24 Little Hours

Is everyone humming the tune “What a Difference a Day Makes” now? What a great tune. You should check it out if you’re not familiar. Our 24 little hours weren’t changed drastically by love, well maybe they were; love from my parents who came down to Cincinnati and worked like energizer bunnies to help us tackle all sorts of house projects. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when mom and Bob are in town, stuff gets done!

We joked about how they could have a very successful HGTV show about all the things you can accomplish in 24 hours with the right tools and a little guidance from an expert. If that doesn’t sound exciting, maybe getting a sneak peak at all we tackled around our house will motivate you to get working…or just sign up to be on the show.

I forgot to take a before picture, but I’m sure you can guess what color was on the walls before.  That’s right… GREEN! Going for a light neutral has really brightened up the space. Now I walk by the room and think that I’ve left the light on, but really it’s just the sun reflecting off of a color that is not green and it’s amazing!

We replaced the pipe to our outside faucet because by the end of summer last year, it had stopped working. That fix probably took Bob about 10 minutes.

We pride ourselves on trying to have a home that doesn’t scream “Cats Live Here!!” when you walk through the front door, but for the last year the litter box has been out in the open in our piano room simply because we had no better place to put it. Phil and Bob built a “trap door” over our cellar entrance (because we don’t want the cats playing around on the dirt cellar floor) and installed a cat door so that the litter can be nicely hidden on the landing behind the door. Out of sight, out of scent.

In the bedroom that will eventually become the nursery, we had several holes to patch. First, there used to be a TV mounted on the wall and since we have no plans of ever having TVs in our bedrooms, we removed all the cables and plate covers and patched those holes. Then there was the fun of patching the hole in the ceiling that led to what we learned after buying the home was a “faux vent”, meaning the vent was just there for looks and not actually connected to our HVAC system. Obviously that made for a particularly cold bedroom (sorry to all our guests that stayed with us!), so we had a company install duct work and we then had to patch up the hole that led to nowhere. Still a couple more coats of plaster to go, but then we’ll be all set to paint!

And our biggest project was covering the newly installed duct work. Because our roof line is so close to the ceiling, our only option was to add the duct below the ceiling, so Phil and Bob built the soffit to cover it. It probably just needs one more coat, a good sanding and then will be ready to prime and paint. Such a huge relief!

If that’s not an impressive amount of projects, I don’t know what is. We were exhausted by the time it was all over, but I know that without their help, it would have taken us months of evenings and weekends to get all of this taken care of. Sometimes you just need a little help to get things started.

Little Things

They seem like little things – a mailbox, a doorbell and front porch lights – but they really make a big difference in curb appeal and function of a house. It’s hard to believe we had none of these “little things” until several weeks ago when my mom and step-dad (professional contractor/handy-man extraordinaire) came down to help us with a few projects around the house. I was amazed at all that was completed in that day and a half because there’s more than what you see here. What you can’t see is the outdoor electrical outlet that was added, the outdoor spigot that was repaired and the brand-new exhaust fan added in our bathroom (woohoo). They worked hard and we owe them more than just a few banana cream pies (Bob’s favorite).

We are so lucky to have them because these projects, while they don’t seem like much, would have taken us months to complete by the time we researched, experimented and purchased the right tools or we would have given up and just hired someone to do it for us. So a huge thank you to them for all of their help, and thanks mom for the matching work shirt. I’ll remember to wear my bandanna next time. I’m so excited to check these little things/big projects off our list! Front porch lights are exciting y’all!

Note: Phil scored those lights at our local re-store. Don’t forget to check there for used home improvement items.