All of the closets in our house have this ugly metal bar to hang clothes on.  Yes, yes, I know that this is not the kind of thing that people would typically notice when coming to our house. 

 "Oh my God Becky...did you see her metal closet rods? The nerve..."  

 It is strictly cosmetic but it is an ugliness that just bugs the crap out of me!!  That and I have always had an aversion to hangers scraping across metal bars (Mom...think shopping at Gabe's...)

Since the day we moved in I have been thinking of ways to fix these bars.  Unfortunately, they are mounted in wood on either side of the wall, so replacing them - my first idea - would require lots of work.  Then I thought "I'll just paint them".  After two seconds entertaining that idea, I realized that paint would just chip off.

Then I came across this post on one of my favorite blogs iHeartOrganizing.com  where she had the ingenious idea to use shower curtain rod covers in her closet.  (I didn't even know such an animal existed...did you?)

So off to Home Depot I went and picked up six of these babies.  Of course Brayden thought they were swords and I apologize to anyone in Home Depot that may have been on the receiving end of one of his attacks.

When I got home, I realized that I had actually picked up five instead of six.  Sigh...  In the words of J. Steele "It just wouldn't be a home improvement project without several trips to the store"

But at $2.10 each, the fix totalled $12.60 and took all of about ten minutes - excluding drive time back to the store.  Now we're talking!!  All I had to do was measure, cut with scissors, and slip the cover around the bar.  Look what a difference this made:

(Disclaimer:  Sorry about the mess on the shelves, I guess I should have cleaned all that up before taking pictures. I'm new to taking "blog-quality" pictures.  Focus on the bars people...FOCUS!.)

Kids Closet

Hallway Closet

Master Closet

As you can see, the master was initially missing one across the back.  That was the one I forgot.  And that tie rack...well removing it seemed to take an act of God so I left it on and just slipped the cover through the hole. Worked like a charm. 

Have you found a quick fix for something? I would love to hear about it. 

Yes, that is an AC/DC reference and yes that is a dose of just how dorky I can be.  All this entertainment...for FREE!!

But what I am getting at is "Distant Thunder"...the color we chose to cover up that icky salmon-pink color in the master bedroom. 

Here is the before picture

I know what you're thinking..."Well that doesn't look so bad". Ok - I'll be honest. Here is the real before picture. Yikes!! All it's missing is the blue curtain.

But let me step back a second. Before we tackled any paint, we decided to go a step further and fix the light fixture. This little guy from the 1970s hanging over our bed just wasn't going to make the cut.

Living in KY for the past nine years has spoiled me.  By that I mean I need central air, ceiling fans, or preferably...both. Most people in our part of Pa. have NEITHER!!! There has got to be a law against this. Lucky for me, the hubs is great at electrical wiring and got to work replacing that light with a ceiling fan.

Once again - Brayden's "picturing". (Note: This is not actually a picture in the master bedroom, but the only action shot we have of hanging the fans. I've got to give a shout-out to my kid's talent for taking a picture of my backside. I hope my butt is not going to make a regular appearance on here, but so far we are 2 for 2.)

So let's get painting.

In general, I do all the trim and the hubs comes behind me with the roller. This was out first time painting on plaster wall so we weren't sure how different that was going to be from painting drywall. Turns out...no difference.  Our system works well and we were done with the room in about two hours.

Look at this kid - he's a pro at the age of four! I couldn't pay a cuter contractor to come over in his dinosaur jammies and paint for me. Wait...that's creepy. Never mind!

See how the new Distant Thunder color makes all my white trim painting really stand out.  Yes, I'm still patting myself on the back for the trim but don't worry...I'm almost over it.  

But on the down side, it also makes the wood trim on the windows stick out like a sore thumb. Boo! Add another thing to the J-town To-Do list.

In the end I love, love, love it! Our first [almost] complete living space.

I'll be searching for some artwork to hang above the nightstands, and of course, a much larger rug to fit the room, but I am happy enough for now to move on to the next project. Hint: if you look close enough, the blue tape around the windows kind of gives away what that might be.

Well, here it is. The first post from our new house!!! Yay - and it only took me a month and a half to get here.  While there are some pretty big things to tackle on the J-town to-do list, I decided to start with the basics.

Every wall in this house is painted a light salmon pink with PEACH trim, PEACH molding, PEACH doors...PEACH!!! BLAH!!!  So that was my first job...painting it white.  Most pictures are in the hallway,  only because it was the area with the least amount of stuff that still needed to be unpacked and where I could take a decent picture.  Rest assured I had to redo the trim in every room, bedroom, bathroom, and closet.

 

Ok, ok, Don't even comment on how ghetto the following picture is.  I'm trying to show the peach trim at the bottom of the window and around the floor.  The back story: on our first night in the house, we realized that there is a street light right outside our bedroom window that shines as bright as the sun. @!$*! One of the many reasons I believe they should let you sleep in a home before you decide to buy it. Anywho...  We scrambled in the boxes to find any piece of material that would block out the light and this was the result the following a.m. Ha Ha. I promise...it's gone now.  

So I got busy...painting.  Thanks to Brayden and his new love of "picturing"- here is an action shot of me painting the trim. Not my best side...well..maybe it is. Depends on who you ask ;) But you can see my blue painter's tape and the white trim making its way along the floor of this room.

Here is a comparison of the white and the peach on one of the closet doors with just my first coat.

And the finished hallway. Man, I love how that white really brightens up the space (but hate how it accents that salmon color). But that won't be there for too much longer, either. Baby steps.

Finally...here is what you have really been waiting to see.  The window.  Yes, it is looking much better with white trim - even notice the white trim around the floor - and a real set of curtains. However, now I realize that I need to paint the wood around the windows too. Good thing I am no stranger to a paint brush cause man, this blog is already creating me a longer to-do list.

To save you a bit of scrolling, here is the before and after of the hallway. No, I didn't alter the lighting, that is just how much of a difference the white paint makes.

Oh, and while I am still revelling in my fancy white trim, here is a sneak peek of what we did last weekend. Look how amazing that white trim looks against those wood floors and a paint color other than salmon!!! Ooooo, can't wait to show you all this finished room!