Another Project Completed

Before:

As you can see, it is a very nice lamp. It looks nice and illuminates very well (Hopefully someone will want to purchase it off KSL from us).

After:
However, when I saw this lamp online it screamed at me, "You had better purchase me or you will regret it for the rest of your life!" :-)

Oops, just noticed that the wrapping is still on the shade...will need to take that off.

So I did and Shay and I got to install it together. Poor Shay, he exercised a lot of patience during this project. Love how patient he is--hopefully someday I will become more like him!

Now I can't keep my eyes off it.....I just keep staring at it. Shay even said he likes it (and that is saying a lot since normally he doesn't notice--or really care). :-)

One more project down!

999 million to go (or something like that)! :-)

Learning New Talents--or at least trying :-)

Now that we have lived in our new home for almost an entire month we have come to really love it here!  We both feel extremely blessed for the opportunity to live in the area that we do. We LOVE the views and the neighborhood. The neighborhood is like stepping back into a "Leave It To Beaver" sitcom; everyone is SO friendly, people pull b-ques out to the middle of the street to socialize together, and kids knock on your door to ask if they can play with your kids (you should see the disappointment on the kids faces when we have to tell them that we don't have any kids yet. Luckily, when we tell them that we have a cute little dog, they get excited that they are allowed to play with her--little do they know that they are doing us a favor)!

There are, however, "items" that I feel need to be changed to our home in order for me to feel more comfortable living here (I get that from my mother!). When we first purchased this home I had a LONG list of "items" I felt "needed" to be changed in order for me to be able to "love" this home...you see Shay was more in love with this home than I was when we made an offer on it. I think those feelings came because I was selling my beloved condo that I was personally able to build and customize to my exact taste and this home did not have items I would have chosen (I am a want-to-be designer by heart). So when we officially moved our bed over and started living here I learned that many of those "items" on my long "must change list" were really not that big of a deal.

However, I still have a "list" of items I would like to change. So after being in our home for about 2 weeks I had a contractor come over and give me a bid on some changes. After the $10,000+ bid came back (and this bid didn't cover the whole "list") I realized that I needed to prioritize what it was I really NEEDED done in order for me to be SUPER happy in this home (OK, I do realize that I don't NEED any of these items on my list...I do have lights, water closets that work, a roof that doesn't leak, etc. but for the sake of my post I am going to call them "needs").

Therefore, after receiving the bid I decided we had better wait a bit longer to see if my list would change again with time....which I am pleased to say it has! I also asked myself, "If these individuals can do these changes why can't I learn how to do some of them as well???"

Well, being "my dad's daughter" that I am, I decided to find out what items on my "list" drive me ABSOLUTELY crazy and would be a "simple" thing that I could learn how to do myself in order to save us some money.


Here are a few success stories of ours.

1-- The first items to go were the following fans. I had told Shay, when we were in the process of purchasing the home, that "I could not live in that house with those fans" (I think I would have been committed into an institution if we had actually moved in with them still hanging). Shay didn't like them as well and promised they would be removed immediately. So the fans became the first project. We removed them prior to us actually moving in (I couldn't wait to see if they would grow on me).

Here is a picture of what the fans looked like:

The prior owners must have loved these fans because they were in each of the bedrooms upstairs and also in the master suit. I have to give them credit, the fans are very well constructed, heavy duty, quality fans but I didn't want them in each of the rooms.


Also, because of how long the base comes out of the ceiling, I could actually touch the blades of the fans (that is saying something when I am trying to hit 5'4"). Each time I would walk into a room upstairs I felt like I was being hit in the face with a flying palm tree.

Shay and I lucked out in that Lowes was having a sale on ceiling fans. We purchased two and some replacement blades for the spare bedroom.

To save some money we decided to just switch out the "leaves" of the above fan and replace them with the blades you see in the picture. We felt that since it is only a spare bedroom and it has such a high pitched ceiling that we could get away with only switching out the blades.

Shay's spare room fan:
This fan gave me an ulcer! When I installed it (I did this one all on my own) I somehow flipped the breakers to all of the rooms in the house. I freaked out! Shay somehow was able to get all the rooms working except this one. After a number of tries, trying to get the electricity to work in this room again, we gave up. We actually quit doing my projects when this happened, fearful we might cause more damage.

Then when we finally moved in, I decided it wasn't going to lick us.  I walked into the room determined to figure out the problem.....it took a few days, a few choice words, feelings of failure, etc. but I finally got it working. I have to be honest this really made me feel good. Not only did I install it all on my own but it also included a remote that I had to figure out how to install.

This is a picture of the remote (which happened to be the problem I had to figure out):


Here are some pictures of the master bedroom before we switched out the ceiling fan:

This is the former owner's furniture:



Here is the new fan we installed (OK, really Shay mostly installed. He did a great job!):

I think it looks so much better.

2--Paint. We also started painting our master bedroom prior to moving our furniture in the home (too bad we weren't able to finish it all before we had to move furniture in). We used the same paint color we had in our condo (which we absolutely loved!) but have found that the color looks different in our south facing master bedroom than in our north facing condo. I do like it but am having to get use to the difference.


#3--Toilet seats. Why would anyone save a few dollars by purchasing toilet seats that are not the correct size? I know of some individuals because we bought a home from them.

Below is a picture of our downstairs bathroom. If you notice (it is hard to see) the toilet is a "round" toilet and the seat on it is oval. Yep, if I lifted the seat there was actual space between the bowel and the seat cover. I could see the tile below?!?!! Not a "NEED" per say...but I couldn't open the door without seeing it, cringing and wondering if anyone was going to have an "accident" and miss the bowel and hit the tile (YIKES!). So I went down to Lowes and Walmart (had to price check) to find the correct seat cover. The seats cost only SIX dollars-ish (BTW: Lowes had the best bang for the buck--better quality and parts)!

Excited, with my new purchased toilet seats in hand, I returned home to wrestle a bit with the old covers but finally was able to get them off. I then successfully was able to attach the newly purchased ones and the following pictures are the results:Doesn't this look so much better than the first picture. Seriously, I am a bit proud to know that I actually was able to switch out a toilet seat!
The above is our main floor powder room. Doesn't the new seat look fabulous. Now with two successful installations I feel completely confident to switch out the other two toilet seats myself and know I won't break the bank either! Hooray for learning how to do new things!


#4--I love and can appreciate the "old world charm" that is so dominant here in UT. It is beautiful and so tastefully done in so many beautiful homes here. The family that lived here tried really hard to capture that look. Unfortunately it wasn't the look I particularly wanted in every single one of our water closets (they all looked the VERY same). So I prioritized what I felt "needed to be done" and concluded that since we have 4 water closets in our home it was OK to leave at least one (if not 2--we will see) bathroom alone. So I chose to leave the upstairs "guest bathroom" alone. The fixtures didn't particularly clash in that room and matched the bathroom towels and accessories I already owned (more savings--HEY!):

Here are the faucets that dominate every single water closet in our home:


It is a nice faucet....it just drives me crazy that in other water closets other fixtures in that room clash with these types of faucets. As for me and my house (I am really not bothered by what others choose for their home) I can't have too many clashing types of medium and styles in the same room. I know I must be O.C.D. or something. If anything is going to clash in my home it has to be because I made it that way :-)

Here is a picture of the Vanity in our upstairs "guest bathroom." I think the faucet goes OK in here along with the brushed bronze towel holders.
With the dark browns found in the shower curtain, towels and rug I felt that the brushed bronze didn't clash too badly with the brushed nickel shower curtain I already owned.....don't you?

Now the only thing left is to paint this water closet and it will be on the "done" list. Cost--NOTHING--so far! Savings--TONS!

#5--Is really part of number 2 but I want to make my "done" list look longer so I can feel more successful :-)

Like I stated before, every water closet was the VERY same. When I walked into the master bathroom, right after purchasing the home, I noticed that the sink faucets didn't match the garden tub faucet....that didn't match the shower....that didn't match the light fixtures, etc. This rubbed on me every day I went into that room. I quickly had to do something. I decided that I would remove all of the brushed bronze fixtures and replace them to match the other fixtures in the room (BTW: I am selling them on KSL if you are interested. They are in great condition....it's just that I have to have some form of consistency in that room).

I think Shay was SCARED to death when he saw them all taken down.

I even pulled out the 2 faucets:

I then went to buy a faucet. Much to my surprise faucets are REALLY EXPENSIVE. Walmart's cheapest (OK, not the nasty $10 special--I am talking a decent looking faucet) is about $40.00 without the drain pieces....which is at least another $20. Lowes and Home Depot were the same, if not more expensive. I immediately went online only to find decent faucets running anywhere from $60 to over $1,000 dollars a piece (O.K. who in their right mind would buy a faucet for a $1,000???). My heart sank. UGH! I didn't want to put the brushed bronze faucets back in my master bathroom! They don't match!!!

Well, I ended up going to Costco for something and ran into a display of faucets on a special mark down!!! What, I had never seen them before. Apparently they were a new item at Costco and they were having a sale on them as well. They were the exactly type of faucet I had to buy to fit on my sink, it came with EVERYTHING needed to install it AND the nozzle is identical to my garden tub's faucet (and as you know matching is very important to me!). I was SO excited! I immediately bought 2 (and later purchased another 2).

Picture of our tub faucet:



It did take me awhile to work up the courage to actually install these (a few days Shay and I had to actually use our "guest bathroom sink to get ready because of my fear of "messing" up). Yet, with encouraging comments from friends that it wasn't that hard I finally embarked on the whole project. Luckily I had Shay next to me to help me out. He was great at tightening things I couldn't do and helping to double check my work. The first one went in perfectly (the one seen below). Not one hiccup. The second took a few days to figure out but success nonetheless. Now Shay and I have two lovely faucets that match....Shay honestly could care less if they match or not and is completely confused by my "need" to have these things done in the home.....but he loves me anyway and supports what I do--at least most of the time :-)

This is the 2nd one--Shay's sink.



6-- Of course I had to replace the brushed bronze toilet paper holders that didn't match along with towel holders and hook. These were the cheapest one I could find. I think they don't look that bad for being super cheap.

I have already replaced 2 toilet paper (one in our basement water closet and another in our master bathroom):


7--I learned how to change out a bathroom hook for robes:
8--I learned how to change out towel racks:

9--I learned how to change out the hand towel holders:




10-- Hardware--or should I say the lack of hardware--issues. So another problem I am facing in my home is the lack of hardware. Now don't get my wrong there is nothing wrong with not having hardware on your cabinets, it's just that my cabinets are made out of knotty alder (AKA: I scratch SUPER easily wood). I will never forget talking to my mother's contractor in Chicago and telling him how popular knotty alder is in Utah. He literally stared at me in complete disbelief and said, "You mean the wood pallets are made out of?" He then told me that he didn't think he could even purchase alder cabinets there. He then highly recommended that I NOT buy alder cabinets because it is such a soft wood and would easily scratch....I thought he was crazy. Well, when I built my condo I didn't have a choice in wood--only stain color. So alder it was. I LOVED them! They didn't scratch at all. Unfortunately that is not the case in our new home. When I moved into our new home, I realized he was correct. Some of the wood above the drawers are chipped where fingernails have hit them (another future fix it myself project). I don't want this problem to increase so I decided it was imperative that I get hardware on the cabinets in my master bath.

Now picking hardware isn't super easy for me. I find myself standing in front of the options overwhelmed at the variety and diversity of them all. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to finally make a choice.

Here are what the drawers looked like prior to installation:

Here are the results after:

The before:

After:

I am amazed at the color difference in the pictures. The first one is actually of the cabinets in our basement bathroom that doesn't have any natural light coming in (forgot to take a before picture in my master bathroom). The completed pictures are taken during the day when the natural light is coming in from the window in our master bathroom. The wood is the very same but it looks completely different!



The final results (showing the new faucets, towel holders, and hardware):


Now the master bathroom is about complete.....only two more "items" on the "to do list" and then I will be finished with it! :-)

To do items:
1. Paint

2. Replace the counter tops (The counters are not pink like the picture shows above....but they are a tan that has a pink undertone that in not my favorite.).

There is a 3rd, but that probably will never happen:

3. Replace the picture window with a window that opens (this is really on my wish list and probably won't happen---but a girl can dream right).


So those are a few of the things I have been doing with what little time I have off this summer. I have loved the opportunity to make myself stretch, critically think and problem solve when doing these projects. We love the money we have saved in doing them ourselves! Hopefully we will continue to only have success stories!