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Keeping Track

March 15th, 2012

Along with all the garden chores, I’ve also been busy doing a few things around the house. Since the weather has been so nice, I’ve been staining a few of the doors that need a fresh coat and a few that have never been stained (in rooms without hardwood floors). When doing projects where you’re taking down doors or removing blinds, it’s easy to misplace screws and hardware. After this happened once, I started saving a few yogurt containers for such occasions. Now, whenever doors and other things come down, all the hardware goes right into a container so nothing is ever lost. It works like a charm!

You could also put all the hardware into zippered storage bags and tape/attach them to the item as well, this is especially handy if you’re planning on storing them for a while. We have blinds that are removed in winter and stored in the attic. In summer they get put back up to help block the sun/heat from coming in the front windows. All the hardware is kept in labeled bags attached to the blinds.

We love our house, but as with most, it came with it’s share of things we didn’t love. The good thing is that the basics were solid, good windows, lots of insulations. etc. The decorative features were all as cheap as they could be, including faucets, doors, trim, etc. The doors and moulding in the house were paint grade and were stained by the original owner to a very less than inspiring “natural” wood tone. Since we installed lovely dark hardwood flooring throughout the house, it made the moulding/doors look even worse than they had with pink and blue carpet. We toyed with the idea of changing them out but it was too expensive. Then we thought about painting them but didn’t think that would look good with the dark floors.

Instead of replacing them, we decided to try to stain what was here. I mixed a can of Minwax Wood Finish in Walnut and Red Mahogany together and set to staining. The results are nothing less than amazing. The color of the doors and trim now almost perfectly match the color of our floors.

It’s amazing what you can do with a little bit of a time and a few dollars to make something you already have look great! I was so glad I came up with this plan instead of replacing or painting our exciting moulding & doors. They look great and they match the floors and it saved me a ton of money!

Any great tips for making those home improvement projects go more smoothly? What about tips for taking what you already have and making it look better?

2 Comments to “Keeping Track”
  1. daisy on March 15, 2012 at 11:03 am

    Wow! What a difference! And you kept something out of the landfill. Love it!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  2. Marcia on March 15, 2012 at 6:00 pm

    I find that changing the hinges for fancier ones gives any cabinet a quick facelift.

    Reply to Marcia's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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