Over the weekend I took some time to work on one of my favorite things: Other peoples projects.
And, trust me, I know I’ve got enough of my own to be working on — there’s forty-eight square feet of chalkboard rightinmyface every time I walk into my house just to remind me– but for some reason it’s so much more fun to work on projects when they belong to someone else.
Particularly when there’s beer involved.
One of my best friends, Erin, bought her very own house a few months ago. You may remember a certain housewarming gift/bucket-of-tools I got her for the occasion, and dammed if she hasn’t already used every single tool I packed into that thing and then asked me what she needed to buy first… a table saw or miter saw.
Excuse me for a minute while I get a little misty-eyed.
Also? Miter saw. Definitely.
I’d ask you to imagine the general state of things a few months after purchasing a fixer-upper as your first home, but most of you have been right where Erin is right now: with half your shit still packed in boxes, one bathroom torn out, fifteen projects scattered around the house in varying degrees of completion, and really ugly light switches.
It can be overwhelming.
E has also racked up nearly a decade’s worth of good-friend points as I worked on my own houses, and there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t help her do now that she’s got a house of her own. So, after I completed my own little form of house-therapy, I called her up to see what I could do at her place that would make her feel better about her progress and she was all, THESE LIGHT SWITCHES MUST GO.
Yes. Yes they must.
On my way to her place, I stopped at the hardware store and picked up an extra set of the critical tools on my gotta-have list for electrical work to add to her toolbox.
(I mean, that’s my toolbox, but you get the point.)
Then we did exactly what you’d expect a couple of single home-owning ladies to do on a Sunday afternoon…
Drank craft beer and did some electrical work.
If there’s any better way to end a weekend, I sure as hell don’t know what it is.
256 Responses
Installing (properly) the sink in our bathroom. The previous owner did not have one & the plumber our Realtors hired to install one in order for it to sell not only didn’t anchor the sink but also put the faucet on incorrectly.
I need to finish up our master bathroom remodel. All we have left are installing towel hooks (through tile, so hubby doesn’t want to crack it), installing two glass shelves, installing trim on the top of the linen cabinet. That’s it. We’re so close, but just don’t want to do it. Oh, and touch up paint. Who doesn’t hate that job.
Finish my &#$@* upholstery project that sucks the life out of me, BUT is totally worth it!
Cleaning, painting, or doing whatever the heck it takes to get the grout lines in my bathroom the same color. I’ve never been able to figure out why, but the previous homeowner used three (three!) different colors in there, ranging from white to black. It makes an otherwise great bathroom feel messy and incomplete.
I wish there were just one LITTLE project! Painting the other half of the living space – I have a ranch-style house and managed to paint half of the kitchen/dinning/reading/living room. Still need to paint the living room portion – “renter’s white” with 80s stained trim just isn’t doing it for me anymore.
I need to wire the addition to my pole barn. But it needs to warm up a bit first. The pole barn isn’t heated and the temperature this weekend is predicted to top out at minus 3. As in below zero. No wiring for me! Guess I will just have to burn some hay bales instead.
Have fun with your projects!
Taking out the stained living room carpet that I’ve hated for 18 months. But then I’ll have to sand the floors, and finish them…
I have been working on tiling a fire place for almost a year now. It was supposed to be a nice starter project, but cutting a million tiles almost perfectly for a CURVED fireplace that you can’t hide the edges with trim was a terrible, terrible idea for a beginner. So many angles…
Oh lord, THE SWITCHES AND PLUGS. That was one of the first things we updated in our 1960’s ranch, and JUST when you thing you get them all updated you find another one hiding behind a door. I swear to Christ those little shits must be multiplying. How many switches and plugs can one house have?!?
Make and hang new doors for our dark, ugly 1960’s hollow core closet doors in our bedroom. I was thinking a more rustic, barn door look would look good. And make me feel better waking up each morning when I look at them.
I love reading your blog! Very inspirational! You go, girl!
Ahhh….moved in a few months ago. So much to do – but PAINT. Painting would make the whole house brighter and fresher!
We just bought a new house and it’s electric heat (boo). Just got our first month’s bill, which came out to a cool $900. Hilarious considering we were freezing most of the time. Gotta install that mini-split ASAP.
I need to do a bit of electrical myself. I’ve slowly been swapping out the outlets, switches, and switch plates in my house, and it feels so “finished” when a room is done.
My bathroom could really use some sprucing. I wish I had a girlfriend like you. I love to DIY and all my girlfriends and my husband like to hire it out. My DIY world is lonely. Your friend is so lucky to have you.
Table saw.
New coat of paint for my bathroom. Used the cheap stuff and it literally wipes off when I try to clean it. I am getting a nice collection of toothpaste splatters going though!
I think we have a project going in every room of our house right now. I would be happy to just get some switches and face plates in that are the right colors!
LOVE your blog! (and your menagerie!)
I hate laminate flooring, but, our dishwasher broke last summer and leaked all over the floor. This destroyed the glue under our wood laminate kitchen floor and now about half a dozen boards are warped. We bought a new dishwasher, but haven’t fixed the floor yet. $50 would be just enough to fix that mess and make it not so damn ugly anymore.
Updating the knob and tube wiring – so the fixtures, outlets, and switches can be replaced easier.
The only “little project” I can think of is getting my shit organized, especially my tools, although it’s not such a little project. My garage is mostly chaos. Occasionally I hire my friend Mollie, who is a super-organizer, to help me get organized and clean shit up, but I can never seem to keep it that way for long. I’d much rather focus on my big projects, like the greenhouse I’ve just started, but it always takes me longer than it needs to because I’m either looking for tools, or moving stuff around to access them.
Replacing my toilet has led to ripping up the floor and subfloor of my bathroom. Cheers to getting it back together!
I would love to make progress on my basement craft studio. I need one wall of drywall, some electrical, a long desk and then a top for my cutting table made from recycled kitchen cabinets. Then I could get my sewing out of the dining room. Now that would be progress!
I supplied the tools and coached my 24 yo soon through a toilet repair. He (and 3 roommates) had to turn on and then back off the shutoff valve EVERY SINGLE TIME they flushed the toilet! Geez. He felt pretty good afterwards. Roommates are really happy. One now refers to me as the RepairMom. Just spreading the DIY joy to the next generation.
Definitely putting a light switch where the phone jack is in the kitchen – I hit that jack Every Single Time I walk in there (it’s next to the doorway on the left) and then stumble in the dark toward the opposite wall where the real light switch is…. Every Single Time.
Paint my bathroom vanity and maybe work up the courage to rip up the vinyl floor and put in some tile…
I’d like to install a dimmer switch on the light in what will be a nursery eventually!
out of the 972 small projects i have….hmmmm replace the vanity and broken faucet in my bathroom.
Changing out all the old ugly lightswitches, outlets and thermostats in our house, would be a great “small project”, to help make it feel like we’re making progress!
putting the last coat of paint on the trim in our new attic addition. it would be the last thing we have to do, but I’m so not motivated to get it done!
We haven’t had a kitchen since before Thanksgiving but I really miss sleeping in my own bedroom which desperately needs to be painted. That’s my number one priority since the kitchen timeline seems to be out of my control. And 50 buckaroos would be very welcome. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
Oh, there are so many. But I’m thinking that removing the old owners curtains from the kitchen would be the best (and probably easiest). Not sure what I’m waiting for. Removing them would definitely make the place feel more like MY home and give me motivation to tackle some larger projects.
now that spring has sprung in austin (sorry…it’ll hit your neck of the woods soon i hope!), i need to spend as much time as possible out in the yard doing cleanup and replacing plants that bit the dust over the winter. pick me, pick me! THANKS!
Well it’s not exactly construction, but our office desperately needs to be organized, cleaned out and generally spruced up. It’s become a dumping zone and is a complete disaster.
Seems so insignificant but… I’ve had pictures frames lying around for WEEKS with the pictures intended to go inside them sitting right on top of ’em. The thought of needing to line them all up evenly has been enough to keep them off the wall…
I need to finish the down stairs bath remodel, trim, switches, plugs, and some paint! Its been left in the dust for a year now haha priorities!
The kitchen of our new house has nasty linoleum floor in the kitchen that needs to be removed. There is a really cool looking confetti original floor underneath that I’m very interested in!
Finishing the small main floor bathroom! It’s been five years in the making and is 1/2 done.
We have complete gutted a bathroom in our 70 year old house. This weekend I hope to complete the last bit on the room. My hubby did all the plumbing, electrical and carpentry, while I did all the tile and painting.
Hey Kit, I love Free things, especially free things that are as useful as a lowes gift card. This would actually be a huge help right now as I am working on some “renovations” to our basement which was finished by the previous owner with very dark wood paneling, and some form of drywall mudding that I have never seen which involves putting it on as thick as they could and swirling it around to hide the fact they had no idea how to drywall. We are turning the basment room into a bedroom as we are adding another person to our house hold (not a baby…a friend). And of course finances are tight and our budget is quite small 😛
Oddly enough, replace switches and outlets in our cabin.
I’m staring down the ugly trim in my bathroom & kitchen. I’d love to replace this 20 year old grosser than gross biohazard.
A trip to Lowe’s & a confidence boost is all it would take.
Tiling the floor in my sons’ bathroom! Gross vinyl is in there now – (made even grosser by boys!!)
thanks for all you do – haha – your blog is the 1st one I read on my list – always need a good kick-in-the-pants! Thanks for the giveaway.
Kitchen faucet. I can’t get my stock pot under the spigot, and have to fill a glass eleventy-bajillion times to get the dang thing filled!
My office STILL needs to be painted (& a little bit of caulking). This is one of those projects that’s dragging on and on……
$50 would go a long way (all the way, really) toward adding molding to my stupid dry-wall trimmed windows. Right now I’m saving for them with change in a spaghetti jar.
crazy coincidence but replace switches and outlets…I just began painting the majority of the interior of my house and it made it very apparent how ugly the cream colored outlets and switches are…so all new white switches and outlets are in my future.
If I could finish extending my kitchen wall cabinets to add drawers on the bottom of them, that would make me feel like finally, I can start making progress on my kitchen remodel, after it sitting there unchanged for more than a year! Thanks for sharing all your struggles with home improvement projects and life in general! I thoroughly enjoy your posts. It’s nice to know I am not alone.
Don’t all single home-owning gals get together to drink beer and build stuff? Just us? Ok.
I would feel a lot better if I could just pick a frickin’ faucet for my kitchen already. Shiz is getting annoying.
What a fun giveaway! You are very kind.
I know what you mean about doing something on someone-else’s house. My husband and I just spent the last 6 weeks-of-weekends remodeling my older friend’s kitchen. (She has very bad arthritis, so needed a kitchen update to be able to use it safely.)
Was so much fun to do despite having about 50 projects around our house that need done.
And like you said, accomplishing something really re-set me. I am ready to tackle things around here again. Hope I win the giveaway, but want to thank you for your kindness even if I don’t.
Each room of the house is currently between 85 and 95% complete so there are a lot to choose from…install kitchen backsplash, hang crown molding, install new lighting, etc., etc.
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