That is a very functional sink, Consolation!
Today I painted the trim on the front of House1. Bright white - looks very nice. Mr B sanded the garden arbor and fence. That is my next painting project.
My sink is an 8 foot professional grade stainless steel sink with integrated backsplash and two drains. ($45 at Habitat for humanity on 50% clearance). It spent a week or so in a hospital or surgical center before it was deemed to have too much splashback for the surgeonsā¦ or something like that. The drainer just goes right in the sink to one side. Now, I wish I had installed a disposal at the time. To do it now would involve a plumber and an electrician working in tandem. Not worth it unti the dishwasher dies and I have to pull it out to replace itā¦
@anxiousmom , now I have sink envy! 
But actually, even I donāt need that much sink, especially that I no longer have the chocolate business.
8 foot?!
Ok, hereās a frivolous one, but Iām going with it. 20 years of living in this house, and I canāt stand the stair railing. The staircase has a landing and 90 degree turn in the middle, so the railing in question is just for the bottom 7 stairs. Itās just ok, but would never pass code today. Attach points are at the wall at the top, and on the bottom stair. Metal railing along the top and along the bottom edge, with some scrollwork in between. Gaps in the scrollwork are just the right size to trap a toddler head and lead to disaster. New code says balusters canāt be more than 4 inches apart to prevent problems like that.
New design is whatever I want it to be per the stair artist tool on this page.
http://houseofforgings.net/
WARNING: If you have a stairway, do not open this tool until you are sure you want to replace the banister and balusters. The choices available are just way to cool, and you canāt unsee them.
Yummm
Thanks for the link for stair ballusters. Iām going to keep that for a future project that needs new stair railings
Nice! But I am not replacing the rails and balusters. They are the only thing in House2 that is absolutely fantastic. Metal frames with glass inserts - very modernistic. Love that look!
The number of potential home improvement projects I have is infinite. But here are the major ones that I think I canāpossiblyāaccomplish without hiring someone.
The plaster walls in the kitchen have deteriorated badly since I painted, subtly glazed, and stenciled them about 20 years ago. The surface coat of the plaster is chipping and peeling away in places. Some of this is residual damage from removal of the wallpaper that was on them when we moved in. Some of it is residual damage from removal of a chair rail before they papered it, and so on. The walls really need to have all of the loose stuff scraped off, holes and cracks patched with tape, and finally the whole thing skim coated. I would love to hire someone who is really good at this stuff, but they are hard to find. I am NOT going to have drywall installed over it. It is okay with me if the walls arenāt perfectly smooth, but what I have right now is just too much. A major part of the reason I went the glazing and stenciling route was to de-emphasize the flaws. I still like the stencilingāit isnāt twee or faux colonial, it is a hand placement of rather cool little trees about 18 in apart in all directions. But I donāt want to do it again, and I think Iām ready for a solid color.
Does anyone have any experience with the so-called āorange peelā surface coat that they spray on?
I really, really want to redo the whole kitchen, but thatās not happening, and I canāt put it off any longer.
There are a couple of other rooms where the plaster needs fixing in a conspicuous spot. I can fix it, but then Iāll probably have to repaint at the very least the entire wall, due to change in paint color over time.
All of the doors and trim on the first floor, at least, need to be repainted. I tried stripping a door last summer, but it was just impossible to get it to the point where I could re-stain and varnish it to its original glory. Weāre talking solid oak 5-panel enormous doors with detailed trim around the panels.
Please, people, DONāT paint historic woodwork that is not painted already! The upkeep is hellish. If one of the earlier owners had not committed this crime, the woodwork would never need painting, ever. Just the occasional scratch mark treatment. Now we have cracking and peeling paint that simply cannot be smoothed out. (Leaving aside the advisability of sanding lead-based paintā¦) And every coat obscures the detail of the trim. Again, I have held out as long as I could, but it has to be done. Did I mention that they painted everything with high gloss oil-based paint?
I loathe my kitchen floor with every fiber of my being, but I have not replaced it because I want to change the layout of the kitchen. I think I may bit the bullet and try to cover the godawful sheet vinyl with something inexpensive that can at least be cleaned. Perhaps something that will tone down the horrible cabinets, which are that awful yellow oak or maple. Argh.
āDoes anyone have any experience with the so-called āorange peelā surface coat that they spray on?ā
That is apparently on the way out. Folks demand smooth walls in new construction. Some even redo orange peel in their existing homes. It is actually not that hard to do, but as any drywall work, it is messy!
You might want to look into LVT - āluxury vinyl tileā for the kitchen. Easy to install, as I understand.
Iāve never found a paint stripper that works effectively and consistently on wood, so use a heat gun and a 5-in-one and/or sand with my mouse. And the dental tools. Luckily, we got a good base prep on all but a few doors. Another summer project is to redo the spindles on the stair rail. (Between DH snd some crappy guy he hired, all those years ago, it looks awful.) I need a Dremel.
Where the original stain is still on some doors, itās aged to an unattractive Coke syrup color. Itās not really pretty. But youāre right, the original finish is fine.
Orange Peel is not a texture you should put on your beautiful plaster walls. But, I just skim coat plaster walls with a bit of drywall mud just to smooth out their texture. Iām guessing it works pretty good because noone has ever complained that the skim coat is falling off. That would be one way to fill in the cracks and bad texture.
After doing some research, we have decided that we want to install hardwood flooring upstairs. We have no pets. My husband will install it himself.
Do you have brand recommendations? What to stay away from? The Internet is a black hole of reviews.
Have you watch U Tube videos?
We have very texturized walls and are considering having them made smooth during upcoming work thatās being done. Itās expensive and messy and we were told we might want to move out for 2 weeks 
We also may want to upgrade the railing on our stairs so, thank you, @MomofJandL. Will definitely check out that tool you linked.
Tomorrow the plumber comes to run the gas line for the new gas fireplace insert. Next week the new mantle is installed and the tiling gets done. Hopefully, within about 2 weeks, weāll have a new fireplace wall/unit that is beautiful!
Is there any indication that buyers have to still have bathtubs? The jack and jill has a leak and should there be an issue that requires significant work, I don't want a tub. my teen/college kid share it and the leak may just be behavioural LOL. The enormous master has a huge garden tub that I would also love to get rid of. There is a tub in the bathroom in the basement. This Is very much a family home, median budget for the area, 6 bedrooms because it is mormonia . The family that would buy it would probably be on a budget and have a hoard of kids. I am not sure that we would live here for much longer but it may be 3-4 yrs. Procrastination is a problem.
@Sybylla, if you think your target buyer will have young kids, then yes I think you need a functioning tub on the bedroom level. If you asked me if I thought you could do away with tub in master bath, Iād say absolute.
Agree with @1214mom. When I redid the bathrooms, I did not put a tub in the master but kept a tub in the hall bath. Have since built a full bath in the basement with a tub, but as @1214mom says, the tub needs to be on the bedroom level.
OK, well, the master tub can go then. I will have so much room in the bathroom LOL.
i LOVE a good tub. But that is an old-fashioned deep claw-foot tub or other tub that enables me to achieve a deep soak. I donāt care about Jaccuzzi stuff.
I had one of those monstrous corner garden tubs, in a very large bathroom. Nothing but a dust magnet. Our water heater wouldnāt begin to fill it. Ripped it out 4 years ago and the only time I regret it is when I have something big to wash in the winter and canāt wash it outside with the hose. So happy to get rid of that thing!
I do have an antique claw foot tub in the upstairs bath. No one has used it in 20 years either, but Iām leaving it in because a) itās heavy! and b) so we have at least one tub for resale.