What DIY projects are in the works.....

 It is officially fall here in Canada...cooler nights mixed with beautiful warm to hot days the kids are back in school and there is snow on the ground in Calgary....I'm sad about that for my fellow Canadians because its just plain unacceptable for there to be snow in September or October and it even offends me in November, December bring it on but that's just how I feel....becuase I am not a winter girl. I don't like cold, I don't like snow, I don't like any winter sports....I kind of wish I did because the winter is long...
I thought I would warm things up a touch in the living room/aka rec room lately since it has become our video game room for my girls and their friends...I think it's time to start planning a basement rec room for real.
I dug out these lamp shade slipcovers that I made a while back ...what a nice easy way to change things up. If you's like to check out this easy DIY project you can see a tutorial HERE

 So what is in the works for DIY around the house...well the dining room floors that is for sure...I am so sick of seeing this subfloor...it's gotta go and soon. I need to go get that purchased so it can acclimatize for a good long time.

Dining room plans:
Pine floors (stained dark of course)
Wood beams
Most likely v-groove on the ceiling
Crown moulding
Making our round table larger to accomodate seating for 6
Built ins

Beams like this image from Houzz

Built ins will come down the line, this image is inspiring me...its perfect for our dining room, image found on HGTV

The next project in the planning stage is my youngest daughters bathroom...it needs a lot of work.

This is quite a before shot

Bathroom plans:
Paint the cabinet white or soft grey
Adding a foot base detail to the cabinet
Adding drawers inside the cabinet
Framing the mirror
Adding a cornice and trim to the tub area
Long custom shower curtain
Paint the walls
Decorative feature for the mirror wall

I still have 100 sq feet of this beautiful tile so I want to use it in this bathroom somewhere...maybe above the mirror for the accent? 

Or maybe the toilet wall??? Im not sure but that reminds me of our girls bathroom in our old house I loved the tiled walls.

You can see that old post HERE  I loved all that tile in that bathroom...it's a terrible photo I know,sorry.

You can see the rest of that place HERE I loved that house....I am happy to say it's even better now that the current owners ripped out the rest of the carpet and installed wide plank pine in all the bedrooms and stained it dark...it's gorgeous and I am so glad the owners that live there now bought our old house.I miss this backyard though...and that sweet bunkie, our backyard will eventually get to that happy place it just takes time. 

Back to what's in store...these walls

I have decided I need some planks or ship lap walls and this wall is screaming for it...four walls in the kitchen will get this treatment sometime in the near future but like I said the dining room comes first then Sophie's bathroom and then I can move onto this project.

 One more project that I think I need to get started is the hallway wainscoting.... I still have a difficult time kneeling since injuring my ankles (my one ankle has limited range of motion still) this summer so I will take things slowly and only tackle what I can. It's going to look spectacular.

Here is the little bit of wainscoting I do have completed in the hall as well as the staircase of course...I am so glad I have the job completed. 

So that's what I have planned, it's a lot I know and there's just one little old me...so this should take a while to complete but that's OK there is no rush...I will do what I can as quickly as I can. 

My only timeline is to have the dining room completed before Halloween becuase last year the day before Halloween I ripped out the dining room carpet and more than a year without progress for me is unacceptable...because if it goes past a year it could stay that way forever...

Thanks for checking in and taking time to read my rambling post....have a wonderful day.

Chris 

Project curb appeal complete

 I wanted to share the completed front door makeover...I'm sure most won't notice the changes because the front door looks like it should always have been trimmed like it is now, but to me it sure is a noticable difference.

 I am so much happier with our front door now...these kind of things make me happy.

What a difference a year makes...we removed the awful pavers and railings had the porch clad in composite material to make it look like a wood porch, new stone steps and old brick style pavers in a herringbone pattern and now the added header and new door color.

Project curb appeal

 Now that summer if officially over and the kids are back at school I am able to focus guilt free on the home again. I have been allowing my ankles to heal for the whole summer, if you missed that story you can read about it HERE...I know I'm going to be slower and I need to still be careful or I could re-injure myself so I thought a small project was in order before the cold weather sets in...so far September has been beautiful and hot!
It started out with my wanting to change the door color, although I love the look of the yellow doors I was craving a change so I picked a deep navy shade a little darker than the shutters.
As you can see I have yet to paint the front door.
I didn't want to paint until I tackled a little project I have been meaning to get done.
Beefing up the door trim with a header.
One of the things I love about our house are all the headers above the windows and most of the doors, I'm not sure why the front door didn't get a header also but it didn't so after dragging my feet on this project I decided to just do it already.
A few readers have told me my door was not grand enough or that it was too cheap for my house...I hope they like this makeover because I love it. Feel free to follow me on Instagram to see photos usually daily HERE
I'm hoping to get to the painting of the door today, so more photos to come soon.

Here is the before....

After

I went to the shelf aisle at Home Depot and picked out a 12" wide pine board and a small crown moulding and some coving and a board for the top piece. A nice one day project.

 I was finally able to give my new toy from Ryobi a try....it was so nice and quick to just plug in a battery and get this project underway without a oh so loud compressor.

 I also found a very exciting new item at Home Depot....do you see it? its a roller tray that hooks right onto the paint can, why didn't I think of this? It's brilliant and so much better than a seperate roller for those smaller projects...go get one.

 Included in project curb appeal I thought it was time to add a little bling to the garage doors...I still need to paint the handle in the center, I know. I think its just the little bit of accent the doors needed. I will do headers for the doors at some point. (my poor drive way needs a re-coat due to the damage left from the fence project.)

Here is a look at the new door color, I went with Martha Stewart Wrought Iron...it's a great deep tone and it goes so much better with the inside of my house, so now when I look out to the door on the garage it is more cohesive.

I better run and get that door painted before it rains ...bye for now.