Monthly Project – branching out… on a limb

July Project #1, All Done- No More Ugly Door

Bye-bye, ugly front door!

Door sanded, wood filler dried and sanded

Going–

It was easier than I thought to paint with the door still on the hinges... — It was easier than I thought to paint with the door still on the hinges…

Going-

Ta da!! Nothing left but to let it dry and clean up!

Gone!

Although I didn’t need to use the orbital sander (overkill) or take the door entirely down for easier painting, it still feels great to complete a project that I never tried before. I’m glad I made myself round up a bunch of new-to-me home improvement projects; we have let many little jobs like this slide for too long with our weekday long commutes and our weekend family activities. If I have enough time to watch two seasons of “Agents of Shield” and “Agent Carter,” season one, I have enough time to get some painting done around here… no more excuses. Wish me luck, I have two or three more painting jobs on my list.

I think the outside entryway looks lovely.

Abby likes it too-

“Are you done yet? Take me for a walk, the cats are talking smack and I want to go check my pmail accounts.”

One last before and after for my records-

Go me!

Move over, Nike, I’m Going to Just Do It

What happens when you have little to no home improvement skills or experience, and you try to apply wood filler to parts of your front door?

What happens if you botch up the job?

Will you permanently ruin your lovely front door? Will the children have to hang their head in shame and say that they don’t really live here when friends come by? Will one hundred handymen pop out of the bushes, pointing their fingers at you and laughing? Will you glue the front door shut with the wood filler??

Nope.

Yeah, look at that fine job! I’ve sanded down all of the wood filler and hope to take the door off the hinges tomorrow and paint this bad boy a lovely dark green.

When this project is finished, I am going to very much enjoy telling the little voice in my head that always says how I can’t do anything that it is time to shut up once and for all. Nyah!

July Project of the Month- Interior DIY (or, “In Which I Visit Lowe’s/Home Depot 42 Times in One Month”)

I remember when we bought our first home almost twenty years ago, we learned really fast that you don’t start a repair project after 2:00 on a Sunday afternoon. N00bs like us tended to have to head back to the home improvement store at least five more times than the first three trips you originally planned on making. All the shops we needed closed at 6:00 on a Sunday evening back then, leaving us fat out of luck and stuck amidst unconnected parts and unfinished projects until the DIY store reopened.

Wish me luck- I am going to try to fix, repair, paint and/or decorate a bunch of stuff around here this month. Maybe I can learn how to operate a few power tools, yeah! The To Do list has gotten a little long and it is time to start hacking away at it.

But I won’t be starting anything after 2:00 on a Sunday. I’ve learned that lesson.

Is this a summer To Do list? Or is this just wishful thinking?

May Project of the Month- Graduate Two Teens & Maintain My Sanity

Two teens graduating, two freshmen next year, family coming over two weekends in a row for lots of people and lots of love overflowing. Graduate gifts to be purchased, traditional graduation projects for both schools to craft, reservations to make, photos still needing to be booked, housework to finish. Tears will be shed!

We will be making a big dent in that two cases of wine we won a couple of months ago…

The closest thing I think I want to do that resembles a Project of the Month is to pick several of the cookie recipes I have squirreled away on Pinterest and start baking. I bake and cook when I am stressed. It is the main hobby that I enjoy, and as a bonus- I can share the results with the friends and family that I have thoroughly annoyed along the way.

There’s a lot to choose from, just look at the number of ideas I have pinned here:

A few mini retreats to the kitchen are just the thing for me this month. I’ll also get to practice my food photography and promise to share the recipes- those that bomb and those we like!

APRIL Project Part Five- Sidewalk Prettifying and Yard Beautification… because the neighbors deserve it.

Almost finished… I’m just waiting for the Arctotis to be delivered from the nursery. Poop. I wanted this to be a finished project, but we will just have to use our imagination on this.

We have two small spots in our yard that are difficult to keep nice. Here’s the before and after of my Sidewalk Beauty Pagent, Contestant #1:

And Contestant #2, mid weeding, old mulch raked off, waiting to be planted and remulched. Some nice, big rocks would look right at home there, too:

Here is the same type of plant I ordered, a red arctotis. I’ve seen this plant at one house in our neighborhood for about two years now. Arctotis blooms year round with these big red flowers that look like gerbera daisies. Low water needs, long lasting color- I’ll take two, please! I snapped this second pic in Balboa Park showing the rocks that I want to place next to the arctotis plants… got to wait to place the rocks, also. Need my muscle riding shotgun, so the rocks will have to wait until the weekend when I can conscript The Husband!

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