Stepping Up

When people come to my house, I generally tell them to "ignore the ghetto parts". Pretty much referring to all of the excessive eyesores I've got reminding me that I'm no where close to being done with my house. The stairs going up to the bedrooms/bathroom area were definitely one of those eyesores....


As you can easily note... these stairs are ugly. They have remained ugly for over a year and a half because, despite their lack of aesthetics, they still functioned perfectly as stairs. Well, that was until I did this...


I'll have you know I cleaned what was underneath the stairs before I took this picture. It was GROSS! I bought new oak risers for the stairs ($26ish a piece) and that meant that I got to rip the old ones out. I do enjoy the demolition part of every project! Then I was going to paint the back of the stairs to match the wall and give it a "floating step" kind of feel.


Painting... so many projects require painting. Using one of the old risers, I cut it to fit on the face of the very bottom stair. Now there is no gaping hole!


Risers are back on. Don't mind the wall damage from the demolition phase... I'll patch that.


Walls patched, steps sanded, last coat of verathane... All finished! In total, the project ran just under $200. Most of that was the cost of the risers and verathane. Oh and the new handrail I had made was $100. I could have done a wooden one for cheaper, but I like the look/feel of the metal handrail. (Yeah I know... let the inappropriate comments begin)

Special thanks to Chad and Ryan on this project for their help!

To removing the eyesores in life,

Boomba

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday! When I was a kid it always seemed like a 'lame' holiday. I mean I got out of school, but there were no costumes, gifts, or fireworks. As I have grown older, I have learned to LOVE that about it though. I don't have to worry about crowds of people, impossible parking at events, going to parades, buying people gifts, or finding parties to go to. We cook a bang of delicious food (cause we have some talented cooks in the family), and just get to *be* together. We get to eat and talk to each other. I just find it to be some of the best quality time that I get with my family.

This year my family is coming to my house. Not because my house is that awesome, but because my house was really the best available one this year. So... in preparation for people coming over, I've been working around the house like a mad woman! (Yes, that means more blogs to come, at least in the month of November). I had been doing stuff throughout the house since my last blog, but just not blogging about it.

Note the following video:



This may not be exciting for some, but I was SO excited to be able to have ice in my fridge WITHOUT having to use ice trays :) My dear good friend Sam helped me with this project, but mostly because I was unsure of myself. It really ended up being super easy. I got this working back in August... better late than never right?

Other things I've gotten done in the house:
-finished putting up baseboards in all the finished rooms
-finally finished the last piece on the bathroom vanity
-new kitchen light
-put up beadboard on kitchen cabinets
-refinished stairs and got a hand rail
-applied verathane in the hall (which has been on my to do list forever)
-put in transition pieces from the wood floor to the tiled rooms
-caulked the kitchen backsplash (thanks mom!)
-closed up the second door from the house into the garage
-much, much more

Some of these items will have their own blogs for you to see, other didn't really have that stimulating of a visual. Lots of progress is being made though and I'm proud of all that I've accomplished this month. Mostly I'm grateful for all the time and help that I have received from all the wonderful people in my life. The guys in my ward have been very helpful and it has been so awesome to have them to rely on. My family remains so supportive and my new roommate wonderful AND handy.

Needless to say, I'm excited for Thanksgiving to get here.

To things that light a fire under you booty,

Boomba

Baseboards!!!!

So.... my house has been baseboard-less ever since I have moved in. I got a little demo happy when we started tearing stuff apart June 2010. I've been working my way to the baseboards for quite some time. Now that the doors and casings were up, it was time to start working on the trim!
Before: Hallway without any trim or a return air vent.
After: Baseboards up and the return air vent is in. Looks SOOOO much better.
Rather than cutting the corners at 45 degrees and putting them together, I opted to use my coping saw. While I was originally rather intimidated by this process, it ended up being really easy! If you use your saw to taper the end at a 45 degree angle, then the white primed MDF boards will have he exact line that you will need to cope. This saved me from having to draw on every piece. My corners look amazing in case you were wondering!
Baseboards really just finish the look of a room. I'm excited to have another part of the living room taken care of.
Kitchen before the baseboards were up
Another before shot
After! PS, the corners that point out like this are a royal pain. I wish I could figure out a way to use my coping saw for those too!
After :) Looks way better!

For me, I preferred to paint my trim, then cut it with the miter saw and immediately hang it with Reba. Once the painting is taken care of, then it is really easy to get the trim up and looking fantastic! I had been cutting then painting with the casings, but this was a way easier order of operations.

To some finishing touches,

Boomba

A Shade Cooler

Back in April I decided to start getting window shades for the rest of the house. I had finally gotten curtains in the living room, but really needed them in the bedrooms upstairs. I still have broken central air and needed to start blocking out the light to help keep things cool as it would begin to get warm in the summer. Lucky for me, this summer hasn't been terrible.

Around this time, I had gone to Jack and Stef's condo and they had some really nice panel curtains from IKEA. I just really liked the look that they had. So, I went down to IKEA to get the panel system. After two trips and spending $345, I had everything I needed to block some sunlight from my bedrooms. While it seems expensive... I got six windows out of it.

Putting together the panel system from IKEA was time consuming, but once I realized the best order of operations, it made things go by much quicker! One thing that I enjoy about buying IKEA products is that all of the packaging is recyclable. So I was able to recycle most of the stuff :)



Office window panel



Both windows in the office



Windows in the master bedroom

I also did the window in the second bedroom and the bathroom. I really enjoy the look of them and have the fabric to do more window panels for the addition when I get that far in the house. The project did take a full weekend, but really I was glad to cover up my ugly windows :)

To beating the heat,

Boomba

Casing Out My Place

So I mentioned in my last post that I had gotten a lot of things done at my house. One of the reasons that I hadn't been posting about them is because I'd already written about the start of the projects. In my post I'm Not Dead! and A Little Privacy Please... I showed everyone my progress on getting my door casings up and getting the first three bedroom doors up.

Well, I'm pleased to announce that I finished the remainder of the interior doors. My bathroom has new door (YAY!) as well as my coat closet and pantry. My turn around on these doors was much quicker. Mostly because showering with a sheet for a door was quite chilly. I've also got most of the casings up around the doors. The only four I have left are the inside of the bedrooms/bathrooms. It really has made such a big difference in starting the "finished look" that I want to have.

Front door and closet before the casings.

After the casings and new closet door are up.


Pantry with the casings, but before the door.


Pantry with casings and door. Got to admit, it's really nice not having all my food on display all the time.

This was sort of a finishing up of some other posts. I still have a few more casings left, but all the interior doors should now be taken care of. Reba was super helpful in this project. I also quit using paintable caulk for my nail holes and opted for white nail filler. Works MUCH better.

To showers without the draft,

Boomba

Meet Reba....

Be nice everyone! Say hello to one of my BFF's :)



Reba is my Porter Cable pancake compressor with three (yes 3!) attachments. I have a stapler, nail gun, and finishing nail gun. I got her as a Christmas present from my Dad, which meant that I finally returned the compressor I had borrowed for over a year. (Thanks Jack!)

Over the past six months I HAVE been working on the house. I just haven't been blogging about it because I'm a failure. Here I am, starting my process of catching everyone up. During my recent projects, Reba has played an integral roll in their completions. Don't know where I'd be without her!

So.... the question I'm sure some of you are curious to know.... Why do I call her Reba? It was a rather easy name to come up with:

1-She's really red
2-When she "sings" I wear earplugs

:)

Sorry to all the Reba fans out there... I don't mind her songs really, but she's one of my least favorite country artists. I'm no expert on the genre and I'll be the first to admit it. However, I do love MY Reba.

To red heads that pack some heat,

Boomba

A little privacy please....

Once upon a time (April 10th, 2010), I wrote a post about the door slabs I snagged at the ReStore for $10 a piece. Not sure if anyone recalls, but I took all the doors down during the demolition, then moved in half way through June.

There have been no bedroom doors this entire time! Bless my sweet roommates soul for her patience. I didn't have the money to do them. After I had the money, I didn't have a truck to take the slabs and the old doors to Wheelwright Lumber for the mill to match. After I got that done, then I had to paint them. Two coats... EACH SIDE! Needless to say... It's taken quite some time.

HOWEVER!

The days of no bedroom doors are officially over! My roommate (and her bf) can finally utilize the privacy that bedrooms are supposed to afford an individual (or couple). Thanks for the motivation Brit, I would have NEVER gotten around to it without you pushing me the whole way through! It only took me around ten months to get it done... no big deal...


Doors lined up for painting


First coat. I'm putting this on here to show that the doors were no where near white. Everyone thought I was crazy for painting them, but it make a huge difference.


One coat done! Only three more to go :(


Attaching the hinges to the wall


Hinges on the door


First door up! Yay!!!!


Knobs in too ;) Sorry this picture is a little blurry. Now the door are up and the knobs are in. Privacy can not be enjoyed!

While I did put the first door up all by myself, the others I did have help. I still need to get the bathroom door done, but I'll have to have a much quicker turn around than ten months on that one...

To the glories of shutting things out (when appropriate),

Boomba