"As long as we're doing this..."
The road to hell (in home improvement) starts with the following phase, "as long as we're doing ___, why don't we do ____?"
Project inflation.
Very little quilting in my world because the kitchen has taken over my life. It all started simply enough with vinyl sheet flooring that had become tattered and needed (really) replacement.
So we replaced it ourselves with blue and white commercial tile from H*** Despot. We had to add subfloor where it really didn't exist (really). We liked how it came out. Of course now that I had blue flooring, my kitchen chairs needed new fabric.
So how could I resist Amy Butler's home dec fabric? It matched and was cool to boot. Here's Honey nicely modeling the new chair fabric.
Also note: the walls are painted blue now. As in "as long as we're adding new flooring why don't we paint the walls?"
Then I said the fateful words "as long as we're painting the walls why don't we add wainscotting, new baseboards and a chair rail? It will be cute."
Of course, being both perfectionists we wanted real wood wainscotting (versus the panels) so here we are priming both side of wainscotting.
Then DH said, "as long as we're adding wainscotting, why don't we get rid of these arched doorways that the previous owner added?" Note: these are not original to this simple ranch house. And the entire house is rectangular. After living with the house a while, we both felt that the house "wanted" these doorways to be returned to their original format.
Here's the before:
So DH demo-ed and fitted new clear pine facing in the doorway. Ten pounds of plaster later I had gotten the doorways ready for their final painting and trimming.
The doorways really do feel more spacious and nice. And best of all, you can now get appliances (e.g., a fridge) into kitchen.
Worst of all, DH has said, "as long as we're putting in new baseboards in the kitchen, we should put in new baseboards in the living room and hallway."
It's all taking 3x as much money, and probably 10x as much time as we thought it would. But I have to say I'm pleased with the result. We're still working on the wainscotting and trim work. However, when you don't see new quilting posts (because I'm not doing much quilting these days) or even any new posts (because I'm painting, spackling, scraping, etc.) you'll know why.
Project inflation.
Very little quilting in my world because the kitchen has taken over my life. It all started simply enough with vinyl sheet flooring that had become tattered and needed (really) replacement.
So we replaced it ourselves with blue and white commercial tile from H*** Despot. We had to add subfloor where it really didn't exist (really). We liked how it came out. Of course now that I had blue flooring, my kitchen chairs needed new fabric.
So how could I resist Amy Butler's home dec fabric? It matched and was cool to boot. Here's Honey nicely modeling the new chair fabric.
Also note: the walls are painted blue now. As in "as long as we're adding new flooring why don't we paint the walls?"
Then I said the fateful words "as long as we're painting the walls why don't we add wainscotting, new baseboards and a chair rail? It will be cute."
Of course, being both perfectionists we wanted real wood wainscotting (versus the panels) so here we are priming both side of wainscotting.
Then DH said, "as long as we're adding wainscotting, why don't we get rid of these arched doorways that the previous owner added?" Note: these are not original to this simple ranch house. And the entire house is rectangular. After living with the house a while, we both felt that the house "wanted" these doorways to be returned to their original format.
Here's the before:
So DH demo-ed and fitted new clear pine facing in the doorway. Ten pounds of plaster later I had gotten the doorways ready for their final painting and trimming.
The doorways really do feel more spacious and nice. And best of all, you can now get appliances (e.g., a fridge) into kitchen.
Worst of all, DH has said, "as long as we're putting in new baseboards in the kitchen, we should put in new baseboards in the living room and hallway."
It's all taking 3x as much money, and probably 10x as much time as we thought it would. But I have to say I'm pleased with the result. We're still working on the wainscotting and trim work. However, when you don't see new quilting posts (because I'm not doing much quilting these days) or even any new posts (because I'm painting, spackling, scraping, etc.) you'll know why.
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