I'm back with part two of our little weekend projects. If you remember from this post, we added new-to-us appliances in the form of a washer & dryer. I'm glad to report that the vinegar trick worked! The websites had suggested to add 2 cups of vinegar to an empty load and set it on the hottest possible setting. Well, call me overly cautious, but I tossed in closer to 3 cups of vinegar. And although the ring on the top of the tub didn't disappear, the wash made it much easier to wipe it away.
So, onto our other changes. If you remember during the tour of the apartment, our master bathroom is a little on the small side. Here's a picture to jog your memory:
It's really hard to see from this angle, but the door that leads into the bathroom is on the right side of the picture. When you stand at the sink, if the door is open, the door is literally in your backside. If you need to get past the person brushing their teeth to get to the linen closet, you have to shut the door completely, or do a really awkward shuffle past one another. We've only lived here for a little over a week now, but it was already getting on our nerves. So, with the blessing of the complex, the bathroom got a little face lift.
Yep, we took down the door and hung up a curtain instead. And we are absolutely loving the change! Although it doesn't exactly offer sound privacy, it still offers privacy in the sense that you can't see anything through the curtain. Even if the light is on in only one room, you can't see what's going on. And as for the lack of sound privacy, neither one of us really notice it. First of all, rarely are we within earshot of the one another when relieving oneself. And secondly, I relate it to being similar to a public bathroom stall - you can't see anything, but you're probably going to hear everything. (Sorry if this conversation is grossing people out.) Now, I don't have play-by-play photos of the process when it comes to the bathroom door, but this wasn't the only door that was taken down.
Yep, the laundry room lost its door as well. The reason for removing this door was that every time it was open, it blocked our kitchen pantry (pictured on the left). Also, the cat food bowls are on the floor between the fridge and laundry room, and they were constantly in danger of being bumped by the door. So here's how it all went down:
1. Grab a screwdriver and hammer. Place the screwdriver at the bottom of the pin, and tapping lightly with the hammer, knock it out of place. Once all three pins have been removed, carefully remove the door off of the hinges.
2. Using the screwdriver, remove the screws that attach the hinges to the door frame.
3. Place all of the screws and hinges in a safe place. Even though we got the okay from the complex to remove the doors, it was with the stipulation that we would put them back up before we moved. So, we put all of the screws & hinges into little ziploc bags and labeled each one. Then we placed them into our tool box for safe keeping.
4. At this point, the "hard" stuff is over. All you need is a tension rod (we got these at Target for like $2 a piece) and a curtain (the blue curtain in the master bath was a gift from a friend, and the brown one is from Target and was $15).
5. And this one is a toughy...are you sure you're ready for this?? Hang up the tension rod & curtain.
I think the total time for this little makeover was 15 minutes. And the total cost was $19. Not bad considering we're trying to spend as little money as possible. But honestly, these changes have made things so much easier for us. I do feel like I should mention the whole "sound" privacy thing also applies to the laundry room. When the washer & dryer are running, its definitely on the loud side.
Oh, and the makeover isn't completely over. We still have these to fix:
Yep, there are these lovelies leftover from the hinge removal. Obviously we can't fill the holes, but the plan is to get some cheap white paint and paint over them. And the complex will never know the difference (unless they read this one day) because the hinges will be covering them once the doors are put back on. Besides, I'd argue that its an update, not something that takes away from the apartment.
So that was our quick & cheap makeover. Did you have any projects this weekend? Or did you simply spend time with family? Anyone have any recommendations for hemming the curtains? I don't know how to sew, and I don't own a sewing machine. I've considered hemming tape, but I have not used it before - would it be appropriate for this job?
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