Picket fence

Before.....                                                                                                      and after! 

Our front yard has been a big work in (slow) progress... we've removed many of the random plants and bushes (especially on the bark-chip peninsula in the middle of the yard for some reason). After we get everything leveled out and remove a huge stump, we plan to re-seed and say goodbye the peninsula forever!

One of the worst features of the yard is the picket fence that we hate. We can't decide whether to take the whole thing down or not (the problem being that we live on a corner and right next to a park and already have a large number of people who walk through our yard, even though there is a fence (though easy enough to step over, I don't know why people feel like they need to do it!). I'm worried that without a fence, our yard will become a free for all for short-cut taking park goers and dog-walkers.

The fence was painted white, but gets a heavy dose of sticky debris from the trees, so it was looking pretty bad (see first photo). I've tried cleaning it before, but it takes so much scrubbing that it takes the paint off. I decided to paint it and it looks 100 times better! It took me a couple of weeks do the front and back of the front side of the yard, and I still need to do the other side of the yard, but its looking much better already!


TOTAL COST TO RE-PAINT FENCE: $20 (4 cans of cheap white spray paint for the metal frame and 1 gallon of exterior fence paint). I've used half of these supplies to paint 1/2 of the fence so far

LAUNDRY ROOM - FLOORS AND MOLDING

Our laundry room was so sad looking that I didn't even want to take a "before" picture. I would usually just keep the door closed so I wouldn't have to look at it.  

WHEN I STARTED:  

This photo shows the original tile, molding, and vent as I had just started
adding the new (stick-on) tile, removing the old molding, and painting the walls. This wasn't difficult to do, but I was very pregnant and had to do break this job up over many days

I also painted spray-painted the vent cover in a metallic silver (2 coats, then a clear coat because the door to the garage slides over the top. Its held up perfectly for months now

As you can see from the bottom of the photo, I took the laundry room door off (the door between the hallway and the laundry room) in order to paint and update the floor molding. I had intended to put it back on, but when I realized how much extra room there was without a door there, I decided to leave it off.  This left some unattractive holes in the door frame molding from the door hinges and doorknob latch. I got the idea to cover the holes with strips of wood from this website:
 http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2012/02/gaining-some-space.html

This is the finished (painted) door frame they show on the website- looks awesome! 

Here is a close up of my door frame now- it needed to be painted anyhow, so its going to look great when its done! PAINTING THE DOORFRAME AND HALLWAY IS NEXT!  

LAUNDRY ROOM RE-DO COST: $40.00 (peel & stick tiles, molding, wood strips)

Dining room table & chairs

Its finally done!

The finish on the original table was scratched & chipped, so I repaired and re-stained using a darker color.

It took me about 6 months to finish it, but I finally completed my dining room table & chair makeover!


TOTAL COST: $0 (I used stain and sealant that a relative gave me when they moved)