Step By Step, Oooh Baby.

(Gonna get to ya girl).

I liked Donnie the best. Let the record show.

Anywho, I would love to be that totally awesome girlfriend who shows off this massive room remodel--

(prior to move-in shot)
but that's not me. Waaaaaay too many ants in the pants to not show every step of the way.

Plus, this is gonna take me a while- a month, maybe. Maybe a year. An eon. Who can say? See, I'm trying to keep thee ole work habits down to when the baby girl naps and bedtime. That's not all that conducive to a quickly done project, am I right?

Right.

Moving forward. May I show you what I've been hard at work on? The 1st step of this massive master bedroom re-no?

Thank you, you're so kind.

Step 1. (We can have lots of fun.)

Let me refresh your memory.

Are you feeling refreshed? Goody. The built-ins to flank my windowseat:

I wanted them more than I want a raspberry filled donut. I wanted them more than I wanted Pam & Jim to get together. And that's a lot.

I had two spots of wall for some little built-ins. They're not equal in size, but you work with what you've got, don'tcha?



(Hey, look! I picked A pillow! At this rate I'll definitely have it all decked out by 2022.)

Now, let me show you somethin'! (Fire Marshall Bill)

I made these as simple as possible. Ripped a 4x8 sheet of melamine, and made boxes out of the strips to the size of my little nooks:


Like so.

And with some intensive work, they'll be ready for the world's finest trailer park.

They needed extensive molding. Picked out some scraps from my scrap pile. Because, you know, I hardly have anything at all:

That's, oh, about 60% of it.

And I began trimming these bad boys out:

Oh my gosh! I actually used baseboard as the base, and crown molding for. . .crown molding!

I wanna tell you something. In theory, this should have been fairly simple. So how did I complicate the H out of it?

There are few times I've been this discouraged with my incompetence. We're talking, drilling in screws right out of the wood. Over, and over, and over. We're talking, heading down to Severus to make a corrective cut, not once, not twice, but thrice. I'm not gonna point out all the flaws and massive mistakes and the general tweaking that still need be done; makes me feel like I'm the fish being shot in the barrel.


Let's just keep it at this: while I do love my new built-ins, (someone come stage/decorate them for me) I'm wallowing in incompetent self-pity, and while I'm at it, a Leatherby's Gramma Grace's Sundae with extra caramel, alltomyself.

But moving on from this pathetic pity party.


I used scrap plywood for my doors-- just trimmed them out with the general wainscoting theme of the room. I adore the little hinges I used; they're lovely.

It's the little things.



Used those magnetic hardware thingys-- you know what I'm talking about? You push in, and it holds your cabinet back, push twice, and it releases?

Best explanation you've ever heard, I know.

No project is fully complete without a before and after.

Before:


After:


I'm getting there. One discouraging project and gallon of ice cream at a time.