Heat registers…my nemesis

Since we saw the house these heat registers that are in every room have been bothering Stefano. It's so funny to me how different people see different things that bother them. To me it was the lighting, the wall colors and the floor (in my mind, BIG things). For Stefano it was the light switches and the heat registers…weird? I looked into replacing the registers but it was going to cost roughly $150-$250 per register! Considering we have 7 of them this was not an option. 

Last weekend we were enjoying an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day outside after we put Lucca down for his nap. I had visions of some yard work, Stefano had envisions of me cleaning and paining these grates…apparently, because before I knew it they were in front of me with gloves, scrub brushes and spray paint (insert PAINFUL sigh!)

Here is a before picture of some of them

I scrubbed them with a small brush for brass, which is what i believe they are. The grates had paint, rust, hair, food and tons of grime packed into them. It was NOT a fun job at all and essentially took me all of nap time to complete. I was irritated and wanted to quit. I told Stefano that this project definitely called for a beer to finish the job! It was just what I needed. At this point my sweet little neighbor Aiden came over and asked "Whatcha doin Ms. Kari?" Ahhhhh his little 3 year old voice is too cute for words! I should write a post just about how lucky we are to have such awesome neighbors :)

This is one of the brushes I used 

Similar to these found at Home Depot

This is the spray paint that Stefano chose and it looks awesome! I was hesitant to use it at first because I thought something matte would look better but this looked great!

And here is the final product, just like new! It really makes a big difference in their appearance. Once I finished I gave myself a little pat on the back…and had another beer :)