Renovation Odds and Ends

Perhaps this post should be titled "Renovation Loose Ends," because I'm at it right now.

After my week of getting things done on my "Little List," I'm at a stopping point, pondering what to do next.

I've cleaned up an entire chunk of the front yard garden, and I'm only awaiting good light to photograph it so I can blog about it. We're currently going through a swelter of hot weather, and all the sun does is glare, glare, glare down all day--not so good for catching a garden in its best light. I'm hoping you'll see the progress, though I have a long way to go yet!

One of the things I did that week to cross stuff off my list was backtracking on a poorly done paint job in my bedroom. Now I'm sidetracking on another concern-- electricity. There's a couple of outlets that no longer sit flush with the wall because of the drywall sheathing, and another one that, well, here, take a look:

A: What is that hole on the upper right? Does this freak you out as much as it does me?
B: Bottom right switch goes to....nothing I can discern.
C: Left switch is supposed to operate the light at the end of the room, which it does...about 50 percent of the time, meaning there's a short somewhere.

I'm also without light in the closet:

Both the socket and the pull string broke out of the ceramic fixture in the closet. The fixture either needs rewiring or replacing. Again, I'm not qualified, and a little freaked out.

I decided that before any more painting or surface finishing could go on, I needed to call an electrician. Honestly, I've got a list of about 3 dozen small items like this all over the house. I need to do the safe and right thing before I can get on with the fun stuff.

After blogging....okay, after whining... about the state of my main floor bathroom and finally getting some functional floor in there, I've decided to get proactive instead of just gritting my teeth and bearing it until I can afford the big remodel. I'm going to paint, and see about getting a different sink/faucet set up, and new light fixture.

                                                                     Source: sherwin-williams.com via Laura on Pinterest

The aqua paint color can stand in for the aqua tile I hope for some day, and getting rid of the "airport landing strip" lighting will improve the atmosphere too.

I also stopped into a flooring store today. I was feeling bold and spendy and thought, "if progress doing it yourself is at a stand still, get a hire-it-done job started." Alas, my heart got set on the wrong thing. Pam over on Retro Renovation had a couple of years ago mentioned a 70s style flooring from Tarkett that would have been perfect for my 70s style kitchen cabinets. Tarkett called it Antonia Spanish Tile and it looked like this:

Image source and link: Tarkett online catalog

I loved it in the taupe brown. But it's been discontinued in both colors. Too bad. Now I'm back to the drawing board picking something out, so no progress there either.

A trip to Georgia to visit my sister is coming soon. I'm going to take that time to regroup, make a few more decisions, make a new list, and schedule some more work. Psychiatric advice from readers also welcome!