What’s Behind Door #2?
A whole lotta work, that’s what!
Over the course of 6 years we have slowly replaced the old 1964 hollow doors in our house with 6 panel doors and contemporary door handles. We had only 2 left on the list and decided to finally tackle them over the past five weeks. Yes, it took five weeks to complete this project. The two doors happened to both be in our master bedroom: our walk-in closet and master bath.
Ryan first removed the doors from the hinges by popping out the pin with a screwdriver and hammer.
We went the cheaper route on these doors and opted to buy the panel and not the whole door and frame. The panel ran about $30 where as the entire door and frame is about twice that price. In the long run Ryan strongly suggests buying the door slab and frame together…it’s not a simple task to install the slab on an existing frame (hence why this project took five weeks!).
Ryan set up his work area on our front porch as usual. He laid the new doors across two saw horses and clamped the old door on top to mark exactly where his hinges on the new door needed to go.
Of course the door slab couldn’t be a perfect fit. The door was a wee bit too tall so Ryan had to take a little off the bottom. After calculating how much to take off, he clamped his level to the door and drew a cut line.
I carefully held each door steady while Ryan ran the circular saw and cut the bottom off each door.
The next and most frustrating step of installing new door slabs is chiseling out the area of the door where the hinges are secured. This is the step that caused a five week delay. The two slabs had no desire to take residence in their new frames. After a few curse words, we decided to take a break and try re-hanging the doors when we had the patience. Ryan ended up taking a few hours off work last Friday and completed the project as a surprise. His solution was to shave about a quarter inch off the inside of the door rather than continue to chisel. It ended up working perfectly and the new doors fit comfortably inside the frames.
When we brought these doors homes from Lowes about six weeks ago they were completely primed. Before we started this whole hanging process I hit them up with two coats of Sherwin Williams HGTV white trim paint. I thought it was rather smart of me to apply paint before they were hung…you know, be one step of the game. Well that ended up backfiring since Ryan had to shave off the inside. Needless to say, I broke out the primer and paint….again once they were hung.
After studying the doors while I was priming and I couldn’t help but to be drawn to the ugly paint-spattered brass hinges (blaming previous owner, obviously). I decided one solution was just to prime and paint those brass hinges and see how it went. I figured we could always replace them with new hinges if it didn’t work out.
Well, you know what? It did work out! I call myself genius. They look fantastic. I know it’s only been five days since I painted them but they seem to be holding up really well. of course Michelle could stop there. I ended up painting every other brass hinge in the house. We have 12 doors with visible hinges times 3 hinges per door for a total of 36 brass hinges. They all look so good I wish I primed and painted those babies 6 years ago! Here’s what the two finished door in our bedroom look like:
And a closeup of the primed hinge:
And the hardware:
So there you have it. It took us five weeks to hang 2 doors, but it resulted in the transformation of 36 ugly brass hinges. And to repeat myself like a broken record, Ryan strongly suggests if you want to replace interior doors just go ahead and purchase the entire door in the frame rather than the slabs. Yes, it may cost a few more bones, but so worth it in the long run. Just think, Ryan may get a chance to re-hang a few more doors in the new house…we shall see!
The Columbus Zoo in Charleston.
This past Saturday our good friends and next door neighbors (mentioned here) held their son’s 5th birthday party at a local park. It was no ordinary birthday party though. They called in the Columbus Zoo and a van full of animals!
The Zoo put together a private showing for my friend Amanda and her 50 party guests. They brought with them 7 animals and one exclusive animal, not on exhibit at the zoo. The first was a Dingo. The Australian Dingo is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback.
The birthday boy was able to feed the Dingo a treat. It was 7 years old and very docile. The zoologist walked him around so everyone could pet him and let him smell your breath (something they are apparently known for).
The second (and my favorite animal of the day) was a flamingo. He was absolutely beautiful. Two shades of orange and black hidden feathers under his wings.
Unfortunately the bird became a little spooked with so many young children and we could not pet his feathers. I say ‘we’ but to be honest, I did not attempt to pet ANY of the animals. Which I find strange since I love animals so much.
The third exhibit on our zoology lesson was an armadillo. He was presented in a ball (just like a potato-bug) but eventually came out of his shell and expanded his legs for a little run.
So the armadillo was kind of cool. Next up was a legless lizard also known as a ‘glass lizard’ which freaked me out. I am not a snake person. At all. I know this squiggly creature is in fact not a snake. It adapted to the conditions and changed color to camouflage itself in the mud. But in my mind if it looks like a snake, acts like a snake, it is a snake! Eeek!!
Needless to say, I didn’t get too close to our friend the legless lizard. Many of the party guests had no qualms about any of these exotic animals….hence their smiling faces!
The last animal on the Columbus Zoo’s agenda was the one that freaked me out the most. We were told to be very quiet (which is very hard with a large group of 5 year olds, by the way). This was the exclusive animal not on exhibit at the zoo. It was a Lynx. Yep, a medium-sized wildcat (Go UK!). Lynxes have short tails and characteristic tufts of black hair on the tips of their ears. They have a ruff under the neck, which has black bars resembling a bow tie (which wasn’t visible on this one). This little guy was 7 months old and the most aggressive of all the animals.
He tugged on that leash and wanted to play…or eat, whichever side of the glass you are on. I kept hiding behind Ryan because I thought that little cat wanted to pounce me…over-reactor, I know. Obviously he didn’t harm me or anyone else, but he was definitely aggressive compared to an armadillo, penguin and Kanagroo (I forgot to post pics of the penguin and kangaroo). After the wonderful show by the Columbus Zoo it was time to (finally!) blow out some candles and eat cake!
Amanda’s son blow out that #5 candle like a champ! And you better believe that everyone else got their cake on. Maybe a little too much since I left in a sugar comatose.
And it totally can’t be a party at the park without pictures of the kids on the swings! They had so much fun and Amanda’s son was so cute pushing his best friend.
So that’s what we did this weekend! What did you do? Are you planing a kid birthday soon? I totally urge the Columbus Zoo for anyone in the area looking for ‘entertainment’. It was a HUGE hit!!
Burnt Toast.
I’ll be the second to admit (Ryan will be the first) that we’ve been completely burnt out from the home improvement scene over the past few weeks. We. Are. Toast.
Go ahead, call us lazy, but I was sick this past week and the week before we just needed a break. Our “To Do” list sits prominently on the fridge and been has completely ignored for a couple weeks.
Even though I was ill, I still got outside this past Sunday to plant a few more pots. On my usual weekend trip to Lowes I came across these babies.
They’re called Vinca. I planted them last year and they became absolutely amazing flowers in our front yard.
In a far removed section of the Lowes greenhouse there is a little area (usually in the back) where half dead plants go to die. It is called the clearance rack. With a stroke of luck I found these babies on that rack. Originally sold for $5 each, I was able to score these ‘last chance’ flowers for one buck each.
Normally I don’t mess with half alive/half dead plants (depending on how full your glass is) but these Vinca really didn’t look all that bad. Last year I scored 12 of these on that same clearance rack and they become an absolutely beautiful part of my garden. All they needed was a little love, water, and some Lesco 12-12-12 fertilizer.
The plan for these Vinca flowers: to inhabit the window planters on the right side of our house. We have some great windowsills on our basement-level side windows. I planted the same $1 clearance flowers in these planters last year and they grew to be ginormous (that’s a technical term). I also have two more smaller pots on our back patio that were in need of some greenery. When I pulled my planters out of the shed I was happily surprised to find they were still in tact with last years’ soil.
There are two windows on this (what I call ‘ugly’) side of the house. My hope is these Vinca flowers will make this side of the house a little less ugly. I gathered all my supplies on the back patio, ready to plant again….and hopefully for the last time this season. I started by pulling out all of the dead and molded parts of each plant and was then left with just the healthy stems.
Three of the flowers I picked up were bright red-ish pink and the fourth was a light pink. I played around with them a little bit and decided the odd man belonged in the red pot.
A little fertilizer, water, and potting soil later these babies were ready to go. Dollar Vinca, holla!
Luckily , deer do not eat these plants. At least that was my experience last year. I’ve probably just jinxed myself by saying that.
And the ‘ugly side of the house’ with the planters:
I agree, these windows look pretty wimpy right now. But remember what these half dead flowers turned into last year?!
That’s what I am aiming for….and I have absolutely no doubt they will grow out of a pumpkin and into a princess.
Hopefully Ryan and I can muster up a little motivation in the next few days and kick it back into gear. Time is ticking away and the To-Do list continues to grow. I know I can’t be a perfectionist when It comes to this house, but I sure can try, can’t I?!
Getting Schooled by a Desk (Part II)
Part II of refinishing my new ‘old desk’ (mentioned here) took place while Ryan hung our shutters and between my Hibiscus planting. It was a cool 65 degree Saturday afternoon so I pulled the desk out of the garage and into our side yard. I figured there was no need in gathering all the paint fumes in the garage when they could fly freely in the open air.
In efforts to keep the grass (sort of) clean of black paint, I put an old blanket beneath the desk. I’ve been scolded before for painting the grass. I always thought it would just grow and get cut but according to Ryan, I “suffocate” the lawn when it gets painted. Not an issue I want to argue, so I am willing cover the grass. I didn’t want the legs of the desk to sink into the lawn so i put cardboard pieces under each leg to prop them up.
After an internal debate, I decided on painting the piece black. I (overbought) six cans of black Rust-oleum High Performance Enamel in a gloss finish. I have a professional paint sprayer, but sometimes it’s just not worth the hassle of cleanup when I can buy spray paint fairly cheap.
For a few bucks you can pick up an easy spray handle. I started out using it but halfway through the spray can started to drip something awful. The Rust-oleum brand (like many others now-a-days) comes with a comfort grip spray nozzle which worked perfectly fine for me. No cramping this time around! I applied several very thin layers of paint.
I know the first coat looks awful, but trust me, slow and steady wins the race. In my experience, applying a heavy full coat only creates long term problems. This is a desk. It will be used. I need long term hold-up! (I didn’t spend hours sanding, scrapping, and oil priming for nothin’). Because it was windy I didn’t get that nice even coat like I would have in the garage. But with many coats she will eventually be even.
I ended up only using 4 of the 6 cans of paint I bought. I knew I would never use all six, but I find it better to overbuy than to run out. Everything can be returned, that’s my philosophy. Buy, save receipt, and return….story of my life: in DIY and fashion.
Here is a picture of the finished product:
She really is a black beauty. I am happy with how my reclaimed piece of oak turned out…for the most part. That brings me back to the “getting schooled” part of this post(s). We let black beauty cure for about a week or so in the garage then Michelle got all Stretch Armstrong on a school night. We hoisted the piece up a flight of stairs (after moving around bedroom furniture) so I could get the desk into our master. I dream all the time about staging our house, an important part of the house selling process (selling our house was mentioned here). My dreams told me to put this desk in our bedroom since we are eliminating our office and making it a bedroom for resale. I figure showing that our large master can also double as an computer area is a plus. Well, it helps if the desk (that you just put about 10 hours of work into) will actually fit through the door to your bedroom. This is the corner into our master from the hall:
And the same corner from the bedroom point of view:
Yulp, you guessed it. We couldn’t get black beauty maneuvered around the corner. Major boo. We tried and tried, flipping that desk every which way but it just wouldn’t go. I never thought to measure it. I guess I figured if we could get a king size mattress through the door why the hell couldn’t a 30″ tall desk go through? Well, 30″ is about 16″ wider than our Tempur-Pedic mattress. It wasn’t for lack of effort, that’s for sure. There is just no way to get the desk through the narrow opening. So these are now our options:
- Shave an inch of each leg to make it a 29″ desk
- Set the desk up in the current office with the guest room furniture
- Just move the desk to the new house and forget about having it in our current house.
Ryan’s vote is to take an inch off each leg. I haven’t decided so the jury is still out. In the mean time the desk sits on it’s side in our dining room…all banged and bruised from our efforts to get it into the bedroom…
So there you go…I was completely “schooled” by this desk. It really disheartens me because I put so much time and effort into it. So until further notice she lays on her side in our dining room, completely nicked and scrapped. Whatever I decide to do with it, it is certain she will need a touchup coat of paint. I promised to share all the successes and failures and I file this desk into failure…for now.
Getting Schooled by a Desk (Part I)
About 4 or 5 years ago good friends of ours bought a major fixer-upper of a house. If I went into more detail about that I would be posting for days. Anywho, down in the dungeon basement the previous owners left a solid oak saw horse-like desk. It was covered in years of paint spatter and some foreign sticky substance. Our friends had no desire to keep the piece, but I had vision (as always). This desk has some serious bones. I asked to keep the desk and it has been in storage for the past several years. A few weeks ago I had Ryan pick up that desk and finally bring her home.
You can see how the top is covered in paint and goo. I knew it would take patience and time but it could look totally awesome.
The drawer has a funky old-school pull. Not my style so the plan is to remove the hardware and putty the holes. By adding a new contemporary drawer pull the desk could totally fit my style.
I toyed around with staining the piece black to match the other black cabinetry in our Master Bedroom but ultimately decided on painting it black. We have a bunch of black pieces in our bedroom, which is where I envision the desk going for staging purposes when we move (mentioned here) and to be honest painting is way less time consuming.
I spent an entire Friday evening sanding that baby down. First thing was to remove all that old paint and varnish. As usual, I got out my good old trusty Ryobi Orbital Sander.
I started with a low grit and gradually went higher to get a smooth finish. I also wore a heavy duty mask to protect myself from all the sawdust and paint particles. Knowing my luck, it was probably lead paint so better safe than sorry…haha.
It took me a good hour to get that baby sanded down. My poor little hand didn’t have feeling from all the vibration of the orbital sander for what seemed liked days. The surface turned out pretty well, but there was still some of the sticky residue left behind. I ended up getting out a scrapper and removing the gunk. I don’t know why I didn’t think of the scrapper sooner, I guess I just assumed the goo would sand right out.
After the sticky substance was gone I gave the top another run over with the orbital and 220 grit sandpaper. There were a bunch if holes in the desk so of course my prep wasn’t quite finished. I had to get out Elmer’s wood filler and my putty knife to fill all the imperfections and the old holes from the drawer pull.
I used the putty knife to get the filler into the holes by slowly dragging the knife across, getting it on the table smoothly.
Of course, I waited for the wood filler to dry then took the orbital sander to it one last time with the same 220 grit sandpaper. The top of the desk was finally smooth as a baby’s butt awaiting the next step in this forever going Friday night prep.
Whenever I re-finish any piece of wood furniture I always take the time to prime it with oil-based primer. I’ve tried latex primer in the past but it doesn’t adhere and finish as nicely. My favorite oil-primer is the original Kiltz formula.
They actually make oil-based primer in a spray formula, but with a project this large it would end up costing me an arm and a leg. The spray primer goes on very smoothly and is less messy in clean up. I absolutely hate cleaning up anything oil based which is why I try to cut as many corners as possible. I lined my paint tray with foil. It’s genius if you ask me (of course, because I thought of it!). When I’m finished priming all I have to do is remove the foil and throw it away. No messy mineral spirit cleanup here!
I used a brush on the legs, sides, and the underneath then used a 4″ smooth foam roller for the top. Again, I am lazy so i just threw away the roller and brush when I was finished.
I made sure to wear my mask and crack the garage door while I applied the oil primer. Apparently that wasn’t good enough because I definitely had some light-headedness going on when I finished. Good thing I have a few brain cells left to kill….haha. When it was all said and done, this is what my finished oil primed desk looked like:
Phew! That was a lot of work on a Friday night. Immediately following I rewarded my hard work with an ice cold Michelob Ultra…and it was well deserved! You’re probably wondering how I was ‘schooled” by this desk…that’s still to come. I am in the current stage of trying to remedy this….stay tuned!
They Call Me Sparky.
Okay, so no one really calls me that. It’s an inside joke between my father and I when we do electrical work! Our house, which was built in 1964 is littered with these really dated almond color receptacles.
Nothing says “I was built in 1964″ more than these ugly outlets. It’s been on the list for about 6 years to to replace, but like many things we’ve just never got around to it. Several of them have cracks (like the one above) and they all are covered in 60 years of dirt and grime. Who wants to live with other people’s grime? Not me. We are not completely lazy though. We’ve replaced a bunch of the outlets as we’ve worked on the house. Our master bedroom, master bath, upstairs hall bath, and kitchen were all replaced when we gutted each one. That leaves our living room, dining room, office, and basement in need of a little switch-out…pun intended, haha. At Home Depot, I picked up several contractor packs of plugs,switches, and covers to get started.
Ninka made sure to sniff out my purchases before I started. First and most importantly, I turned off the power to each room before I attempted to stick a metal screwdriver into all that wiring. When working on electrical always make sure to use rubber handle screwdrivers. It’s suppose to prevent getting a shock if the outlet happens to be ‘hot’. I triple checked each receptacle with a volt meter to make sure the power was truly off on each outlet.
Many women may think this is a “mans” project, but let me be honest, it’s really very simple. The most terrifying part is getting electrocuted (which is pretty scary), but if you triple check to make sure the power is off, it really is just a matter of screwing down a few wires. I would never try re-wiring a house, that’s something left to the professionals, but changing out a few outlets is easy-peasy. Once I knew the power was off I started to unscrew the outlet cover and receptacle.
Ryan attempted to scare me several times. All stealth-like, he would come behind me, shake me, and make a jolt noise…what an a$$!
With a few screws removed I was able to pull the wiring out of each box. White wire were on the right and black wire on the left. I carefully unscrewed each side.
After the outlet was removed I was left with a metal box of wires that looked like this. The black wire is the ‘hot’ wire and the white is the neutral.
I made sure to remember which wires wrapped around each screw on the outlet box. They are labeled brass and silver. The black ‘hot’ wire wraps around the brass screw and the neutral wraps around the silver. After getting the raw wires wrapped around each respective screw I used my rubber handled screwdrivers to secure them down.
When each new white outlet was wired up correctly I was able to push it back into it’s electrical box. These old wires were really stiff so it took me a bit more than am little push to get them into them home.
Each outlet has two screws, one at the top and one at the bottom which secures it to the box inside the wall.
If you have outlets that work on a light switch (we have a few) there is a metal ‘bridge’ between the two screws. This bridge has to be removed with a pair of wire cutters/dikes. It breaks right off.
After the wires were connected and screwed back in, I replaced the outlet cover….and Voila!
Not so hard, now is it?! Anyone can do it with a little patience. I am completely thrilled with how they look. Who knew a little white receptacle could put such a big smile on my face? Bye, bye almond, hello crisp clean white!
Hibiscus Planting.
I was introduced to the Hibiscus flower by my mother when I was growing up. She planted them every spring to grace our back patio with it’s beautiful pink and red 5 pedal flowers (and she continues to this day). It’s a tropical plant that flourishes in warm climate areas such as Hawaii, Mexico, and Florida. In West Virginia they only stay alive in the warm spring and summer months, but that’s fine by me. I was lucky enough to find some on sale for $12.99 at Kroger this past weekend.
It’s kind of tradition for me to plant these on the back patio, I’ve been doing it for 5 years now. I just love how it makes the patio feel like a luxurious outdoor living space, Resort de Bauer. I usually don’t even look at the price tag, that’s how much I love them. Traditionally they cost about $16-$18 each at Lowes or Walmart, so when I discovered them for $12.99 at Kroger, I considered it a steal.
The Hibiscus flower only stays in bloom for a day or so but when watered regularly they will bloom continuously all summer long. They are so awesome. After the flower closes, I snap it off to encourage a new bud to grow. This year I snagged 2 red, 2 pink, and 1 yellow. You should have seen me toting that cart around the grocery store…”watch out people” is what I was thinking, I could barely see over all the green bushy leaves!
I have 4 of these grey-ish/green planters on the back patio and one larger one between the two garage doors on the driveway. Five years ago I drilled three holes in the bottom of each one to allow proper drainage. I also filled them 1/3 the way up with rocks to allow water to flow through (and to save $$$ on buying potting soil).
Having the pots ready to go makes it easy to replant the Hibiscus year after year. I started with a plan on how I wanted them on the patio. I decided to put the red and pink plants on backside and the yellow one between the two garage doors. I thought a “pink-red-pink-red” pattern on the patio would like festive and the yellow flowers would contrast nicely against the red brick between the garages.
I planted these Hibiscus the same way I planted my Dianthus flowers out front (mentioned here and here). I use Lesco 12-12-12 fertilizer and some potting soil to fill ‘er in.
I started by digging out a hole in the soil with my pretty little pink gardening shovel and put that soil into a bucket.
I “tested” the hole depth several times to make sure I dug deep enough. Once I knew the plant would fit nicely, I added my Lesco 12-12-12 fertilizer so the roots would immediately get nutrients.
I forgot to mention that this was one of my projects while Ryan was hanging shutters over the weekend (found here). It worked out well. I was right along side him while he scaled the ladder. Every time he yelled for help and could easily drop my gloves and quickly come to his aid.
Of course I repeated the same steps 4 more times until each of my bargain Kroger plants made their way to their new homes. The last step in the process, of course, was to water.
I’ve got this process down to a science, having done it for 5 years straight. I’m still trying to figure out where I’m going to put all five pots once we move into the new house. The new back yard is a completely different setup so I will just have to play it by ear until we actually move in.
This past Saturday we had some friends over for dinner so I decided to go ahead and get out all the patio cushions and set everything setup for entertaining. I must admit, the beautiful Hibiscus plants are totally my favorite thing in the backyard space. I can’t wait for them to start growing and blooming everyday.
It’s kind of hard to see the Hibiscus plants that I just potted. They are so green and the grass is so green so it all just sort of blends in until more flowers start blooming.
My second favorite part of the patio is our dining table. I just love the table cloth and matching Tiffany Blue seat cushions. I found all those pieces last year at Target. The red tray is actually functional. Not so much for the flowers, but they add the extra pop of color our dinner guests will totally appreciate. Okay, that was totally an exaggeration. But they add that extra pop that I appreciate and that’s all that matters!
You may have noticed the Hibiscus plants in the “after” photo of the shutter post. I noticed them when I wrote the post but decided to ignore it. Maybe you noticed them too.
You can also ignore the kitchen sink leaning against our house. We have yet to donate that to the Habitat for Humanity…among other things on our to-do list. And the cement piece next to the sink you ask? That’s the windowsill for the window on the right, over the garage. Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know! So now you have an idea of what I was up to while Ryan hung shutters. But of course you know that can’t be it, and it’s not. More to come…
Michelle Bauer
