The current home project is back on track with the office painted and carpet/pad to come out today. The flooring will be installed in this room on Tuesday evening and the flooring in the living room will go down on Wednesday. Even with the glitch, it’s all good again even though I have about 10 miles of wood trim to clean.
But this stuff…
I was turned on to this product via a Facebook friend and WOW! Howard’s Feed-N-Wax should take the #1 spot on your shopping list. It not only smells great, but also transforms any tired, dull wood surface to a rich finish. There’s a warning on the label stating the product is combustable so don’t blow yourself up and blame me. 🙂
3 things I’ve learned from this project applicable to all service providers…
Be clear about what you are — and what you’re not. (Not exactly the phrase Scott McKain uses, but you get this idea.) If you’re not a pilot with an aircraft, don’t offer to fly someone to Bermuda for any amount of money — same thing applies across the board no matter the service.
Never overpromise and underdeliver. You’ll blow any chance of future business if you promise the moon and deliver a rock.
Stick to what you’ve been hired to do. Don’t try to manipulate timelines to make it easier for YOU (or so you can get an advance on the next job). If you’ve been paid to bake cookies for an open house, don’t try to dictate where the purchaser should display the cookies or suggest the best time for guests arrive. Just do what you’ve been paid to do — bake amazing cookies.
When you offer a service, you are the employee and have been hired to serve. That’s why it’s called a “service.”
You can call this entry ‘transformation Tuesday’ or even ‘toilet Tuesday’ if you want, but here’s yet another before/after room project blah blah blah. I’ve gotten quite a few messages from readers letting me know they love seeing the 80’s house changes — and only one asking why I’m not posting more business ideas or photography tips. Since WhatIfItDid was not designed to make money or sell advertisements, I figure it really doesn’t matter what I choose to yack about.
This house formerly belonged to my great uncle, Theodore (lovingly referred to as ‘Teddy Bear’), and I sometimes wonder what he would think if he could walk through the front door today. My guess? His eyes would likely pop right out on his cheeks upon first glance at the half-bath. The framed print of the Wicked Witch of the West (which my favorite brother said probably looks like me in the mornings when he calls wanting something) and the funky paint (PPG’s ‘Fireweed’), is simply not his style. Teddy was more into silicone and engineering a make-shift countertop covered in linoleum (which Perry is removing in the ‘before’ photo below).
At one point, I thought about keeping the linoleum in this room. Except good ole’ Teddy Bear had spilled drops of iodine on it right about where Perry’s butt is planted in the before shot. It looked like pee dribbles and since it was in a spot not fitting for a rug, the half-bath got a floor treatment as well.
This flooring is something I’ve never had before and honestly never even considered. The word LINOLEUM even sounds ugly and rustles up connotations in my head that relate to single-wide house trailers. Not so anymore, you guys! (If you’re interested in the brand you can leave me a message and I’m happy to share — it’s just too cold for me to walk in the garage right now.) This stuff is so durable and looks great grouted.
And finally, for the reader who left the message about wanting more business/photography posts…
Don’t be afraid to try bold, new things. When I opened that can of ‘fireweed’ paint, I almost backed out to opt for something ordinary. I am so glad I didn’t.
And, both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots were taken in manual mode, ISO 3200, 1/30 sec at f/3.5 — so no longer shy away from higher ISO’s… many of the newer DSLR cameras have the ability to shoot at higher ISO values without a ton of noise.
Because it’s NEGATIVE 11 DEGREES this morning and I’m not about to venture outside, I figured today would be a good day to share a few photos of the 80’s house transformation…
Focus: Kitchen
I’ve heard it said that the kitchen and the master bath are the two primary selling points of a house. For me… it’s just the kitchen… even though I’m no great cook or strive to be one. When I first walked into the 80’s house I was pretty sure that kitchen was probably the most hideous room I’d ever laid eyes on. YELLOW everywhere! From the glow of the florescent lights to the wallpaper, flooring and countertops, it was yellow overload, you guys. And it looked like a box.
The adjoining formal dining room with a pass-through food hole in the wall made me crazy — but I get why “the cook” wouldn’t want to walk all the way around the protruding wall to get a meal to the table.
I admit I was discouraged. If you’ve followed WhatIfItDid for a long time, you probably know that I’ve not had the best of luck with contractors (one example here), and this certainly wasn’t a project I could tackle alone. I even talked myself out of buying this place at least 10 times just because I couldn’t envision myself living in a house with a kitchen/dining layout I hated so much — and I didn’t figure I could sell the place like that either. Feeling confident in my new contractor, Josh Kleber, a wall came down and the end result was a real eat-in, open kitchen.
The plan in the beginning was for Josh to build an island for storage and to add a couple more seats in the form of bar stools with pendulum lighting — but now I’m not so sure. I’ve never had a house with one so I ask, “to island or not to island?” I’d love to hear your thoughts… do you have one in your kitchen? If so, do you like it?
More times than I can count, I’ve been told that I should never “just settle,” so I’ve always tried hard not to accept ‘this’ when what I really want is ‘that.’ For example, I’d rather have one pair of jeans from The Buckle than 5 pair from Wal-mart or Target.
From the exact second we decided to take on the 80’s house project, I knew the first things to go would be these two stained glass windows in the living room. So hideous, even my great uncle, Ted, had them covered. But now, I have to accept that just isn’t going to happen for awhile. My budget blown, I’m going to have to settle. Still, I prefer to call it a compromise!
I chose great flooring (not the crap from Lowe’s or Home Depot!), custom cabinets and a bigger kitchen instead. Oh, and a gas fireplace. What I’ve learned is that I don’t mind compromise so much…
The next time you’re forced to compromise, please know that it may not be as bad as you first think. Guess I should’ve been listening to good old Donald Trump all along!
“Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.”
– Donald Trump
When you have a whole lot of walls and you opt to throw a “paint party” you should tell everyone there will be FREE BEER. Don’t make the mistake of advertising “ALL THE HOT CHOCOLATE YOU CAN DRINK.” Here’s why…
The flooring is going down pretty darned fast — but the countertops will be lucky to be in before Christmas. Ho. Ho. Ho.
The custom cabinets built to match the existing ones (which will most likely all be painted after the holiday season) couldn’t have matched any better, and I think the progress so far has been pretty amazing. Transforming the little box kitchen into something more my style has come a long way already. Sure hope Santa brings me a new refrigerator. And stove. And dishwasher.
