Projects around the house

I go through phases with projects. Sometimes I'm so excited about a ton of different ideas that I can't wait to get started on any of them and sometimes I look around and think "yeah, that fireplace looks ok with those cabinets for the garage in front of it."  Yes, really.  It keeps Ethan out of the rocks that inexplicably live in the fireplace.

Usually the summer is too hot to even think about projects as most of them must be done outside to prevent spray paint on your floors or paint stripping fumes from killing your family.  I usually put anything on hold until cooler weather.  Until I found two Pottery Barn drapery panels for $27 each.  They just happened to be the right length to cover my kitchen windows from the ceiling all the way to the floor, 108 inches.  They are lined and a beautiful chocolate-colored weave.  I love them.

And this posed a problem.  I can't afford to go buy more panels at $107 each and I needed a total of 8 to completely cover the wall of windows.  We love our wall of windows  but it lets in so much sun and heat that the kitchen/family room always feel like an oven.  Dustin's solution was aluminum foil over the upper windows.  My solution is to have drapes that fall from the top all the way to the floor.  My solution is utterly more expensive so it had been on the back burner.  Until the PB deal.  So, I called a friend and we went off to Home Fabrics which is probably the coolest fabric store ever.  So many cheap fabrics!  I found a pattern and a solid and bought 17 yards to make the rest of the panels.

Wait, but now I needed to get my old Pfaff 130 sewing machine cleaned and oiled as it hadn't been used in a few years.  I have another machine but Ethan so helpfully lost the thread spindle and I haven't found a replacement part yet.  So, I took the machine down to a local store for maintenance.  Then I decided to make the curtains not only lined but blackout as well.  That means a trip to Jo-Ann's for fabric.

The other pickle?  The wall is 200 inches.  I wanted to make my own curtain rod following this tutorial.  But they don't sell galvanized pipe at almost 20 ft at Lowe's.  I haven't thought of a solution yet.

That project led to a trip to Salvation Army and finding a super cute toddler table and two chairs that Ethan loved.  It had flowers and unicorns all over it and a pretty terrible paint job so I decided to use paint stripper to remove it.  I'll repaint and then decorate it how I want.

We also went to Deseret Industries and Dustin found a great lounge sofa for $10.  It just needed to be re-upholstered.  Do you see where this is going?  Yes, the lounge sofa is now sitting in the back of Dustin's truck until I get to it.  I don't even know where to put the thing but its going to look awesome when its done.

In the meantime, its really hot here.  It has cooled down to 95 the last few days with some rain but now its over 105 again.  And stripping paint is really hard, especially with a helpful toddler.  But if the table is half as cute in real life as it is in my mind, it will all be worth it.

Right?