cleaned up.

For the last 6 or so months, I have been pretty burnt out. I am not exactly sure why, just really tired and slow. I have been sleeping way too much.  A couple weeks ago, we had a friend over for dinner, and yup...I fell asleep sitting up on the couch at 8:30! Yikes!  It has obviously carried over to the blog and also projects around the house, work, even just emails and reading books. This is nothing to worry about and I actually think it is completely normal to go through ruts and phases....mix in the seasonal change, turning 30 and having questions about personal goals and priorities and we have also been traveling a ton - and there you have it! Nevertheless, the good news is that slowly but surely, I've been feeling re-energized and getting around to some diy and projects of late. This awesome paint sprayer also helped with the motivation! It is amazing. Highly recommend it. We got it at Home Depot. Ben, in all of his glory, spotted it on the top top shelf and it was absolutely worth tracking down someone to get the ladder and pull it down for us. For all those interested, it is the Graco TrueCoat Plus II Airless Paint Sprayer.

So, last month, we took the Graco for its first test-run. I present you with Exhibit A - the bookcase downstairs in our basement.

This was actually left over from the previous owner...and all of those cans and bottles as well. I've had my eye on it since we moved in since it is a disorganized mess. We cleared it off and dragged it outside into the back.

I did a quick sand job...and then when we realized just how incredible our new Graco really is. I painted this shelving unit down in less than 15 minutes. The beauty of it though is really that it is a professional paint job - smooth as butter I tell you!

Just take a look at this before and after.

I also decided to take spray paint to these old baskets and transformed them into some great red baskets for the shelves.

After we let it dry and moved the bookcase back inside, I used shelf liner to cover the shelves and then added this plastic liner, Lifeliner, on top. Love it. I picked up the plastic liner at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

 And here is the final result. Much better, right?

Also, for reference, all those cans and bottles of old paint and who knows what....? Emmy mentioned that DC has a place right over in Eckington where you can drop them off. We haven't had time to do it yet, but apparently it is super easy...good to know - here is the link with the information from DC.gov.