Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Off to Home Depot We Go

My friend wasn't kidding when, soon after we'd bought the Hayley Home, she said:

Welcome to the world of everything breaking

and Home Depot owning your checkbook.

We've spent our 4-day weekend (weekend+2 days of staying-at-home) working on mini-project after mini-project.

And I have to say that we're getting a bit better at this repair game. Our all-time high was five trips to Home Depot over a two day weekend. This time we've managed just two trips over a four day weekend. Not bad at all.

We had the usual small things to do, like buying bulbs to replace all of the missing ones around the house. We're working through our million+ light fixtures to install CF bulbs as part of the project:

And being frugal, I'm not one to throw away perfectly good curtains when all that's required is a bit of measuring and sewing machine time:


Slightly more complicated was investigating what ceiling fan model we own. The previous owners saved all of the paperwork for the fan, but not the switch cap that will allow us to remove the light fixture. Nor did they write down the fan model number to allow us to easily order a new one. I talked to the manufacturer and learned the model number is written on top of the fan motor - not so easy to retrieve when the fan is mounted close to the ceiling.

Yes, Kelly's trying to read the model number with the mirror in my Estee Lauder makeup kit:

I suppose what keeps me from accomplishing most of my home improvement projects over the weekend is that every project seems to be a multi-step affair. I've had to write everything down to help me think of what small thing I can do when I have free time:

Take, for example, that pesky master bath toilet roll holder. If you remember, we had a bracket, but no holder:


Step 1: remove the bracket.

Step 2: wonder why the painting crew didn't remove the holder so they could texturize the wall and paint it properly.

Step 3: measure the new bracket and realize that some of the wall paper will show.

Step 4: practice spraying texture on a cardboard box.

Step 5: spray texture on the patch and let dry.

Step 6: paint and let dry.

Step 7: drill new bracket holes. Change drill bits twice when you realize the holes are too small.

Step 8: hang new toilet roll holder:

I can't figure out how they manage to make all of this look so simple on HGTV.