A Little Home Improvement

Did you all know that I'm married to Nate "The Tool Man" Myers?  Well if you didn't, you do now.

And by the way, wasn't Home Improvement an awesome show.  Oh Jonathan Taylor Thomas.  Be still my heart.

Since we've been living in our home (over 4 years now, holy cow!) we've made small improvements and renovations here and there.  You might recall the installation of the floors.  We've painted, we've hung things on the walls, and so on.  Really, we've done more improvements to the landscaping than we have indoors.

But that's all changing.

I was visiting a blog last week and saw this mantel project.  I instantly loved it.  So I forwarded the link to The Tool Man and he loved it too.

Our mantel is (was) boring.  There was nothing to it.  Just your typical builder grade mantel.  Nothing special.  Nothing flashy.  And folks, this may surprise you, but I like flashy.

And here's what's so awesome about my husband.  He loves a challenge.  He loves a project.  This project involved math and measuring.  An engineer's dream.

So off to Menards we went.  The best thing about this project is that it was low cost.  We bought a couple of boards, a can of paint, and some paint brushes.  Done.

By the way, while in Menards my contact ripped.  In half.  Rendering me blind in one eye.

And we hadn't been to the grocery store yet.

Beautiful.

Anyways, we got home and out came the saw and the tape measure. 

And the torn contact.

That day his Dad and Susie came to visit.  Jim did a great job of teaching my wonderful hubby how to do things himself.  He fixes things, he uses manly tool words that I don't understand, and we've saved a ton of money thanks to what he learned while growing up.

Thanks Jim!

That being said, those two crack me up.  They got the boards up.  Nate made it look a little too simple.

But then, it was time to apply the paint.

And out came the low blows.

Nate went first, applying the first coat.  Jim sat on the sofa, exclaiming that watching Nate apply paint was like watching said paint dry.

So Nate passed over the baton.

Er, uh, paint brush.

It was Jim's turn.  He proudly boasted that he would finish the second coat in ten minutes.

His adoring son sat on the couch with a stop watch.

I'm not quite sure what the final time was, but I know that it was over ten minute.  Poor Jim got a razzing like you've never heard.

Anyways, after a quick caulk job on Sunday and a final coat of paint we finally have a finished mantel!

Right now we're trying to determine what to put on it.  I've had suggestions of mirrors, clocks, family initials. Or the possibility of leaving it "as is."  But I can't decide. 

So, I'm putting it out there to you.  What do you think, friends?