A TON of Home Projects

I had a blog post of home projects to share with you.  Every time I went to post this I would start a new home project.  Sooo.... here's a snapshot of where most of our time (and money) have gone this past year.

Last spring we planted a bunch of flowers, it made our yard look so happy.  I love the flower windmill!  A Costco find!

The girls helped Grammy and Grumple plant flowers and dig up the weeds.

Last winter we painted the upstairs (finally!)  I put their names on the wall in glitter vinyl.  Within a few days the twirls knew how to spell their names.  And their sisters names!  While we were painting their room we let the girls sleep in our room.  (that's when Siena broke her foot).  In the middle of the night Scarlett came over to wake me up and ask if dad could stop snoring!  haha!  The girls woke me up like 6 times that night!

Recently (Feb 2018) our lamp burned out in our living room.  I couldn't find a replacement lamp that fit all our criteria.  I wanted a lot more light and something up high out of the way.  My dad made a cool steampunk light at his house that I thought might be cool in our living room.  It was crazy how fast it all came together.  One Sunday I was drawing up a schematic on my computer and the next Sunday it was all finished on our wall!  I love projects like that!

Jake and I spent Valentine's Day in Lowes picking through the black iron pipe bins together.  True Love!  Jake started soldering, every connection he would plug the light in and check the voltage.  One time he forgot to unplug it, he went to cut the wire and it made a HUGE spark.  Berlyn said it was like 3 feet tall!!!!  Jake had black all over his hands like what they show after an explosion in movies!  Luckily no one was hurt and nothing broke.  It was a real blessing.  After that, I was the only one allowed to plug it in, then I would stay with the plug until he was done and unplug it.  I thought it would be fun to put some of our engineering drawings next to the new light.  I used schematics from things we worked on.  Then I made one picture for our last name.  I added gears for each one of our Glauser girls.  Berlyn isn't a Glauser, so I added a little spring on the end of our gear chain.  heehee!

In the fall we realized that our kitchen table and folding chairs were not meeting our needs.  We went to IKEA and looked online but we couldn't find what we needed.  So Jake and I decided to build our own.  He built the table out of wood, stained it black, and used an epoxy resin for a smooth finish.  I found a place that sells old restaurant equipment.  Jake and I went one night and found 8 different wooden chairs and bought them for $10 each.  They are so study.  I sanded them, primed them and painted them a zazzy color.  One had the year 1977 stamped on the bottom, many of them had old smells, and there were several globs of old gum stuck on the bottom. 

I told Jake I wanted a BIG table.  The first time he made it 6'x6' we brought it in the kitchen to see how it looks.  It was way way way too big.  I felt so bad but I asked him to cut it in half and take out 2' of width.  But I just LOVE our new table!  I was so sore from all the sanding!  And Berlyn put in a ton of hours watching the girls.  But now we can all eat and enjoy dinner together!  Jake took an old pair of my jammie pants and ripped them up into staining rags.  I wonder how long he was plotting against those pants!

Another big project I wanted to do was to clean our chandelier and replace the bulbs with LEDs.  We figured out that the current bulbs needed like 2 hp to run.  No wonder the light kept tripping our circuit.  We took the crystals down, washed them, replaced the lights, and hung the crystals again.  There were 23 lightbulbs, 176 long crystals, and 60 short crystals.  When we got it all put back together I was so shocked at how clear the glass was.  I just thought they were a bit frosted, turns out that was just dust! 

Our front door frame had been rotting from all the water exposure it gets.  It got so bad that the girls couldn't open the door, only a grown up was strong enough to lift it to open it up.  We finally decided to replace it.  I love the new door.  The glass is pretty and you can't really see through it except in a few small spots.

While we were replacing the front door we decided to also have our wood floor refinished and stained darker.  I love the darker color and how it contrasts with the other oak we have.  The water based sealer was slippery for a few weeks, it was funny to watch them walk in their socks all gingerly, even Skye did!

The guy who painted our interior doors came back to repaint them (the paint was weird and never hardened).  Before he came Jake and I had to sand down the edges down cause they were swelling and getting stuck.  SO MESSY!  We have a magnet on the garage door that says "Remember who you are" well when we painted we took it off til the paint cured.  One day Lyla Furness was here and she asked "where is that magnet that says to remember who you are?"  I was so impressed that she remembered that little detail.

Then one day I found a red crayon in the dryer, luckily I found it before it did damage.  I had to take it apart and scrape out the red wax.  I also put a black window film on Skye's window, reorganize the linen closet, replaced the can lights with LEDs, replaced our bathroom fan switches with automatic timers, and made numerous trips to Home Depot.  I also went to pick up Scarlett and the van wouldn't start.  I had to use a wrench to take off the leads on the battery and reset the CPU.  It did the trick and we were even on time to pick her up!

We put a frosted window film on our big entry window.  It still lets the light in but adds privacy.  Something we have needed with our little ladies running to their room naked after showers at night.

A new bookshelf.  I had drawn up a design for one but Jake said no more big projects, so I found this one online.

New shoe storage racks.

We made a little "mud room" in the garage by the door.

I used a door sweep on the counter, now papers and junk don't fall down the crack by the fridge.

Jake fixing our couch.  I want to replace it, but we won't be spending money on a couch for another year or two (we have to get a new roof first-boring!)  I found a vinyl repair patch to fix some of the damage on the couch where our heads go.  Hopefully it will help it last a little longer.

Many of these projects took place in the last 3 months.  I'm all burnt out on home projects for the moment.  But creating things gives me energy and provides a creative outlet that I desperately need.  So it won't be long before I'll come up with another crazy thing to change around here!  Sorry Jake!  :-)