Weekly Recap #5

{January 31 through February 6, 2016}

DIY

• We emptied out one side of the extended pantry. We are replacing the old shelves with a better system -- one that will save my sanity. We already did one side last year and we are now finishing up the other side since The Container Store is currently having a 30% off sale on all elfa systems. We only purchase the hardware from the store. The shelves are from Lowe's and we are cutting them down to size. The pantry is not quite finished due to the fact that Lowe's only had four shelves. We are hoping they will restock more shelves sometime this week.

  I plan to re-purpose the scraps from the shelves to make smaller shelves on what I call the "wonky wall".

Gardening

• We broke ground for a nice sized garden. There was a rectangular spot on our land that was constantly green whereas the rest of the land was brown. I speculated that a garden once was established there. Once I started the work, I discovered that it was going to be much harder than I thought. The roots of the grass, weeds, and more were extremely dense. I was initially discouraged because it was tough and hard work. Dan joined in and helped and I am so thankful for his help. After we dug quite a bit, we think the green stuff is doing so well in this spot is due to the that fact some clay is present in the soil. It is not present elsewhere. So, my assumption must be correct; the former owners had a garden in this spot once upon a time. Anyway, We managed to get half the plot done. And we were both tired and sore from the effort. The other half of the garden will be done next weekend weather permitting.

Quilting; Crafts

• I did some more hand quilting on Dan's quilt. Making more progress!

• I got started on getting a quilt established on the long arm quilting frame. I needed Dan's help due to the fact that the DVD was not closed captioned. This week, I will be focusing on learning on how the machine works and practicing until the tension is right. At least, that is the plan.

• I just discovered that the Gypsy Wife Quilt has partial seams. Egads! I haven't started on the process yet as I am concentrating on a few other projects first. But, I plan to get started soon. You do know how plans go though, correct? They often go awry. Ha!
  
  
  

Miscellaneous

• There were tons of recipe books in the extended pantry. I took the time to go through them all. I weaned out more than half of the books. This is mostly due to the fact that I am now gluten free and many of the recipes are just calling for ingredients I cannot have. Plus, we now have the internet to find excellent recipes these days. So, why have recipe books? Ha! Anyway, the one category in which I could not throw in the half-price books pile was the canning books.
• We went through a hall closet in a fit of organization and used Space Bags by Ziploc to store sheets, blankets, pillows and more. Those bags rock! I am now much happier with the tiny little hole-in-the-wall closet. I still need to think about how to add lighting in all the closets in the house. (Most of the closets have no lights whatsoever an we have to use a flashlight at times.)

Quotes

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

~~ adapted from a line in “To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns

Wordy Wednesday {Pantry}

After Dan read my last post on the pantry, he said I should have included a picture with the shelves stocked. I was like no way! Who wants to show off the mess? But, in the face of keeping it real, I decided to take a picture today and post it. Don't judge.

Can goods are in the back behind the swinging door. The swinging door currently holds our snacks and chips. This may change in the future. Baking goods, cereal, drinks, and whatnot are on the right. And, of course, you've seen the messy storage bag organization on the door.

So far, I am loving the changes!

DIY (Remodeling) Pantry II

I last left off with this post.

All the shelves went up. I realize that the vertical bar over the shelves looks odd; but, there is a reason for the piece. Wednesday’s post was a continuation of the work for the pantry. The next three pictures show exactly what it is.

It’s a swinging pantry shelf / cabinet door!

This completes the pantry. We do have a tiny cupboard to make to hide the brooms and mops along with some baseboard work. But, other than those things, the pantry is finished. To be honest, nothing ever really gets finish. Or, does it? It seems like there is always something minor that never gets completed. *sigh*

Wordy Wednesday {DIY Sneak Peek}

What could this possibly be?

DIY (Remodeling): Pantry

I last left off on this post. If you do not know the situation, you should go catch up! We thought it was going to be a short minor remodeling effort; but, it turned into a major effort. Anyway…

The walls were repaired and mudded. We primed the walls. I did not get a picture of that step because it is mighty boring don’t you think?

We began painting. And yes, we painted the ceiling. I have always been outside the box when it comes to pantries and bathrooms. The ceiling color is “Burning Coals” (P200-5) by Behr.

And, the wall color is “Bonfire Nights” (P200-7) by Behr. We used up almost a gallon of paint because it is a dark color and you have to put on more coats than usual to get it the right color. In the end, I am very pleased with the color. Dan was constantly amused every time I walked in there because I would just be so happy. By the way, this color is not true in any of the pictures I took. It is a hard color to capture on pictures.

Shelf supports went up. We decided to go with the stained look to match the craftsman trim above doors and windows. So far, I love this decision.

Shelves went up. Dan made several tiered shelves for me. I was using boxes of quart and gallon freezer bags to create tiers for cans so that they did not disappear and get lost. Our shelves are narrower than the standard size with the exception of the top shelf. I have never liked the standard sized shelving as stuff tends to get buried and forgotten. Plus, when you have a pantry this small, narrower shelves make the space seem larger. We also had another reason for going with narrower shelves in which I will talk about in a future post.

We have since completed putting up the shelves; but, I neglected to take a picture. I will take a picture soon and post it in a future post (which should be the last one about this pantry). Dan is working on another project for the pantry and once that is finished, the remodeling effort will be completed on this pantry.

DIY: Mother's Old Light Fixtures

I wanted to replace this ugly light fixture in the pantry. I have looked around for awhile and then I spied a light fixture at Lowe’s similar to the one below.

Source

After measuring and whatnot, it was going to be too big even though it is a tiny chandelier. I was disappointed because I thought for once in my life I was going to be brave and use something in my house that I would not normally use to decorate but love.

While at Mother's house not too long ago, I spied a light fixture that I thought would work as long as we could change the coloring from brass to black. Why? Because I cannot stand the color of brass.

So, we took the light fixtures from Mother’s house after buying new ones to replace the old. I took off all the crystals and cleaned them up. I washed probably 30 plus years of dust off the crystals. I was mighty surprised at how easy they were to clean. (You can google how to safely clean acrylic crystals.) However, this process was a pain-in-the-you-know-what due to the fact you had to remove the strings of crystals off the fixture one-by-one and clean them all by hand.

Tidbit: I remember going with my folks everywhere shopping for lights when I was a very young girl. So, these lights are very old; although, not the original ones that came with their house.

I taped up the fixtures themselves and got all the parts ready for painting. By the way, the smaller fixture is for the pantry and the larger is to go above the front entry way.

Dan took over the process of painting for me and I have to say that I did not mind this one bit as I am not a confident painter nor the most patient person when it comes to painting!

The end result is a much better and fancier light fixture than the old! The picture does not really do it justice. I am happy with the result and even though it is not a true chandelier, it works.

We also replaced the ugly front entry light which we hardly ever used. It came with the house bent and broken.

I think it is a big improvement from the old. At least it is pretty even though we rarely turn this light on. I may end up replacing this light and sticking this one in the extended pantry when we redo that space. But, for right now, it is in a happy place.

DIY and Remodeling Update

We have been taking our time with the interior of the house. We are kind of at a standstill due to a variety of reasons. But, I do want to show you what is going on around here concerning the house.

• Exterior of House:

We started painting the exterior of the house. In some places, it was in sad shape. We cleaned up some places and primed those spots. I think only one or two coats of paint without any primer was put onto the house. I primed over many nails that were showing through the paint and becoming rusty. Pathetic. {note: we are using KILZ 2 primer / sealer / stainblocker which blocks out all stains including rust.}

Did you see blue tape? Well, there was a long thin piece of wood that somehow separated itself from the main piece of wood. It was like that when we bought the house. Dan fixed it up weeks ago and taped it down so that it would stay down while the glue dries. We just left that tape up there until we started painting. Ha!

This is the new paint color and the picture does not do it justice. We both agree that the new color is much better than the old and matches the bricks of the house. We still have 1/4 of the back siding and the garage side left to paint. Once that is done, we will paint the shutters and the underside of the porch all around the house (eaves).

• Kitchen:

We are going to paint the kitchen cabinets (after I sand and prep them for painting). As much as I dislike these particular cabinets, I just cannot see replacing them with a style we like as they are still in good condition. After watching a DIY show where they painted these same cabinets, I got to thinking to myself that they may look tons better painted. So, we picked up a bunch of paint chips and taped them onto the cabinets.

It took me awhile to narrow the colors down as most were so similar. I have finally decided on far left for the bottom cabinets and the second right color for the upper cabinets. What is so funny is that after I made my choice, the chosen far left color is called “fudge”. Do you realize what this means my kitchen will look like after cabinets are painted? Chocolate mint ice cream. Ha!

I plan to sand the cabinets during the day while Dan is at work. But, there is something else that I should do first.

• Pantry:

Yes, I am crazy. But, the apron is my inspiration for the colors in the kitchen. I figured that for once in my life, I was going to paint something in a wild vibrant happy color and that is orange. And besides, the door to the pantry remains shut 95% of the time; so, no one will really see the color. Anyway, I have chosen the top paint chip, the far upper right color, for the pantry. Once that color was chosen, we decided to go ahead and get started on it.

At first, things went along swimmingly. We ripped out the old shelves and the baseboards. We are planning to redo the shelves to fit our needs. When Dan ripped out a baseboard, we discovered that builder missed a stud by a mile and hit a hot water pipe.

We had to shut off the water and ended up calling a plumber. Due to the fact it was the weekend, it was difficult to find one to come out and help us with this problem. A minor remodeling project turned into a major expensive project. *sigh*

Once the plumber fixed the problem for us, we soldiered on. Dan decided to put in an access panel instead of putting up new drywall and he will build the panel. I started priming some areas that needed priming before we put up the wall color and discovered an area that refused to be primed. The previous owners spilled something in the corner of the pantry. I cleaned it up as best as I could before moving in the house.

Well, every time I put the KILZ 2 primer on the area, the stains would seep through creeping me out. I have watched too many episodes of Bones. I was thinking things that I should have not been thinking such as a dead body was behind the drywall. Ewww!

After putting two coats on and the stain still seeping through the primer, I still did not want to paint with the chosen wall color. I just knew that the stain would bleed through grossing me (and others) out. Dan was worried that something was wrong behind the drywall. So, he decided to rip out the drywall to make sure that the stains were not coming from the studs or something else. It turned out that the thin paper on the drywall was just soaked with whatever the previous owners spilled. The drywall and the studs themselves were fine. At the very least, we both have peace of mind concerning this issue. And, there is no dead body! A plus! Ha!

The end result of ripping out all that old yucky drywall. Dan is now in the process of putting drywall back up. The difficult part is that one side is one thickness and the other side has a different thickness. So, we had to buy two different sizes of drywall. Ugh!

In the meantime, I will be painting all the baseboards and the shelving that we purchased to build inside the pantry.

• Dan’s office

I originally wanted to do his room first; but, he had a hard time deciding on the wall color. Even with all the colors (and there were tons more that were eliminated), he still could not decide. One day while at the home improvement store, he found another paint chip.

I think he has finally decided and it is the one he recently found – the far right color. We have already started on the pantry; so, the work on the office will wait until that is done.