly repainted the trim around the doors on the upstairs landing, attempting to avoid any painting-over-new-carpet situations.  Imagine, then, my dismay to discover the difference in plushness/thickness between the old and new carpets...

Ugh, not the look we were going for.

Not only did I now have to paint in the vicinity of the carpet, but IMMEDIATELY NEXT TO IT.  Taping around the five doorways up there was brutal.

Then, after painting, the tape pulled up threads around the edge of the carpet.  It was tragic.  There was nothing I could do about it...so I just shoved them back down.  Don't go picking around my baseboards, ok?

Anyway, it looks much classier now:

The other space we had replaced was the den next to the kitchen.

 Den - BEFORE

The only things I can currently tolerate about this room are the blinds.  

AFTER

Walls painted, carpet replaced.  Slightly better in there, but still miles to go I think...

Recap:

Project: Replace carpet in den and on stairs

Cost: High

Payoff: Great - there's nothing like that new carpet smell...at least, there wasn't, until I was told it's actually formaldehyde.  Hooray for specimen-preserving chemicals!