New Door Sock

I have been busy these past weekends painting the entryway and the stairs up to the main floor.

You may recall that this stairway has a section to the ceiling that is very high and difficult to get to. In the end, I managed this by edging the ceiling with a long ladder propped on the stairs with some large wooden blocks (from this dumpster dive actually) and stabilized by Oliver. For the rest of the upper wall, we used a telescoping extension pole that worked wonders. (This is a before photo, btw, if you're wondering why this wall looks like shit). 

This post, however, isn't about painting (thank god you say) but rather about putting back together the entryway. There are some odds and ends that need seeing to here -the black doors need some refreshing, as does the door to the mail cabinet. Also on my to do list was making a new door snake.

This is my second go-round on a door snake for this location. The first one proved to be too light to provide maximum insulation here.

In addition to using heavier fill, I made this one a bit longer to extend a bit past the door on each end.

I originally bought this fabric for my living room One Room Challenge endeavor.

I have since moved this pillow upstairs. Just check out that awkward sleeping position on Otis' part....impressive.

Anyway, back to the sewing. Cut one length which is folded onto itself (right side facing each other) and sew an invisible seam along two lengths. Just as an aside, all sewing projects are made easier when sewing a fabric with lines or a grid pattern. If you are a beginner, opt for stripes and plaids if you like them and your project layout will be 100 percent easier and faster.

For a heavier fill this time around, I went with rice. I used about half of this 20lb bag for a door snake approximately 40ish inches by 4 inches.

To fill, I cut a small hole in the corner and funneled it in. There was a slight mess after, but nothing terrible.

To finish, I turned over the edge and machine sewed it shut about 1/8" from the end.

If you have a keen eye, you will notice that I also did some rug shuffling down here. Most recently, I had a striped hemp rug down there, which was nice but very thick -so much so that I had been forced to remove the weather stripping from the bottom of the door that leads to the garage for clearance. That bothered me, not only for the draftiness from the garage but also for basic safety concerns (carbon monoxide from garage boiler). Currently I'm using this blue and pink beauty that came from Oliver's family.

Not finished, but looking a lot crisper indeed. Once, I finish finish, I will photo and post.