The Friday 4: Summer House Projects

So, I've got lots going on this summer. Along with rest, relaxation, and socializing (lots of all three!), here's the plan: 

- 6 weeks of German for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week (a language is required for my degree; I'm not this masochistic); 
- teaching a creative writing class so long as the enrollment is sufficient (which it currently isn't and probably won't be); 
- working on a new short story I started this past weekend and my novel-in-progress (there hasn't been a whole lot of progress); 
- sending out my already-existing fiction to various journals (and a contest or two); 
- revising a paper (on Tim O'Brien) in hopes of sending it to a journal later this year; 
- reading for fall classes so I am not helplessly behind three weeks after school starts; and 
- researching my dissertation idea. 

Despite this insane list, Brad and I have quite a few house projects lined up, and I'm almost as excited for these as I am to spend time on my writing. Here are the top 4. Hopefully we'll accomplish more, but if we even just finish this list, I'll be a happy freakin' camper. 

4.  Drastically improve the kitchen with wallpaper removal and paint (and surely some cute accessories!). 

The previous owners and/or the owners before that had a thing for two types of decor:  wallpaper and pink. In this house there's wallpaper/borders in 6 rooms, two hallways, and along the stairwell. Only one of these wallpapers (in my office) is nice. The rest gotta go. In the kitchen, we'll be stripping it and re-painting the walls. Who knows what color . . . something fresh, I sense. 

We'll also be repainting that trim above the counter (see it?). This trim, of course, is currently pink (not unlike two rooms-worth of carpet we removed soon after moving in; also not unlike the walls in the family room - this is a subtle pink, easily mistakable for a less contemptible color, but pink no less). That will not be the color after I've had my way with it. 

It's not a huge overhaul, but it's wallet-friendly fix and will allow attention to be focused on what are really very nice quality cabinets. Now if we could just replace that dang countertop . . . and replace that horrible linoleum . . . 

3.  Make the dining room table reasonable and non-hideous. 

The dining room table currently looks like this 

b/c underneath it looks like this 

Enough said. 

2.  Convert the main bathroom from ugly to pretty through paint, recaulking, a new mirror (and eventually sconce), and wallpaper border removal. (Not in that order.) 

I feel like this bathroom in its current incarnation was designed by someone whose eyes were closed. Or someone who hated me. Or both. 

Yes, THE TOILET IS BLUE. Right now, there's no way around that b/c we're not dropping $200 on a toilet and however much more on installation (although Brad says I think we can do all projects ourselves, this is one that I accept is beyond us. At least currently). 

I find the (blue) tub offensive, but less offensive than that stupid toilet b/c I have some awesome shower curtains (not shown here) to hide it. (Not to mention the fact that, if the door's open - which is usually is - that toilet is the first things you see when you walk up the stairs.) The caulking around the tub, however, could have been done better by my cats (and that's really, really saying something), so we're got to pull out the old utility knife, cut that crap out, and redo it. 

We've already got an oval mirror (courtesy of my mother) and a plan for painting the cabinet/vanity/whatever it's called. As we start on that project, I'll show you my inspiration, but for now, let's just says it's gonna be sooooooo much better. 

1.  Remove the atrocity that is the upstairs hall wallpaper, stairwell wallpaper, and dining room/downstairs hall/upstairs hall border. Add paint (what color?!) and, in the upstairs hallways, probably chair-rail and my beloved beadboard wallpaper. 

It's here 

and here 

and here 

and I can't even put anymore pictures of it up. Obviously, this needs to happen sooner rather than later.