Well, today as we played outside, this little piece of driftwood caught my eye. It’s been here since we moved in and I have always loved the shape of it.
So, I started thinking, maybe I could bring that INside and display it on a corner table, or even just have it on the floor.
I love having a little drama in each room. I think this particular piece of driftwood is dramatic. Some may think it’s gross.
Which brings me to my next point. It probably has bugs in it. So I called around to different taxidermists in our area (who use driftwood to mount their dead things on) and asked how to properly clean it.
They didn’t really know. They said for me to go to the local lake and find a fresh piece straight out of the lake and just dry that out so there isn’t much of a chance that anything would be living in there.
I’ll have to do that, I guess.
Or teach the kids what a termite looks like. Either way there will be lots of drama.
I did look online to see if people buy driftwood and how much it costs.
People DO buy it and it’s expensive. This large piece, for instance, was almost $100. (And probably bug free).
Well, another little something I’ve been up to is staining our floor register cover things.
I got a few of these real wood floor registers from Home Depot because there was nothing that matched our floors perfectly and I figured I could just sand these and stain them.
But I didn’t sand enough the first time so it didn’t get quite dark enough.
After a lot more sanding and forgetting about the stain being on there for at least an hour letting that stain set in for a bit, it turned out great. Just a few more of these to go.
It’s the little things. (Like those little crumbs I’m sure you didn’t notice on our new, dirty floor).
The little things, like your kids finding out how much fun it is to “hug it out,” are a lot more fun to be a part of.
Well, we’re on our way to a whole new world here.
Have I even told you how this whole Renovation Project 2013 came about, by the way?
Let me break it down. So, we were just going to paint the walls in our house.
But then we needed some new trim.
And with new trim, we might as well finish the laminate flooring throughout the main level.
But with the floor being that color of dark brown we can’t have dark brown couches.
So, we need new couches. Light colored super unrealistic with small children and a dog couches.
But, man. That floor is pretty hard and we have little tikes running around, so we are going to need a new rug then too.
And I need to paint all of our furniture to match everything that’s going on now.
And now that the upstairs looks so nice, we can’t leave our shag carpet in our basement just looking like…that.
So, new carpet in the basement it is.
Which means I need to scrape the popcorn ceilings, paint the shelves, trim and wood down there, and paint the ceilings and walls before that carpet gets installed.
BUT we will hold off on buying new furniture for our basement. See? We know what restraint is.
So, if you think you’re going to just “paint your walls” I would suggest doing just that and not looking at anything else in your house.
Be content. Use restraint. Or you will be a few grand poorer.
So, here is our big Home Reno To Do List and where we’re at in the process:
Laminate floor installPaint upstairs and entrywayPaint furniture- Buy and install new trim
Sell old couchesBuy new couches- Buy upstairs rug
Scrape popcorn ceilings in basement (almost done)Buy downstairs carpet- Have Home Depot install downstairs carpet (only $37 to have them install for us!)
- Prime and paint basement ceilings
- Paint basement shelving, trim and wood
- Paint basement walls
- Buy and install new pendant light in entry way where Buck will come down off that wall and forever be laid to rest (I pray)
So, we’re getting closer.
The basement carpet will be installed on June 11! So I have to get going on all that needs to be done down there before that happens.
Times a tickin’. Stresses me out a little bit. Let’s hug it out.
