Dusty, Old, Beasts...

In the midst of several LARGE projects going on at our house, I've been doing a few small ones, too.  We have two Hampton Bay outdoor fans on our patio.  They were there when we moved in, and though they are relatively new, the former owners painted the fan blades with this AWFUL stain.  This stain was also in our kitchen (ICK!) which we have since painted over.  I'll post about that soon.

Since Todd & I are a one income family we try to do as much of fixing up "this old house" on our own.  We live a true DIY life-style.  If we can't DIourselfs... it's probably going to wait a few years.  But, sometimes things just need a little love and elbow grease to really shine.  So, when I looked at these sad, dirty, but in good working order fans I felt compelled to breathe new life into them.  And, these things needed CPR. 

How Long Could YOU Look at That?!

 I kept walking outside seeing these dusty, old, beasts... and I'd yell to Todd, "I'm about to paint these things!!!"  He would always smile and say "Ok, honey", looking up from being knee deep in ANOTHER amazing project that he's completing.  BAHHHH, he's so good at everything... I'd be jealous of his skills if I wasn't married to him.  Anyways, a few weeks back Simone crashed hard into her morning nap... and I knew EXACTLY how I was going to use the time.

So first I unscrewed the globe cover for the lights.  I really don't want to tell you how nasty those were.  They were a death trap for generations of bugs.  And, the dust...oh, the dust.  Living next to the mountain is beautiful, but boy is it dust-tay!  I unscrewed all of the fan blades, too.  I rinsed everything off, and dried each piece.  We had left over white paint from painting Simone's bedroom, so I decided to use that on the fan blades.  

After painting all of the blades I was pretty proud of myself.  Simone was still sleeping, so I decided I wanted to try and spruce up the fan-blade-attachment-thingies (technical term).  After rummaging through the garage, I remembered I bought teal spray paint for another project.  Since my more color conservative better half was at work... I got to spraying.  Todd fully admits if I told him the color idea BEFORE he probably would have given me "the face".  

They looked pretty good after the first coat (above), but the second coat (below) really brought it together.  While waiting for everything to dry, I even got inspired to do something else on the patio...

Once it was all dry I got to screwing everything in.  I'll admit... I couldn't get it all done with the morning nap.  I had to do this in the afternoon after Simone & I had lunch, played peak-a-boo, silly mommy faces, & reading her favorite book four times. 

Here's the finished product!  It feels so much better.  I think it's a little hard to tell how big of an improvement it is... but it sure made me feel better.

As I mentioned I was inspired to update another part of our patio while this was going on.  Again, the previous owners of our house clearly weren't the sharpest number two pencils in the box.  They painted around the french doors with wood stain that looks heinous, AND they painted the beautiful french doors tan.  So the tan paint is chipping off... we have plans to strip it off eventually, or just give in and buy new french doors...probably the former. 

Anyways... french doors...looking gross.  I had added the white flowers a while back.  They actually were on a string of lights that died, so I popped out the bulbs and hung up the flowers.  Really just couldn't get myself to throw those cute little flowers.  So here's what it looked like when Simone woke up... can you see her in her bouncer?

I painted the trim with the same white paint I used on the fans.  But, my favorite part was how CUTE the flowers looked when I sprayed them with the teal spray paint.  I LOVE IT.

Here's a backed up view of the doors.

And a view of both fans...

Little improvements never hurt, and they sure make you feel better about the look of your home.  I used to be one of those people that would say, screw it, if I couldn't replace something with a brand new version.  Having a budget and a house in a constant state of renewal sure have changed me in that way.  

Stay tuned...I'll have many more DIY posts to come!

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