Do it ourselves
So a couple of years ago, I installed a small, simple clearance chandelier over our kitchen table. With guidance from Youtube, since I'm technically not an electrician. It took hours and hours, but the success of that venture lit a fire in me to try other DIY things. Well, maybe not a fire. A warmish charcoal briquette that took two years to finally smolder.
The boys' bathroom was at the top of my list. Just altogether a pitiful space, and only partly because of the disgusting nature of a male-dominated bathroom. Two towel racks and a toilet paper holder that had been lovingly anchored to the walls fourteen years ago had long since fallen out, and took some nice chunks of drywall with them. I had cleverly covered the holes with little cartoon wall decals of cars, trucks, and planes. That were peeling off and matched nothing and were no longer interesting to my now-giant children.
The honey oak single cabinet and ten-dollar light fixture screamed nineties. The mirror was a naked builder-grade thing held to the wall by ugly plastic brackets. The few little decorations hanging on the walls were either completely random or falling apart. The cabinet still held little pirate bath toys and two packs of pull-ups. So yeah, just sad. Crying for help.
The starting point was the shower curtain, because I love it. I'm a blue and green kind of girl. After scouring Pinterest and doing an embarrassing amount of research to decide how much I was capable of, the to-do list ended up as: fill every single last wall hole, paint, change light fixture, new mirror, redo the cabinet, organize the cabinet, add knobs, and update the wall decor without making any holes in the wall. Trolling Wayfair paid off, as I found the light fixture, mirror, and wall art all on clearance. My initial thought was to restain the cabinet dark, but after consulting with my go-to handyman Dad, paint seemed to be a better choice.
I took off Thanksgiving week, with Dad scheduled to help me with the cabinet early in the week, and Mom coming later to help with painting the walls. None of this could have happened without them, and I'm so thankful to have DIYers that love me and are willing to put time into my lofty ideas.
A gallon of clorox, hours of spackling, plenty of elbow grease, and maybe two hundred dollars later, the bathroom is brand spankin new. And I love it so much. It feels so grown up. The boys are under threat to take good care of it, and to use this new beginning as a time to start aiming a bit better.
So now I turn my eyes to whatever else I might could get my hands on. And other people's hands on, since I think I prefer do-it-ourselves to do-it-yourself.
The boys' bathroom was at the top of my list. Just altogether a pitiful space, and only partly because of the disgusting nature of a male-dominated bathroom. Two towel racks and a toilet paper holder that had been lovingly anchored to the walls fourteen years ago had long since fallen out, and took some nice chunks of drywall with them. I had cleverly covered the holes with little cartoon wall decals of cars, trucks, and planes. That were peeling off and matched nothing and were no longer interesting to my now-giant children.
The honey oak single cabinet and ten-dollar light fixture screamed nineties. The mirror was a naked builder-grade thing held to the wall by ugly plastic brackets. The few little decorations hanging on the walls were either completely random or falling apart. The cabinet still held little pirate bath toys and two packs of pull-ups. So yeah, just sad. Crying for help.
The starting point was the shower curtain, because I love it. I'm a blue and green kind of girl. After scouring Pinterest and doing an embarrassing amount of research to decide how much I was capable of, the to-do list ended up as: fill every single last wall hole, paint, change light fixture, new mirror, redo the cabinet, organize the cabinet, add knobs, and update the wall decor without making any holes in the wall. Trolling Wayfair paid off, as I found the light fixture, mirror, and wall art all on clearance. My initial thought was to restain the cabinet dark, but after consulting with my go-to handyman Dad, paint seemed to be a better choice.
I took off Thanksgiving week, with Dad scheduled to help me with the cabinet early in the week, and Mom coming later to help with painting the walls. None of this could have happened without them, and I'm so thankful to have DIYers that love me and are willing to put time into my lofty ideas.
A gallon of clorox, hours of spackling, plenty of elbow grease, and maybe two hundred dollars later, the bathroom is brand spankin new. And I love it so much. It feels so grown up. The boys are under threat to take good care of it, and to use this new beginning as a time to start aiming a bit better.
So now I turn my eyes to whatever else I might could get my hands on. And other people's hands on, since I think I prefer do-it-ourselves to do-it-yourself.
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