Sports Ball Shelf

Here is a newly completed project. The main need driving this project was the tangle of sports balls that were seeming to multiply in our garage every time I waded though there. For awhile they all lived happily in a nice, big moving box, where they all fit nicely and got along well. However, as the sports season progressed over the past year, the boys actually wanted to play with them, and kept getting them out. Plus, I do have the eventual goal of parking at least one car in our garage, so the big box, however sufficient, was simply in the way.

In Morgantown I had rigged up a sports ball shelf from some of that coated wire shelving that you buy from Lowe's and customize your closets with. However, on the side of the United States where I currently live, I didn't have any extra shelving lying around. And considering that we're trying to save money where we can, I decided to just use what we had.

What we had were several cheap particleboard bookshelves, unused and unassembled in the garage. However, the problem with these shelves is that if you put balls on them, the balls fall right off onto the ground. Okay, so if you place them really, really carefully they will stay on the shelf. But how many adolescent boys do you know that place balls back on the shelves really, really carefully? And really, now that I think about it, how many adolescent boys do you know that put balls on the shelves at all? Sigh. That thought alone is enough to make me hang my head in despair and give up the project all together.

But I digress. I decided to use the shelves anyway, and decided to look for some way to keep the balls on the shelves. That's why I bought these wood pieces way back at the Habitat for Humanity Restore a few months ago. I'm not sure what they really are made for, but they were the right shape, and were dirt cheap:

Here they are painted white and crushing Nutcracker man just before Christmas:

After I painted them white, I cut them with my handy hacksaw and hot glued them to the front of each shelf.

Finally, I put it all together, and here you have it - the finished project.

Now back to that part about getting the boys to return the balls to the shelves in the first place...

I'm posting this on Furniture Feature Friday on Miss Mustard Seed's Creative Blog (which is a wonderful place, by the way).

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The China Cabinet

I would just like to say to one and all that I am thrilled that the previous owners of our house left us a china cabinet. Well, I am thrilled now, after it got a little big update.

Here is the china cabinet before:

It was just a pretty basic, run-on-the-mill cabinet and hutch.

Now, here is the "after" version of the cabinet:

Yep, I love it. I did paint the hutch doors, but am leaving them off for now for a more "open" look. I used the existing hinges, but spray painted them in a nickel finish to get rid of the brass look. I did the same to some other drawer pulls and knobs that came from an old dresser that get exiled to the garage, and added them to this cabinet.

As you can see, I still need more knobs and pulls, but all in all, I would say that effect is very nice.(And yes, I did paint the light fixture in this room, although I think we still might need some new glass globes to complete the look)

Now, about the table...

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Nothing Like A Good Deadline

You know, there's nothing like a deadline to get one motivated to get some things done. Like, say, having twenty or so people over to your house. Which I am going to do this upcoming Tuesday, when the Ladies Bible Class and the church staff come over for lunch.



As a result, I am in high speed trying to get things all ready for their arrival. Of course, I'm not worrying about the whole house, but instead I am trying to complete all the projects I've already started. Such as painting my new hallway table and the china cabinet, and perhaps painting the hallway bathroom if I get really ambitious (and don't want to sleep much between now and then).


One thing I did get done was a little upgrading of our bookshelves in the living room. The backs of them were looking a little stark, as you can see here:

Here they are after I covered the backs with fabric.

Of course, these before and after pictures are not quite fair. It's kind of like how they do before and after pictures of people when they do makeover-type things to them - in the first picture they are always completely makeup-free, their hair is a mess, and they are usually frowning. So, I suppose above it the picture of my frowning (unset up) bookshelf.

It's a funny thing about those bookshelves. After I bought our other shelf units off Craig's List (seen below), I thought I would have enough bookshelf space for all of our books (including my numerous kids' books). I went out to the garage and brought in the book boxes, and after I upgraded these shelves, I filled them right up. I kept the bigger shelf units for the "regular" books, and then used the upgraded ones for the kids' books. And they all fit in!

But then I was in the garage a while later and noticed some other boxes in there that I hadn't really paid attention to before. And yes, they were all children's books - about 5 boxes of them. (I must have developed selective vision where these were concerned.) So today we got another bookshelf to put at the end of our hallway. It was either that, or give some books away, and since I'm now officially an employed preschool teacher, I chose the "more bookshelves" option.

So now I'm off to assemble the new bookshelf...the time's ticking down to that luncheon on Tuesday...

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Jacob's Room

Finally, here are some pictures of Jacob's room. I kept hesitating to show it, still wanting to do this and that: put up the bulletin board, hang some real curtains. But finally I decided to just show it as it is, and then I can add pictures as I add other things.

Of course, we have to start with the before pics:

Here is a shot of part of the room in all of its wallpapered glory.

This shows the two variations of wallpaper - one for the walls, and one for the ceiling.

I liked to refer to it as the Cave O'Wallpaper.

Here's what it looked like after I took off some of the paper.

Here (drumroll, please) is how it looks today:

Yes, Jacob picked Mountaineer colors (that's the colors of West Virginia University, for all my California friends). At first I was in shock and awe of the color because it was so bright, but then I started setting the room up and now I really like it.

Still on the to-do list: Buy a blue blanket to match.

This sports embroidered piece is something that Jason's grandmother made for him many years ago, and I think it will look just perfect here above the dresser.

These frames are my favorite part of the decorations so far. Most likely it's because I spray painted the frames and they turned out so well! We're going to add old Mountaineer ticket stubs and other things in the frame on the left.

The bulletin board will go in this space above the desk. You can see that only the far end of the room is painted blue. Jacob specifically wanted just the one wall blue. Well, actually that's not true. He also wanted to ceiling blue, but I talked him into white.

Right now I've just got the white primer on the ceiling. I need to go back and add ceiling paint, especially because you can still see wallpaper flowers up there if you look carefully enough.

Here's Mocha enjoying the view from the room. I think she is just as happy as I am that all the paint is gone (for now).

I did find some yellow paint in her tail just yesterday, though.

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The Big Reveal - Jericho's Room

Well, here they are finally - the "after" pictures of Jericho's room. First, let's show the "before":

This before picture at least shows the basic look of it: white walls, nasty old curtains, walls bare.

And here is the new look:

Still need to get some curtains, of course.

Be sure and note the green bookshelves in the closet - the chosen accent color.

Ummm, still need to get him to clean up the desk...

We're in the process of putting up this second cube.

There are plans to put up some framed things above the bed, but I need to get some more spray paint.

Well, there you have it, or at least as it is right now. Whew.

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Working on the Big Reveal

I've been working a lot the past few days on the boys' rooms. Now that they're painted, I am trying to get everything hung up and displayed in order to show them here for the "big reveal". Jericho has picked green and black as the main accent colors in his room, so we've been painting a lot of shelves and display cabinets to go in there. Jacob doesn't want shelves, but he does want a few things put into frames, and he wants his frames to match the wall color, so today I'm off for more spray paint...I'm not sure what I did before I realized you could do so much with spray paint.

It's fun, but I have to admit that I'm more than a little tired of paint. In fact, last night at our Wednesday night dinner at church, a friend sat down and casually said to me, "Hey - I have a few rooms that I need painted..." and I nearly choked on my pasta. He thought that was a very funny joke. (And it was, of course.)

So surely tomorrow the rooms will be ready. If not, I will just declare them ready, because I'm ready to move on to something else!

paintcan photo by mjb7q (Creative Commons License: Attribution, Non-Commercial)

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Goodbye, Flowers

Jacob is overjoyed to have the flowers gone from the walls of his room. Even in its unfinished condition, he likes his room so much better now.

Here is the room in it's deflowered state. Soon I will show you it all painted up with the colors he chose, and believe me, there will be a big difference (bring your sunglasses).

In the meantime, I will leave you with this, which is something you definitely do not want to find in the middle of a paint job:

At least it was the white primer, and not the colors we're using now. White still coordinates with the dog, you know, whereas the colors we're using now...not so much.

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Welcome Home!

Jacob found his room looking like this when he came home from his field trip yesterday afternoon:

It obviously was a shock, but I think it was a little exciting, since it means that his room is finally facing some real transformation.

My original plan was to remove all the wallpaper from the room (and ceiling) and paint it like I did the kitchen. However, the plan changed as I went along. Here's how it all developed:

(On my to-do list one month ago)
Remove all wallpaper from Jacob's room and paint room.

(On my to-do list two weeks ago, after I finished the kitchen project.)
Remove all wallpaper all wallpaper except for the ceiling, then paint over the ceiling wallpaper.

(On my to-do list 8:00 Thursday morning)

Remove all wallpaper except for the ceiling wallpaper on the three main walls, then paint over the ceiling wallpaper, as well as the wall with the bay windows in it.

(On my to-do list Thursday about 11:30 a.m.)

Remove wallpaper on the three main walls on the two walls that I've already started and paint over the rest of the wallpaper.

As a result, I finished these two walls, sanded them, sealed the torn drywall, skimmed them with drywall compound, and sealed them again.

This wall I just sealed over the portion that I started to try to de-wallpaer, and am planning to paint over this wall just like this (patched spot and all):

The rest of the walls I will just try and paint over, including the oh-so-lovely ceiling:

For this job, I will need an oil-based primer, which I picked up at the local home-improvement store yesterday. So hopefully by this evening, Jacob's room should have a whole new look.

It should be interesting to see how the de-wallpapered spots compare to the painted-over spots. We shall see - very soon.

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Getting Grayer By the Minute

Well, I'm afraid that my hair is a lot more gray today than it was yesterday. Of course, so is Jericho's and the dog's. Yesterday afternoon we pried open the selected can of paint for Jericho's room and started in on the job. We'll be removing gray paint from Mocha's fur for quite some time, I'm afraid. Or not, actually, because as I told Jericho last night, "It's always a good idea to pick a color that coordinates with the dog."

At this point, I am about75% done with his room, but I ran out of paint, so I'll have to make another trip to Lowe's here in a little bit. Unfortunately, I don't have the camera to show you the progress, because Jason took the camera to the three-day overnight field trip that he and Jacob are on. At first I was thinking that it was too bad that I couldn't show my rendition of the Loch Ness Monster that I created while I was painting with my beloved paint edger. However, it occurred to me that I could recreate the scene with an old picture and my newly-developed Microsoft Paint skills. Here it is:

Yep, as soon as Jason sees this (after he returns home from the trip) he's going to be thinking, "I have got to get her a job."

I also wanted to add in one other "digitally altered" photo today. Here is another picture from my living room.

In this picture I have circled some mysterious markings on the windows. These are actually the two spots where I started cleaning of the mineral deposit film that coats our front windows. I was at a loss as to how to get them clean when my friend Theresa gave me some special cleaner to try, and voila - it works. Unfortunately, I have only done these two spots, so now it looks like someone with super-cleaning feet left their footprints on our window. (Yes, I really do think this way.) I'm not too bothered about it, because it shows the promise of how clean the windows will be once the rest of the job done - they are marks of great clear-window potential, really.

That being said, I also want to make sure the sprinkler heads are adjusted so that we don't need any more "marks of great clear-window potential" on our windows. You have to scrub really hard to get those mineral deposits off.

Off to Lowe's.

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Windows

In this picture I have marked some mysterious markings on the windows. Any guesses to what they are?
































These are actually the two spots where I started cleaning of the mineral deposit film that coats our front windows. I was at a loss as to how to get them clean when my friend Theresa gave me some cleaner to try, and voila - it works. Unfortunately, I have only done these two spots, so now it looks like someone with super-cleaning powers in the their feet left their footprints on our window. (Yes, I really do think this way.) I'm not too bothered about it, because it shows the promise of how clean the windows will be once the rest of the job done - they are marks of great potential, really.

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House News

I'm starting the week with some house news, although I am sad to say that my house news from last week really more falls into the "Stalled House News" category. This is due to several reasons.

First, I did so much on the house for such a long stretch of time that I was just kind of sick of it for awhile. Once I got to a stopping point, I just couldn't get the desire to do any more for awhile.
Second, I did work two days last week, and that did affect what I did at home on the days that I did not work. I just had other things to do on my home days instead of house projects.

Thirdly, (and this is probably the biggest reason), I have been suffering from some kind of general elbow malaise that I think is directly related to my days of intense wallpaper removal. I could tell that my elbow was getting very tired of being extended and retracted for days on end, but unfortunately the elbow pain has lasted for a good week after I stopped working so hard. It only hurts if I extend my arm all the way, or bend it tightly up to my face (say, to brush my teeth). It hurts the most if I do anything with my arm extended, such as stretch my arm out to pick something up, or even lift something like a coffee cup. I think I might have aggravated it last week while 1)scrubbing the mineral stains off of our front windows, or 2)banging a pencil repeatedly on a music stand while subbing in the music class.

Yes, I know, it sounds like the injury sufferings of a slacker, but it is interesting. Could it be that there is a version of tennis elbow for the Wallpaper Removers of the world?

This being said, I am getting feeling some motivational twinges again of wanting to launch into some new projects this week.

Tomorrow I will bring you some "after" pictures of our newly-painted living and family rooms. That will be something interesting to show as I get started on these new areas. Or rather, recently-abandoned and now restarted areas.



photo by Darwin Bell (Creative Commons License: Attribution, Non-Commercial)
Open on Flickr

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Current Status...

This morning I gave mean looks to the Lowe's employee working in the wallpaper section...

This afternoon I decided that I had to buy new blades for my (two) wallpaper scrapers, because my existing blades were worn down/gummed up...

Tonight at dinner I looked plaintively at the remaining kitchen walls and announced that I just didn't think I could try and pull off one more piece...

If this wallpaper project were a game or a race, I think I'd be losing.

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Looking Forward to a New Week of Wallpaper Removal

Yes, the wallpaper removal marches on. With Jason's mom arriving Wednesday, I have some pretty set goals as to how much I want to get done before then.



Today my goal was to finish taking off the outer layer of the paper in the kitchen. This will leave the thicker underlayer, which has to come off with the spray. As a result, tonight the kitchen was littered with lots of kitchen wallpaper precipitation as I worked to meet that goal:

However, it was dry, like a really powdery snow. Tomorrow the Wallpaper Removal forecast calls for thick, wet precipitation, as the damp, sticky paper comes off. That's when we have to keep peeling wallpaper scraps off of our feet, and cleaning the dog off every so often (although I still think it's better to have the wallpaper stick to you than to stick to the wall).

I did discover more writing under the paper in the kitchen. It's a phone number. I'm hoping that it's for the Wallpaper Removal Help Line, but I'm not holding my breath.

Tomorrow I'm planning to split my time between the underlayer in the kitchen, and working in Jacob's room. I had thought I would make Jacob's room my only Monday goal, but quite frankly, I find his room oppressive. One can only take so much stubborn and completely obstinate wallpaper before one must do something else for awhile.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the (almost) finished kitchen, which includes the really ugly drywall. They should be fine "before" pictures, and that thought will encourage me to forge ahead with the project.

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