Stupid Sink!

We're remodeling the bathroom, trying to make in look like someplace that's NOT out of a horror show. However, as with most projects, this one has its bumps. We decided to replace the sink with a smaller pedestal. Here's the before sink.

 Not too bad right? with a HUGE exception for that crack.

Then we got this one.... When we got it I thought that it was just covered in dirt.Which is was, but it was also covered in rust. I can't get rid of it! This is the sink CLEAN! I've scrubbed and soaked and scrubbed. NOTHING works. Suggestions?

Update: I found some CLR in one of the cabinets, and throughly doused the sink with it. This was the result.

Although it still has stains, it looks much better. We also picked up some new handles to replace the broken set. We'd just bought this sink and walked into a thrift store and there the were, nestled in a little box. It was meant to be.

My 'new' Chandelier

So we were scouring the property, and I happened to glance in one of the little buildings a little ways from our house, and saw the tale tell edge of the curvy side of a chandy. I ran over to the building and pulled it out (after wiping the spider webs off my face and then reaching in again to grab it). I could see its beauty, my fiancée, not so much.

See the glass in the middle? Beautiful.

Here's the finished product. I LOVE IT!

We hung it above the sink. Light's on.

Light's off.

Fixing the Kitchen Yuckiness

So after years of decline.... Along came me. And unlike the previous tenants (meaning several bachelors), I want the house to look better when I'm done than it did when I got here. You know? This is what the kitchen looked like before.

Super yuck, right? 

SOOOO much better. We'll be painting them black in a couple weeks, and boy do they need it right?

Candle holders

These are a coupla candle holders that I redid that I got from a thrift store. I kinda liked the silver one before but I couldn't get it to shine up.

I always seem to forget to take before pics, so this one is after I sanded it down. It was the solid puke green color.

Here's after. Looking at the pics I'm not sure if I like it. The details aren't very prominent. : ( Maybe I'll hafta repaint it.

Before.

After. Now this one I'm satisfied with.

Silver to White

My mom gave me this tray, along with several others, months ago. I had no idea what to do with them, so they sat in a stack for quite a long time, until I was cleaning and decided to use some of them in some way.

Here's what it looked like before. Kinda cute but I didn't really like it.

And here's after. It's much cuter in real life. If you look close in the before pic, you can see the flower engravings; they're much more prominent in the white now. 

Buffet Refinish

My hunny and I also worked on refinishing this buffet for my hunny's mom, who wanted to sell it. It was NOT in a sell-able condition though. I forgot to take a picture of the top but it was in horrible condition! There were water stains and the finish was super damaged. I wish I could show you how bad it was but you'll just hafta use your imagination. Here's the damaged and dull front. The top was 50x as bad.

Gross right? Nasty!

We sanded down the top after scraping off the finish and the stain. We stained the top English Chestnut by Minwax. Just the stain, nothing fancy. I'm not sure why these other pics, sorry!

Here's the detail on the front. It's on both sides. There's also these little lighter colored bands around each one of the legs, about 6 inches from the ground.

Ugh. The uglyness of the doors. This is before we did anything to them. Except cleaning. I did clean them though they don't look it.

Staining the top.

Ahhhh. So much better!

Stripped the drawer fronts and doors.

The pulls. They were't a solid color, and they looked like they needed cleaned even though I scrubbed them. So I decided to paint them.

We swiped the stain over the fronts and then sprayed them with polyurethane.

 

Shiny.

Sprayed them with a hammered metal color. I can't remember the brand right now.

The finished project.

Laundry Room

This was the laundry room. UGH. Like the sideways towel rack? I hated it. Here's the transformation.

I painted the walls and took down everything that was up. BTW, I HATE the floors but we don't have the budget to fix those yet... I also hate that sink but it does prove useful occasionally. It's just really hard to keep clean. 

Here's the old light fixture that didn't even work. Ugly right? Meet garage sale lights.

Ahhhhh.... MUCH better. And they work, too! I wasn't completely happy with the room though. Here's a glance at the other side. I don't have any before pics other than the brief glance you get in the living room pic. 

 

YAY! Put up trim, painted and added some knick knacks to make it look better. Then... I decided to do this...

I'm not sure how I like it yet, though. I'm thinking I should paint the picture frame the dark blue that I painted the trim... What do you think? Jess says he likes it just fine but... I'm not so sure. I do think the cabinets look much better gray than oak, though.

Tractor part to candle holder

Whilst cleaning up the yard, which is full of glass and metal, I found this butt ugly, rusty tractor wheel part.

I had already cleaned it and started priming it when I remembered to take before pics. Here's the top.

Or it could be the bottom if I wanted. I just wanted to put a little candle in it. But it can flip over and hold a bigger candle. Here's the other side.

Super rusty and yucky. 

All nice and primed and ready for the next step.

TA-DA! ; ) I need to dust and straighten up a bit but it looks MUCH better than it did, and now I can use it in the house and it's not sitting in the yard all rusty and gross looking.

Working on the house.

This was the first picture I've ever taken of our living room. I'd already done a lot to it. I added a couch and chair and the coffee table. Well... not a lot but I promise it made a big improvement. Then we got rid of the truck seats, the tan couch and straightened a little bit. I also added the Egyptian stuff.

Oh yea and curtains. It looks much better but not quite what I wanted.

SOOOOO much better. I painted the walls a mixture of bronzed wheat and chocolate milk brown. Neither one looked good with the gray by themselves so I just mixed it up together and liked it. On this side <<<<<< is dark gray. Jess finished the window boxes. Ahhh... now that's what I'm talking about. Oh, We also got the new wood stove from my dad. It needs some paint and thanks to a log falling on one of the glass windows, it needs a window replaced. If we end up staying here for a couple more years then hopefully we'll be replacing the floor with pergo flooring. 

This is the best picture I have of the colors together. The dryer is now where that shelf is in the background and the laundry room (where the shelf is) in now painted. 

The wood stove that needs painted and the left window/door replaced. This shows the tile that is behind it. The tile continues on the floor, only on the floor, it has a lighter gray border in smaller tiles.

My love of spray paint continued

My Nativity scene camels before... Then after...

Unfortunately my the rest of the nativity scene was mostly headless...which was beyond creepy. But I saw the camels and I knew I had to have them. Now I love them even more.