The William Morris Project, Week 3

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This is week three of the Pancakes & French Fries William Morris Project, happening every thursday in 2012.

 

Well, I finally made my list of things I would like to get done in 2012 during the William Morris Project. It seems like each time I cross something off, I add at least one more on. Some of the items may never get done, ever; and some of them I should be able to do in my sleep. Regardless, they are all mixed in together, and I am working through them in no particular order. So far I think I am up to 29 things crossed off the list that includes over 150 items.

This last week I managed to:

Fix a giant crack in the living room ceiling

Patch holes and paint the dining room

Fix a gap in the floorboard

Paint bedroom #2

Purge closet items and books in bedroom #2

Organize the closet shelves in bedroom #2

Replace the sink strainers {the ones that came with the house neither plugged nor drained...annoying}

Remove terrible built in shelves in the entrance to the kitchen

Trim out the archway into the kitchen from the dining room to match the rest of the house

Fix the cabinet above the refrigerator so that the bottom doesn't fall out

Remove one walls worth of wallpaper border in the kitchen.

Put up a kitchen towel hook

Repair a lamp that has been in pieces for like 9 years

{Perhaps the list helped? Maybe it made me neurotic.}

Most of these items were not documented.

This is what happened to the terrible kitchen shelves. Here they are as we found them while touring the house for the first time.

The day we moved in I took off the contact paper. Since then I have been glaring at them, cursing their ability to harbor junk. It was just so easy to put things on them that really belonged somewhere else. It wouldn't seem that bad until one day I would realize there was a huge pile of household cast offs hanging out in a very conspicuous spot. How can things like that go unnoticed? What is my problem? I still haven't figured it out. But I decided to take action against the shelves the second I got the 'OK'. This happened to be in the evening, while the kitchen was a complete disaster from a wallpaper removal project. I tend to take the same approach to all endeavours as I do when hanging wallpaper.  Whenever there are at least ten other things that need my attention more, I take on a messy project. The following photographs prove this with their un-biased counter top depiction.

One board at a time, I took them down. I had to break off the long nails that stuck out from the wall, and then counter sink them into the wood again. The top and wall pieces I left there, since they were part of my trim plan. I used all the wood I removed to trim the archway out. {this is a personal issue, I really hate un-trimmed doorways. They remind me of cheap construction, or bad apartments I've lived in. Maybe that's the same thing.} The goal was to make this opening to look like all the other door frames in the house. Using the wood that was removed in the process resulted in trim that looked like it had always been there.

The casing trim I found in the garage, and since there was a need for something along the wall, I cut a little piece of shoe molding to fit along the top trim and the linoleum backsplash. I had to whittle it with my Victorinox. {I didn't even cut my hand, which would have been normal}

After it was all said and done, there are still some things I would like to tweak, like for example, sand the whole thing down to bare wood and re-stain it so that the color isn't blotchy...but that's not on the list for this year. it is finished to this point, and I am so happy with how open and simple it is now. Before there was so much visual noise. {the wallpaper didn't help}

{pictures taken at night=dark and grainy photographs} These images really showcase the awful hardware in the kitchen, as well as the before/after wallpaper border look. The floors look amazing too! Wow, more to add to the list.

Wishing it was warm, Alice

 

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Week 7

Comments

[Jenn]

Oh that pink fridge is so awesome! What an awesome before and after, the doorway is so much more open and visually uncluttered. Lists are so hard (yes, to the neurosis comment, I feel the same way). But the after looks amazing (so yay for lists)!

[Amy]

Holy Moly! I can't get over how much you did in one week . . . amazing feats of daring adventures, for sure!

[Jules]

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! You KILLED it this week! You win.

Also, YOU HAVE A PINK FRIDGE? GAH!

Great job, seriously.

Oh, also again: I think the list has crazy magical powers to light fires under people's butts. It does mine, anyway.

[chrissy]

is that really and truly your fridge? i am so jealous!

chrissy

[Courtney]

Wow! I stand amazed at what you accomplished in one week. Flabbergasted, actually. The shelf removal would have been enough to keep me busy for days. You are obviously quite handy, and your work looks great! So much more open now - way to go. Also, LOVE the pink fridge. One of the coolest things I've ever seen!

[Melissa@HomeBaked]

What a list! I really think those small things add up. For me, just cleaning out my desk drawer and the kids' school files has made every day easier. But you went and did demolition! WOW.

[Lais]

Just stopping by from Jule's place. You have been busy, Alice. Seriously I loved hearing how you are a lot like me...I tend to tackle the most horrible project even if other things are undone, I just do what I feel like doing. I wish I could be more methodical, but I guess I am what I am. I love how you just dived in and even reused the wood from the shelf. I also relate to wanting to get rid of visual clutter, it seems to mess with my brain if my eyes have to look at clutter too much. Sorry you had to deal with the flu last week, but I am amazed at how much you accomplished! Great work and inspiring. I also want to give a shout out for your lovely pink fridge, it is so perfect. Thanks for sharing, Alice.

[Alice]

Pam, That is a perfect description of those shelves. Unnecessary storage. What a relief to tick these things off the list! {Still looking forward to seeing your coffee table!}

[Alice]

Alana, I guess it must seem like I have a lot of energy, but really I staggered through the last week like a zombie...stinking flu season has us all worn down! Thanks for writing!

[Alice]

Amy, Thank you! The fridge is probably one of my very favorite things in the world. ;)