March | 2014 | Operation Home

Why yes, this post IS as exciting as it sounds. 😉

Ya see, I’m a details person. I like details. I think details make the room. But, there’s one detail in particular that’s driven me batty since day one….

Can you spot it? (Hint: it’s in the title of this post.)

That’s right. This ugly, cheap-looking, beige, hideous excuse for a toilet handle that tries to match our biscuit toilet, but doesn’t quite pull it off. Poser. Ihateyou.

The other day, I decided that I’d finally had enough. He needed to go. Far away. Like, really far.

I broke the news to Joey that I needed to embark on this all-important-project, to which I received a slightly confused look, a nod, and an “mmmkay.”. Over the years, the poor guy has pretty much decided to simply agree with my weirdly-placed passions and let me do my thing (bless him). Don’t get me wrong, Joey definitely gets stuff done in the DIY department. He just doesn’t waste a lot of time despising something as minor as a functioning (albeit, fugly) toilet lever. …That’s my job. 😉

So, fueled by my hatred, I climbed into the car and headed to the Home Depot, where I picked up this guy for just under nine bucks…

When I got home, I walked into the bathroom, gave our pasty toilet handle one last dirty look, and got started. The process was pretty straight-forward and easily explained in the instructions on the back of the package. I began by removing the tank lid….

I disconnected the chain pin….

Loosened the nut that secured the handle to the tank….

And removed the handle….

Then, I simply inserted the new handle through the hole and pressed it in firmly until I had a nice, snug fit….

Then, I secured the nut using a wrench being sure to not over-tighten (there should be a little jiggle)….

I reconnected the chain pin in the same location as in the previous handle…

…replaced my lid and BAM….

Doesn’t he look like he’s smiling now?

Makes such a positive difference. For 9 bucks and about 10 minutes of installation time, I’d say I’m a happy camper.

So, do any of y’all have things like this? Little, tiny, minor details that drive you crazy? Or is that just me and my craziness?

P.S. I’m writing our bathroom reveal post now. The room is D.O.N.E. Yippee!!

So, while we get the guest bath completely wrapped up (the faucet part still hasn’t arrived. Two-day shipping, my foot, is all I have to say.), I’ve moved onto planning my next ~~victim~~ project… Ever since posting our house tour page, I’ve been absolutely, positively itching to tackle our foyer. It currently looks like this…

Our foyer houses leftovers from our last home which looked great there, but no longer fit our style preferences. With the mahogany-toned floors the collection really makes the foyer seem dark and disjointed.

These cabinets were the end units of our media cabinet of yore…

I just squished them together and called it a day. I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to replace them with something with more character. And I would. But I’m tired of waiting for the perfect piece to enter my life. So, I’ve decided that I’m gonna try my hand at tweaking these guys to make them suit our current style a bit more. My thoughts are:

1. Refinish them with glossy white paint

2. Remove the rice paper glass film and replace it with a bold fabric, like the one that I used for our new shower curtains….

3. Replace the stainless knobs with some sort of oil-rubbed bronze handles. Maybe something like these or these.

4. Remove the baskets beneath the units to make them feel less heavy.

Then, I definitely want to address the art over top…

This guy was a Ross find years ago, and again… although, he’s nice, he’s not really my style anymore. So, I have two thoughts. First, spray paint him a bold color (or maybe brass?). Second, send him off to greener pastures and replace him with something bold and modern (Like a large colorful marquee-like letter or some sort of bold, colorful painting). I’ve also considered painting thick, white stripes on this wall behind the units. The result would be subtle because our Dolphin Fin grey paint is so light and soft, but it would definitely add oodles of interest. For some reason, this thought has always been on my mind for this space. Maybe I should just go with it.

Next, this rug…

First, it’s seen better days as one of the corners is unraveling. Second, this is probably my longest-retained piece of decor. I purchased it over 8 years ago for my first non-college apartment. Like the other items in this foyer, it’s not really jiving with the style or color palette of the rest of the house. I really, really want to replace it with a round jute rug that would be centered under the light fixture. I always see rugs like that at Homegoods and Marshalls, but go figure… they’re nowhere to be found for me right now since I’m actually looking for one. Hopefully, soon.

Speaking of the light fixture….

It’s nice and it came with the house, but alas, a boob-light is still a boob-light. I would love an oil-rubbed-bronze lantern-type fixture to replace it. Or maybe a capiz pendant of some sort.

On this wall…

I’m liking the leaning mirror, but think it would be more practical to have a small mudroom-ish area to sit and remove shoes, hang coats, etc. I’ve mentioned this before, but still haven’t officially decided how I want to do it. We’ll see what comes of that since, down the line, we’d like to add tall horizontally-planked wainscoting to all of the foyer walls. On which I’d like to mount hooks and stuff for said mudroom. I’m just not sure when we’ll get that done, so I don’t want to guarantee it as a “will be done soon” sort of project. But it’s on the agenda eventually.

So, that’s what I’ve cooked up so far. Anybody have any ideas to contribute?