Home Improvement

I am participating in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge.  Each day in April (except Sunday), I will post topic themes that begin with letters of the alphabet, from A-Z.  Today's letter is H.

Don't worry.  When I say "home improvement", some guy in a tool belt isn't going to come out and grunt at you, embarrass himself with his ineptitude, and have a little chat with his neighbor over the fence.  Instead, I intend to write about some of the little projects I've done around our house and link to some pins that depict the projects I would love to start on one day.  That is, when the magical day arrives that I have both the time and the money to complete said projects.  :)

We bought our house in the summer of '09.  Because we are paying roughly $200 more a month for our mortgage than we were on rent, we've never really had the extra cash flow to accomplish the major improvements/renovations we have wanted to do.  Instead, I've kept myself busy with small, decor-related "improvements".  (Yes, it's necessary for me to put that word in quotes b/c frankly, I am not sure whether any of the things I do necessarily improve anything.  Sure, it changes the look of things, but whether it actually enhances anything is a matter of opinion.)

One of the things I'm most proud of, but will soon be changing, is my daughter's bedroom.  When we first moved in, she chose a very light blue color for her walls.  That color lasted for a year before she was ready for something new.  At the time, she was into princesses and wanted a pink room.  Had I used my better judgement, I would have held off on the major room overhaul until I knew for sure this was more than just a passing fancy.  Unfortunately, I got so excited at the prospect of super girly decor for my decidedly un-girly girl, I threw all logic out the window and repainted/redecorated the entire room.  I did it all over the course of 2 days.  Yep, all of it.  By myself.  Here soon, I'll be re-doing it again because she was bored of the princess shit within 6 months.

Here is her room before the first re-do:

Here is her room after the first re-do:

Now that the short-lived princess phase is over, she has maintained that she wants bright teal colored walls for nearly 2 years now.  After some time on pinterest, I've discovered that it would be relatively easy to accommodate her and allow myself a little flexibility so that I don't have to completely re-paint her bedroom with her growing/changing preferences.  That's right...an accent wall. Duh!!! Possibly as her 11th bday present, I'm going to paint all her walls plain, old white, but paint the wall that her bed will sit against the teal color she's squealing over.  I have pinned an entire board full of inspiration for Trin's room.  I won't use all of them, or even most of them, but they do give me a wealth of ideas to draw from.

A smaller project the hubs & I got done this past summer was our bathroom door.  For 4 years, it had been unfinished, just as it was when we moved in.  Finally we got off our lazy bums and got the door frame sanded and painted.

In the same bathroom, I took on an even smaller project: the cabinet over the toilet.  It was in the house when we moved in, which was nice, but it was a boring oak-ish finish, which I've always hated.  4 years after moving in, I finally painted that sucker.

I forgot to take a "before" picture of the cabinet, so this is the best photo I have.  I took this pic the day we got the keys to the house:

And here is the finished product:

It's been a few months since the last time I worked on any projects, either large or small, around the house.  Lately I've been feeling very "nesty", so I created a board full of ideas of products and improvements I'd like to eventually make.  There is a lot that needs to be done, inside and out.  The previous owners had done some renovation and updating in 2000, but there is still quite a bit that would make this house not only look better, but feel more like our home.  The progress is going to be slow because these things take money and time; two things we have in short supply.  Until then, I'm looking around the house for random little projects that will keep me satisfied until I can take on something bigger.

I do have a quart of chalkboard paint sitting around.  I wonder what I could do with that.....