The Laundry List

Hey all! I hope you had a lovely weekend! Mine was jam-packed – we fit in a baseball game, strawberry picking, a Costco trip for the moms (and some kids), a couple naps, two ice cream trips, eating out (uhh, a LOT) and a trip to Lowe’s and the nursery for my Mother’s Day gifts. Oh yeah!

I am slowly but surely filling in the landscaping around our patio and I’m really excited about it. I’ve actually been completely focused on the outside all spring – very little has happened inside lately. Sorry. ;) I’m getting to it, I swear.

I’ll show you the landscaping progress soon, but for now, I wanted to update you on my to do list I wrote about here. I’m doing pretty good with it. Well, OK. I think I've knocked about seven things off the list. It’s been almost three weeks. I’d say that’s pretty good. Or…not?

;)

Well anyway, one of the biggest (and most expensive) projects was one in the laundry room. I’ve wanted to replace those metal utility doors forever:

I don’t have a great pic of the before but they were just awful. I’ve loathed them for eight years now. They were cheap, scratched up, loud and there was a huge gap at the bottom and the top of the doors.

Our HVAC system is inside, so every time the air or heat ran they would rattle. Annoying.

So they needed to go. They were on a track at the top and bottom:

The builder went wild and crazy with the molding too. Sooo fancy. ;) (That will be replaced soon.)

And another reason I didn’t care for those doors was the track on the bottom collected all kinds of dust and yuck. I picked up a couple new doors at Lowe’s with the hope I could just use the track that was already there, at least on top.

But when I assembled the doors and tried it, I quickly realized that wasn’t happening. Of course.

And I realized another issue – the doors were the exact same size, but because the hardware was different, the new doors were way too short for the space.

So I had to grab a couple 1 by 6’s (primed thankyouverymuch) and cut them to size to go right over the ones that were already there on top and bottom:

Please excuse the massive amounts of dust. I don’t clean in there. Or many places lately.

This made the vertical space just a skosh smaller, so the doors would fit. 

I grabbed some drywall screws:

And screwed them in on top and bottom:

The flat head on drywall screws are perfect for something like this because they sink into the wood. I filled each spot and now there’s no sign I did anything:

Other than the unsanded wood filler. Oh well. I’ll just add it to my list. ;)

I installed the new hardware, which is just a track at the top for each door and one little bracket at the bottom, so it’s much cleaner looking.

The doors came with two knobs, but I wanted something a little nicer so I grabbed a few more of the pulls I used on the kitchen island redo:

Because all of the HVAC stuff is back there, we had to go with louvered doors.

I do think I’ll paint the doors when the room gets painted:

Probably the same color as the walls? I’m not sure yet.

It is a HUGE improvement aesthetically, and they are easier to operate and they don’t rattle. Bonus!

This project was a total of about $160 – I think each door was $70 and the pulls were about $20 total. It was the most expensive item on my list, so I’m glad to have it out of the way!

This is another check off the laundry list for the laundry room. (Get it? Laundry list? Laundry room? OK, forget it.) Once we get the washer and dryer moved out, it will officially become a mud room, (hurrah!!) and I can get moving on painting, baseboards, built ins.

At this rate this will happen in 2019. So many projects to do first!

Here’s an update on the to do list I wanted to complete before the end of May:

1. Candelabra in master bath
2. Drapery hardware in master bath
3. Paint second handle on stairway
4. Paint baseboard by fireplace
5. Install small quarter round by fireplace
6. Fill holes in quarter round on stairs
7. Clean up around house – wood, flowers
8. Paint beadboard by fridge in kitchen
9. Paint trim around chalkboard in kitchen
10. Prime dining room
11. Get carpets cleaned upstairs
12. Sand and reoil butcher block
13. Repaint corbel in kitchen
14. Hem (and line?) family room drapes
15. Fill holes and paint spot on loft wall
16. Rehang Bub photo in office
17. Replace doors in laundry room
18. Change out last brass doorknob upstairs
19. Paint trim/fix drywall by back door
20. Figure out how to make powder room presentable.
21. Hang roman shade in guest room
22. Go through shoes in laundry room
23. Fix trim under back door
24. Trim burning bushes
25. Fill holes and seams in crown in family/kitchen
26. Fix chair in kitchen
27. Add trim around basement door casing
28. Paint trim around laundry door casing
29. Paint cabinets in dining room
30. CLEAN LIKE I’VE NEVER CLEANED BEFORE

It’s not going as fast as I had hoped, but it feels good to get some of these things DONE.

The bushes no longer attack visitors when they walk up to the door:

And the holes in the molding on the stairs are filled:

It only took two years.

You’ll notice the majority of projects I have left to do are PAINTING projects. I would really appreciate it if a gaggle of elves would show up overnight and get that taken care of.

Umkay.

So are you surprised at my progress? In a good way? No? ;) I know many of you made lists when I did – how are yours coming along?

I have gotten a ton more done than just those items crossed off, they just weren’t on the list. And now I may hit pause on it to work on a BIG project in the family room. After I plant a tree and six more plants in the backyard.

I. am. crazy.

And I love it!! :)