It's the little things. They add up!

You guessed, it's been a day of little things.  But, they do add up as I now have a smattering of X's instead of words on my list.  Plus, as a bonus, I did a few extra things not on my actual list, but on that secret mental list.

Feels good, I tell ya!

After a zippy quick tour with blow-in insulation estimate company number two, a jaunt to the p a r k with a fine furried one and a whirl around the yard with the mower that finally decided to start for me again, it was time to get shakin'.

Yes, I spelled it p a r k.  Hailey is smart.  She hears what I type.  I'm not crazy.

I apologize in advance for the crummy photos.  Took 'em with the phone, phone taking poo poo photos today.  :(

So here's the highlight reel!

Task one began by putting vinyl tiles under the kitchen sink.

I've seen the idea bandied about, can't remember where exactly, but thought it was a clever one since that area always is messy trouble.  Got some black vinyl tiles for a mere $0.59 each and went to work.  Super fast; sheesh, super easy.  Done in like what, ten minutes?  Why'd it take so long to get that project wiped off my list?!  Ah ha, vinyl tile, wipe, pun.

In the end, yes, it's dark and it makes the cabinet interior even darker, but I was concerned light tiles would stain and always look dirty no matter what I did.  Yick -- if I'm gonna clean, gosh darn it, it better be clean when I'm done with it.

Next up was the guest bath faucet.  I had to remove it as my plan was to add a rubber gasket between the faucet and the sink top to stop it from sliding all over the place every time I merely glanced at it.

Faucet, doesn't stay still.

Menards had this spiffy make-your-own-gasket rubber pack.  I wasn't able to find the exact gasket I was looking for, so this was a funky option.  Turns out it worked better than anticipated.  Not only did I use it on the faucet, I was able to bonus project cut a gasket for a jar that has a glass lid.  Nifty!

After tracing the original gasket, I cut out two circles.

I wiggled the first one on and since the faucet base is not round, I trimmed up the edges with scissors.  Easy peasy gaskety goodness.

Reassemble everything, tighten it all down, and hey!  The faucet doesn't slip around!  Neat!  As an added layer of no-more-slippy-slidey-please, I used that same white Locktite adhesive that went on the access panel and did a bitty makeshift caulk job.  A few hours later, and bingo, good to go.  X!

I did tidy up the excess glue after everything set, no worries.

Since I was in there, I touched up the paint.  Another X!

Wet paint!  Woo hoo!  X!

And, since I was upstairs and had painted that last wall in the master bedroom despite not wanting to because I want to rip apart that wall and install a pocket door to the bathroom, I opted to hang one of my most precious possessions.  I don't consider all that many things as "precious possessions" because, well, things are things and they can be replaced plus we all likely have too many things.  Except these tiles can't be replaced.

There's that dresser I want to strip of paint.

Ok ok, I will admit to being sentimental about some belongings, all right.

I made these tiles when I was two years old and this assemblage hung in my grandparents' kitchen until my grandfather passed away.  I would look at it every time I visited.

I'm not sure who constructed this, I'll have to ask my mom, but every time I move this it gets personally hand packed and carried by me.  It's nice to see it again as it has been three years in packed hiding.

Last project for the day, or as of this writing anyway, was working on the area where I tore out that depressing leaning tower of handrail mess.

Waaaay old photo.

Several weeks back, I gave the affected parts a work-over with patch stuff, so today was about cleaning it up and wrapping it up.

First, the wall got a finish sanding and then ahhh, Summer Shower paint rained upon it.  Like that unfortunate hand rail never happened....

Feeling a wee bit perfectionist-ism because the flipper people did such a crap job of installing the wood here, I ended up slathering on a second goopy layer of Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty and gave it another round of sanding.  They don't kid about that rock hard characteristic.

A couple 'a coats of semi-gloss white and bam, like it never had those unsightly spindles impaling it.  X and X!

I Hate that "carpet."  Capital H hate.

Nice!  What an accomplished day, right?  Oddly, even though I did a bunch of stuff, somehow it doesn't feel like a great deal got done.  Likely because I've got that pantry floor haunting me.  Or, maybe it will never feel like enough gets done.

But.  I will say, the list looks muuuch shorter now.  Huh, wonder if I could get those kitchen cabinets painted after all.....

Oh!  Rain!  Gotta run!