The Devil is in the Details

What is it about the Devil that makes him want to hang out in MY details?  Kindly leave, sir.

We are SO close to finishing several projects, and have stalled on the finishing touches.  The Boy went around the house with the caulk gun last night caulking trim in the first bathroom and the guest bedroom (insert numerous inappropriate “caulk” jokes here).  I even had him caulk between the tile backsplash and window sill in the kitchen (which of course we never did although we declared the kitchen “done,” which reminds me that I need to paint those dang pantry doors!).  While he was doing this, I primed both sides and got one coat of paint on one side of the bathroom door.  I am dying to write “completed project” posts about both the guest bedroom and bathroom, but I must have all of these details finished first.  Here is our “to do” list:

Bathroom:

  1. Finish painting door
  2. Add towel hooks to door
  3. Re-hang door
  4. Paint all trim
  5. Remove some grout stuck on tiles way up high
  6. Paint ceiling (this may never happen)
  7. CLEAN
  8. Take pictures
  9. Write “ta dah!” post
  10. Write “budget breakdown” post
    (Update:  Done and done!)
Guest Bedroom:
  1. Caulk trim around windows
  2. Sand, prime and paint marble window sills white
  3. Paint all trim
  4. Paint and re-hang closet doors
  5. Decorate (ugh)

The factor really killing our motivation is that we have already started on demo in the green bathroom (yay!) and we would both rather be doing that than painting anything.  I would rather be doing about 4,287 things other than painting trim, and The Boy would rather spend ten hours with his two least favorite people – Nicki Minaj and the Kardashians (yes they are all lumped together as one because they are almost one fully functional person all put together) – than paint trim.  Well, maybe.  I’ll ask him.

Unsolicited advice for today:  when you have already essentially demolished one bathroom, do not remove the door on the only other functioning bathroom.

GOAL:  Finish guest bathroom and post about the finished product and the budget breakdown before we leave on a short but much-needed vacation this Friday.  I find that public shaming is my best motivator.  It doesn’t seem to work with dogs (you MUST check out http://dog-shaming.com/) but someone needs to start a human shaming Tumblr page.  I will start working on my sign.

Effortless Anthropologie

Roxy over at Effortless Anthropologie (http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/) has a terrific blog dedicated to all things Anthro, including a market to buy/sell/trade your gently used Anthropologie (or similar style) clothing.  She featured our dresser/changing table transformation (and its Anthropologie pulls) here:

http://effortlessanthropologie.blogspot.com/2012/10/some-talented-anthropologie-community.html

Thanks for the blog love, Roxy!

(Number of times “Anthropologie” is used in this 60 word post – 8.  Must be a record!)

Pinbusters – Vinegar + Steel Wool = Wood Stain?

Have you ever wondered if the stuff people post on Pinterest is true? Well I have, and I test them all so that you don’t have to, ’cause ain’t nobody got time for that.  Click here to check out all of the pins I haven taken on. You might be surprised by some of the results!

I am currently working on a top secret furniture project (update: it is done now!), and it requires me to “age” some wood (a/k/a beat the crap out of it) for that old, weathered look.  I guess it isn’t so top secret anymore … but you will have to wait for results!

Staining wood, no matter how beaten it is, tends to make wood look pretty fresh and new. I don’t want that, so I was looking for some stain alternatives on Pinterest, and came across this:

http://www.moneypit.com/article/natural-non-toxic-wood-stain-coffee-berries-and-more

There are a lot of ideas here, but the one I really wanted to test was the steel wool in vinegar one, since I think it will work well for my project.  I had a small amount of both ingredients laying around, and I just wanted to make enough to test, so I combined them in a container, and let them sit for exactly one week.  Fast forward to this:

Yum.

Pretty interesting.  I got out my rag, and wiped down a scrap piece of oak flooring.  I was pleasantly surprised by the results!

Oak scrap

It looks a little darker in person, which is best shown in the last picture.  Although the article described a “rich reddish hue” it is actually more brown, which I don’t mind.  I do wonder if I used a larger steel wool to vinegar ratio than recommended, and perhaps using less steel wool might make it lighter.  Either way, I am excited it worked and eager to get moving on my furniture project!  (Hint:  it will go in the living room and does not yet have a name, but I am leaning towards Madonna!)