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I installed a faucet!!!

The Room-a-Month Challenge is not dead!  (Are you still working on your rooms?)  In fact, over the weekend I removed our old kitchen faucet and installed a new one.  Me!  (With some help from my reluctant assistant, Pete.)

Paralyzed with indecision, I put off calling the plumber for weeks -- mostly because I wanted to tackle the install myself, but was afraid to do it.   I had visions of water flooding the kitchen -- nightmares, really.  In the end, there was some water, and a few problems, but it all worked out in the end and we didn't even have to make a trip to the hardware store.  They really do make these newer faucets simple to install. 

Lately I've been trying to challenge myself to do things I haven't done before, and completing this task successfully has encouraged me.  Who knows what I'll do next?

A Room A Month -- February: The Kitchen

Our kitchen has some major issues -- 1940's metal cabinets, badly tiled over 1970's counter tops, weird appliance issues, etc.  When we redo it for keeps, we are going to have to tear it down to the studs and rip out the floor -- can you say pricey?  So we have been redoing the rest of the house and saving this room for last (you know, after we win the lottery or whatever.)

The first two photos are of the northern wall.  Perhaps you can see the gas range and the electric cooktop side by side here.  Yeah.  I do have 8 burners, but that wasn't the plan.  (I'll get to the reason for that later.)  There is pretty much no usable counter space on this wall, but I'm not sure I can do much about that.

 

Moving clockwise around the room, we are now facing east.  There is a nice big window, but the desk cuts into the available counterspace (and mostly collects junk and piles of bills.)  I'd like to tidy this space and make it more organized.  Especially the "beverage center":

 

This is the espresso machine and tea area.  Right now it's neatened up a bit, but things tend to expand out of control.  More storage to contain the mess would be a good idea.

 

Facing south we see the biggest expanse of countertop, which is where I end up doing most of my food prep, baking, etc.  The sink and dishwasher jut out into the room at an odd angle because there is a radiator back behind them.  In this photo you can also see the odd cave-like structure in the room...

This is the reason I have a cooktop and a range.  When we moved in, there was an *ancient* wall oven in this space, we went to the appliance shop and purchased the smallest possible oven, but when they came to install it, it didn't fit.  I purchased a piece of MDF and cut it to fit (the bottom was originally open to the drawer below) but that's as far as I got.  Something must be done with this junk collecting space.

Facing west, you see a bank of cabinets -- probably installed in the 70's.  They are metal and wood and have seen better days.  I want to remove the trim and paint these.

 

One small project will be to replace the old leaky faucet with the broken hot water handle.  We already purchased a new faucet and I just have to phone the plumber to have it installed.

And the old laundry chute door needs two tiles replaced and a new hinge.  Pete is on the job and thinks he can get this done this weekend.

So, what can I do with this space?  Well, I don't want to do too much because our plan is to rip it out and replace *everything* in the next five years.  A little paint, some organization and perhaps a new microwave are on the agenda.  Any suggestions on what I can do with the oven cave?

A Room A Month -- Dining Room Done (sort of...)

This might not look all that different from the before picture, but I'm very happy with the results of our efforts.

Things we did accomplish:

1. New paint color -- This was by far the most daunting task, especially in the winter when you can't open up the house for ventilation.  The VOC free paint was excellent and the new color is exactly what I wanted.  I'm happy every time I walk into the room and see it.
2. Baker's rack gone, bookshelf added -- My cookbooks have a happy new home and are so much more organized and easy to access.  I love the Expedit from IKEA and will probably be purchasing more of them in the future.
3. Dimmer switch fixed -- This was fixed, then broken, then fixed again.  Duct tape was used, and for now it works.

The new, low shelving means that a large piece of artwork is needed on the south wall of the room.  And I didn't get curtains purchased or the chairs recovered, but all things considered, I'm happy with what we were able to do in a month, especially since one weekend was taken up with packing away holiday decorations.  I may actually put the dining room back into the rotation so that I can finish the things I still want to do.  Maybe in the second half of the year.

Up next is the kitchen, which is by far the most unfinished room in our house.  No, we won't be doing a remodel, but I think fixing up the little annoying things might make it work for the next few years until we save up for that task.

Don't forget to leave me links to your "after" photos of your January room and "before" photos of your February room.  I can't wait to see them!

Last weekend to work on January room!

This is it.  Time to finish up the January room and choose your room for February.  Are you all finished?  Did you meet the goals you set?  (I didn't, but I'm happy with what I was able to accomplish.)

Send me a link to your "after" pics or leave a link in the comments!

A Room A Month -- Painting Done!

Yesterday afternoon we decided to start painting and things went so smoothly that we finished by dinner time (which was a margarita and some TJ's Chili Lime Cashews for me).  We didn't run out of paint, or have any spills... no injuries or falls off the ladder... it was probably my best painting experience to date.

The no VOC paint (Freshaire from HD) went on very splotchy, as you can see from this photo.  We feared a second coat would be necessary, but it dried into a beautiful even finish with just the one coat -- nice.

When I chose the paint color, I was worried it might be too similar to the color we had -- the color I did not like at all -- but when I started edging, I could see everything would be alright.  We keep walking through the room and commenting on how much we like the color, so it's a winner.

No more pictures today.  I'll save those for the after post next week.  How are your rooms coming along?

Weekend Recap -- Revolutionary Road and IKEA

Over the weekend we watched Revolutionary Road because we are cheap and lazy. Okay, perhaps that's a bit harsh.  In fact, it was free on demand and we hadn't seen it yet.

As it turns out, Revolutionary Road was an excellent movie and very thought provoking. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it (but it's not a cheery movie, so if you are looking for something upbeat and light, look elsewhere.)

Then yesterday it was off to IKEA to find a cookbook tamer for the dining room. We ended up getting the Expedit in black-brown because it can be positioned horizontally and thus hopefully look more like a sideboard. And if we do eventually find a (real) sideboard we like, the Expedit can be moved into another room -- specifically the family room where we have 3 tables in the same finish (or colorway -- as the knitter in me wanted to type there.)

Paint was also purchased, so I expect to see some real progress on the dining room by the end of this week.

How are you doing on your room?

Well, we are halfway through January.  Is your room coming along?  If you have progress pics, leave a comment!

We took down all the holiday decorations last weekend, and I have chosen the paint color.  Now I just need to go pick up the paint and get started.  The bookcase & cookbook mess is another issue.  I think I may have spotted a nice bookcase from IKEA, but I need to go see it in person to make sure the color is going to work.  As for curtains -- I'm at a loss.  Perhaps after the paint goes up I'll find my inspiration.

A Room A Month Participants

A Room A Month -- now with a button!  If you want to snag it and link to the A Room A Month page, that would be great!

So far I've received quite a bit of interest in this project, and several people have posted about their January rooms:

Cecily

Adina

Rose

Theresa

Chris

If you are participating and have your first room chosen, just email me a link and I'll be happy to add it to the list!

A Room A Month -- Dining Room List

So now that I chose the dining room for January, I suppose I should reveal the trouble spots I plan to address.

This is a view into the sun porch, where 4 of the 5 chairs reside.  Two of them have no seat at all and 2 have severely damaged seats.  The other one is in the dining room and does have a seat, but it's covered in some fake leatherette:

 

It's the one on the right.  The chair on the left is an old desk chair that has followed Pete around, probably since childhood and it really shouldn't even be in the dining room.  Plan of action:  remove one chair, have remaining chairs reupholstered.

Next -- cookbook collection storage.  Right now an old baker's rack holds the books, but does a very poor job of it.  This needs to be removed (and sold in the garage sale) and replaced with a nice bookcase.

We also need curtains and a new curtain rod.  The current rod is screwed right into the trim -- not good.  We don't need much privacy here, so I'll probably just get two panels and forget about any kind of blinds or shears for now.

This is one of the small fixes I was talking about.  The plastic knob on the dimmer fell off *every* time you turned on the light in this room -- so annoying!  Pete took the dimmer apart and found that instead of replacing it, he could just pry the metal prongs apart a bit and the knob fit snugly.  One problem solved!

This photo also illustrated another issue -- paint color.  When I chose this paint color it was under difficult circumstances.  All the furniture from half the first floor was shoved in the dining room because we were getting hardwood floors installed.  I had to make the decision at night, while crawling over furniture.  The paint is sage green and I was going for olive.  Fortunately, the trim. paneling and ceiling were all painted at the time the sage color was done, so we just have to paint over the green part.  I already chose the color -- Freshaire no VOC in Terrarium -- an olive-y khaki color. 

And then there's the light fixture.  Ugh,  I think it might be original to the house (1920's), but the glass hurricanes appear to be much more recent (maybe 80's?)  So if I can find replacement glass that I like, this might be an easy fix.  I hate to replace the fixture if it is original.  Not to mention that Pete and I have talked about making this into a pool room in the future, in which case we would be replacing it with one of those pool table lights.  

Well, that should be more than enough to keep me busy this month in this room.

Remember to send me a link to your before photos!  I have already received a few, but I'll wait to post the list of links until Wednesday.

A Room A Month -- January Room Choice

I decided that I would go big in January and choose the dining room.  It's a room that we have done almost nothing to since moving into our home over 5 years ago.  Actually, I think all we did was have it painted and remove the heavy, dusty, faded curtains.

The room is quite open which makes it a little awkward.  There are two french doors opening onto the front hall, a swinging solid wood door opening on to the kitchen and two glass paned door opening onto the (unheated) sun porch -- not to mention the large radiator.

Since we rarely have dinner parties, the room is used mainly to house my growing cookbook collection (and boxes from holiday gifts, apparently.)

We do have a table -- an antique we picked up when we lived in Chicago, but the chairs... well, we'll get to that tomorrow.

So that's the before shots of my room for the month.  I'll be back tomorrow or Monday with some photos of the specific areas that I want to focus on in this room.  Since we've done little -- I'm thinking this just might be the most expensive and labor intensive room, so I thought I should start with it while I was all excited about the project.

What room are you going to tackle this month?  Post photos and leave me a comment -- I'll link to your posts so we can all have a look and encourage one another.

2010 Project -- A Room A Month

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but our house was at a point where a room a year was more feasible. After over 5 years of work, I'm at a point where most of the major things are done (except for the kitchen) and I'm ready to attempt a year long project that has been in the back of my mind...

A Room A Month

(Note to self -- create pretty graphic.)

So here's where I'm coming from. . . Do you have little projects in each room that need attention?  Chipped paint on the trim, prints that need to be hung, door handles that need to be tightened, small repairs, cosmetic changes?  You know you do -- doesn't everyone?  So what I'm proposing is not that you make a huge list of the hundreds of little projects, but rather tackle them one room at a time. 

Are you in?  If so, my challenge for you today is to make a list of rooms.  Now, there are 12 months in a year, so I'm suggesting that you choose 12 rooms.  Don't have 12 rooms?  What about the front porch, back patio, garage, basement, hallway -- or split up a big room. 

Here's my list:

1. Office
2. Master Bedroom
3. Maddie's Room
4. Den
5. Bathroom
6. Dining Room
7. Kitchen
8. Living/Family Room
9. Sun Room
10. Little Eating Room
11. Powder Room
12. Front Hall

Rather than choosing the order right now, I think I'll decided which room is up next as I go. 

On the 1st, I'll be back with before photos of the room for January, along with a list of projects.  I'm hyped right now, but fear the excitement will ebb.  Perhaps some of you will join in and we can encourage each other!