We've cruised through the 400-day barrier and there's no stopping us now. We've been busy with a number of smallish projects inside and out.
There are five old (and old looking) lights on the house and garage. They work fine, so there's no pressing need to replace them. Instead we got ourselves a quart of this paint and turned this tired old lamp:
Into something that seems brand new and with much more character. We're not sure what they add to the paint to make it dry with the hammered appearance but it makes a huge difference.
As long as we're outside, we had our favorite concrete company come back to do a few small jobs. One was to dig us a trench from under the deck to the backyard. When we regraded under the deck and funneled all the water to a spot behind the stairs we realized that we needed a way to get it above/past part of the patio. Nothing a concrete saw couldn't fix.
Inside we continued our organizing efforts. We made a closet in the studio much more usable by adding shelves. We had extra wood molding left over from some project and used it as the supports for the solid pine shelves that we sealed with clear stain. The only hiccup was discovering that the drywall on the right side of the closet is right up against an old chimney so we had to use masonry drill bits to install the plastic anchors for the screws.
Back down in the basement we kept on neatening up. Our array of mops and brooms now have a home.
As does the rest of our trim, molding, and other long thin pieces of wood. We attached a couple of 5.5-inch boards, put a third on the front to keep things from rolling off, and hung the whole thing with a couple of metal brackets.
With the wood all snug in its loft we decided to create a place to hang small tools and whatnots, so we took this space...
added this pegboard...
and presto!
We continued our indoor projects, making progress on a number of fronts.
Quick, what happens when you leave two wood tables alone in a closet? If you think that they reproduce, then this is what their offspring might look like:
We brought in all of the furniture that we assembled in the garage. It's found a home in the nook in the basement that used to be a separate room (see the blue room here and here for refreshers). Right now this looks like a conference room, but the two identical tables and eight chairs will give us lots of flexibility.
Like those annoying games with 15 pieces that you slide around in 16 slots to reveal a picture, progress in one part of the house frees up space to tackle other parts. For example, with the main storage area in the basement coming into shape we could straighten up the utility/furnace room.
Finally, as promised last time here's the short version of our deck story. First a quiz. What do you see when you look at these three screws? If you answered that they are a progression from left to right of the screws we've used to attach the decking then you'd be correct. And yes, that means we removed screws twice to get to the current stage. We learned too late that the gold screws can't be used outdoors and the stainless steel ones are too short to hold the floor boards securely. We settled on the green 2.5 inch galvanized steel ones and are happy with them.
With the turn of the new year we revisited several indoor projects (we also ran into a snafu on the deck but that will be a story for another day). Refinishing an old dresser in the bedroom has been a redecorating item on the "to do" list forever (note they never call it an "all done" list). Some hearty sanding, several coats of stain, and new hardware to replace the dated knobs and voila! It's like new.
As the basement approaches the point where it's more ready to actually use and not just be a perpetual project we picked up some to-assemble furniture. We took advantage of our cavernous garage by making it into a workroom/storeroom for the new pieces until the basement gets its last touches.
Another long-standing project has been to create some storage space beneath our laundry baskets. That's prime real estate in any closet that is waiting to be cultivated. So we did what any smart, urban developer would do, we added a second story. We made this little shelf from some solid pine and pre-made legs from HD. A light sanding and several coats of clear stain and we've made modern art.
Here's an action photo of the basket stand.
Finally, because we were in "build it" mode we assembled a new cart for our garden hose. It's a neat little off-road jobby. It's kind of like a grocery cart if Tonka or Jeep made one.
