Slowly but surely...

Things are coming together.  Slower than I want, but at least projects are getting finished, you know?

First, I finished the shelves in the foyer on...Sunday, I guess?  They look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The foyer is always kind of a sticky spot.  I want to make sure it doesn't end up cluttered, but man...it seems that the flat spaces end up covered in stuff really quickly.

When we redid the office, we ended up redoing the foyer as well, and it was...it was not bad.  Not phenomenal, but not bad.

Yeah, there was still clutter, and stuff on the buffet, but it worked pretty well.

Well, I got a wild hair up my nose the other week, and decided I wanted something different in the foyer.  I was kinda tired of the mirror, and kinda tired of the lack of space and no place to put keys, etc.

So, I build some floating shelves, and moved some things around.

I put the floating shelves up, painted them, and then decided maybe they weren't as sturdy as I really wanted them to be, despite the instructions' promise that I could put the Encyclopedia Britannica on them.  So, Dena (the housemate) and I decided that I could put something under them to support them, just in case they were't sturdy enough, and I remembered my fascination with pipe furniture.

If you're not familiar with pipe furniture, here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://www.smallhomelove.com/pipe-decor/

http://www.the-brick-house.com/2009/09/shelving-unit/

So, instead of using iron pipe, which I didn't think I'd really need, I grabbed some 1" PVC, and sponge painted it to look like bronzy pipe.  I would have liked to use little flanged feet on the shelves and the walls, but I needed 16 of them, and at $4 a pop, it got a bit expensive.  So, I used pieces that looks like giant hex nuts.  Sort of.

I also made a spot to hang keys, and I think I'm going to clean out the side cabinets on the buffet to store motorcycle helmets in.

Now, we're moving on to the bathroom.  I can't remember the name of the white we picked, but the walls will be "Monorail Silver."

It's gorgeous and I can't wait to get started.  A friend of Dena's came over last night and helped cut the hole for the vessel sink, as well as the vessel filler faucet.

The vessel sink is amazing.

I can't wait to see it all come together this weekend.  I'll take lots of before, progress and after pics!

Onwards and upwards...

Or maybe sideways and diagonally, really.

I decided to put off the bathroom remodel by a week.  The primer on the dresser is being a pain, taking forever to cure, so I haven't been able to scuff sand yet, and the final coats aren't on.  So, that's delayed putting the tile on the top...and so on and so forth.

So, I'm going to use this weekend to finish up a couple other projects, or at least get them to a stage further along than "Hey! I have a GREAT IDEA!"

With that said, I'll scuff sand the dresser and spray the first coat of finish paint.  Then, I need to cut a sheet of luan to fit inside where the baskets will go.

We got some tall cabinets to fit in beside the vanity/dresser in the upstairs bathroom, so I need to scuff sand them and prime them to get them ready.  Then, I think I'm going to figure out a way to possibly install glass in them instead of the solid wood door.  We'll see how *that* turns out...

The undersink organizers also need a coat of finish paint, so that I can get them installed already!

I'm also thinking, since I'll have the paint sprayer out, I'm going to go ahead and sand and paint the sideboard thingie in the front hall.  It's pretty, but I want to lighten up a bit, so I think I'm going to go white, maybe with a charcoal glaze.  Or a silver glaze.  That would be awfully pretty!

On that note, I'm going to get rid of the mirror over the sideboard, and put up shelves.  We could use the space to move some books around, and get rid of the big bookshelf by the front door.  It's massively clunky and doesn't go with the idea I want at all.  I think floating shelves, with crown molding on the bottom will look fabulous, and we should be able to get most of the books in that shelf up on them.

Also, I need to strip the hardware off the door, fill in some gaps and attach the new 2x6 boards to make it a bit wider. Then comes priming and painting.  I think I can pick up the track for the door this weekend and it might actually go up!  YAY!

I'm tired just thinking about all this!

One more project down!

Since there is someone living upstairs now, the temperature in the upper rooms is a bit more important than it used to be.  If we're comfortable downstairs, you could roast marshmallows up, and if it's comfortable upstairs, penguins are asking you for a glass of water down. I figured using wall hangings to control the air flow might help, so we started planning to put up curtains along the half walls.

It's been a long time, at least it seems like it, but they're up.  I kinda like them!  Also, we're going to hang art along the curtain rods, so we can use some more "wall" space!

From the inside, looking up into the sewing room.

From the driveway.  It's actually kind of nice to have the curtains there, since it means that folks can move around upstairs without the neighborhood seeing them.

To-do list for Monday...

Really, this is getting nuts.  I have a lot of energy, though, and I want to take advantage of it.

Finish putting the second dresser together, and move John's clothes.  (He's going to get a bonus, because I'll end up refolding them all.)

I bought curtain rod brackets from Ikea, and rods to go with them, so those need to go up.  I think I forgot the corner section, though, so I'll need to zip over and pick one up.  After that, it's time to cut, serge and hem the curtain panels.  I don't think I'm going to line them, because OMG lotta work, and the backside of the fabric isn't UGLY.

Later this week, I've got more projects!  Edge-join boards for the new sliding door and paint it.  It's going to stay red, at least on the bedroom side, and I'll paint the side facing the bathroom the same color as the trim.

The sidelights need to be reset into frames that aren't too big for the openings and painted.  I have the hanging hardware for those, so that'll be easy.

There was this door, see...

I don't have any pictures, yet, but I did fix the HUMONGO hole in the door.

Right now, I need to caulk the exterior patch plywood, but holy smokes I love the red color!  On the inside, the door is white again (which makes the trim look really dingy...) and I will be putting some extra paint on the MDF because I totally forgot to prime it.  However, I did router the edges, and it looks NICE!

It looks nice, but oddly dark, now that there's not a window in the bottom of the door.  Of course, when it rained on Sunday, the smaller door didn't let the rain in, so that was WONDERFUL!

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how much help the Beloved Boy was this weekend.  No Badger Boy, just helpful and sweet and encouraging!  Also, the Yeti came by, and helped hold the door while I futzed around with a jigsaw, and was THAT helpful!

More on the subject of "stuff I did this weekend..."

The sewing room got put back together Friday, which was really nice!

At one point, there were five people in the room, and it wasn't too crowded to work. YAY!

I don't have any pictures of Dave's subarmalis, but it's done and he seems pleased.  I think I see some places where we can tweak the design, but overall...very happy with it.

Then, yesterday, because the Beloved Boy and I had some major steam, we tackled the master bedroom closet.

I don't have any real "before" pictures because there is no way to handle that level of humiliation being posted online, but there is one "in the middle."

 You really can't see how many shoes were under the lower rod on the left, but it basically made the lower rod unusable.  So, we tamed those.

The boxes with the mesh on the front are from Ikea, and there's a surprising amount of room in them.  Some have heels, some have boots... And the larger boxes with the handles on the front are also from Ikea.  Those are boot storage.  The ones are the end are labelled.

The sort-of end result.  Well, the end result for yesterday.  There's another dresser to put together, and I'm going to cut the rail off, but it's a start.  John's clothes will go in here, and we'll move the tall dresser out of the master.   I'll post more pix when I'm closer to done.

Now, on to planning for the master bath and the sliding door.  I've already removed the two stupid half-doors that lead into the master bathroom, and the new sliding door is waiting to be put together!  YAY!