Entertainment Center

We got the entertainment center all moved in and are in the process of accessorizing it - which is a challenge for me so if anyone wants to give me a hand or some advice - I'd appreciate it!  If we had left the center oak I wouldn't have any problems but not sure how to accessorize it now that it's painted!

These are two of my cute little "helpers"

This is how they helped.....

Yeah, not so much huh?  We had left the backer panels outside overnight since we had checked the weather...  It was supposed to be nice - shouldn't be a problem....  The next morning I didn't give it a thought as I let the dogs out - it should be dry, right?  Apparently there had been a heavy dew and it had "lifted" the paint - I found this out as I let the dogs in and noticed the black paw prints on my freshly cleaned carpet!  I didn't stop to get pictures and as it is we are still working on getting a few of the prints off the carpet!

Anyhoo, this is what we started out with - I took this picture AFTER we removed all the doors and hardware.  We were just going to leave it oak but when I took handles off of the upper doors we found out that they had sprayed the stain and varnish on OVER the "face plates" that were behind the knobs!  Since we couldn't find a stain that would match (because of the age) we decided the next option was to paint it black!

(Notice the computer piece in the background - still trying to decide to leave it as is or paint it black as well....  oh, and the table/chairs FINALLY made it down to my brothers place in Gulfport!  We are slowly but surely getting our garage back - maybe I'll be able to park in it again soon!)

This is the finished piece (well almost! - still looking for the aforementioned helpers/ideas on finishing it up!)

 This is my main "helper"! - doesn't he look thrilled with me and this project! (I LOVE YOU HONEY!)

 He was such a trooper - we took off all the doors and the backer boards, he hoisted, removed hinges, filled holes in the doors, sanded, primed, painted (with a little help from the sprayer!), hoisted again, made a shelf to lift the TV and make room for the DVD & DVR, reinstalled the doors, made a sliding shelf (for the printer that is hiding behind the lower left door), he installed the new handles and then he set up all the electronics - THANK YOU HONEY!

I must also thank our other two "helpers" - Drew & Katie!  They helped me remove the old handles, the old hinges, the 6 sliding DVD/CD shelves/brackets, they sanded, wiped, hoisted, moved, reinstalled the lights in the long upper cabinets, installed the new handles, helped with setting up the electronics and Katie spray painted the locks for the DVD/CD cabinets from gold to satin nickel to match the handles.

All in all I am super HAPPY with the results - still have a few touch-ups to do and that accessorizing to figure out and we are considering "rebuilding" the DVD shelves (which were actually meant to hold cassette tapes and VCR tapes in the plastic cases) but they work for now so.....

Now onto the next projects - finishing pulling my notes together for the food dehydrating class I am teaching at the stake preparedness fair this weekend (YIKES - that's in 3 days!), pulling stuff together for the neighborhood yard sale that is 2 weeks away, getting the garage back in order and then pulling together the information for the once a month cooking class that I am teaching soon.... oh and then there are the crochet, sewing and quilting things that are calling to me from the other room!!!!!

Oops and OH NO!

On Wednesday we had Stanley Steemer come out and clean the carpets in preparation for getting the new entertainment center into the family room.  Said entertainment center is in the back yard - freshly painted and starting to look great.  It is oak and I hated to paint it but wanted to changed out the knobs BUT when I pulled off those "wonderful" 80's face plates that were behind the knobs we discovered that they had stained and varnished the upper doors WITH the face plates on so there was bare wood behind them and a "lip" of varnish around where they had been soooo.... we painted it black.  It's almost done...  Will post pics soon!

Oops - We painted the backer boards for the entertainment system kinda late last night and left them overnight to dry (it was supposed to 55 degrees last night) so we thought they'd be safe.  I went out to look everything over and discovered that they were COVERED in BUGS!  Stuck in the paint so todays chore was going to be debugging the backs for touch up so we can get everything in before the rain sets it tomorrow but that got delayed a bit - keep reading.... you'll see why!

OH NO! - I THOUGHT that the back panel pieces were dry so I let the puppies out to do their business and went into the kitchen to get a drink.  The puppies wanted back in so I opened the door, they both came in and I turned and just happened to look down - only to find BLACK paw prints on the carpet!  Apparently the puppies had walked across the back panels and since they were wet with dew which has "released" the paint!  So after giving the puppies quick baths to get the paint off their paws (and one of Sugars ears) I grabbed the carpet cleaner (and recruited my helper, Drew) to get the carpet spots cleaned and then proceeded to scrub the master bath and floor - there were black paw prints everywhere (since I couldn't put both puppies in the bathtub together without them wanting to play!).  I had such a hard time not laughing at it all!

So I don't have pictures of the "painted" puppies since I was concerned over their health and the effects the paint might have on them BUT I do have pictures of the backer boards that I will post - I don't know where the memory card adapter is since half the living room is in boxes and the "big" computer isn't up (I am writing this on my laptop).

Now, I am off to start "debugging" the backer boards so Howard can spray them again and we can get everything put together!

Have a great day AND enjoy this gorgeous day!