Mini Makeovers: Entry way light, caulk, & painting trim

For years I've had a list of small, inexpensive or free fixes/repairs/tweaks that I'd like to (or need to) make to our house.  Guess how far I've gotten on that list - not very.  For some reason it seems like those tiny, 15 minute projects are the hardest to tackle, even though a lot of times they make a huge impact.  That's about to change friends.

I've challenged myself to cross an average of one item off the list each week.  Some weeks I might finish one, some weeks I might not get to any of them...just so my average is one per week.

So, here's where I'm at after week one, with help from my mom & Grady.

Mini Makeover #1: Ugly entry way light fixture.
I know that gold is back, but this here ain't no pretty gold.  I actually like the globe on the original light, so thought I'd put a quick coat of ORB spray paint on the base to freshen it up a bit.  After taping up some newspaper on the ceiling, the whole shebang took 5 minutes...if that.  Easy peasy.

Mini Makeover #2 & 3: Cracked bathroom trim & hallway/dining trim retouch.

After a too hard door slam in the bathroom a couple of months ago, our trim inside the bathroom got popped away from the wall a little bit.  I had to cut away the old caulking & nail the trim back down, resulting in a gap between the trim & tile.  Before I had a chance to nail the trim back down, the door started rubbing against the wonky trim & peeled some paint off.  So in addition to caulking, we now had to paint the trim, too.  (While we were at it we gave all of the door trim in the hallway & dining room a fresh coat of paint too since there were a few dings here & there.)  Caulk = 1 minute, trim paint in bathroom & hall = 1 hour (with two people working).

Mom & Grady painting the newly repaired trim.  (I wish I looked that cute in my undies!)

Future Mini Makeovers:

paint small strip of wall that was missed in kitchen

paint 1 piece of trim in kitchen

stair railing in basement

wallpaper side entry ceiling

paint exterior doors

paint dining room built-in

threshold by patio door

patch old curtain rod holes

patch cracks in living/dining rooms

repaint living/dining rooms

lay wood floor in hall closet

new smoke alarms by bedrooms

new doorknobs on entry closet & our bedroom door & closets

patch cracks in bathroom & repaint

new shower curtain

art for bathroom

kitchen window treatments

touch up trim in front entry

paint front entry ceiling

I'm sure I'll think of a few other things to do, but this should keep us busy for a while!

Here's to getting stuff done & crossing items off lists!

The bath tub from...you know where.

What's haunting me this Halloween isn't a ghoul or goblin.  It resides in my bathroom, was thought to be terminated, only to resurface this spring & torment me all summer/fall.  It's my lovely pink bath tub.  (Insert sarcasm.)

When we moved into the house in September 2008, we knew that one of the first projects we'd tackle was the main level bathroom.  It was a hot pink & gold, who-knows-with-what stained carpet mess.  In a few long months, we went from creepy & grimy to clean & bright.

When we first remodeled the bathroom, we used Rustoleum's Tub & Tile Refreshing Kit in white. My aunt & uncle had used the same product a few years before & their (formerly blue) bathtub still looks great.  Not so much here.  This past spring the finish really started to chip away.  Once it started, it just kept going, faster & faster.  This is what our tub looked like as of last week:

First of all, it LOOKS horrible.  Second, the paint would chip off & lodge in the drain, causing me to lose my mind trying to pick it all out.  Third, & the reason that I decided to bite the bullet & start this project now...the edges were sharp!  The last thing I wanted was for Grady to get a chuck of paint stuck in one of his cheeks while taking a bath - ouch!

Soooo...I started with a sanding block & scraper thinking that if it was coming off so quickly simply from everyday use, it surely would come right off with some sanding & scraping.  Not the case.

I was able to get a little bit off, but it seriously would have taken until the new year to get it all sanded using that method.  We didn't have any problems with the sides of the tub (both inside & out), so we decided that we'd get the whole bottom stripped, as well as smooth out the spots on the ledge where the finish was damaged.  Then we'd use the sand-blaster, or some super coarse sandpaper to rough up the pink & go over the whole thing again with the Rustoleum paint.  It's self leveling, so you "shouldn't" be able to tell where the blemishes were.  (Hopefully).

This is where we're at after the weekend.  The thing that ultimately seemed to work the best (between sanding blocks, heat gun, sandblasting, buying two drill attachments {caused the burn marks}, & an electric sander) was the electric sander.  It was slow going, but we eventually got the bottom of the tub done.  We still have to soften the lines between the old & new finish & sandblast/sand the pink to rough it up before we {re}paint.  Hopefully by next week it'll be good as new.  Until then I'll have to keep converting Grady's bath tub photos to B&W to help hide the pink splotches!

Wish me luck that I'll have enough forearm strength to finish sanding this week!  :)