New York Renovator

Gosh, we only have another month of home improvement time. Uhhh… I am far, far behind this year. My front porch needs to be painted, as well as my front and back doors. Yikes! I had really, really good intentions to do it last week (I REALLY did!), but the Bermuda humidity we were slammed with put an end to that. No sense painting a door that will never dry… :-p

So… I expect the nice weather to come back soon. And then, we will be painting like CRAZY I tell ya! But whoa-hoh, what happened to the Big Box retail stores and prices?! Did they suddenly get hit with a high overhead or something? Prices on home improvement stuff has really crept up. I’m looking online more often, even for home supplies.

Of course, the first place I check is Buy.com. Its my favorite online store, and they really have MARVELOUS prices. With free shipping on a lot of stuff. Plus, I do like their selection- they have everything! I even found the special paint I was looking for: Rustoleum Regal Red Protective Enamel Paint, for my fiberglass front door. Nice. Price is nice, too, just under $14, including shipping. And look what else I found! One of those very nifty 5-in-1 Painter’s Tools– for ONLY $7! (Does not include free shipping, though). We got one a few months ago, and it was $17. :-p Sheesh.

If you haven’t checked out Buy.com yet, you should. They have such a huge selection on everything, and the prices are so good! They have various sale pages that highlight deals of the week and of the day, and other discounts. Buy.com is a great store. Be sure to check them out before you spenr all your hard-earned money at the Big Boxes.

I saw this video at Kim Komando’s daily video, and just HAVE to share! Wowee! This is amazing! It’s called 3D art, or pavement art. This video is a sped-up, time lapse video of a team of artists creating a very large pavement painting of a “crevasse.” It does look real, real enough to grab for safety equipment if encountering this on the street! I love how the people fool around with the painting at the end of the video– they teeter on the precipice, pretend to rescue their falling friends, etc.

When I was a kid, I so desperately wanted a huge mural on the wall of my bedroom. This invigorates my interest– haven’t thought about mural art in eons. What a great idea! Maybe I can put up a huge mural of, say, a pastureland or a waterfall, in my dining room. Old houses from the 17th and 18th century commonly painted large murals in their dining rooms and halls. Very cool!

I haven’t posted in so long because I’ve been hopping. The room is painted now! The ceiling is white, walls are beige. This new color scheme is a bit drab for me. I am usually painting walls and ceilings vibrant colors (my Dining Room is a brilliant ruby red, and the ceiling is wallpapered pink!). I opted for a more neutral, wood-tone friendly scheme this time. Plus, I was tired of dark green, which is what the Living Room walls were previously.

Eventually I will install crown moulding, but not for a while. Therefore, I put extra effort into making the ceiling and wall seam look nice and neat. I think I pulled it off.

The room is finally electrified! I was a little anxious about the electrical work, honestly. It was my first electrical job (I have since done several areas now) and I was nervous about it. I splurged and bought a chandelier, and it looks beautiful. Twin sconces balance the symmetry of the windows. The room is very bright and looks great.

Since we cannot refinish the floors (they had been pained with lead paint in eons past), we decided to cover them with a “floating floor”: laminate flooring. Home Depot was having a clearance on Traffic Master laminate, so I nabbed numerous boxes.

We’ve got the foam underlayment installed, and two courses of the flooring. It is a learning experience for us. Every cut and the placement of every plank must be carefully thought through before you begin sawing boards.

Before we set the underlayment down, we drew a few things on the boards, for posterity.

The whole family and other helpers have signed the studs, too. I also placed a newspaper in the studs as a little time capsule.

The room is coming together. I am hoping we can get the flooring in by the weekend, and I also must finish the furnace ducting and the telephone/internet wiring done. There are a lot of loose ends.