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You are here: Home / Renovations / A Tour of Unfinished Projects

A Tour of Unfinished Projects

May 20, 2016 by SmartGirl 6 Comments

I finally feel like I can come up for air.  Don’t get me wrong, my life is still a hot mess, but a little bit less so.  First of all, we finally have running water in our kitchen.  Finally!  I can’t even remember when we took the sink out, but we definitely didn’t have a kitchen sink in June.  Last June that is.  So let’s just guess we went about 11 months without a sink.  Dude it was rough.  We even have a dishwasher again!  That was one of the first things I took out, so we haven’t had one for well over a year.  Crazy!

The other reason I actually have time to sit down and write (not to mention paint kitchen cabinets) is that my son, G, is back in school.  It’s was nearly 3 months he was home with me.  During that time, I always thought he’d be going back to school “soon” so we never did any real homeschooling.  It was also a mess.  We did pack our lunch everyday (that was warm enough) and went out and tried a bunch of new parks.  I seriously don’t know how women homeschool and get anything else done.  And my other two kids were in school everyday!  I missed him now that he’s back in school, but I know he is so excited to hang out with his friends again.

I have big plans to blog more and update all you nice readers on my kitchen renovation now that I (theoretically) have more time on my hands.  But I was talking to a friend the other day something became clear to me… I have two main types of DIY projects:

  1. Projects I have not finished
  2. Projects I’ve finished, but never finished writing about

No really, I’m pretty sure the only project that is completely finished and documented is the laundry room, but even that has gone through a few “updates” since it was officially finished.  You can see the final reveal here.Smart Girls DIY - Launry room makeover - From demo to done!

The conversation began because my friend Julia asked if she could come over to see my staircase.  She’s thinking about ripping the carpet off her stairs and remembered that I had torn the carpet off mine.  But, gee, she couldn’t seem to find any pictures of the complete project on the blog.  Yeah, because I never finished writing about it from 3 years ago.  What is wrong with me!?

You can, however, catch a glimpse of the finished staircase makeover in the posts I wrote about the upstairs hallway, because it’s attached to the staircase.  It took me forever to install the hardwood up there, but it is, in fact, finished.

Portfolio with an id of "stairway_hall_renovatoions_post" is not defined.

Oh and after you check out the board and batten posts from the downstairs hallway, just know that I already tore most of it off the walls because I didn’t like the MDF I used.  I’m going to replace it (one of these days) with wood and make it a little higher on the wall, just like I did upstairs.  But wait, I never wrote about the upstairs board and batten.  Sigh!

Not only did I not like the height of the downstairs board and batten, or the MDF, I also decided to move one of the doors in the hallway over 6 inches.  What a mess!  It was the pocket door into the bathroom, which turned out great, except I never put a lock on the door.   Nobody seems to mind, so it dropped way down on the priority list.  Today I was looking at the door and thinking I should just put a hook and eye on the inside and not worry about installing a pocket door lock.  I should probably also do something about the hole left from the old door knob.  Sigh!

The bathroom will be my pride and joy when I finally finish it.  It is so damn close!  All that’s left is to finish grouting the shower walls, install a new exhaust fan, paint the ceiling, install the plumbing fixtures and shower door.  It really isn’t that much.  But work halted in December as I switched (back) to working on the kitchen.  And we’ll just pretend that I didn’t completely gut my guest bathroom while undergoing a complete kitchen overhaul.

Guest room shower doors - Before

Guest Bathroom 1: Bye Bye Shower Doors

Guest Bathroom 3: Shower Demo a One-Woman Job

Guest Bathroom 4: Plumbing and Shower Fixtures

Guest Bathroom 5: Design Decisions and Cost Breakdown

Guest Bathroom 6: How to Install a Pocket Door (Johnson Hardware 1510 Series)

Guest Bathroom 7: DIY Hex Tile Floor

How to Patch a Drywall Hole – Quick Tip Tuesday

How to build a custom shower pan - get supplies, build the wall and curb

DIY Custom Shower 1: Supplies, Walls, Curb

How to build a custom shower pan - Smart Girls DIY

DIY Custom Shower 2: How to Build a Shower Pan

How to build a custom shower with schluter kerdi waterproofing system

DIY Custom Shower 3: Installing Schluter Kerdi

Guest Bathroom 8: Planked Walls

Add Personality with Decoupage

Bathroom Storage Ladder – One Board Challenge

Speaking of showers, here’s another one from category 1 – things I never finished…

My outdoor shower stalled because I can’t decide if I should turn it into a stage for the kids to perform on, or go ahead with a shower.  Unfortunately that’s not a joke, just how my brain works.4 post set in concrete for new outdoor shower

There’s also the swing set, which is pretty much finished, so maybe that’s more category 2.  Dude, I think I actually completed everything on the list below!  Smart Girls Swing Set Plan

The best project I’ve finished and never written about is the surf shack bed.  I alluded to it, in this popular post, but never showed you the actual project, when it fact it’s been finished for years.Smart Girls DIY Loft Bed

Maybe the issue is that a lot of projects are kind of between 1 & 2, almost completely finished, but not, so I don’t feel I should write about them yet.  My fireplace is a great example!  It has gone from this…Family room in need of renovation

To this… But I think it needs corbels, maybe.  So I haven’t been able to call it finished.  It also needs a cleaning!Ardex Feather Finish over brick fireplace

There are tons of other posts about the family room, just no final reveal shots, because dude, it’s never going to be completely finished!!!

Brick fireplace wall gone

It’s Ladies Night and the Demo Is Right (Family Room 1)

I sledge hammered the wall

Family Room Can of Worms (Family Room 2)

We hired an electrician to put in recessed lights

Family Room Gets Wired Up (Family Room 3)

Making Progress on the Family Room (Family Room 4)

Family Room Mood Board

Design Choices for Family Room (Family Room 5)

Buying out IKEA Philladelphia this weekend

It Was a Family Effort This Weekend (Family Room 6)

Family room bookshelves - Copy

Built-In Bookcase and Why It’s Not Finished (Family Room 7)

Ikea BESTA made to look built in

DIY Built-in Bookshelves Using Ikea BESTA (Family Room 8)

Lego Coffee table was perfect for our LEGO Christmas

New Year — New Lego Coffee Table

Tiling family room -- using self-leveler

I Always Wanted to Try Self-Leveler (Family Room 9)

How To Tile a Herringbone Floor (Family Room 10)

Grouting a Herringbone Tile Floor (Family Room 11)

New and Improved Step Down to Family Room

Under Couch Lego Storage Drawer

Pulling It Together For Christmas

 

Oh that just reminded me of the office built-ins… totally finished, but I never showed the big reveal.  Probably because that means I’d have to clean the office and style the bookshelves and ain’t nobody got time for that!

Office Door Redo

Office 1: Window Seat Day Bed

Office 2: Built-in Bookshelves

Office 4: Progress on the Built-in

Office 5: Built-ins Are Almost Finished

 

Ah, and then there’s the kitchen…  I thought I learned my lesson about  showing you the steps of a project and not showing you the final product.  So I decided to wait until I was finished the kitchen (bahahaha) to write all the posts.  Um, not sure that system works either.  But never fear, I am going to start writing the kitchen posts now and I figure I will be caught up with the writing about the same time I’m finished with the work.  Or something like that.  Duh, of course I could have written the posts as I was actually completing the projects and just waited to hit publish, but we all know that just wasn’t going to happen!

Kitchen Dilemmas

Kitchen Demo – Round 1

Don’t Try To Renovate Your Kitchen Over Christmas

How to Update Recessed Lighting to LED

Kitchen Demo – Round 2

Installing Pella French-Door-Style Patio Doors

Installing Hardwood Flooring in the Kitchen

Sneak Peek: Almost Finished Kitchen

Designing My Kitchen Layout and Selecting Cabinets

Ordering Barker Cabinets – part 1

Ordering Barker Cabinets – part 2

Designing a Pantry Wall with Barker Cabinets

How to Build a Pantry Wall with Barker Cabinets

Hide the HVAC with kitchen cabinets and say goodbye to your soffit

How to Customize Kitchen Cabinets to Hide the HVAC

Barket Cabients -- issues with the wall oven

Adding Support to Barker Cabinets so They Will Hold a Wall Oven

Barket Cabients -- painting doors and drawer fronts

Painting Barker Cabinet Doors

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you may have caught a few sneak peeks of the kitchen, like this one.  For now that’s all you’ll get.  😉Smart Girls DIY Teal Kitchen Cabinets

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Filed Under: A Day in My Life, Renovations, Roundups Tagged With: to do

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Erik Brenner says

    May 22, 2016 at 1:06 pm

    I can’t wait for the finished projects, that’s for sure..

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      June 1, 2016 at 10:32 pm

      Thanks! I’ve just started catching up on the kitchen posts. Hopefully they keep flowing.

      Reply
  2. john o says

    May 31, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    I think unfinished projects are what I’m good at. For example I found your site when I started my stair case project last July. I am only half way done. Since then I have started about a dozen more. A bathroom that is 80 percent done, landscaping about 50 percent done. I finally got around to working on the barn, replacing siding and at least drawing up plans to replace and repair some post. Not easy for a 100 year old bank barn. I have only replace half of the 40 plus windows in the house. I need to paint steel roof and replace gutters. However my wife would be happy if I finished things like door trims, window trims, stair case, two bedrooms had tore out etc. But of course I just add new projects like the turkey coop I need to build to get them out of the basement.

    Your projects finished or not have given me several ideas. But don’t feel alone because I start many just to stop and start another that maybe I will finish one day.

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      June 1, 2016 at 11:34 am

      Thanks John for taking the time to leave a comment! It is so nice to hear that I am not the only one with DIY ADD. Hahaha

      Reply
  3. Morgan says

    June 1, 2016 at 4:46 pm

    Everything seems like it’s starting to come together well! I can definitely tell you’ve made a lot of progress. Your laundry room looks awesome! Keep up the hard work, and the finished products will be amazing! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      June 1, 2016 at 10:07 pm

      Thanks Morgan!

      Reply

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