During the initial walk through of our house, the realtor suggested repainting the service door (the door from our garage to the kitchen). It was pretty beaten up from hauling groceries (and general crap) in and out.  So, I slapped this little undertaking on our quickly growing To Do List. The project took me a WEEK to complete (and my enthusiasm fizzled exponentially with each passing day). Here are the stats: 3 coats of paint, 24 hours cure time between each coat, 2 trips to Menards, 1 ruined pair of running shorts (gah!), 1 trip to Home Depot (long story), and 1 TORNADO (!!!) later: it’s finally finished.

Enter stage right:  The star of the show, Gloss Smoke Gray Rustoleum.

I like the way this color ties in our garage’s gray shelving and breaks up the white walls.  Not that you can tell from the picture.  Just take my word for it.  Or don’t.  Anyway, I hope the darker color will ward off future grubbiness longer than white would. Isn’t she a cutie?

yummy

Are you ready for the money break down?  No?  Sorry, but I don’t care.

• Sandpaper:  Free (from my grab bag of a paint bin)
• Paint liner tray: Free (from paint bin)
• Primer: $3.99
• Stupid brush that immediately disintegrated, leaving fuzz embedded in the high gloss finish : $1.98 + $swear words
  
• A foam roller made specifically for OIL BASED paints: $4.39
• Rustoleum small can of paint (that quickly ran out): $3.99
• Rustoleum “Big Mama” can of paint: $8.24
• Target running shorts that actually FIT and I knew I shouldn’t paint in:  $heartache
• Total: $22.59 (not including tax, elbow grease, swear words, or heartache)
  

Do you think the smoke gray (in lieu of traditional white) was an ok decision? Any ~$25 projects that you plan to tackle soon?  In other news, do you think Raisinettes get the respect they deserve?

In an effort to befriend Change, The Hubs and I have been busy little peoples around here.  We made the decision to put our house on the market and therefore needed to find a realtor.  In about five seconds, we found one.  And it was like, hello Realtor, nice to meet you-ohmygawd-you-want-to-take-pictures-of-our-house-and-put-it-on-the-market-TOMORROW?  But, I need to clean!  I need to sort!  I need to have a meltdown! He didn’t even give me a chance. So, our Camellia Crib was plopped online before I could say good bye to all of my dust bunny friends.  Fast forward three weeks (and throw in one puny open house for good measure):  we have had zero (which is less than one) people come through to check out our home sweet home.  How rude!  Don’t they know it’s the CUTEST PLACE OF ALL TIME?? Oh well. At least now our bed gets made every morning.

Here are the little projects that we have accomplished in the last few weeks (and 5 years too late) in an effort to beautify our crib:

1. We “remedied” the broken water line to our fridge which busted open over 2 years ago. It was REALLY difficult.  I called Joe The Plumber (Scott) and he fixed it that same day. *wipes sweat from brow* Ice, it’s so nice to have you back again!

2. Handy Randy installed an adorable ceiling fan in the master bedroom.  Captain, we have light and circulation! I will not miss the blind army crawl to my bedside lamp each night.

3. We (The Hubs) swapped out all of the fugly brass door handles for brushed nickel ones. This has prompted me to obsess over the remaining existence of said fugly brass hardware. Hinges, doorstops, hand railing supports…beware, I am watching you.

4. We installed faux wood white blinds in our bathroom, which replaced our gray (they used to be white) SHEER curtains that were too short.  You are welcome, neighbors – the peep show has been cancelled!

5. Carpet stretcher Chad arrived to work his magic and now our carpet is cellulite free! I asked for a quote regarding other cellulite concerns and he told me “There is nothing I can do about THAT, Mrs. G”.  It was worth a shot nonetheless.

6. I repainted most of our scuffed up closets. They look so fresh and clean! I’m still working up the courage to tackle the biggest booger of all: the master closet.

7. We officially kicked off The Great Deep Clean of 2010 by scrubbing the oven, cleaning out the fridge, purging stuff (three cheers for Craigslist!), and politely ‘unfriending’ our exceptionally friendly dust bunnies.

8. We hauled a few loads of our crap to a friend’s house and subsequently nominated her Most Kind Friend of the Year.  Who would want to store somebody’s crap for months on end?! Answer: a REALLY nice person apparently.

9. We donated to Goodwill twice and plan to incorporate a trip into our weekly date night. Romance, you’ve got nothing on this!

These items remain on the To Do List (you know I love me some lists):

• The Great Deep Clean of 2010 will be an ongoing effort of cleaning, sorting, and purging. I vow to touch everything!
  
• Repaint service door.
• Touch up paint in the kitchen. No, let’s be honest.  We need touch up paint, Like, Everywhere.
• Do something about our grubby front door. Magic Eraser?  Repaint?
• Get my hair cut and highlighted. It’s an embarrassment.
• Paint master closet *shudder*.

These items are on my secret (don’t tell The Hubs) list because they are completely neurotic and unnecessary:

• Paint the remaining white walls of the laundry room.
• Purge all of my current clothes and buy a completely new wardrobe.

How about your casa?  Did the spring cleaning bug hit late like it did us?  Did Change encourage a few little projects around the house?  Fill me in!!