Meg vs. The Rocking Bench: Sanding, take 1

Monday: Sand the bench.

I did not start the week off with a bang. I had a stomachache, and started sanding the bench with a piece of sandpaper, then realized I desperately needed to make myself a sanding block because it was impossible to keep the paper from crumpling instantly every time I used it. I may even go at it with the orbital sander because I'm lazy like that and it is an old, beat-up, free bench after all. Maybe when I re-attempt it I won't keep having to take 7-up breaks!

Meg vs. Myself: Weekly Goals April 30-May 5

April 23-28
Monday: Weed front planters, clear more in the back if there's room in the bin/time in the day.

Tuesday: Prepare and celebrate John's birthday!

Wednesday: Buy seam tape and plaster, pick up paint samples for the kitchen and paint them up. Price (maybe buy?) replacement doors for the master bed and bath.

Thursday: Scrub/bleach the grout in the front bathroom.

Friday: Clean out toys; pull out baby toys for sanitation and designate toys to donate.

Saturday: Take a look at the rocking bench out back. Tighten up bolts if possible, and start sanding if it looks salvageable.


April 30-May 5
Monday: Sand the bench.

Tuesday: Clear more of the back yard, re-fill the green waste bin.

Wednesday: Spray paint the ugly mailbox

Thursday: Pick up more stain and a protective coat. Start staining the bench.

Friday: Have the hubs help me replace the hook in the ceiling and re-hang the chandelier.

Saturday: Pull down peeling joint tape in the hallway and assess how to repair it. Start re-taping if it looks okay.

Meg vs. the Porch: Trial run for a rocking bench makeover

Saturday: Take a look at the rocking bench out back. Tighten up bolts if possible, and start sanding if it looks salvageable.

Here is the old rocking bench in question. I originally thought it was too wobbly to keep around, but I saw a new one at the hardware store, and it was of a comparable wobbliness. So I thought perhaps I should give this fellow a second shot.

I tightened up the bolts, added a missing nut, and sanded the tops of the arm rests and a few of the back slats, then I got impatient to see how it might look once stained (typical me). A while back I picked up this bad-boy from the mistint section at the Home Depot for 50 cents, and I figured this is as good a time as any to try it out, because I thought this bench would look good stained dark on our front porch.

I originally did a tiny section on the back of the arm rest, but then I liked what I saw so I got even more impatient and did a whole slat and the top of the arm.

I like that it is really dark but you still see the grain really well. Yay! So excited to keep on this project. I'll probably have to go get more stain, but I actually think my 50 cents will go pretty far here.

Meg vs. The Toy Room: Cleaning up and clearing out

Friday: Clean out toys; pull out baby toys for sanitation and designate toys to donate.

 Check! One box of stuff to give away, on basket of baby toys to clean. And yet, the toy room still looked like this...

I went on Craigslist to look for shelves, then I remembered that I still had these wire shelves that my mom gave us for our closet in our last apartment. They were perfect! A bin for all the animals, shelves for books and toys, and another bin for pretend toys. Several times my big guy told me that he "likes our new toy room" and he "likes our books." And bonus--the boys kept pulling new books to read all day. We had been reading the same few over and over again since we moved in. Love!

Meg vs. The Bathroom: Experiments in grout cleaning

Thursday: Scrub/bleach the grout in the front bathroom.

The grout on our front bathroom grosses me out a little bit, but I was hoping a good cleaning might do the trick. After today's effort, I think something stronger or some new grout/grout paint may be in order. You'll see why...

I tried two tricks I saw on Pinterest: vinegar and bleach pen (not together! Poisonous gas alert!).

Here's the vinegar side:

 Better, but I think scrubbing with water could have had a similar result.

Here is the bleach pen side:

More effective than vinegar, but clearly not stunningly white. In fact, not even yellow; we are still at brown.

I also tried baking soda and straight bleach, but nothing was working any serious magic. My next step will be to try a grout cleaner with acid, and if that doesn't work we will consider either painting or re-grouting (the latter might be best anyway; who knows how old this tile is. Perhaps we will rid ourselves of the pink border at the same time!).

I also did my periodic desk-cleaning, cleared a spot and transplanted a couple of pumpkin plants that I couldn't bear to "thin" via plucking them straight out, and watched a dorky movie starring Hermione Granger -er- Emma Watson. Okay, so the last part wasn't much of an accomplishment...I was just feeling moving picture deprived.

Meg vs. The Kitchen: Paint chips

Wednesday: Buy seam tape and plaster, pick up paint samples for the kitchen and paint (tape) them up. Price (maybe buy?) replacement doors for the master bed and bath.

I realized that we didn't have enough of an idea of what color we wanted in the kitchen to actually paint up samples, so I grabbed a pile of chips at the store and we narrowed them down to the ones we liked. We knew we wanted to stay in the green family because our granite has green in it, and weren't even sure we wanted to change the color at all.

The contenders are Asparagus (really similar to the current color),

Mountain Haze,

and Laurel Mist.

We probably won't make a final choice until we also choose whether to do a tile backsplash and have a better look at our options there. But at least our brains are moving.

I also purchased tape and joint compound and a new hook for the dining room chandelier, and took a look at interior doors (nothing struck my fancy, so I'll take my time there). I should give myself shopping assignments more often!  Hehe.

Meg vs. Celebrating: Happy Birthday Hubs!

Tuesday: Prepare and celebrate John's birthday!

I made the piñata with the kiddos, which was nice because (1) it gave us a project to do together, and (2) it was free; cardboard from the garage, construction paper I got on clearance a long time ago, some packing tape (I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to use any of these ingredients, but it worked) and an old wire coat hanger. We filled it with leftover Easter candy.

The only down point (other than when baby brother threw up his Oreos) was that half-way through the day the ceiling hook broke and our chandelier came crashing down. Luckily there was minimal damage, but that will be added to the to-do list a-pronto.