Upstairs Projects - check 'em off!

Last night I was going through our list and was so excited to see that we are over halfway there.  We won't meet our deadline and we have added a few projects to the list but it feels good.  It is always nice when you can check a few items off that nagging list of projects.

Today I am sharing 4 more projects that we finished upstairs.  Upstairs at our house consists of 3 bedrooms, the playroom and a bathroom.  These projects were focused on the bedrooms.

{ Project #12 }

Move daughter's clothes to her room {DONE}

In our last house, we had my daughter's dresser inside her closet and it was awesome.  However our closets are slightly smaller here and the dresser drawers wouldn't open since the doors are in the way.  Ultimately we would like to put a whole closet system in both of the kids closets.  But, alas, that is a down the road project.

This was a pretty quick one - just involved moving some furniture.  We traded out my daughter's clothes dresser which had been in the guest room with the smaller dresser from her room that was originally used as a baby changing table.

Before:  In the guest room

After:  In my daughters room - notice the pink!

Since my daughter is now almost 7 she has the responsibility of getting herself dressed in the morning.  Additionally, I call on her to put her own clothes away (well, when I am not having a "only I can do it right" moment).  To assist her in finding what she needs and of course, to add some girly fun, I made drawer labels in Picnik and had them printed on photo paper so they are nice and durable.

I simply taped them on and it has worked great.  My girly girl loved the flowers and touch of pink!  Project is done and the added bonus of having a happy little girl!

{ Project #15 }

Window treatments for my daughter's room {DONE}

We completed awesome window treatments for my son last year and I love them.  My daughter has been bugging for curtains too.  I searched and searched and finally found a fabric I liked in a price I could afford. 

The bright pink zebra print was the perfect color pink (and at $2.50 a yard I couldn't resist).  As an added bonus, JoAnn's had small plastic grommets (just like the ones I used in my son's room) on clearance for under $3 a set which is about 75% off!  Yay!

 

I love how they turned out.  It definitely brings a nice pop of color.  I will share more about this project next week but for now, it is DONE! 

{ Project #16 }

Finish the grommets on my son's curtains {DONE}

As mentioned above, I made curtains for my son's room last year and they are great.  We used these great snap together grommets.  They are really cool but can be quite stubborn to snap together.  I was so excited to see the curtains up, I left a couple of the grommets off that I couldn't get to snap into place. 

Well, it was time to finish this project once and for all.  I pulled down the curtains and tried again to no avail.  Since the header is 3 layers of this heavy canvas fabric it was too thick.  It finally dawned on me, if I trim away a bit of the middle layer, I could snap the grommets together much easier.  Bingo, it worked.  Why I didn't think of that sooner I don't know. 

I still just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the red striped curtains.

{ Project #22 }

Redo lamp for guest bedroom {DONE}

This has got to be the easiest project, but of course, it took for ever.  I guess the motivation that I wanted a new bedside table in the guest room before my Mom came to visit (and this LIST) was enough motivation to get it done.

Off to the store we headed to buy a simple shade for the lamp my husband found at Goodwill store on 50% Saturday.  After cleaning up the base, we decided not to spray paint it at this point.

I love the rectangular shape of this shade and how it frames the space above the bedside table.  I have an idea to embellish the shade using gross grain ribbon like this one at Target.

I love how clean and crisp it looks.  Of course, I would also love to do this for some new shades in the living room too so I guess we will see.

Four more project checked off the list.  Next up, we are heading outside to the garages to share a few projects.

3 Kitchen Projects {DONE}

Today I am sharing 3 quick fixes in the kitchen.  Three more project to check off our get it done list!  Can't believe it took us so long to finish these.

{ Project #13 }

Secure slide out shelf in liquor cabinet {DONE}

I know how this one sounds and honestly, we are not big drinkers but we do keep some bottles around for parties and entertaining. My Dad suggested we move one of the slide-out shelves in a small cupboard to the bottom to allow for the taller bottles to fit. This worked great and the pull out shelf makes it much easier to find what we are looking for. Unfortunately, I took the shelf out but never got it secured. So it sits on the bottom of the cabinet.

As expected, it was a quick 10 minute project that has taken a year and a half to complete!  My husband emptied the cabinet and quite quickly got the shelf secured.  Easy peasy!

 

{ Project #17}

Replace trash and recycle bin in kitchen {DONE}

I can't believe this one took so long!  It is awesome.  And of course, when I took my trash loving son to Target and told him we were buying new garbage cans he LIT up with excitement.  Nothing pleases this boy more than trash (which is why we own over 12 toy garbage trucks, the Toy Story landfill and oodles of toy and real trash cans). 

We are big on recycling in our house so we keep a small bin in the kitchen to separate our trash immediately. The reality is, we generally have more (or at least as much) recycling as we do trash - and probably would have more if we had a bigger container. I have been looking for a slim can that we could use side by side in the kitchen so that this area not only looks good but is more functional.  We have succeeded.

 

Now, some day I hope to own an awesome Silhouette machine so I can make some fun labels.  In the mean time, we made trash & recycle signs that are taped to the sides.  Works fine but vinyl would be better.  A girl can dream!

{ Project #24 }

Replace Light Bulb in Oven {DONE}

This was a project that should have been completed when we were replacing the glass on the door of our oven but sadly it wasn't.  After "asking" at a couple of stores about what type of light bulb we needed and told they didn't carry it, we figured out that it is a relatively standard appliance light bulb.  Guess we should have just read the packages rather than asking for advice.   Lesson learned, sometimes we know as much or more than the employees at the store.

I would say that this is an easy job, however sometimes the contortionist act that we need to do to reach the back of the oven can be challenging and comical. Thank heavens that my husband took on this challenge. Thanks hubby! Check that one off the list!

As an added bonus, last week I spent a little time cleaning the inside of the oven too.  It looks awesome.  It wasn't horrible but I didn't realize how much build up there was on the sides and back of the oven.  Check that one off my spring cleaning list!  Yay me!

Come back tomorrow when I check off a few projects upstairs!

PROJECT Check-Up! I'm back!

Well, I have nothing more to say than - sorry if you thought I dropped off the face of the earth.  I didn't, I am here and I am trying to get back in to blogging. 

Despite not being around, we have actually completed a few projects around the house.  This week I will begin to share the progress we have made on our 24 projects on our To Do list (a laundry list of to-dos fashioned after the list of fellow blogger Allison at House of Hepworths)!  These are projects both big and small that we have been putting off for various reasons and just need to get them done. 

Since I published this list, I have had many friends say that they too have a list of projects and quick repairs that they just keep putting off.  So here is a taste of a few of the projects that we have knocked off this list!

The very first weekend of this challenge, we were able to complete 6 projects in just 2 days and still have some fun and family time.  That should give you an idea of how easy it was - so get off the computer and just do it!  (Since we are now almost 2 months later reporting in, you can see that blogging about these is much more difficult!) 

Here are the first 2 projects!  DONE!  Yay us!

{ Project #2 }

Replace popped light switches ►{DONE}

This was an easy one!  Well sort of.  We had replaced several of these switches when we originally bought the house but missed a couple.  My husband grabbed the contractors box of switches we had bought. 

Hint:  Look for a deal.  If you need a bunch of something, check if they sell them in multi-packs.  We needed 8 or so switches so instead of buying them individually, we purchased a contractors pack (at Lowes) that had 12 switches for a deeply discounted price.  The contractors pack was the same price as if we had purchased 3 or 4 inidividually.

We did have to make a quick trip to Lowes though.  The switch in the hallway is a "common swtich" - meaning that there are two switches that control that one light.  We have a switch by the back door and a switch at the other end of the hallway that allows you to turn the light on from either end of the hall.  Well, these types of switches have one additional connection on them called the common line.  This line recognizes whether the light is on or off and determines what the switch needs to do when it is flipped.

The trip was quick and the project is DONE!  Yay us!

{ Project #7 }

Repair and repaint ceiling in front room ►{DONE}

 

Again this was a quick one.  My wonderful husband scraped away the little bit of flaking texture.  Then, using a basic spray on knock-down texture we filled in the area.  While you wouldn't use this aerosol spray texture for an entire room, it is perfect for patch jobs and repairs.

Make sure to protect your floor and anything else in the area as you will likely have some over spray.  Once you have prepped your area, simply follow the direction on the can.  We sprayed a light to medium coat of texture over our desired area.  After about 5 minutes we went back in and gently "knocked it down" with a wide scraper or trowel. 

We let it dry for a day and then touched up the paint. While it is not "perfect" it sure looks alot better than it did previously.  Ultimately, we need to repaint this entire section of ceiling but to be honest, that is NOT happening any time soon.  For now, ceiling repair and touch-up - DONE!

I will be back tomorrow with a couple of more projects that we have checked off the list!

Have a great week!