Free pedestal table

Not for you, but for us.  We were given a solid oak pedestal table from Shaun's parents.  His mom gleefully gave it to us in exchange for her husband's ok to get a brand new set.  Of course, I had plans for this table!

While the IKEA set in our dining room has served me well for many years, it just didn't fit the style of our house and I was totally over the light birch finish. 

The top of this table has an awesome wood grain pattern, that I couldn't possibly cover with paint. 

So, I chose to do a stain/paint combo with a dark stained top and white painted pedestal and apron.  I'm hoping it will turn out like Caroline @ The Feminist Housewife's table!

Don't you love this?  And of course I will be painting some awesome chairs (not the ones that came with this table!) to match the white base...but that is a story for another day because it includes sort of a rant and I just don't have time at 11pm, ok??  Oh yeah, this table does have one leaf that makes it comfortable for about 6 or 7 people. 

So, I started sanding that first in case I messed up.  Never know, right?  I could always just say I lost it and no one would know.  Except they would know that I'm an idiot that loses huge parts of tables.  That's better than being a bad sander, though.

You know I was thinking about this post from Kasey while I was doing this!  Luckily this table is hard oak and I didn't have to worry too much about swirl marks and uneven sanding.  At least I hope so!  I started with 60 grit and then did a round with 150.  I'm still not sure whether I will do 220 or call it good.  The non-leaf parts of the table were much harder to sand....but after a few hour-long sanding sessions, I had a message for the table. 

Let's hope I'm still the winner when I start the staining process!

Finally, my Halloween post

We carved some pumpkins this year. 

Aren't they cute?

We had lots of stops on Saturday, a wedding ceremony, then a Halloween-themed engagement party 15 minutes away....

...then back to the reception for the wedding, then out to meet up with our friends for bar time!  Because we had the wedding and reception, we had to have very easy 'costumes.'  Shaun got a fro wig and I found a nice hot pink number that perfectly matched his tie.  Nice, huh?

We had a great time but collapsed into bed quite eagerly that night. 

I secretly love the fro wig and think he looks sexy with it on, like Lenny Kravitz or something.  Too bad he couldn't grow this in real life! 

Aaaannnddddd.....

Just because they all deserve a shout-out, here are some pics of my mom, brother and his bandmates, and other friends that all dressed up as Toy Story characters.  My mom made this slinky dog costume with felt and stuffing!  For REALS!  The 'butt' was on wheels and she used metal rings for the 'slinky' part.  I'm not worthy.

Her friend was the creepy baby doll.  Check out those contacts!

Yikes!

The band was full of characters:

My younger bro was a cute Woody.   

And then there was the potato family:

And everyone all together!  

Seriously, I wish I could've dressed up like they did.  Hopefully next year I can stop being lame at Halloween and do something great like this group did. 

Our front door

Here is where we left off with the front door:

Within an hour or so, it looked like this:

While we actually didn't mind the color, this was just gray tinted KILZ to get the door ready for the real color.  It did look kind of cool, though!

The real color was Behr Antique Red, the same color in our dining room.  Here she is after only one coat of color-matched Ace Satin Exterior paint:

I was pretty impressed with the coverage after just one coat!  The dark primer was the bomb, plus the paint was really high quality.

I ended up doing two coats...then I had to tackle the hardware. 

When I had originally removed the door handle, it was looking really old and rusty on the inside, but I thought it was too cool to replace.  Plus I didn't want to cry when new hardware wouldn't fit and we'd have to drill all new holes.  You know? 

So I decided to use a wire brush on the rust, then spray it all with primer and Rustoleum 'Dark Bronze' spray paint.  I also thought about not putting the eagle door knocker back on, but I have to admit I kind of love him and he probably is original to the house...so he got a couple coats of paint, too.   

He's so magestic while waiting for me to prime, don't you think?  Or gaudy.  One of those things.  Anyway, I think he cleaned up nice and looks good on our 70 year old door....

and here it is all done!

And it also looks spiffy with the 'full view' storm door.  Too bad about the glare, though...

So what do you think?  Is the red too predictable?  We have gotten lots of complements from the neighbors so I think I made the right choice.  I will also take your opinions on the eagle.  If I'm a total weirdo and it's way ugly, please let me know!

And maybe you would like to see my post last year pondering what color to pick?  Check it out here.

That room again

I think I did a pretty good job of cleaning up the closet in my brown woman cave.  I painted the shelves white and the walls the ceiling blue.  It was a pain and is hard to see the blue, but I still think it was worth it. 

It is also more empty than ever before, and it should remain that way for about 72 more hours until I start desperately throwing crap in there.  Ok, I've already started the crap throwing.  But it's a neat throw.  I think. 

That fine piece of furniture blocking the view of the closet door is the Craigslist dresser I raved about here.  It goes along with a very nice electronic device that will be great for me during the very loooong football season when I am banished from the living room.  

I got my own 42" plasma - awe yeah!  I chose to wall-mount it because it's a small room and I wanted as much space between me and the tv as possible.  I also wanted to have the top of the dresser clear of tvs, components, etc.  I will have to share my brillz plan later...I promise there won't be any wires hanging down when I'm through! 

The mount we bought tilts up and down (doesn't swivel though) and was pretty darn easy to install.  Finally, people.  Something was EASY to install and didn't require crying.  I got the mount from Walmart.com for $40....and I'm so happy with it!  Check it out here.  This room is finally starting to look good - one long paint-drenched day at a time, right? 

Storm door shuffle

Dudes, I have been a busy bee.  Last weekend we finally put up the new 'full view' storm door that had been hiding out in our living room for the last year:

See it?  Yeah, the box totally matched our wall paint.  I guess that is why I didn't care that it was sitting there so long!  Here is what we were working with before:

I didn't take a picture of the inside of this storm door, but it was flaking away and rotted through.  There was always these little flakes of aluminum on the stoop that drove me crazy!

We started around noon last Saturday, thinking that it would take us about two hours. 

The old door came off so fast I didn't even get a shot of him removing it!

When we did get the door and hardware off, it was clear the door surround needed some TLC.  Ew!

I scraped, sanded, and put a quick coat of BIN on the entire surround with a foam brush.  BIN is not necessarily for exterior applications (only recommended for 'spot' touchups) but I figured it would be fine after a coat of exterior paint.  It looked so much better - sorry about the over-exposed pic, all the pictures I took this day were on the wrong setting and I didn't even notice! 

While the primer dried, I noticed that the lintel above the door was rather rusted and yucky. 

We taped off the area, gave it a bit of sanding, then shot it with some 'rusty metal' rustoleum.  I love that the primer totally matches our brick!  I will come in later with the same 'Sweet Tea' exterior paint that I used on the A/C and meters around our house. 

After everything was dry, we started the installation.  We had watched a Larson installation video on their website where the guy installed the door in about 5 minutes.  It took us about 300 more minutes than him to install this door.  5 hours of drilling, attaching, removing, repositioning, crying (that was me) and wondering 'what the hell' later, we had this:

Yay!  Of course, my work wasn't over because the wood door was yellowy-white, full of nail holes, and boring.  Observe:

More on the door soon!  Oh, and those house numbers are another issue soon to be discussed...

The painting never ends

So, I'm still painting the brown room.  The next thing I had to tackle was the closet.  I believe this room will have more storage than any other room in the world.  A 12-foot wall of bookcases and cabinets, a built-in desk with tons of drawers, and this guy:

As you can see, it's yellowed and chock-full of crapola.  The other side, too... 

For shame!  There is a jammed shredder in here that hasn't worked for years!  And an entire box of colorful file folders that I have no hope of ever using up in my lifetime!  That black strap?  It's a carrier for my yoga mat that is only used to cushion my knees while painting on the floor! 

 

It took me a little while to clean it all out, even longer to prime every inch of the inside.  Believe me, there is a lot of junk that will not be making it's way back into this closet.  And...this picture was BEFORE the primer, just so we're clear. 

I've been painting the shelves, trim and doors the same white as the bookcases, and the closet walls the same pale blue as the ceiling.  It's looking much better now!  Is it weird to spend hours painting a closet that no one will ever see?  Maybe.