All of the light fixtures in our house have a copper patina finish. It’s interesting, because they actually get uglier when you dust them. The finish is unpleasant in every room in the house, but paired with the silver faucets and accessories in the bathroom it was downright unsightly. I forgot to take a before photo until I was already removing the fixture from the wall, so please forgive the bad picture.
We spent a few days browsing light fixtures and realized that we would spend about $100 to get the same look in a different finish, so we did what any sensible person would do and spray painted it.
After shutting off the power and disconnecting the wires, we were left with this.
We carefully taped off the part of the fixture that house the light bulbs.
After just one coat of Kilz and a few light coats of spray paint, the fixture was looking a hundred times better.
I have to be honest: I love it. It really goes with the light and airy vibe that we’re hoping to achieve in our new space. Plus, the picture shows what else we’ve been doing for the past two days. Things are starting to come together beautifully.
I think the best part of this project is that I was playing electrician/painter while Peter was cooking for a party. I guess we’re not the most traditional couple. He was excited because he got to try new things in the kitchen and I was excited because I got to learn how to connect all the wires. Win-Win.
So, what do you think? I was a little apprehensive about using something flammable to paint a light fixture, but after looking into it more and testing the temperature of the fixture when it’s warm, it should be fine.
Peter and I are finally both feeling better. We’re pretty behind on returning emails and phone calls so if you haven’t heard from us in a bit, we’re sorry and will get back to you really soon.
The bathroom project is being dragged out much more than I ever thought it would. This is partially due to us getting sick and being really busy and not have time to knock out as many tasks as we thought we would and partially because we keep finding other things to fix. About a week and a half ago we had to call a plumber to fix a leak mostly because both the knobs outside and the knobs under the sink that turn the water off no longer worked. I’m all for trying things ourselves but without the ability to turn off the water neither of us were going to attempt it. So on we go. I can’t wait to get to the accessorizing part of the project, but after painting the bathroom closet we submitted to the fact that the actual bathroom really needs a paint job as well. The previous owners decided to use a flat paint and it left the walls looking like this.
See all those tiny cracks?
And because the main readers of this blog are my dog-obsessed soon-to-be -in-laws, I will show you all this photo. Peter and I went over to our friends’ house for dinner on Saturday. In addition to cooking us a fabulous dinner, they invited our Poms over to play with theirs. Here is a group photo of the dogs with Anita and Peter working to get them to all stay still. Ours just look like black little smears. The concept of not moving is way too hard for them.
So much fun!
How was everyone else’s weekend?
I have to say that the most satisfying thing I’ve done in a really long time was to take our window from this
To this:
I’m not going to lie, a lot of happy jumping and a joyful trip out to the garbage can to chunk the rotting piece of mess away forever ensued. Obviously we need to put in a new window cover, but that will come soon.
After Peter finished removing the grout and caulk that sealed our bathtub, we were stuck with the question of which one to use. We knew that you weren’t supposed to mix grout and caulk but which one do you use for a bathtub seal? After a lot of googling I learned that the correct answer is caulk. Here’s why: The foundation of a house will inevitably shift over time. Grout is such a hard substance that if you have used grout to connect seams (think bathtub to wall or one tile wall to another) it will crack when there is any shifting in your foundation. Since caulk had a bit more give, it can hold up better to any minor shifting. If you own a used house/condo/apartment and the previous owner used grout to fill these parts, you need to beware that if/when the grout cracks mold, mildew, and other types of ick are likely to accumulate in those wet crevices. Make sense?
Even after we knew that we would need to caulk things we still had some decisions to make. Many caulks swear that they will not mildew. After researching this on google and talking to my dad (have I mentioned that he’s the handiest person I know?) I learned that a lot of the brands that promise not to mildew still do it anyway. Apparently a lot of handy people do not consider it to be a permanent solution. You’re supposed to go into it knowing that it will eventually get gross again and at that time you’ll have to rip it out and start over.
My dad swears by using tape to get sooth edges. So this was the technique that we used. Start with a clean, dry surface. Use tape to expose only the surface that you want to be covered in caulk.
We used relatively inexpensive caulk that came out of a tube rather than buying a caulk gun. This may seem like common knowledge but if you choose to use a tube, start by cutting a smaller hole and then make it larger as need be. Squeeze a steady stream of caulk into the hole and then use a wet finger to smooth out the top. Make sure not to put an excessive amount, otherwise when you remove the tape you will have a raised caulk line.
Remove the tape while the caulk is still wet.
Let the caulk dry per the directions on the back on the container. Then you’re done. As tempting as they may seem, you really don’t need any of the special gadgets. It’s actually a lot easier than I thought and my dad’s trick of using tape left us with a really professional-looking line.
Here’s a before photo to remind you of the progress.
Have you ever caulked a bathroom? If so, feel free to add the tricks that worked for you.
I will warn you that this may be one of those epic books that has about 700 chapters. Hopefully not. I mentioned yesterday that taking off the door to the linen closet (To be clear, I’m not talking about the actual bathroom door. I’m open to a lot of things but no bathroom door is definitely not one of them!) was a huge turning point for us. It instantly went from a giant unconquerable task to something that we could manage one step at a time. Why did we think it was such a turning point? See for yourselves.
Before:
After:
Doesn’t that feel a million times more open? Imagine Peter and me sitting on our bed a about midnight on a Friday night. I say, “It’s just so cramped in there. That door gets in the way.” And then Peter exclaiming, “Let’s just rip it off!!” Here’s an action shot just for fun.
Unfortunately, removing the door left us with huge slits and holes in our door frame from where the hinges used to be.
The holes can be easily patched using wood filler. I put some in each hole, making sure to pack it into the small crevices in the back.
After letting the wood filler dry for about 24 hours, I sanded off the excess, and then repeated the process. If I was going to do this over again I would have put an insane amount of wood filler over the hole so that when I sanded it I wouldn’t have to add any extra. The reason being that making wet wood filler attach to dried wood filler is much more difficult than when it is all wet. I ended up battling the bits that were falling right off onto the floor.
When the holes were patched and the door was off for a few days, Peter and I couldn’t bare to look at the awful wall color any longer. For some reason, the linen closet was painted a terrible yellow color. You’d really have to see it to understand just how bad it was. I’ve attached a photo below but it really doesn’t do the color justice. If you want to get an idea imagine urine mixed with whipping cream and then covered it with high glass paint. It was really that bad!
Anyone who knows me well knows that grey is my absolute favorite color. (I remember asking a friend of mine if it was OK to paint my entire house in different shades of grey. The short answer is no but I still believe I could make it work.) After a trip to Home Depot, we brought home a few paint swatches and taped them inside the closet to get a better idea of what the paint would look like.
Wondering what we chose? You’ll have to come back to find out, but since I forgot to take pictures when we first removed the door, the after photo at the top will give you a sneak peak of what’s to come.
What’s going on in your bathrooms? Many of you are probably following Meg’s bathroom reno. Heather wrote in yesterday saying that she has an embarrassing bathroom as well. Does anyone else have anything to share? Or does anyone else just want to help me encourage Heather to post her bathroom photos? (Misery loves company.)
