I Love When an Idea Works!

I love when repurposing an item around the house saves money AND lets you pay homage to the previous home owner.

That's exactly what I was able to do with the piece of wood that once held a metal bar in the master bathroom. The bar was used to help the previous owner stand up after a visit to the royal throne.

Although that may not be an ideal way to remember the man who built the current Rearick Family Estate, the previous owner was supposed to be a pretty crotchety old guy, so maybe it IS quite fitting.

Anyway, I knew that the piece of wood should get a second life. Inspiration hit, and I thought what a cool hat rack it would make for the foyer.

So after some wood filling and sanding, I was ready to use my Annie Sloan chalk paint once again. I wanted a ''found this at a flea market'' kind of shabby chic, so I dry brushed (using very little paint) parts of it Paris grey, while painting the middle white. I then scuffed it up some with sand paper to give it that patina-ed look.

Mr. Hubby then attached it to the wall after drilling in the hooks.

I'm pretty proud of the results. I still have to touch up a little damage from the drill, but other than that, it's good to go.

So the next time you find something at your house that's old or not useful anymore, think if you can use it in another way. You just might surprise yourself.

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and creative Thanksgiving!!!

Before

After

This and That

I've had a pretty busy week -- but unfortunately, not with house projects.

I have the opportunity to stage a home that a friend is trying to sell. I've always had a dream of starting a home staging business, so I jumped at the chance to work gratis so I can start building my portfolio. But with great enthusiasm often comes great naivete, and that's exactly what happened to me.

I thought furniture stores would jump all over themselves to trade furniture on a short-term basis in exchange for free advertising, but it turns out, not so much. They give a 10-20% designer discount (oh, how I love being called a ''designer''), but nothing more.

So I now have quite a dilemma. Do I throw caution to the wind and fork out money for a few pieces of furniture that I could use on later staging jobs? Or do I see reality for what it is -- everyone loves the idea of staging, but no one wants to pay for it -- and accept the fact that getting other staging jobs would be a tough, if not impossible, task?

I'm hoping to come to some decision over the weekend on that conundrum.

I also had my second substitute teaching gig yesterday. I spent the morning with first graders and the afternoon with kindergartners. Every time I spend extended time with those kiddos, I earn more and more respect for teachers. Kids are crazy, I tell you -- especially the kindergarten youngsters, who are being taught the basics of listening and raising hands and not flooding bathrooms with toilet water.

But I digress ...

On the home front, I'm still trying to work room by room -- right now, I'm still on the foyer. This weekend, I hope to touch up the baseboards and apply a dragonfly stamp to add a little pattern to the walls.

I also plan to repurpose a piece of wood that we (OK, Mr. Hubby) removed from the master bath. It was previously holding up a metal bar by the toilet (remember, a very old guy was living here previously). My goal is to turn it into a coat/hat rack for one of the foyer walls.

Wishing you much success with your weekend projects, too!

Here's the wood from the bathroom. Can't you just see it as a hat rack??

Just Call Me Poly-Anna

I haven't been goofing off the past few days, as you might have thought due to my lack of posts. I've actually been working like a dog applying coat after coat of polyurethane on the foyer floor, post Miss Annie Sloan chalk paint.

I now have four coats protecting (I hope) the floor like LevelHead Canine protects a well-earned bone. And so far, no scratches or scrapes. Fingers crossed that the floor stays like this for the next 30 years, until we're so senile we won't even remember how to get to the foyer.

I'm now in search of an area rug to further protect the main walking path. I thought I had found a major bargain at Big Lots for $20. But when I got it home and unrolled, it looked more like one of those industrial rugs you see as you walk into a discount store, like maybe Big Lots -- the very store where I bought the rug (an obscure Seinfeld reference for truly devoted fans).

After touching up the baseboards that I splattered with grey paint (yes, I used tape; I don't know how the paint got there), I want to put some kind of stencil or stamp on the walls to give them a little pizazz.

Oh, the work never ends for a would-be HGTV Design Star...

Before and After pics for your viewing pleasure:

All Hail, Annie Sloan!

In my last post, I was having some issues with The Great Chalk Paint Experiment. I didn't like the color, and the paint wasn't really adhering to the slate floor in the entryway.

I decided to prime it well (as well as my impatient self could handle), and then it was off to the boutique that sells the Annie Sloan chalk paint for advice and a new hue.


My ready for prime-time floor ..

The owner was oh-so-informative and eventually helped me choose a new color: Paris Grey. I knew it was meant to be because the walls are Parisian Mist. It'll be like visiting the Eiffel Tower when you come to our house!

My plan was to mix the original color with the new and come up with a creamy grey or a greyish cream. But after some experimentation, Mr. Hubby and I agreed that Paris Grey full-throttle was the way to go. The other permutations looked a little pukey.

Paris Grey is on the large tile; the other two are a 1:1 ratio with the Cream paint; then a 2:1 Cream to PG.

With roller in hand, I spent the next five hours painting ... and painting ... and painting. The grout lines are what got me. At first I was painting the tiles first and filling in the grout. But then I'd have to go back and repaint the tiles to make sure I didn't get too many nasty lines.

About halfway through (yes, sometimes my little pea brain takes a while to catch on), I switched it up and painted the grout first -- much quicker.

After it dried, I could see all the spots I missed or where the paint didn't soak in, so a second coat was on the docket for Saturday. Great plan, but when I got started, I couldn't really tell where I had been vs. where I needed to go. So I ended up just touching up the light spots and hoping for the best.

Yesterday, we moved the area rug back in so I could see exactly which parts of the floor are going to show. A few touch ups later, it was time to remove the tape to see what havoc I had wreaked on the baseboards. Some of them have lovely streaks of Paris Grey paint on them, so touching those up will have to be added to the to-do list.

So after writing this post, it's off to the hardware store for some polyurethane. Our experience hasn't been the best with these shellac-type products -- they always seem to change the color of the paint -- but I'm hoping for the best.

My plan is to put about four coats on (advice from other blogs). Then we'll move everything back into the room.

The absolute hardest part of this whole project has been keeping the dog out of the area. She's been quarantined during actual painting times (she thinks it's major punishment) and cut off from part of the house (she'd have to pass through the foyer on her way) while it's drying. She is SO ready for this particular project to be over.

If I do a good job getting a first coat of poly down, I may treat myself and go to the fabric store in search of pillow material that has the green from the walls and the grey from the floor. There's nothing like a pillow to cure any interior design problem that ails ya (my thought for the day).

The photo doesn't look that great; to see the real thing, you'll have to visit ...

If At First You Don't Succeed ...

I assume that many inventors and scientists, the great minds of our past and present, had many goofs before they shouted "Eureka!" in the bathtub.

That's where I am right now: The Great Chalk Paint Experiment hasn't gone according to plan, but I'm not giving up yet, especially because I've painted about one-fifth of the foyer floor, so there's no going back now.

But I have learned a lot from my mistakes of today. First, I need to do more prep. I did wash the floors pretty thoroughly (for me, anyway) with trisodium phosphate (TSP), the heavy duty cleaner trusted by most painting professionals (I hope).

Then I did some taping around the baseboards. But I didn't prime the floors, so the paint didn't want to adhere very well. Plus, I didn't have a great roller or quality nylon brush (recommended by the chalk paint creator herself, Annie Sloan) or a brush small enough to do a good job on the grout.

Also, I don't think I like the color; it's a little more yellow than cream. So I may pick up another hue and maybe even mix them (insert inventor creepy laugh here).

So it's back to the drawing board tomorrow. It'll start with a trip to the hardware store, and then the insanity will begin again -- Part Deux ...

The foyer floor, as I'm waiting for it to dry after cleaning; then the partially painted floor without priming.

Where Are We??

Whenever acquaintances ask me how the house is going, I'm never quite sure what to say.

I guess it depends on what their expectations are. If they're thinking we still may not have a working kitchen, then, wow, we are kicking butt! If they're assuming the entire house should be done by now, well, then they're going to be sorely disappointed.

The living area -- including the all-inclusive kitchen, dining and living rooms -- is pretty much done except for cosmetic changes: backsplash, more pictures, that sort of thing. But some of the other rooms on the first floor haven't even been touched. Others are in mid-project status with no forward progress predicted in the near future.

So where does that leave us? I'm not sure. As far as I know, there's no phone app that tells us how far we should be on the reno by now. If there is, please Facebook me.

Part of the problem is that we've definitely plateaued -- once the house became ''livable'', progress kind of came to a screeching halt. I'm hoping I can get more things done now that I'm home full days; but unless I hire out some of the bigger jobs, I have to wait for Mr. Hubby anyway.

I guess I'm in a contemplative mood today. But it's hard not to be when you look around, and there are entire rooms crying out for attention, but not getting nearly enough, if any at all.

So in the meantime, I thought I'd try to post some pictures of the living area, so that you can see that we have made some progress in these past seven months.

The shower door in LevelHead Jr.'s bathroom is supposed to be installed today, but the guy should have arrived by now, so who knows if that will actually happen.

And tomorrow, unless something unforeseen happens, I'm going to clean the slate tile in the foyer like it's never been cleaned before so I can begin the Great Chalk Paint Experiment.

So I guess there is SOME progress ...

Before and Afters:

 

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Big Plans

Got my first substitute teaching gig today -- Whohoo!! I grabbed it from the SubFinder website before anyone had a chance to take it away from me!

On the home front, I want to start tackling one room at a time -- as much as I can. This doing a little here and a little there is leaving me feeling disorganized and unproductive.

First room on the docket? The foyer. I'm about 80% done with the painting -- still need to touch up the areas that had the most joint compound and are refusing to accept the paint. But once I get that complete, it's on to the floor.

The entryway has slate tile -- dark, dark slate tiles. Yes, I know, they're expensive. But they're so totally not my taste, but with only a limited reno budget at this point, I don't want to replace them. What's the next best thing?? Paint them!

I know that the big problem with painted floors is adhesion. But I've also been hearing a lot about a certain kind of paint that was designed by this woman in England: Annie Sloan. It's called chalk paint, a very matte paint that she created to be used on a lot of surfaces without the need for sanding, priming -- basically, any of the boring prep work that takes all the fun out of creative painting.

So my peanut brain started wondering if anyone has used chalk paint on slate tile. And thanks to the oh-so-reliable internet, I found several blogs where woman used Annie Sloan paint with great results -- some even in their foyers.

Lucky for me, there's a boutique in our small town that carries AS paint, and thanks to my friend Ellen who agreed to be dragged along, I purchased a can in a cream color.

So this is my next project. The hard part is finding the right time to paint. The bloggers recommend not walking on it for two days. The electricians are coming tomorrow and the shower door installers on Monday. Hmmm, gonna have to think on that one ...

Hope everyone is enjoying a safe and happy Halloween! Our town's trick-or-treating has been postponed until tomorrow, so the fun and candy will be extended 24 hours!

The slate floor as is. Can you say dark (and dirty)?

 

The hopefully ultimate in paint applications: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!!