…actually, it was oil-based primer. While we were in the process of painting, we had to clean up a few messes. None of which compared to the horror of getting oil-based primer on our hardwood floors. And we’re not talking a few droplets. Not even a big drip or two. Nope. Not us. We’re talking almost a half gallon of the stuff!

It was time to paint the exterior doors and shutters. Since everything was originally painted with oil based paint, we needed to use oil based primer. It was stinky, but it needed to be done. As I was happily painting along (using a rinsed-out Route 44 Cherry Limeade cup from Sonic as my paint cup), I hear a thud and, “Uhhh, man.” Turns out, I left the can of primer sitting open next to where my father-in-law was painting. When he stepped back to check his awesome work, he knocked over the primer. Go me.

Luckily our floors have yet to be sanded and refinished (as we have mentioned before, we are waiting for all of the gritty work to be completed before we have that done), and this spill was on the old, previously finished wood. Paint and primer can get in the little cracks and grooves of hardwood floors, and if the sander doesn’t get down deep enough, it’ll look a little funny. So we were kinda wigged out… at first.

So what did we do? Well, if this had been latex-based paint, it wouldn’t have been a big deal.  Just wipe it up with some wet rags and you’re good to go. But this was oil-based paint. We wiped it up as best we could with paper towels, but all that was really doing was spreading it around.  We didn’t have any paint thinner on hand and dumping flammable liquids all over the wood floor didn’t seem like a great idea anyway.

When it was obvious that what I was doing wasn’t working, I quickly looked up at Ashley and asked, “What takes up oil!?”. Without a hesitation, she yelled, “The little baby ducks and otters!”. I’m totally not exaggerating. I looked at her in disbelief wondering what in the world she was talking about.

She was talking about dish soap — Dawn, Palmolive, whatever type of soap is designed to cut grease. I guess when you think about it, it seems pretty simple: oil-based primer on the floor -> oil means lipids -> grease is made of lipids, too -> dish detergent cuts grease, therefore dish detergent cuts oil-based primer.  We squirted some dish soap over the paint and started to scrub. It began to separate but not enough. I grabbed my water and poured a tad of water over the paint (we’re talking four tablespoons). After liberal application of dish detergent, water, a cleaning brush, and some good old-fashioned elbow grease, the floor was as good as new. We were actually kind of shocked at how well it worked.

I would not have used the brush if our floors had already been stained. In that case, I’d use rags and spend a little bit more time and care so that the finish doesn’t get scratched.  Other than that, if you catch the paint while it’s still wet and you don’t have any traditional paint cleaning substances, the “baby ducks and otters” method works quite well. Our floor is now paint free!

To close this post, I’d thought we would link to a funny, yet true, news story we found online. Somehow 25 gallons of white paint were spilled on the Staten Island Expressway (click here for the full article).

The emergency personnel called in firefighters to hose down the area and wash the paint away. Good thing it was latex…

To visit Dawn’s Everyday Wildlife Champions’ Facebook page, click here. News image courtesy of Slive.com.

This past week, a lot of changes have been going on in the hall bathroom and they have happened SO fast! What once was an empty shell of what’s supposed to be a bathroom is no longer! After what seems like a few, short days… voila! The tile is done, the bathtub is installed and so is the vanity. It’s beginning to look more like an actual, functioning bathroom. Oh how I love progress!

Some of you may be wondering why we didn’t decide to tackle the tile installation ourselves. Though we are anxious to get our hands dirty DIYing, neither of us had ever installed tile before, and since this is our first major renovation project, we decided it would be best to call in the professionals. Plus, when we chose to also tile the walls, the decision to hire a contractor seemed pretty obvious. In just three short days, the amazing team at MB Tile had the job done and done beautifully.

Another star of this hall bathroom renovation is the sparkling new bath tub! After we gutted the bathroom, we called in yet another professional to rough in the new fixtures which included the addition of the second sink. This made installing the new tub super easy.

We milled over a few different options when it came to the vanity: ordering it from one of the online vanity megastores, having one custom built by a local cabinet maker and we even toyed with the idea of building it ourselves (we were crazy). Ultimately, we decided to design one on paper and take it to our local Home Depot. Call us “newbies”, but we actually didn’t know we could do that until my dad mentioned it. So to the drawing table I went. This is what we came up with…

We thought it would be a fun change in pace to have some open shelving instead of ordinary drawers between the two sinks. We plan on finding a decorative basket of some sort to stash toiletries and using the bottom shelf for folded towels. If we get tired of it down the road, we can always order a couple of drawers.

A little under three weeks after taking our drawing to Home Depot, our custom vanity was ready to be picked up. The installation process was really easy. It came in three separate peaces and was installed with just a few screws here and there to hold it in place.

As you can see, at the moment the vanity isn’t 100% complete. There is a piece that goes on the very bottom (I’m not sure what it’s actually called, but I keep calling it a “kick plate”). We also need to add the hardware. Then comes the countertop, sinks, fixtures, etc. One day at a time, folks. One day at a time.

Last time, we mentioned that we removed one of the hall linen closets to make room for more vanity space and a wider doorway. We were happy about the decision then, but now that everything is coming together, we are absolutely ecstatic about the outcome. Cue happy dance.

What once seemed like a small, narrow bathroom is now shaping up to be more spacious and modern.

Btw, if you missed it, check out part one and part two of the big hall bathroom renovation project. Want to stay updated with the home renovation progress on Facebook? “Like” the 7th House on the Left Facebook page.

If you follow us on Twitter, you might have seen Ashley’s rave yesterday about our new door knobs. We “scored something fierce”, as she says. Let’s back up for a second. I was on my way home from work when I got a phone call from Ashley. The reception was bad so all I caught was, “Tuesday Morn…oorknobs…clearan…heavy…pretty…want”. So I decided to stop by Tuesday Morning before I went home.  When I got there, we sifted through every doorknob in the store, and I ended up buying a new doorknob for every interior door in the house. Needless to say, Ashley was one happy camper.

We scored a huge deal. The privacy and the passage knobs were normally $52.99 each. We were able to snag them for only $19.99 a piece! That’s about 62% off for you number guys like me out there. The dummy knobs for the closets were originally $19.99 but were marked down to $9.99 making them right about 50% off. So an upgrade that was going to cost us a cool $600 came to a much reduced grand total of $251.84, including tax. That made me the happy camper.

Last night and part of today were spent installing the new doorknobs (with the help of Ashley’s dad), and we couldn’t be happier with the way they look. These particular door knobs are solid forged brass. Because of this, they are very heavy, which gives them a really nice feel.

Previously, we didn’t make a habit of visiting the local Tuesday Morning on a regular basis, but after finding a great deal like this, we will definitely make a point to stop by more often. So call us official fans!