The lazy days of my summer vacation have been wonderful so far! They have given me the time to do lots of "home improvements!" However, summer projects at the Johnson home often go like this...I have the time during the summer to dream them up and get them started, but can't do them alone. So, even though Jeremy does not have the summer off, he gets roped into doing these projects during the evenings and weekends. He is such a good sport!

Here is one project that we recently completed -- new base boards! Now, some of you may wonder what these are and may never have even noticed yours. However, I have been noticing ours for a few years now and they were in desperate need of being replaced. They were old and dirty and outdated. Our friend Chris told us he has all the tools we would need for this project and we could totally do it ourselves. In order to save money, we dove right in! The finished project looks great and we did save money by doing it ourselves, but as everyone knows, the "do-it-yourself" projects are never easy.

After we purchased the baseboards, they needed to be painted. So I spent a week painting all 360 feet of baseboards (two coats!) in our little tiny garage. That same week Jeremy ripped out all of the existing baseboards in the evenings after work.


Then Chris and Jeremy spent the weekend cutting and installing the new base boards.



I don't have a picture of the next step, which is a good thing in my opinion. Once all the new boards were installed, I spent the next 2 weeks caulking the tops of all the boards and patching and painting the nail holes. Being the perfectionist that I am, I am at fault for dragging this step out as long as I did. (You perfectionists out there know what I mean!)

This next photo is the project that earned me the stink eye from both Jeremy and Chris. Halfway through the project I decided that I wanted the baseboards to go up and around all the stairs in the staircase. This was not in the original plan, but all wives are entitled to change their mind, right? Anyway, while gritting their teeth and listening to my profuse apologies, they dug in and did it! And, it looks amazing! But, I won't blame Chris if he never offers to come help us with any more projects in the near future!


The before and after...



All in all, we are very pleased with how the new base boards turned out and feel that it was worth the bood, sweat and tears that we put into it. And a big shout out to Chris! We could not have done this without him! Most importantly though, after having to pull a nail out of my heel and loosing a big toenail to a ugly incident with a prybar, I learned a very important lesson: When doing construction of any kind, always wear shoes!

Now, on to the next project.....stay tuned!