Tuesday, June 2, 2009

help the mccradys: volume 2 & update

This volume 2 of "help the McCradys" is focused more on DIY (do-it-yourself) projects...

1.) Almost all of the light fixtures, fans, etc. in our house are in a brass finish. Have y'all heard of any kind of spray paint or something to refinish all the brass into a brushed nickel look? Have you had any experience (good or bad) with that? I remember seeing it on HGTV but now I don't remember the process :)

2.) Have any of y'all had experience putting up crown molding? This is totally not a "must-have" but it would really make the house look finished. I've seen online that there are kits for that, but would y'all recommend hiring someone? Have y'all tried to do-it-yourself? What were the results?

3.) We're getting a kitchen table and chairs from my grandmother (Mimi)'s house. However, the legs are currently a sage green and the top is natural. What color should we re-paint it in? Y'all have seen the kitchen, so what color do you think would "go"? To give you an idea of paint color in there, I'm really wanting to paint or living/dining/kitchen (all open to each other) a light yellow.

4.) As mentioned, our master bathroom has carpet in it because the seller's husband had arthritis and didn't want him to fall. However, we want to put ceramic tile in there. Have y'all ever done this before? We have access to a wet saw... which is scary enough :)

Okay that's all for now... see the update below from last week's edition!

Update from volume 1:
THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the input on our last "help the McCradys" post! All of the calls, texts & Facebook messages have helped so much!!!

As of right now, we're not going to do any big projects right away. My mom is being gracious enough to get our house professionally cleaned as well as having a carpet cleaner come out because "it's gross to live on someone else's carpet". I had no idea :) But other than that, we're going to move all of our stuff in, get unpacked, and then live there for a while as we decide what projects are really important to us vs. what we can live with for a while longer. The carpet is in wonderful shape so we don't need wood floors right away, as much as we'd enjoy them.

I've also heard that there are a lot of random necessities that pop up after you move into a home, so I don't want to spend all of our money on aesthetic stuff when we really need those other random items.

Thanks again for all your input!!!

7 comments:

Adventures in Newlywed said...

Can you sand the paint off the table legs and stain it all in a dark finish?

As for the paint color, let's talk tonight - I have an idea :)

Hug!

Brittany and Charlie-Social Butterfly said...

Sounds like a pretty good plan. The only thing I would do before you move in is paint. If you have a desire to paint, then with no furniture and other stuff in the house it is much easier. It is not that expensive really either if you do it yourself. Wal-Mart has good paint and then the supplies are pretty cheap. Just a thought!

jae lindsay + aaron said...

The only thing I have experience with is the crown molding. We actually are doing the same thing to ours (just in the main living spaces) - and it was less $ than I expected anyway. He's charging less than $150, and I've seen photos from some of his references. Even still, it HAS to be better than if we did it ourselves, right? It's a handyman that's making some extra $ on the side (try craigslist or googling your area). It'll only take a day for him to install. We're buying the supplies (check out the stock at Home Depot, it's suprisingly really affordable) and painting them white ourselves, then he'll just cut and install!

another 2 cents, the only other thing I'd recommend doing ahead of time is painting! (At least the things like the living room and bedroom...bathrooms aren't too hard to do later.)...It's really a pain to move everything out AND even more of a pain to have to hang everything in the room twice. Plus, to me, it helps coordinate the rest of the 'decor' and feels really finished. HGTV says it's the cheapest way to makeover a room!

Good luck! :)

Jeff said...

Hey friends, here is my 2 cents for what it worth. First, I wish I was there cause I could do the majority of this with Ryan in a weekend. Crown molding- buy it at home depot or lowes and paint it yourself. Buy cheap saw horses to put the molding on. I believe it typically comes in 12 foot pieces so you might want 3 saw horses. To buy it and paint it shouldn't take more than a couple hours. Keep in mind you will likely want 2 coats of paint it.
Bathroom- laying tile is the most tedious process in building, in my opinion, if your bathroom is not that big do you can do it yourself however, you are constantly bending over, squatting and on your knees. While I would say if you are up for an adventure try tiling your bathroom but keep in mind you will have to temporarily move the toilet to lay tile. On something like a kitchen you are defiantly better off paying someone. Hope that helps. Just to clarify I would hire someone to tile anything I wanted tiled. It makes me mad.

Unknown said...

Just wanted to chime in on the brass fixtures. I have never painted any myself, but I have seen it done with spray paint many times. I saw this today and thought I would pass the link on...

http://enchantresses3.blogspot.com/2009/06/isnt-she-pretty.html

Kim said...

James is very handy with all of that stuff since he is considered a master carepenter. If you need some advice call me and I can talk to James. I know that I am leaving almost all the fixing up to him. Last night he installed our new chandelier and track lighting and he built cabinets in our garage earlier this month as well.

Anonymous said...

Jen, spray painting the fixtures isn't too hard. You just have to make sure that you make slow and steady lines while spraying. If you shake the can around too much while spraying, you'll get a lot of extra paint on the fixtures and it'll drip. I'm actually spray painting our patio furniture I got from my Grammy after she passed away, and it's SUPER easy. I'm using Rustoleum because that's what the paint guy recommended. It's less than $4 a can and one can is going to cover my table and 2 chairs. A LOT cheaper than buying a new set!

-Amber Reineck-Satterwhite