Light Changes in the Front Room and Outside

Finally, finally, we installed the ceiling fan in the front room. This was a 4 blade grey one that was in the back room when we first bought the house.  During our first year living here, we replaced it with a large (and prettier) fan and this grey one has been in the basement ever since. At first I procrastinated cause the grey colour looked terrible with the blue walls, but since I changed them to purple and summer is on its way, there was no longer any excuse. 

Continuing with my themes of changing light fixtures and adding some curb appeal, we also changed out the exterior light. This is a fancy one with 2 levels of brightness and a motion detector. Turns out the old light was secured with a bunch of screws that went into the siding and not much else. Not very strong! We added a couple of really long crews that went into whatever is below the siding (Brick? Stucco?) and those seemed to make it a lot more secure. 

Inside, I sewed a new tablecloth to fit the large dining room table.

Also attempting to move along with trim painting progress, I sanded down the door jamb between the front and dining rooms. I started hand sanding but with the years on paint build-up I had to get out the electric sander. Using plastic drop-sheets, I created a tent so the dust would be contained. It worked but was very unpleasant; I was completely covered in dust and really hot by the end. Tom was happy that the mess was minimal and contained!

And now we know:  both the home improvement store sell the same line of motion activated light fixtures, so comparison shopping is a waste of time

Updating the Electrical Panel

I’ll preface this by saying this was not a DIY! The old breaker panel still had fuses and had no space available for the air conditioning Tom really wants. 

So we got an electrician in to replace the panel. It took them a full day while I sat in the cold house with 2 laptops. The timing worked out perfectly, they finished 5 minutes after the battery ran out on the 2^nd laptop!

In order to label the breakers in the new panel, I ran around the house with the electrician figuring out what was on which circuit. There are some weird splits, 1 circuit has all of the upstairs and the kitchen light while another has only 2 random outlets. He left off the ones we couldn’t identify and told us to turn them on when we found something not working. Turns out one of those were the hot water tank and we didn’t find out until the next morning when I tried to take a shower. Fun times.

The city also moved the meter outside and the electrician reconnected the light in my workshop.

And now we know: which circuit the back room is on so we don’t have to turn off the power to the entire house when doing work. Also the wiring was not as crazy as we thought, the electrician was not completely shocked and appalled 

A Mailbox and Mini Chest of Drawers Makeover

This year I really want to start sprucing up the exterior of the house so it has some curb appeal. The only thing I've done so far is add new house number but I never even removed the old ones that were on the mailbox.

After peeling them off, I gave the whole thing a sand and covered the siding behind it with newspaper. After 1 coat of primer and 4 (!) coats of metallic spray paint it looks a lot better. It is supposed to be oil rubbed bronze, but to me just looks like shimmery black. Not bad…it may need a clear top coat at some point though.

Also painted this weekend was a little chest of drawer that has been sitting in our closet for a couple of years. The hot pink and unicorn look from my childhood had to go, so I painted it grey and purple to match our second bedroom. I’ve re-organized my sewing supplies into the little drawers.

And now we know: I’ve read so many rave reviews of this colour spray paint on the blogs, but it was not as great as I though it would be. Maybe it would look better on something smaller and/or metal?

The Upstairs Hall Paint Marathon Continues

After buying another can of paint, I put the second coat on the lower portion of the upstairs staircase. I like the light turquoise; it breaks up the stark whiteness of the space.  I also put up a piece of trim on the right side (as you go down) where the blue and the white meet.

While I had the trim paint out for the newly installed piece, I put the second coat on the upstairs hallway trim and door frames. 

Left to paint in this area: the railing (that will suck), the middle piece of each door jamb and the ceiling of the lower landing

And now we know: wow there is so much trim in this area, 5 doors + stairs + railings!

The Hallway Light Switch

So the downstairs hallway has gone from this:

To this:

And the upstairs hallway has gone from this:

To this:

And now we know: never take Tom to a home store without his phone. Also the new fixture wasn’t great downstairs and I’m much happier with it upstairs.

Painting the Upstairs Closet

Well I finally painted the upstairs hall closet; this is the one that we relocated the door from the master bedroom to the hallway.

A coat of primer and 2 coats of white paint and it looks a lot better. It’s nice to have another closet with shelves for linens and the vacuum.

And now we know: the power of a coat of paint, makes everything better