Projecty McProjectson

I felt like that should have been my new name when I was knocking out my "Summer To-do list."

Every spring my list begins...and I just noticed from my past home project entries that it's about this time every year that I report back on how I did.  Nothing big this year, just several little things that I had been wanting to do for awhile.

I can thank Young House Love for the inspiration for most of my projects.  I just love their blog.  They are fun writers and I enjoy how they take you through their decision-making process as they make improvements to their home.  I feel like I know them.  I feel like I am their friend.  That might be creepy, but I think that's just the result of good writing.


I've been wanting to paint the banister to continue to get rid of the ash wood, well, for forever.  I've never been a fan.  When I saw this post, I knew it was time to add it to the list.

I'm so glad that I went with the Polyshades stain instead of just painting it.  I never would have thought of that without YHL.  They used a deep brown shade but I went with Classic Black since I wanted it to match the kitchen table that we painted a few summers ago.



After the kids went to sleep one night I wiped down, sanded, taped off and applied the first coat.  And it looked awful.

And I thought, what the heck have I done?!



But after I applied a second coat the next night, and touched up a few places the next afternoon it made a world of difference.  Love it!  Should have done this a long time ago!



Next on the list, paint the pantry door black.


 I love the look of the black doors you see all over Pinterest and if you look close you can see the woodwork is cream (since I painted it when we moved in to get rid of some of the ash!) but the door is still white.

I used Behr Ultra paint in Broadway color.  Same as the banister, very scary after one coat.


I did not remove the door, especially since I didn't even paint the inside of it since it's just the pantry.


But a few coats later, yay!  Love how it turned out!



Banister and pantry door...lookin' good.


Also on the to-do list was to paint over the brass on the fireplace doors.  While discussing this with the paint man at Home Depot he suggested just using the same paint that I was already buying for the pantry door since the fireplace doors are always open and don't get very hot when the (gas) fire is on (which it rarely is).


Was worth a try.  Before, it seemed to yell at you, "I'm brass!" and now it just kinda whispers "I used to be brass" if you look closely.



Continuing on with the quest to {inexpensively} get rid of the brass, I painted the door knobs as well.


I failed to document this with pics but I pretty much did exactly as YHL did in this post here.



The oil-rubbed bronze spray paint is amazing!  I wanted to paint everything with it!  It definitely gives a more updated look.  I didn't attempt to do the hinges.  If it bothers me (which it doesn't so far) there's always next summer!


I overheard Cade telling Matt's mom, "My mom's been painting everything black around here."  Which, was actually very true!

I've always hated the tile in the main hall bathroom.  It's just so...weird.  The grout is so dirty-looking and the tiles are a strange color.  I've cleaned and cleaned the floor and there's some strange sand-colored accents on the edges of the tile so the cleaner it gets the dirtier it actually looks!

I've always just tried to cover it with rugs.  

YHL used this GroutRenew in their foyer and it made such a difference.  I knew I wanted to try it in this bathroom and hoped it would be the solution!

It helps, but it's not a huge game-changer.  See the brown spots on the tile?  Who chose this?!

It actually does look better in person and I've been very happy with the $12 attempt to help it.

Our hallway makes a strange little "jog" over...

...so last summer I hung an oil-drip pan (10 bucks from Wal-Mart) and created our calendar area.  This year I wanted to add some frames and hanging clips to display some of the kids' artwork.

I picked up some damaged frames from the clearance section at Hobby Lobby pretty inexpensively. 

Hung two frames with clips down in the kitchen area too where I previously just taped the projects to the wall.

I was inspired by the organized and ingenious ladies in my Lifegroup from church.  The hanging basket was a must-have when Cade started bringing home so much correspondence from Preschool!  The top basket holds coupons and mail that needs attention currently.  My last-ditch effort to try to keep the counters clean!

And finally, this last update was not on the list but was added after we arrived home from Disney World to this...

What the heck happened?!  

We'll never know.  It's quite the mystery since the brackets that held the mirror were perfectly intact.  It's like something caused the mirror to break rather than it fell and then broke.

It would have cost more to replace the exact mirror than to get two fancy ones at Hobby Lobby (50% off).

A big thank you to Matt's parents for hanging the mirrors!

So I also picked up a few new things to organize the counter and replaced the knobs.  Ideally, I'd love to have a new counter top and vanity in here...I know they say it's a good investment to put money into the bathrooms in your home, but I have a hard time with that concerning the master bath because no one ever sees ours.  Really, no one.  Have you been in my bathroom?!

Isn't it gross that there's carpet in here?  I remember hating it when we looked at this house and we had it bid to replace with tile...but then decided we could do this on our own.  Ha!

Maybe next summer?