Before & After- Well House/Gym

Wow- we took quite a bit of a blog break!

We've been busy the past few weeks with getting Well House turned Gym into shape!

Back last year, we had started to get it set up, but two weeks ago we decided to get in there with paint and really make it a space for the boys to work out in.

The first thing we had to do was get the electrician in to run the electric inside the walls, and then demo all of the old electrical tracking that was affixed throughout the room.

We also demo'd the little corner cabinet that contained an old breaker box, which was removed.  We decided to keep the shelves for some open storage.

The electrician also installed a ceiling fan (which you can kinda see in the after photo below...)

Then we painted the ceiling and walls.  Both have bead-board running horizontally- it was kinda a pain to get the paint in there!

For the walls, we used the same "Wet Pavement" gray that we used in the master bedroom.

We painted the well/pump "closet" gray, so that it would blend in better (that's the big brown paneled box in the left side of the before photo!).

And the built-in shelf got a fresh coat of white, with yellow along the back.

Here's a close up of the shelf:

We decided to decorate with the kids' wrestling trophies & medals.

For the medals, we painted and hung a board along one wall and used finishing nails to hang the medals from.  I spaced the nails evenly the whole way across, and split the Gold, Silver & Bronze medals into groups so that they can hopefully add more!

Here's the view looking in from the doorway:

I hope to add a mirror on the blank wall.

Here's a reversal of the room, looking back at the door:

We also framed & hung a photo of Team USA wrestler, James Green- a wrestler that the boys admire.

We still have some odds & ends to finish up, but we've already been out there getting our workouts in!  I think we'll get a tv to hang behind the weight bench, and we're also checking out thin wall radiators that can hang (since there's no heat in there for winter-time).

During my blogging break, I wasn't organizing my photos... so I'm going to get back in the habit of doing that and try to update with more that we've been working on in the past 10 months!  

I really do have to get back into the swing of it, since there were several times that I've come back here to check on things like when we bought our fridge (which is on the fritz!), or how high the water was in the bomb shelter when we moved in (there's a project underway with that!)  

So it's been great having the blog to go back and figure out these things!

Finding a Decorative Fix

There was one imperfection with the Butler's Pantry cabinetry... It had a hole that had once been cut for an outlet to go.  Since our space was longer than the space the cabinetry was originally built for, this was now exposed.  I thought about patching it, but decided that would draw more attention to it, and if we re-finished the sides to blend it in, we'd lose that rustic patina.

I figured that hanging something over it would be the easiest fix, but it's sort of in an awkward spot though. I decided to just wait and see if I could find something to cover it up that would make sense at that height.



At a tag sale over the summer, I found the fix!  This cute little rectangle basket was just .25!  I took a yellow ribbon that I had up with my sewing stuff and just hung it over the hole.  Then I put some of our family recipes in it.  Now those are kept handy too!

Poster Framing - What a deal!

At my work there is an annual "artwork sale"...  Unwanted pieces from around our corporate building gets clear out & sold to raise money for charity.  The vast majority of the stuff isn't anything you'd ever want to hang in your house- but it's awesome if you're looking to pick up some really nice frames!

This year, I found this silver poster frame.  I paid just $1!

This is the spot I had in mind for it...

As you know, my oldest's room is decorated with a nautical theme, and we picked out this poster when visiting the Submarine Force Museum.  It was also special because my dad, uncle & grandfather all served in the Navy.  The small photo in the image above is a photo of my dad & uncle, and we have my grandfather's uniform hanging on the wall in here too, along with some of my dad's Navy  memorabilia.


I had bought one of those black plastic poster frames, but it completely fell apart. Then I just put the poster directly on the wall, but that didn't look all that great.


The frame was a little bit larger than the poster (I didn't have the measurements when I was at the sale!)  But since the original image in the frame had a black background, I used that to make it look like it was matted.

It's a heavy-duty frame, so it won't be falling apart any time soon.  It definitely looks more finished hanging up there. I'm very pleased with it!

Lost Sock Sign

Time for a little silly project.

We are Harry Potter fans over here, and I've been eyeing lots of cute "Free Dobby" lost sock signs on Pinterest.  Now that the laundry room is up & running, I decided to make one.

Supplies:
-I found board out in the workshop (already the right size and painted!)
-I had metallic craft paint & paint brush left over from doing the stencils in the master closet.
-I bought some letter stencils, but didn't end up using them!  Instead I used tissue paper & a pencil to trace the letters that I liked online.
-I used a blue sharpie for outlining, and then blue ribbon to hang the board & the clothes pins.

I put "tissue paper" in the supply list, but I used wax paper.  I wasn't thinking about how that would make marks on the computer screen as I was tracing!  Oops!  Luckily it all wiped off with a little effort, but save yourself the trouble and use tissue paper instead!

After tracing the letters off the computer screen, I flipped the paper over and traced the backside of it.  

This will allow me to lay it right on the board and trace it again on the front side, so that the pencil lead from the back will transfer to the board.

It's faint, but then you can just go over it again directly on the board, if needed.

Yes- a lot of tracing, but makes it easier for those of us who can't free-hand the letters!

Next I got to work painting the silver inside the lines.

It wasn't as crisp as I wanted, so I decided to use a blue sharpie to outline the letters.  The sharpie gave me better control than I had with the little paint brush.

Then I took a stable gun and attached some blue ribbon for hanging on the wall, and also for hanging socks from.

Here it is hanging on the wall in my laundry room...

I should mention here that I wish we only had 5 single socks around here... there's actually a bucket of them sitting on top of the dryer!  This may motivate me to go through them though and toss any that are never going to find their mate!!!

Painting Round Up- Out Buildings

Just to document the  painting before & after of the out buildings...


The Garage
As mentioned- this building needed the most boards replaced.   The white boards show the new work done.

Front- BEFORE

Garden Side- BEFORE

Swing Side- BEFORE

Field Side- BEFORE

Front- AFTER

Garden Side- AFTER

Swing Side- AFTER

Field Side- AFTER
Broken window panes need replacing.

The Well House - This building also needed some carpentry... mostly holes to be filled where we removed old flood lights, etc.

Front- BEFORE

Yard Side- BEFORE

Driveway Side- BEFORE

Back- BEFORE

Driveway  Side- BEFORE

Front- BEFORE (after scraping

Front- AFTER

Yard Side- AFTER

Back- AFTER
The white gas tank needs to be removed.

Whew- what a difference!  The "Kitchen Project" is now being considered fully complete, since painting was the last thing being "included" in our plans/estimates.  No worries though, there are plenty of more projects that we're thinking of...  and although were probably going to stay away from some BIG  projects for the next few months, we've got a few smaller ones getting underway!