Category: Craftiness

Last week I posted about how I had finally had enough of the “decor” in our bathroom. In case you missed it – and so you can really get a feel for the drastic improvement – here’s the before:

Stenciled. Moose.

I looked at that for eight years!

In any case, last week when the boys were out of town, Kate and I were on a mission! I took the afternoon off from work, picked her up and went shopping. We started out at Sherwin Williams, and even though I had been researching Pinterest and Houzz and the rest of the interwebs for days, I still agonized over what color to pick once we were actually there. Eventually, though, we landed on Silvermist.

Then we hit HomeGoods, which, like its sister TJ Maxx, is my happy place, and got a little out of control! We bought towel bars, a shower curtain, a bath mat, towels and accessories. It was so fun! And affordable. I spent about $150 and got a ton of stuff.

Our last stop (or so I thought) was Lowe’s, where we picked out a lovely light fixture to replace this atrocity.

But, when we got home, after I gleefully tore down the pinecone wallpaper border, I took off the old fixture (and I didn’t even electrocute myself!) and discovered this.

Random holes in the drywall! Awesome. The base of the new light fixture was a small circle, and after consulting the google I determined that patching the drywall was out of my wheelhouse. So, the only other thing to do was to pick a different light that would cover that shit up.

I am all about quality workmanship, as you can see.

So, we trucked back to Lowe’s and picked up a new light with a much larger base. And also a pizza. We were back on track. Yay!

But wait, not so fast.

The first step in the installation instructions was to attach the fixture to the junction box, a metal thing that’s supposed to be attached to the studs in the wall. Except there wasn’t one in my wall – as you can see from the picture above, the wires were just sticking out of a hole. So there was nothing to attach the new fixture to. I turned to the google once again and determined I needed to install a junction box, but by this time it was after 8pm and our hardware store was closed. We decided it was time to start painting and deal with the light in the morning. Except that meant we were painting in the dark. Minor problem.

This is turning into a really long story.

Anyway, we rigged up some lights and extension cords and got to painting! By about 11:30, we were done… with the paint. Everything else was still a disaster, but we needed to call it a night. We headed to the hardware store the next morning, bought a junction box (from a man who was just slightly condescending, not that I’m bitter)… but the hole in the drywall wasn’t big enough for it. So I got out the hammer and made it bigger. Except I ran into two studs on either side before the hole got big enough.

At that point I started googling “hanging light fixture without junction box” and despite the fact that most of what I read indicated that said box was in fact necessary, I decided to try it anyway and hope for the best.

And it looks really good!

I just hope it doesn’t fall out of the wall and/or burn down the house.

Things went quickly from there, and pretty soon we had an entirely different bathroom.

Finally – here are the after pictures!

Wait… just one more “before” because if any of you made it this far you’ve probably forgotten what it looked like by now:

And now…

Honestly the pictures don’t do justice to how much better it looks. I mean, there was nowhere to go but up, but we just love it. Andy couldn’t believe it when he got home and said he would never doubt me again in the realm of home decor (although he also said he thought it “looked nice” before, so I’m not sure how much stock we can put into his opinion). Kate spent a few days just hanging out in the bathroom.

It was well worth the 18 hours and $300 it took to complete this project. I just wish we hadn’t waited eight years to do it!

Now I just want to refinish the cabinets and countertop and replace the sink and faucet. I’m sure there’s a YouTube video for that…

When we moved into our house, there was one thing that really bugged me – the hall bathroom. It was painted a cream color, and had lovely accents of a pine cone wallpaper border and stenciled acorns.

Eight years later, it still does.

Moose. On the wall.

It’s become one of those things that I see so often I almost forget about it. Until it’s time to take pictures for a blog post, and then I remember how hideous it really is.

But today is the day – the moose will be no more.

Andy and Sam are on their way to a baseball game in Pittsburgh, so Kate and I are taking matters into our own hands and redecorating.

Needless to say, we’re going to start with some paint. I’ve been scouring the interwebs for days, trying to pick a color, but I haven’t landed on anything. So, of course, I’m turning to you.

The tub and sink are cream, the trim and door are oak. What color should we paint? Also, any tips on removing an ugly wallpaper border?

Now here’s where things get really crazy.

I think I’m going to replace the light fixture as well. Don’t worry, Dad, I watched an instructional video on YouTube and I’m 83% sure I won’t electrocute myself.

I’ll report back with the results! If I am alive.

TL;DR – everything you need to know is in this e-book!

Several weeks ago, there was a plea from the PTA for room moms for both my kids’ classes.

I said I’d take both.

There’s a sucker born every minute.

The first of my assignments is the Halloween party. The only problem? (well, ok, one of the many) I’m now in charge of two parties that are scheduled for the exact same date and time. So there’s that.

And then there’s the other issue – I have no freaking idea how to plan a Halloween party for kindergartners OR fourth graders.

I don’t know why, but I was completely overwhelmed by the thought of planning these parties. I consider myself a fairly competent person, but this just threw me for a loop.

I figured I’m not the only stumped room mom out there, so I thought I’d share some of the resources I’ve come across.

I bring you…

First of all, VolunteerSpot.com.

They have all kinds of resources, but the thing I found most helpful is their Classroom Party Guide eBook. They’ve got ideas for all kinds of parties, including Halloween, and I’m swiping several of their suggestions for games.

I actually found that site on a post from TeachMama.com, which also had all kinds of helpful information. I completely and totally ripped off her Classroom Parent Letter. Because despite the fact that I routinely write letters for work that are sent to tens of thousands of people, I seriously could not come up with a letter asking for help with the parties all by myself.

The third site I found that’s been extremely helpful is SignUpGenius.com.

This is basically a site that allows you to organize volunteers and events electronically. You build a “sign up” with one of their templates (they have a theme for every event you could imagine) and say what you need people to do or bring, and then send out a link to your volunteers. They just check off what they want to sign up for, and the site sends you an email alert. It’s very simple and pretty brilliant. The thing I love MOST about it is that it doesn’t require volunteers to register for the site or log in or anything. They just click what they want to bring and type their name – easy peasy. I sent sign ups out for both my parties yesterday and the volunteer spots are almost full already.

Plus, it prevented me from having to actually pick up the phone and call people. WIN.

So, that’s what I’ve learned about being a room mom so far. Oh, I have also learned one more thing – parents of kindergartners are very eager to help. Parents of fourth graders are pretty much over it.

I shall report back after the actual parties take place – I’m sure I’ll have many more lessons learned by that point!

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