Finished Business

Friday, October 1, 2010

My greatest skill is starting new projects and not finishing them.  I think I've managed to bring this skill to somewhat of an art form.  The house is always in a state of partial upheaval.  Sometimes, I think the universe is plotting against me, and other times, I acknowledge I'm just biting off more than I can chew.  I have bought into the DIY philosophy on more than one occasion with lackluster results as my skill set falls short of expectations.

A fine example of disappointing results would be the guest room.  It took three years, but I finally finished it - well, almost.  I still want to replace the closet doors with mirrored ones, but the funds aren't available anytime soon.  The color choice is outside my usual palette, but I actually like it.  I put quite a bit of thought into the curtains and the ribbon tie offs.  I spent almost a whole week trying to find bedding that would go well.  The room is still a catch-all for my arts & crafts, as well as my closet and jewelry room.  The one thing that is truly disappointing is the ceiling.  There are some spots where the drywall needs smoothing, patching or repair, and I opted to try and texture over the imperfections.  If anything, I think the texture just highlights the imperfections that much more.  They are the figurative giant zits on an otherwise pretty face.

The hallway project, which came to a grinding halt when the front doors fell apart, was finally picked up and completed.  We had some mis-steps with the color at first.  Our perception of blue in the store manifested itself in a very unsettling Pepto version on the wall.  I finally clued in and bought sample jars.  The color we finally settled on was something in the Ocean Spray naming category.  A little gray, a little dark, a little blue.  Very nice. 

I scoured Sacramento stores for picture rail.  I had my heart set on being able to hang paintings on decorative ribbon, chains, etc. along the hallway walls.  I wanted to be able to move things around as the mood struck me.  Now that the picture rail is up, it would be foolhardy to risk hanging anything heavy on the picture rail.  I should probably redo it, but I doubt I could do any better a job the second time around.  Besides, that much picture rail isn't cheap.

In addition to the big projects, I decided it was high time to fix that leaky toilet.  Five years of listening to it hiss at random in the middle of the night, sleeping in the guest room was never totally peaceful.  I bought one of those nifty kits and gutted the whole thing.

I gave myself a big pat on the back for this one.  It was a fast and easy project.  About a week later, I was emptying the trash and discovered some moisture on the floor.  Woops!  Apparently, I didn't tighten the two main bolts and I had some leakage.  I've decided to ignore the fact that all of the grout around the back of the toilet is now cracked.  That wasn't me, I didn't do it.  In less than a month, the plastic handle snapped right off.  I took MLH to Ace, and we picked out a new handle with metal parts.  Much more effective.  Live and learn.