By Sandi Genovese
Tribune News Service
The shoveling of concrete from a cement mixer, the whine of a circular saw, the pop of a nail gun … these are the sights and sounds in my neighborhood this spring. Everyone seems to be remodeling. Truth is, a move or a remodel is a big project, and it is worth documenting your progress in a scrapbook — I mean, who doesn’t enjoy a good makeover?
When remodeling a home, you are likely to be choosing flooring like hardwoods and carpets. You’re probably considering back splash tiles and countertops, paint chips and fabrics. The trouble is it’s not easy to appreciate the colors and textures of these things in a photo, so why not save bits and pieces of the real thing? That means you don’t need a scrapbook, you need a paint can.
Empty paint cans are for sale at home improvement stores and you will also find acrylic paint cans at craft stores. Once you label the perimeter and the top of the can, you simply collect pieces of the products you chose. It’s easy to label each tile, chip and swatch with a tag that indicates the appropriate room and any other information you want to remember. And in some cases, the floor tile or chunk of hardwood is big enough to label directly on the product itself.
I always include an accordion-folded mini book with before and after photos of the exterior of the home and each of the rooms inside as well. Along with the photos, I include other flat souvenirs like receipts. It’s surprisingly fun to look back in 10 or 20 years and compare the cost of hardwood floors or subway tiles.
Once you have placed the labeled products in the paint can and added the accordion-folded photo book, it’s fun to decorate the paint can itself. Wrap the exterior with wallpaper from the remodel or paper, painted the same color as the house. Include the city and street address, either on the paper wrapper or on the lid. Because the lid is made of metal you can simply write info on a tag and secure it to the lid with a magnet.
This may be the quickest and easiest scrapbook you have ever created, but if you make one for every house you live in, eventually you will have cans lined up on a bookshelf for future generations to enjoy.
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