Finished Refinishing, Part 1

Inside the front entry, with Poppy on the rug, and my new bench — $7.50 at the ARC!

Some photos of the place are in order. I've finally completed a few of the projects on my list and have them set up in the house. Yay!

First, I refinished a cheap, Target cabinet that we had in our living room previously. I painted it white to match our bathroom. Because I wanted to use it for bathroom items -- some of which are not for display! --, I covered the glass area with fun paper I found at the Paper Source. The result is that it still looks 3-D with the glass and the paper inset, plus it adds some color to our bathroom while effectively hiding extra rolls of toilet paper and deodorant and Pepto-Bismol from any critical eyes. The bottom drawer is also the perfect size for the cold medications and Benadryl and band-aids that we used to keep untidily in a big tupperware. You'd never know we have nurses on both sides of our family.

Second, I refinished George's dresser combos from the '90s. His parents bought him three of these for his teenage bedroom, and we took two of them to live with us. I've always hated them. Initially I painted them white as well, but our bedroom wall color is so light that they blended into the walls in a bad way. It looked like a horrible camouflage job. So I took them back and daubed on a watered down chocolate shade, which really made them look old and repurposed. It also clearly distinguished them from the wall. This is not the best picture, but I'm not done fixing up the bedroom.

Here's a brief photo gallery of the parts of the house we've actually finished fixing (for the most part). We're still ordering/finding rugs and realizing that our artwork needs to be larger scale not to seem like a joke around here.

Front of the house with our flowers and extravagant fall display. Kidding. I just really liked those particular gourds at the farmers market.

Living room, just to the right of the front entry. She patiently awaits her rug, which has yet to be found.

Dining room partial view through to living room. Chandelier to be hung is on the table.

And the kitchen, which is constantly a mess. I have no idea what to do with the top area, since I had to leave or give away most of my plants before we left. It just looks sad and naked the way it is, but I refuse to continue my mom's potholder collection legacy in that space. Any other ideas?

Lots of outdoor projects are on the horizon in the next few weeks, as it's getting cool enough to work outdoors without feeling miserable. And since we're feeling a bit more confident about the yard now that it's been successfully mowed twice. Whew. Upcoming projects include:

• Digging a garden area and adding some landscaping with the flat of edging that the previous owners left us.
• Resolving trash issues. We now have space to compost, but are still figuring out where to put that and our recycling stuff. They don't pick it up here, so we need to control the trash ourselves.
• Rediscovering the sidewalk in front of the house, now overgrown with grass and weeds.
• Sculpting a few of the trees that have gotten out of hand. We have spiders here and they love going between low-hanging branches and the ground. Which needs to stop.
  

More to come in Part 2 . . . .which is unscheduled as timelines may be affected by laziness.