I will be completing the studio bathroom project this weekend. I just have a few smaller projects left to do there – paint touch-ups, installing the sconce, installing the new faucet, hanging the art, installing the new toilet paper holder and towel ring, and cleaning the floor. The part that will actually take up most of my time this weekend is cleaning up the surrounding areas (back entrance and studio) and putting away all of my tools and supplies. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I expect to have pictures of my newly completed studio bathroom for you on Monday.
And after that, I decided that I’m definitely going to take a break from the indoor projects and go outside for a while so I can tackle some projects outside our house. I have so many little projects that have been on my list for so long that they have become a running joke with my mom and I.
Almost every time she comes by, she mentions my fallen shutter on the front window, and I tell her, “You can’t rush projects like this. I need to do a little more planning before I’m ready to tackle this project.” And we laugh and move on, and I forget about it until the next time she comes over. But this shutter has been depressed for a lot longer than I’d like to admit, because it’s embarrassing that I’ve put it off for so long.
I also need to finish painting the trim around this window. This has been left unfinished for… well… I don’t even know how long. I was out there trying my best to finish it before the sun went down and my neighbor stopped by to chat with me. We talked for a long time and when she left it was far too dark to paint so I stopped. And I never went back and finished reading it. The next day I was busy with another project. So this has also been left undone for an embarrassingly long time, and I’m sure my neighbors (and my mother) have probably given up hope that I’ll ever actually finish it.
I also want to tackle the porch baseboard, another project I started and never finished. I used this lightweight stone veneer and you should paint it or apply a protective coat if you plan on using it outside. But since I never finished it, I never got around to painting. And now a lot of it is brittle, cracked and chipping. So I have to take it off and start over. But this time I don’t want a stone. I have a completely different look in mind.
I will also use this time to spruce up the porch. I would like to eventually replace all of the cedar porch boards and replace them with composite boards that will never need to be stained again. But I don’t want to tackle such large projects at the moment. That’s why I’ll stick with the simpler things for now. The front door needs a thorough cleaning and possibly a new coat of paint. The dryer vent needs to be painted so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb. The columns could use some repairs and a new coat of paint. And I’m still looking for the perfect stain/sealer for the cedar porch. I tried about three different brands of wood porch stain/sealer and wasn’t really impressed with any of them. I also have some new, larger lights that I would like to add to either side of the front door so I can use these smaller ones in my workshop.
I would like to create a final plan for the area in front of the windows of our breakfast room. I have our landscape plan as a long-term goal, so maybe I can implement part of that plan now. I would like to find a water feature to place in this area. This area really needs some interest and some color.
And I really want to remove the white paint on the vertical trim on either side of my studio. These should never be painted white. None of the vertical trim on our house is painted white because it looks way too busy, but when we had the house painted the painters painted those trims white. I hated it the whole time, but I never took the time to repaint it. So this is definitely on my list.
And then I want to tackle the new bedroom door. I still don’t have a concrete plan for the steps/ramp for this door, but I would like to come up with a plan and get that done. My studio door on the other side of the house also needs steps. I put off this project for so long because there was no point in building the steps when we didn’t even have a driveway there. But now that we have a driveway, I have no excuse to keep putting it off.
I’m not sure how much time I’ll spend on these outdoor projects. All I know is that I’m excited about these projects right now and I can’t wait to get out there and get started. When I think about starting a big indoor project, all I feel is fear. I think this is exactly the break from big indoor projects I need right now.
I think our house could be so cute, but these unfinished projects are probably the only thing people see when they drive by our house right now. I want that to change. I want our house to stand out as the pretty house on the street, not the house with the fallen shutter or the house with the unfinished porch baseboard. So I’m really excited to get started on these projects and see how much I can get done before I feel like I’m ready to go back indoors and tackle the next big indoor project.
So if everything goes as planned, I will finish the bathroom in the studio this weekend and then head outside on Monday to start these outdoor projects on the front of our house. I’m really happy about this detour and this break from indoor projects!
