Projects

When Mike switched jobs and became a ski patroller, we were excited to have summers off together.  So far, that hasn't really worked out in our favor.  But, that's ok.  He's been picking up a lot of shifts at work which we are really very grateful for.  And for the remainder of summer he will actually be working full time.  So, instead of spending lots of time hiking and mountain biking and paddling (like we originally intended for this summer), he's been spending lots of time at work and I've been spending my free time working on small projects around the house.  

One of the first things to get done in the house was our upstairs bathroom.  Overall, the bathroom is fine.  The fixtures are all relatively new.  The layout works.  It is the smallest room in the house, and the one that needed the least amount of work to make it what we want... so obviously I started there. 

The only problems I had with this room were:

 1) There were 4 different finishes in this one tiny room... brass door handles, chrome faucets, oil rubbed bronze bathroom accessories, and satin nickel cabinet hardware.  That's a lot of different fixtures for a tiny room.  

2) There wasn't much storage.  The only storage available was in the bathroom vanity.  So, we always ended up sticking a lot of things (like extra paper towels, toilet paper, towels, etc) in the shower!  Not a big deal because we don't often use that shower but, still, it was kind of annoying.  

So, during our visit to NC, I noticed my mom had painted all the handles in their house an oil rubbed bronze color and they looked amazing!  With that as my inspiration, we did the same.  

This sounds like a super easy project and in theory it is.  But, I wanted to make sure I did it correctly because I want it to last as long as possible.  So, I took off all the hardware, cleaned it, sanded it, cleaned it again and then sprayed primer, paint, and a clear enamel layer on top.  Might've been overkill in hindsight but if you can have a little patience (which I struggle with), it turns out pretty well.  

BEFORE

DURING

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU AREN'T PATIENT

AFTER

 I also decided to spray a couple of soap dispensers throughout the house.  They were old and needed to be replaced.  But, I was on a roll and figured I would give them a shot with the spray paint.  

BEFORE
RUSTY AND GROSS

AFTER
SLEEK AND SHINY AGAIN

So far, so good with the soap dispensers.  The paint is holding up well to lots of use.  And when they do wear out, I get to go buy new ones.  But, at least I salvaged these as long as I could.  

So the other issue was storage.  This bathroom has the old "pass through" that connected the two sides of the duplex.  On our side is a door, on the neighbors side is just a sheet of plywood.  That doesn't offer much of a sound barrier between the bathrooms.  

 The nice thing though, it that this area is about 7-8 inches deep... perfect for a set of shelves in my opinion.  

So, I headed to Lowe's and bought a sheet of 1/2" sound board (which I doubled up to make 1 inch thick), and a sheet of bead board to make the back wall look a bit prettier.  

I found old plywood in the basement and marked out the dimensions for the shelves.  I took it to Lowe's and they cut it for free.  

There was only one problem, the guy cut 2 of the 3 boards too short!  He cut them on the wrong line (there was a faint old red line on the boards and he cut on those instead of my nice, new, black lines). 

Naturally, I didn't double check his work in the store (that would be rude) so I didn't realize this mistake until I got home.  Great!  Perfect.  

Anyway, I decided it wasn't a big deal and I could either have new pieces of plywood cut OR I could attempt to resolve the situation and just make the best of it.  

Luckily, we have a basement that just seems to keep providing for our needs.  I started looked around the basement for anything I could use to salvage this project.  I stumbled across 2 pieces of black plumbing pipe which I used as legs for the 2 short boards.  

  PERFECT solution!  And this ended up being a total blessing because now I have a tall, skinny opening on the side of the closet that so perfectly houses our broom and swiffer!  It couldn't have worked out any better if i'd planned it that way!  

I got way too excited over this new found storage!  It's so nice to have a purpose to that wasted space.  

It's awesome to have one small project finished (on a list of seemingly never ending projects)!  Maybe I can get a few more done before the school year starts back up... stay tuned.