Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Spontaneous Kitchen Knobs

Oops! I just realized I never posted this after writing it up nor did I post the week before project. So first, the other day I spontaneously decided I needed to change out the cabinet knobs in the kitchen since they are one by one falling off despite my careful gluing a year ago.I thought since I was someday going to rip out the circa 1970 homemade cabinets I could live with the knobs but I was wrong.

I do still like the little knobs as they all have a different design

They just were not suited for kitchen cabinets. I'll hoard them in the basement for perhaps another project someday.


The internet is fantastic as I can sit at home and decide what I want and who has it. I wanted something retro-ish and cheap.

I thought about going crazy colonial bicentennial 70's with some wrought iron handles like these:

But I would have had to add another hole and the drawers already have a hole in the center etc. so my 1/2 hour project would have turned into a 3 evening project. Wait, these are only .86? Maybe I should have gone 70's. I can also picture these on some 50's knotty pine.

I "upgraded" to a slightly more expensive knob. One I thought Mark might also approve of since he was at work and I wasn't able to consult him. Though I know I would get a shoulder shrug and a "whatever" along with his likely "as long as you don't ask my opinion or make me sit there while you decide."

They don't photograph well but below are the ones I chose.
 It is nice to have knobs on all of the cabinets once again and all for a little under $24! Now if only I could decide what/how to paint them.

Monday, April 11, 2011

How I Spent $2


OK, maybe this haul did cost more than $2 but not for me! The first sale we hit was an estate sale. We knew things would be cheap because someone asked the price of the lawn chairs and she said $1 for both so my mom and I started one of our infamous piles by the cash table. When all was said and done my mom had 2 + boxes for her antique selling and I had a box of painting supplies, a set of nicely framed paint by numbers, this "lovely" avocado chair and a few other odds and ends. My mom asked how much and the lady said, mm, well, is $10 too much?? Obviously not, plus I guess my mom felt she got her moneys worth and just handed over a $10 bill for all of our things.


This is what my $2 went towards at another sale.I'm trying really hard not to start collecting Pyrex because I know my cupboards will be full of it in less than a year. I'm limiting myself to turquoise because those are harder to find and that is why these are now sitting on my counter...Darn It! The ribbed crystal one was .25, the red was .50 and the yellow was $1.25 so I couldn't pass them up.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Knotty Pine in Bathroom: Almost gone!

If I had known the faux-subway-tile stamped walls were in this good of shape I might have considered trying to restore them or at the very least taken off the odd paneling a year ago and enjoyed them for a while. They do have just enough cracking to be a pain to fix. My plan is to cover them with bead board so they will still be there if someone in the future wants to take on the task.


The paneling was over 1/2" thick so my bathroom will be a couple inches bigger with all of this gone. 

The opposite side of the weird, badly painted paneling is actually normal width, kind of pretty, knotty pine. Can enough be salvaged to do something with? I'll have to wait and see. 

 I'm guessing this paneling was previous owners answer to bead board?


Oh yeah. Instead of notching the paneling, they notched 1/2" out behind the window sills and bottom board on the medicine cabinet. Because that was easier???

The bathroom is progressing slowly but surely. It's almost comfortable enough in the basement to use the shower so the tub might be removed next weekend to get a start on the floor? I'm crossing my fingers anyways!

Friday, April 1, 2011

One Thing a Day

I am pretty good at procrastinating. That is why I have not started freaking out about the fact Mark volunteered our house for Easter. I will start freaking out about this about 2 days in advance so I have set a goal to do one productive thing a day. Yesterday I worked on the box of garage sale stuff which has been sitting behind the couch, today I took a nap, looked at other people's renovation blogs then went to Culver's and had ice cream...darn it! OK, today was a fail.
The other day I did get my bicentennial themed trivets hung up so that was productive. I found them at a Goodwill in Denver last winter AND they were even the half price color sticker so they were $1 apiece! Score for me? Well, I like them anyways...

It will mainly be Mark's family so I have to be sure they know I am running with the crazy 70's theme of my kitchen. Everyone who knows me should also know my not-so-secret affection towards my harvest gold appliances.
Hey, I can't afford to change it and they work so why fight it?