It was a small easy project

It was a small easy project - like so many of us experience.

All I had to do was move a refrigerator from the porch to indoors. I really wanted it downstairs but getting it there, down a hill would be difficult plus I don't use the basement apartment much any more. The move from the porch to dining area was uneventful.

So after careful thought, I decided there was room for one more refrigerator in the kitchen. Since mom is gone I do not use the table so that can go. (I have plans for a fold down table later). This will be my freezer storage fridge and back up since the other is getting cranky.

The wall where I have my moveable canned products could go on the other side of the room. My moveable stand was a wire shelf from General Dollar that they were going to throw away, a little debbie rack. It easily holds 300 cans of food. I would check dates and sort the food while moving. A half a day project, but easy.

Well I looked up where I was going to move the fridge and there had been damage from a leak several years ago. The tiles have decided that they should fall down, so I will have to take them down, replace and paint the ceiling. Hmm... Why move the fridge and have to pull it out again?

Then the hutch beside it has display items on top. I plan to move them along (sell) as they were my moms and I really have no need for them. So I will take them down and dust and clean them. I am going to a flea market tomorrow so I will take them with.

So my simple appliance move will take a few days to complete. I just love these easy projects ;)

It seems like most of my easy projects end up like this.

How do your easy projects go?

Comments

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I can completely relate to this. I started out a few days ago to boil down some pork bones for bone broth. First cooking them down for an hour in an electric pressure cooker for an hour, removing them, cooling enough to handle, picking the meat from the bones, then repeating the cooking for another hour. This was as recommended by my friend who uses hers all the time and was my first time using an electric pressure cooker.

    Well, they sure don't hold much. Took me 4 days to cook all the bones down twice, plus a lot of time running the generator to do them. This meant finding places to store everything until I got them all done. Not easy when your off grid.

    Then I started canning the broth. That meant going out and digging through shed to find the size jars I wanted, and since shed is seriously over stuffed took a bit of work and rearranging.

    Finally started canning and got the first batch done... Oh Wow! now where do I put them. Rearrange things again inside to find places to put the finished broth. I'm now almost a week into a project I thought would take a couple days.

    Next "quick" project... grinding the pork from the two (super fat) pot belly pigs we just butchered and making kielbasa sausage. Should only take a few days right? So including smoking...maybe two weeks. lol

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I painted my kitchen cabinets & doors about 6 months ago. I thought it would take maybe a week because I wanted the doors to dry completely before I put them back up - doing a few at a time.

    Well, then I decided to clean out every cabinet and go through everything as well.

    It ended up taking me 3 weeks instead! I'm glad I did it though. They look much better having been repainted and all of them are reorganized now too.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @vickeym Pork sausage, sounds delicious.

    @kbmbillups1 I have to paint my cupboards but I have not decided on the color. They are wood, which I like, but the kitchen is dark and a light color would brighten up the room.

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Monek Marie Ours are white like our cabinets. I just repainted white. I've seen a lot of before and after pictures going from brown to white. There is a huge brightness difference!

  • water2world
    water2world Posts: 1,177 ✭✭✭✭

    @Monek Marie LOL Made me chuckle! How many times have I started something simple, and the next thing I knew.......I wished I had just left everything alone!

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @kbmbillups1 I am tempted to go white. This house is so dark and I want to use what light we have instead of electricity. I was just worried about dirt by the cabinet handles.

    @water2world Yes, this is turning out to be a "lot" more work that I intended. The ceiling molding has to come off now, sigh.

    And I love (not) those, "I'm just going to rearrange the livingroom furniture adventures.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    Lately I've noticed that they go about the very same way. I've got lots done lately. Unfortunately in some ways most of those extra projects are things nobody would ever notice.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited October 2022

    My preference for a kitchen would be a light sage green with white trim...kind of a historic green, I guess. Not bright, not too blue & not too yellow, just relaxed & relaxing.

    I found this combination in a teahouse. I found that whenever I visited there, I felt very relaxed & calm. The company (I got to know the owners well), tea & cheesecake were great, but the color on the walls gave me such a sense of quiet peace. It really surprised me as I had never experienced that from a color before. That's what I want in my own kitchen & as house siding. It's quietly natural and doesn't scream, look at me!

    Maybe that would be a color to explore?

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Monek Marie We haven't had a problem with dirt around the cabinet handles. We did have some of the paint wear off due to usage but that was after many years. I should have repainted them years ago. We do have to wipe them down often because white shows spills and splashes easily, but then you probably do that anyway.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @kbmbillups1 @Monek Marie I have the constant & frustrating dirt around knobs & handles issue, but I think that comes with kidseven if you ate constantly after them to wash their hands. It doesn't help that the paint used by the person painting used a product that isn't easily washable. Keep that in mind.

    I look forward to the day when all of the kids are grown & I can have a few more cleaner & tidier spaces!

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,391 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning Don't wish the time away. It goes by so fast on its own!

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    I have several such projects which rely on getting something else done.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We had the dirt and (mechanic grease when the guys where here. I still remember trying to keep up with it. I will check on a more cooperative paint and was even thinking of something else by the door knobs or handles - but not sure what.

    @LaurieLovesLearning I am going to go with a green. I have a grey lined up for the living room and I think I can hook the two rooms and colors together giving a better flow to the house. Thanks for the color suggestion

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @marjstratton All my projects I need to have something else done before. It slows the process down immensely

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2022

    @Monek Marie "It was a small easy project."

    My immediate reaction when reading this was, "Uh oh. Famous last words!"

    I guess I've been through enough of those "small" projects to know what to expect now. 😉

    When I bought a freezer a few years ago, I almost bought one too wide to fit through the doorway into the room where I wanted to put it. Fortunately I thought to measure the doorway and compare it with the freezer dimensions. So we ended up buying a smaller chest freezer instead of the large upright originally planned, and it has worked out well.

    Though there are times that I wish I had a second freezer. Like right now.

  • nicksamanda11
    nicksamanda11 Posts: 755 ✭✭✭✭

    I would not trade clean cabinets for my kids being gone😭. That's just me though.

    I am about to paint cabinets at a new place and this thread was a good reminder that I need to plan longer for projects and that way if they get finished sooner then good for me!