Chalk it up

As you may be able to tell from my earlier posts, I am infatuated with chalkboard paint. I know, chalkboard paint hit the mainland in 2009, but as a friend said, trends take 2 years to get to Hawaii, so I'm just now discovering it. Or maybe it's because I actually have a toddler who likes to draw, that I have found a use for it.

Anyway, you may remember the little table and chairs that my sis-in-law gave me when she was moving.

So, I primed them and then applied 4 coats of chalkboard paint in blue to the table and legs. Rustoleum sells like 16 different colors of chalkboard paint so you aren't restricted just to black or green. Then, I painted the chairs in a semi-gloss light green which matched the PBK chair in the room. After 3 days, I "primed" the table, which meant I used a piece of chalk lengthwise to draw all over it and then cleaned it. Apparently, that helps you be able to remove marks in the future.

So, here it is in the playroom.

And, of course, what's the first thing Nikhil wants us to draw on it? Thomas!

Since I was in the chalkboard mood, I decided to tackle one more DIY project. I wanted to make chalkboard to do lists for myself and Jeff for our home office. So, you can see why Jeff is not overjoyed at this thought.

Throughout our relationship, I have tried many different ways to remind Jeff of things that need to get done. When it was time to plan our wedding, Jeff insisted that an online list was the best way to go, so we used www.rememberthemilk.com. Interestingly, Jeff seemed more into exploring the idea of these online lists - like you could add tags, labels and even use your cell phone to call jott and a person in Indian would literally add your message to your to do list. That's all well and good, the features were great, but if you kept hitting postpone on your "tasks" well then, what's the point? 4 years later, I bet if I looked at our wedding tasks, I think Jeff probably "postponed" the majority of them.

So, I wanted to go simple. A chalkboard that he couldn't ignore, right on his desk. So, I took some old frames I had lying around the house.

Then, I painted the glass with black chalkboard paint.

And, spray painted the frames white with 2 coats of gloss white Rustoleum paint. I didn't use any primer or sand the frames at all.

Then I just inserted the glass back into the frames and presto - instant honey do list.

Do you like how "hang the linen pinboard" is on there? Yup, it's still on the floor of our home office.

4 reno projects - say what?

Somehow, we've gone from doing one home reno project - the grass, to 4. I'm not really sure how that happened. But, as best as I can figure it, it all started with the car. We have 5 photovoltaic panels on our roof that we did last year. We knew at the time that was about 1/3 of what we would need to zero out our electric bill. But, we figured, we had time to install the rest. Since we got the car, we then decided, maybe it was better to go ahead and get some more panels put up. Then, I talked to my accountant, and he recommended maxing out the photovoltaic panels, because he wasn't sure if the federal and state rebates would remain the same for 2012 because of the budget/deficit, etc. So, then, the whole thing snowballed into something like this...

And, throw in there the grass and closing off this weird double door thing we have off the guest room in preparation for my parents' arrival (more on that later) and I'm not sure how many more projects we have!

And, we're usually a very slow decision making couple. Hence the pictures on the floor of our house, waiting to be hung, 6 months later. Boxes full of Jeff's childhood things we haven't gone through for 3 years. We don't usually rush into things. But, everything somehow got linked together and now we're getting quotes for all sorts of things and aren't even sure which projects to prioritize first, and which ones are really important to us.

In the interim, here are some pics of the grass. It's sad that it actually looks so much better with black topsoil over everything than the dead weeds we had before. I'll post more pics as the work progresses.

Look who wants to play in the dirt.

And here are some more in progress pics of the tables/chairs from the playroom. After 1 coat of primer and 3 coats of chalkboard paint, the legs are still looking streaky, so I need another coat. And the chairs have only one coat, so they need an extra coat, plus 2 coats of polyurathane. So, still more work to be done. But, when Nikhil saw the tables and chairs, I told him Mommy was making them for him and he turned to me and said "Thank you Mommy", so sweetly and totally unprompted. Of course, I'd be willing to do this 100 more times just for that!