Friday, January 22, 2010

Weekend Plans!

I kind of like posting about the decorating/projects I have planned for the weekend, so that’s what I’m going to do again.

I finished the molding squares and I really love them! Dan is going snowshoeing with his brothers in Idaho this weekend and although I will miss him, I am excited to take my time and figure things out myself this weekend.

My plan is to paint our half bathroom. Here are a few crappy pics before we moved in. It’s a nice space right off the kitchen but the walls are a sick blue and one of the walls isn’t even painted and the mirror is ginormous with nothing around it. And there is an unnecessary towel bar, and cheap towel ring and t.p. holder. Anyway, I thought this would be a good (relatively) small project for this weekendIMG_4531.IMG_4530So my plan is to take down the towel bar, paint the walls, door, ceiling, baseboard and trim around door. I picked  Behr Chai Spice for the walls and I can’t wait to see it.MPC0079919-2                                   I’m also going to attempt to install crown molding. This is my inspiration:       DSC06197            I’m going to do the corner blocks like she did because it is easier. I have been to Home Depot about a bajillion times and asked a bunch of questions so I think I have an idea of what to do. I’m going to borrow my brother-in-law’s nail gun so that should help.

I’m also going to put molding around the mirror to frame it. I’ve seen this done a lot on blogs and it looks sweet! I am going to stain the molding to hopefully match the cabinets, but I’m a little nervous about doing that because I don’t know if it will look weird if it doesn’t match exactly. So maybe I should just paint it white?? I don’t know!!mirror              I also need to find a little rug and matching towel. I am going to be on the look out for something cheap and cute to put above the toilet as well. I will also keep looking for a new light fixture, but the one we have is fine for now.

I have been looking at toilet paper holders and towel rings at Home Depot & Lowes. They are around $15-$25 each for the lower end styles. So I checked out Amazon and found some nice Moen ones for less than $10 each with free shipping! Score!                                          Moen-DN8408CH-rw-101515-165932 Moen-DN8486CH-rw-101634-166006 So I’ll put those in as soon as I get them in the mail. Hopefully soon!

So those are my big plans and hopefully Shelley will come down and help me. :) And hopefully I can get it all done and make it look super great and not nail my finger to the wall or something…for some reason I have this big problem with thinking logically. Dan says I have book smarts but not street smarts and he’s definitely right. I did well in school and can figure out technical things, but when it comes to logic or “street smarts”, I fail miserably.

Stuff happens to me all the time where I can’t figure something logical out even when it’s totally and completely obvious. That’s where Dan comes in. He is very good at logical thinking and he’s pretty good at not laughing at me when I can’t figure something simple out.

Just a few stupid things I’ve done recently:

-Hit myself in the mouth with the back of the hammer while nailing something. Okay this is just stupid, it has nothing to do with thinking logically or not.

-Couldn’t figure out how to get a belt hanger around a screw I had put in the wall because the hanger loop-thing was too small to fit around the screw. I tried and tried to force it, then finally asked Dan and he laughed really hard while telling me to screw the screw in around the loop! Don’t know if that make sense to you but DUH.

-Tried to drain water from noodles by holding the noodles back with a fork but half the noodles ended up in the sink. Shelley (roommate at the time) kindly showed me I could use the lid with it because it had a hole to drain water.

There are many more but I’ll save myself the embarrassment. Oh well, that’s one of the reasons I married Dan! But we’ll see how this weekend goes and I’m sure I’ll survive. The bathroom may not….wish me luck!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Moulding Squares

All Done!

Well I found some decorative metal thingies (what would you call those anyway??) at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and I think they look great in the squares! I bought a few other things there and brought them home to decide which I liked best, then I returned the others! But I think these look pretty good. IMG_5015IMG_5013IMG_5012 I still need to finish my other projects from last weekend but the back door drapes got me just a little frustrated so I’m going to wait and have my mother in law help me and just sew one piece instead of two because I have enough fabric! So that is on hold for now and I’m sure I will get around to hanging the picture wall and vinyl soon enough…but now I’m already on to my next project: painting and decorating the half bathroom!

Home Depot had Behr paint on sale for a few days for $5 off. That’s not a ton, but considering that paint doesn’t go on sale much, it was a good excuse to get a gallon for the half bath! I had to make a quick decision on paint color because I went to Home Depot and the sale ended that day instead of the next like I had thought! So I asked the paint girls for help and I picked out a burnt orange color. It’s called Chai Spice by Behr. I’m excited to get it on the walls and see how it looks! Dan is going snowshoeing this weekend with his brothers in Idaho so I will have the house (and the credit card) to myself! HAhahahaaahahhahahaa!!!!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Molding Squares

Well I didn’t get everything on my list done this weekend, but I didn’t really expect to so that’s okay! I did finish the molding squares and one of the 2 curtain panels (using hemming tape only-me and sewing don’t mix). The curtain panel is still a work in progress and I’m not sure how I feel about it but we’ll see when I’m all done!

So the molding squares turned out really good and I love them! Here are the before pics:

IMG_4991IMG_4992After: IMG_5007 IMG_5011

I definitely learned a lot after doing this and luckily I had Dan’s help with the hammering!IMG_4993 First I measured about a million times and then taped off the squares for painting. IMG_4995 Then I cut all my molding with a miter saw and miter box. I painted the molding and the rosettes white.IMG_4999 I had Dan help me hammer the rosettes and molding and then I realized that I had put the molding above the paint square instead of on top of it! If that makes sense…so I had 2.5 inches of dark paint below the molding! Ahhhhh dangit! IMG_5002 I puttied up all the nail holes and the space in between the molding and the rosettes. It was really hard to hammer the nails so they’re totally flush or below the molding but I might get a little tool that will do it for us then go back and fix it, but for now it looks good enough for me! Below is before I sanded and re-painted.IMG_5005 After I puttied and sanded all the holes and edges, I had to go through and touch up all the edges where I messed up the measurement of the squares and the dark paint was showing. That took awhile but it looks good now! IMG_5007 IMG_5011 I also re-painted the molding so now it looks really bright and pretty! You can still kind of see some of the nails but it’s not really noticeable.IMG_5010 So now I just need to decide what to put in the middle….stencil? Vinyl swirly design? A metal rod-works type thing? I was going to do a stencil but now I’m not sure and if I did, I don’t know what color…any ideas or suggestions are welcome!IMG_5006