Ohh goodnes...my mind is going fifty ways to Sunday today! I blame it on an overdoes of caffeine, Christmas spirit, and, well let's be honest, sugar.

As I attempt to calm myself down by organizing, putting away, and sorting, taking a nap, I will leave you with a quick before and after for your viewing pleasure.

A few months ago, I had the bright idea that I would "quickly" spiff up our entryway. Well, it didn't turn out to be as quick of a project as I planned. This always happens doesn't it? I figured I would knock it out in a couple of days and we would be left with a much cheerier entry! Well, its been a couple of months and it still isn't technically done. Oh well, it will get there!

I still would like to paint the basement door and surrounding trim, stain  the back door, paint the stairs, and possibly make some curtains. Oh and maybe a new rug for the floor. Either way, there are still a few projects and the painting is probably going to have to wait until spring/summer when the weather is warmer. Paint or stain + cold = no go.

Well, I'm off to enjoy this snowy and blustery post-Christmas day! Peace.

Six Hours Later

So, there has been a change of plans.

Rule #1: NEVER, ever, ever expect things to go according to the plan. Home improvements are just not meant to fit into a nice, tiny box and be tied up with a pretty red bow. Nope. They have a mind of their own. Things change. Projects are inevitably expanded and cost more money. So, thus, projects get cancelled so they don't drain the pocketbook.

 Remember when I was really excited about our plans for the sun porch? Well, they have been put on hold. On our way back from my roommate's wedding, this past weekend, Jonathan and I were discussing plans for the sun porch. He commented that we needed to insulate out there and thus the walls needed to be ripped down. Well, upon further discussion we realized that it would cost us at least a grand to redo the porch.

Sun porch project is now a pending process.

How's that for alliteration?

Long story, made short, we really didn't want to start a project that we couldn't fully fund from the beginning. We have the money in our savings, but are working on building up our emergency fund. So that money is not truly available. Plus, we estimate that it would cost about the same to redo our guest bedroom. Well if that is the case, we should do that first! A guestroom is much more important than a sun porch.

Needless to say, we were both pretty sad about the situation. We were really looking forward to having another room finished--seriously, look at the state of that space!! Having that tower-o-boxes unpacked was an exciting thought. So I got to thinking, "Why not just do something out there that would look nice and be a good temporary solution?"

And that is exactly what I did.

My goal was to utilize the mattress that was out there and also unpack a majority of the boxes. I also wanted to make sure that the space still functioned. This meant that at least one dog pen and various other things that have been stored out there, needed to continue to have a home. Easier said then done. But the room couldn't get much worse than it was before.

First I cleared the space out as best I could and then gave everything a good vacuum, sweep, and mop. At this point the room was smelling lemony-fresh! Plus, all those balls of hair just had to go. Definitely not the accessory that I was going for :)

I decided to buy another white bookshelf--those cheap $15 Walmart bookshelves are really great in a pinch. I also bought a fitted sheet to use on the queen mattress and create a temporary place to read books. I brought in a rug that I had on hand and got rid of the old, stained green one. Finally, I used a bunch of things that I had stored in the guestroom to gussy things up a bit. I really like the overall result. Definitely an improvement. :)

I surprised Jonathan with it last night...and all he has said since then is, "Wow. I just can't get over how nice it looks!" --That's my man!

The Stairway to Haven--Stage One

Now, here is a project that has been slowly coming together. It all started back when we moved into the house. Upon first glance, our stairs were like everyone's...just plain-jane stairs. Definitely nothing special. I knew that I wanted to do something to them, but wanted to wait until we were predominately done with the upstairs.

No need to make them look pretty only to have carpenter boots destroy them again :)

Once that was done, it was time to tackle those dang stairs. They were making a horrible first impression of our haven above. Instead of welcoming us to a relaxing night of sleep, they were saying, "Let's go to the creepy attic." or "Let's climb up the garage stairs to the scary loft." They were everything but impressive. 

At this point you may be asking yourself why I'm writing a post about stairs. Well, in my opinion, they are important. As I said, they are the first impression of our second story. I believe that no space in a home is insignificant. If you create beauty around you, you will feel beautiful and enjoy the space you live in so much more. The stairs did not make me feel beautiful nor enjoy our little space.

Um I have to say that I never thought I would be associating stairs with my feeling beautiful.

I have officially joined the crazy train.

An all new low for me.

My parents would be so proud.

And moving on...

Here are a few "before" pictures of what the stairs used to look like.

Can you see the horrible stair treads? They were rubber...really meant for stairs that are outside or are leading outside. Definitely not meant for a romantic first impression, inside. Practical for an older lady who needs to be careful, but so not attractive.

Have I made my point clear?? 

They were U-G-L-Y and had no alibi reason to be. 

So, we got to work. Well, for this first stage, I got to work. Yay for something that I can contribute to! Just call me a carpenter in training--well maybe a professional painter in training?--yea I got nothin'. 

Either way, my paint brush and some leftover paint were put to good use a few weeks ago. First I primed and painted the risers and stringers--the vertical pieces on the stairs. Here is a picture that outlines the technical terms that I'm referring to. 

(source)

This took me one whole day to accomplish. I would paint a coat, block off the stairs and let it sit for a couple of hours, then paint another coat. 

Don't you love how I blocked off the stairs? I don't have a doggy gate and I had to keep the little puppers away from the stairs. She was way too inquisitive for her own good, hence the pile-o-junk. 

Once all three coats were done, I was getting really excited to see what the end result would be. Look at the fresh coat of white on the risers and stringers. It is such a transformation already!

The next day, I grabbed the rest of the paint from the previous day and primed and painted the treads. Oh! I almost forgot! It it isn't already obvious, we removed the rubber treads that were on the stairs when we purchased the house. You may have noticed that in the pictures above. When I began painting, I was just working with the actual wood treads themselves. :)

Oh and another thing...we decided to paint the stairs white because it was the most neutral thing to do. I went back and forth between doing brown or red on the treads (brown matching the floor in the living room and red matching our bedroom), but ultimately decided that it would look weird to have them match only one part of the house. White just seemed to be the most pleasing color.

So, as I was saying, the next day I used up the rest of the primer and then the rest of the semi-gloss paint, putting the first coat (primer) and second coat (first coat of semi-gloss) on the stairs.

They were looking phenomenal, but I knew that putting on one last coat of semi-gloss would just kick them into "perfection." Oh and adding the rest of the trim would really be the icing on the cake. 

This is where the project starts to take forever. There has been about a month between the first coat of semi-gloss and the last coat. Busy lives and the need to get more paint have put the project on hold. I put the pro at procrastination--just like I have procrastinated on writing this post ;)

So, after a visit to our friendly, local hardware store, we were all set to go again! In the meantime, Jonathan used some caulk to hide a few cracks that were forming between the stringers and the treads. That combined with another coat of paint left the stairs looking flawless. 

And here is a little before and after action for ya. 

Well, that concludes the end of a way-too-long post about stairs. And as you can see, this is just part one. Part two will be shared once all of the trim is installed. But, alas, that is another job that the carpenter has to take care of. 

An Alternative to Cabinet Doors

If you think this post is about the lack of cabinet doors in our kitchen, you would be partially right. Remember how we made the decision to 'bare all' when it came to our upper cabinets? Well, if you are good little blogstalkers, you may also remember that I told you about the special treatment that the under-the-sink-cabinet would be getting.  Just in case your memory is lacking, I had decided that I wanted to put up curtains.

Can you see the radiator in the above picture? Well, because of his presence, there was an ugly cabinet door that covered that side of the cabinet. It looked something like the picture below, except it was only on the one side and the slatted area was smaller and in the center of the door.

{source}

It was a serious eyesore and something that would just collect dust and get really gross overtime. So, I decided that some pretty cabinet curtains were in order. For awhile, when people would walk into our kitchen, they would see the nice wall color, the pretty floors, and then they would look to their right and see this.

Cleaning products anyone? Not very attractive to say the least. Yet, I knew that it was something that  I could easily remedy. That is why I set out to make some curtains.  I knew that I had some leftover fabric that would work perfectly! I had planned to make curtains for the windows in our apartment but I never got around to it. I knew the patterned fabric and the colors in our kitchen would compliment each other nicely.

As fate would have it, I had made one panel before I nixed the curtians in the dining room. The gray fabric was darker than the gray on the walls, but I thought it would be a nice accent.

I also really liked that the green in the floral print and how it complimented the green color of our dining room walls. And since the dining room and kitchen are open to each other, I thought that the fabric would bring it all together nicely.

The curtain panel that I had already made measured about nine feet long, due to the really big windows in our apartment. I also knew that I needed to have at least two, maybe three, curtains for the cabinet. I wanted one to hang on both sides and possibly have one in the middle for filler. (Since this curtain panel was already a specific width, I knew that I might have an issue covering the openings and may need a little filler.)

Now that the fabric aspect was taken careof, I needed to figure out how to hang the darn thing. Thankfully, when we purchased the house, the previous owners left all of their curtains and hardware. So, I hunted around the house and found a rod and two hangers that would work perfectly. Only problem was, the hangers were still attached to the window. So, I just unscrewed the nails and pulled them off. Now I  need to sand down the area and repaint it. Add that to the list of 234236 little things that need to be done around here.

After devising a plan, I got to work. I took the panel that I had and measured the area of patterned fabric. I then divided that number in half and cut it. I was left with a scrap for the new panel I needed to make and then an extra long panel that was already put together. I then measured the opening of the cabinet, taking into consideration where my curtain hardware would be placed, and cut off the gray area. My curtain ended up measuring 32". Here is a picture if all of that mumble-jumble is a bit confusing. 

After that, it was a bit of hemming on one side, creating a curtain hole on the other side, and then creating a new panel with the two fabric scraps. With my two panels created, I decided to try them on for size. 

I got out my hardware and installed it. Ha! If only it were that easy in real life.Picture me contorted in all sorts of weird positions trying to screw in the hardware. It made for a fantastic ab workout though. I want to see you install hardware on the inside of a cabinet where you can barely see. Anyways, the hardware was put up and then I threaded the curtains onto the rod and put her up as well. I was left with this:

Well, a less blurry version of this :) Sorry...Anywho, notice how it is puckering out at the bottom? I wasn't a fan. Basically the curtains were a bit too long. So while they were hanging there, I measured and realized that they needed to be another inch and a half shorter. Back to the sewing machine they went and I threw in another quick hem. At this point, I also decided to add in a bit of the extra fabric just to see what it would look like. The possible third panel. 

The shorter curtains were worlds better, but I wasn't sure about the extra panel. It just seemed to be a 'dead' zone in the midst of the other two. I liked the fact that it made the other two panels have some movement to them, but I wasn't satisfied. 

Off came the filler panel and on went the two panels on their own. I was really happy until I noticed that they weren't covering the outer edges as well. A couple small nails later and they were looking a lot better. I'm really happy with the final result and I think they look a heck of a lot better then the open cabinets or the old cabinet doors.

So, once again, here is the before.

And the seriously better after. 

Ahh...so much better. :)