Touch Ups

Ok, this is not the most exciting post ever, but it is here in the interest of "keepin' it real."  Once we got our Nest thermostat installed and patched and painted the area around it, it made the rest of the hallway look a hot mess.  Our house was a foreclosure, and we're pretty sure the previous owners had a large dog (or two?  three?) that lived indoors with them.  Or who knows, maybe they just had little kids living here.  Anyway, there are lots of scrapes and gouges visible on the walls, particularly in the hallway.  We also throw bouncy toys down the hallway for the dogs.  They think this is great fun, but they tend to leave scuff marks on the wall.  The toys, not the dogs.  After successfully removing the scuff marks with a Magic Eraser, I realized that the Magic Eraser worked so well that it took the sheen off the paint.  And after a little over two years in this house, we were due for some touch ups.

I went nuts with the spackle.  And then I went even more nuts with a sanding block.  And then it sat like this for a few days over a week.

Patchy.

Patchy x2.

Then things got really wacky.  The crown in our bedroom has settled a little, and some of the nail holes and the breaks between the sticks of crown were becoming quite noticeable.  So I figured as long as I had the straight-jacket spackle and sanding block out....

Cracks ahoy!

Yikes.

Fast forward a few days and things are looking nice and fresh!

Makes the door look messy!

So fresh and so clean clean.

Where'd the crack go?

It's amazing how much more "put together" our house looks just because we addressed some small details.  Our hallway looks clean and bright again and our bedroom looks like someone who cares lives there- even when there's laundry piled on top of the bed (hee!).

What are some of your favorite little details that make a big impact?