Progress - but it's slow!

So January was carpet for the living room. I thought we were progressing hugely when I spontaneously painted the living room.

Carpet though, has stalled. It is crawling forward at a snails pace and it isn't really my fault! Nope, I can't take the blame on the January goal.

First off Home Depot took forever to get here for our quote. Then AB signed us up for a Costco quote - and then they showed up at the wrong time and begrudgingly rescheduled us. Unfairly begrudgingly so, IMO, because I would have not scheduled the appointment during one of my recurring weekly meetings at 11am. In fact, I specifically recall talking to the scheduler and saying "oh how nice it will be to be home at 2pm, a full hour and a half before my kids get home!"

So then Home Depot gave us our quote and AB balked. Ok, so I balked too. Way higher than we thought - and when you look at the quote we kind of wonder exactly how much waste they were planning on having? Our room is 18.5 x 19.5. And they wanted to order 49 linear feet of 12' wide carpet. WTF? Why do they need 13 feet extra? To make up for the free install deal? Shadey much?

So yesterday AB decided to sign us up for quote #3 that came in about $800 cheaper than the Home Depot for the highest end "can't possibly ever stain this carpet". So anyways, getting the last two measures and final quotes this coming week and then the carpet is special order. We will be lucky to have it done by the end of February, early March more likely. I guess that's ok. Gives us a few more weeks to trash the current carpet.

My current February goal is my sewing "nook". Shelves just need to be cut (AB...) and installed (AB...) and then I can put all my sewing stuff in. Looking at a ribbon rod (where did I get all that ribbon?) and a thread rack. AND AB is talking about adding onto one of the shelves a custom flip up sewing table. Really!!

Unless I want my February goals to suffer a similar delay fate as January I need to figure out how to dangle the carrot. I was thinking if I moved all the fabric into our bedroom - and put it on AB's side of the bed... I keep telling him it's no big deal, just show me how to use the multitude of saws in our garage. I can do it!

So I am already thinking about March. And I have a March must do that came to me today as I plugged my phone in and tried to back it up to the computer.

I succeeded about 5 hrs later after deleting random programs and crap my son has put on the computer. But truly, the vast majority of the space on the computer is from photos. My photos file is out of control.

I am not sure how to tackle it, but I need to sit down and organize the computer. Remove photos that suck. Create a file to save my favorites. (For eventual insertion into a photo book... when the kids are grown, I expect.)

So there, March goal is on deck. Organize and reduce the memory of the computer that I really, really do not want to replace right now.

Mid-Month Progress

So my January goal was to deal with the flooring in the living room. Hideous. Awful. Bad. Nasty. Icky. We have carpet, it is just old and falling apart. You can hardly vacuum in there without pulling out long threads of loops. That conveniently wind themselves around the roller of the vacuum and then require you to sit and pick them out. So much fun.

We have honed in on carpet. Low hanging fruit. Truly "we" (AB) would probably (really) rather have hardwood. But we lack time, money and the desire to install it. And honestly I favor, for that room, carpet. It's the room where we roll around with the kids.

We have decided on style and composition and now just need to make a decision between the Home Depot "free install" (but carpet costs more) and the Cost Less Carpet, less expensive carpet but pay per square foot to a third party installer. I am leaning towards the Home Depot install only because when we were selling our other house and replaced the linoleum we went with one of Cost Less Carpet's recommended installers and he did a crap job, then refused to come back and fix it. Just not something I want to deal with.

So now we are doing the waiting and measuring and scheduling.

One of the Home Depot guys asked about paint on the wall. Yes, there is paint on the wall. No, he asked, fresh paint? Because it needs to cure a week before we install.

No, the paint isn't fresh, we told him and went about our business.

Then it dawned on me. HALF the room was painted a year ago or so. HALF the room hasn't been painted since we moved in.

And it doesn't look bad half painted. And in fact, I had only kind of given thought to someday it would be nice to paint that other half of the room and even knew what color it would be - the same neutral we used throughout the rest of the first floor.

Then I had a revelation! (AB loves my revelations.)

WE HAVE TO PAINT THE REST OF THE LIVING ROOM BEFORE THEY INSTALL THE CARPET!

We are going to spend a small fortune on super high end carpet, I am NOT going to want to paint that room for the next several years and risk (even with drop clothes - I am messy) a drop of paint on our beautiful carpet!

So January has become carpet and really quick finish painting the living room.

Today (and yesterday) I am hope with the kids as they have days off from school. Today, I tape and prep. Friday, we buy the paint. Saturday, I paint while AB takes Leif to his chess tournament. And hopefully the toddler naps better that day then he is today.

I really did get a lot of stuff done around the house today though. I picked up the play room. A small feat in itself. Days is how long I expect it to stay picked up. But while I was doing that I had another REVELATION!

My February goal. It's a revelation because AB is involved.

They always tell you at work that your goals shouldn't involve other people because that is out of your control. Yeah, yeah. I get it.

So here it is. My sewing stuff is in a bunch of bins and plastic drawers and stuff like that. I need a place to put it all and I have identified the perfect place! I just need a bunch of shelves installed. See that little inset area? It is a perfect nook for some "built ins". And I could even have a shelf dedicated to my sewing machine. And oh oh oh - imagine a table that folds down to CREATE a sewing table!

Ok, I know. Crazy talk. I just need the shelves. Then I can use that folding table over yonder...

A brand new half bath

The last touch to the bathroom was finished this past week - crown moulding! I loved the way the hotel room we stayed at in Palm Springs used dark crown moulding at the intersection of the walls and the ceiling. So I stole the idea for my bathroom makeover.


The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.

Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.

This is an awful crooked picture below, but it shows the toilet paper/flower pot thingy that I bought (that AB laughs at). You can also see the green color that has to go at some point.

Yay! I am really happy with how the half bath came out. February goal was a success!

I can't say much for March yet... I bought a few hooks for the closet to hang my belts and shawls/scarves. We will claim 10% complete on the status of the closet. By the end of the day if I am lucky I might be able to see the floor. I can't claim any status on the quilt - not even a trip to the fabric store to buy the supplies. Though we are slowly working our way through the freezer... last night we had both sturgeon and salmon from the freezer - and it was delicious.

Tonight we are having paella... of which nothing came from the freezer. Oh well.

Goals Update

I spent this past weekend working on my February goal. I am actually really, really pleased with myself. It is not 100% complete. But I have a very good chance of it being completed on time and within budget by the end of the month.

I, with the help of a good friend, painted my little half bathroom on Saturday and finished it up on Sunday. It took about an hour to tape it all and get it prepped. She came over and manned the roller while I crawled around the floor painting around the toilet and sink and chatted away. Normally AB does a lot of the painting with me, but it was nice to have a friend to help.

My little tiny bathroom went from blah white to elegant and spicy! (If I may say so myself.) I am really, really happy with the bathroom. I had to run to Michael’s on a secret errand this weekend and ended up buying a few decorative elements for the bathroom. I haven’t been happy with this little cabinet I have in the bathroom that sits on the floor that I use to hold the TP. So I got a tallish metal cylindrical vase thing and stacked the TP in there. Ok, so AB thought this was about the most ridiculous thing ever… But I like it. It looks stylish. I think.

AB loves the bathroom and commented that it looks like it belongs in some other house… not our house! It really did change the feel of the bathroom.

The one thing I have left is to paint the crown moulding and have AB install it. He is pleased about this revelation of mine that I suddenly “need” crown moulding in the bathroom because it lends credence to his long standing claim that he “needs” an air compressor and nail gun.

When we were in Palm Springs last week I loved the look of the black crown moudling in the hotel room. I opted for “espresso” to match other elements in the bathroom and the furniture we have in the front lower level of the house.

Once the crown moudling is in and I have bought a few hand towels that match the bathroom better than the ones I presently have… and a new valence… and a soap dispenser… then I will be done!

Which brings us to the topic of March.

March is going to be multi-faceted.

I want to finish the quilt I started (yes, the one I swore would only take me 3 weeks to do the top, and then the dog killed the sewing machine…). I want to finish that for spring so that I can pull my duvet off the bed and have smooth lines of a pretty quilt. My biggest issue is trying to figure out how to “quilt” a king sized quilt. It may be that hand quilting – which I HAVE done before (a long time ago) – may be my best option. Yikes. Not sure a month is long enough for that.

My closet has recently fallen to absolute disaster levels. Not only does it need cleaned out, but I need some more hooks for accessories and I need a good purge of the clothes I no longer wear.

The last one that AB has challenged us to? Eat our freezer to the bottom. This isn’t entirely possible. Because I am NOT eating the four or five chicken pot pies I have saved in there. And I think we probably have 15 containers of spaghetti sauce. I have seriously like 3 weeks of food if we only ate chicken pot pies and spaghetti sauce. I have a tortierre from a friend that I am saving for a special occasion to savor in there too. All the other stuff? The meat and such that we have purchased and not cooked? Bring it on.

The other tasks on my list for 2011 are (in no particular order):

Patio for the backyard (we may opt to take the backyard remodel that we want in steps and just start with getting a nice concrete pad out there).

Hardwood flooring for the office and formal dining room.

Paint the foyer/dining room/office.

Master bedroom… just take my word for it, it needs a serious overhaul.

Hola February

I have really been looking forward to my February goals. I needed a change up from organizing and picking through stuff and trashing stuff and sending stuff to Goodwill... I need a pretty project.

So here it is my tiny half bath on the bottom floor of our house. It is most commonly used by my kids. Next would be guests. Last would be AB and I. I want something pretty and elegant, a bit edgey and fun.

I never used to have a hard time picking paint colors, but I have seriously been all over the map with this room. Partly because I want a unified theme for the entire first floor. Specifically the office, foyer, dining room and half bath. I have lots of two toned woods, grey carpets that will hopefully see the curb this year in favor of hardwood and clayish, terra cotta-ish colored tile.

And this green foyer. The green foyer is going bye bye. I can't coordinate anything with it. It's killing me.

February is a short month, so I can tackle the half bath and get a start on my redecorate the front first level of the house.

I started with some brown/deep purple/plum colors. I want something a bit dramatic and am not overly concerned with making the space appear small. It is a half bathroom after all, it is never going to appear spacious.




The main color I was targeting was the one next to the mirror. (Don't you love the wooden mirror? I do.)

I went a tone or two softer to test because so many people said, "you can't go that dark in that room".

And well... maybe they were right. But I also couldn't do the mauve.

Back to square one.

One evening of after Christmas shopping I came across these iris paintings on a great clearance. And I love irises. Reminds me of living in Boulder and the iris field on Broadway as well as my wedding flower.

See in addition to the dark color and the mauve, I had also picked out an "acorn spice" color. When we put it on the wall we said, "ewww, breastfed baby poop". (The mustard on the right by the window. Yes, I will be replacing the valence.)

Then I put the picture up.


And suddenly the breastfed baby poop color wasn't so bad. The gold on the frame really popped!

But I wanted to play with the color a bit more, I am not a fan of yellows that much... I was attracted to the color because of the name... acorn spice.

I went and bought a few more colors. Four more to be precise. And this is the collection so far.

See the color at the top on the right? Loving that for the bathroom. Just enough orange and gold to bring out the gold on the frame. On photo #2 it is the color to the left of the picture.

See the brick color on the bottom? Loving that for my foyer. AB has issued a "we'll see about that" decree. (He still loves the green.)

So President's Day - a forced day off since the kids' school is closed - I hope to paint the bathroom. Then we will need new rugs, a new valence and I would like some decorative element to go on the little cabinet I have in there that holds the TP and all that stuff.

I had kind of hoped to piggy back on another goal this month. But it is seeming short enough as is. My March goal I am hoping to devote to backing my quilt and quilting it for spring use in the bedroom.

Winding down the month

As typical for most resolutioners, my first of the year goals are filled with lots of spunk and promise. Promises of an organized house, followed by a beautiful and elegant new half guest bathroom and lots of ideas to follow for the months after. Then by summer I am talking about taking months off because we are too busy. And goals over the holidays? Yeah right.

I wandered the Target aisles over lunch yesterday with AB… and no kids. He doesn’t work on Fridays and I met him for a quick and easy lunch and then to grab a few things.

I have been coveting some cute desk organizers for our office. I didn’t find much.

I haven’t found much online either.

The desk organization part of my January goals is not flying. I bought a little square caddy thing that can either lie on its side for cds, or sit upwards to hold – what I am thinking – pads of paper and midsize desk stuff. I bought a couple magazine storage containers. But I don’t need an In box or an Out box or alphabetical storage. We walk in the house through the garage and everything lands on the surface in the opposite corner of the house. Office type stuff often gets stored and organized in the kitchen first instead because of this. If I am looking for a piece of paper, I don’t go straight to my office. The kitchen is the first stop.

Our computer desk just raises a big question mark for me.

I think I did my shopping for organizing items prematurely. I think I should have cleaned off the desk, figured out what really needs to be there and then gone shopping. I knew we needed a pens container and I bought that. But it isn’t cute. In fact, I am already wondering if it would be better suited for Leif’s room and wondering if I would be better suited for a trip to Hobby Lobby?

Oh well. It’s on my list for the weekend, clear off the desk and organize. (Maybe go to Hobby Lobby…)

Today I worked on Leif’s mess of a closet. (A trip to Hobby Lobby would definitely serve as reward that effort…) Done. Finished. Whew. Not fun. Skadi has already started back to destroying it now that she can see all the fun things.

I am trying to finish out my January organization tactics before getting too amped about the downstairs half bath. But I found these… and I fell in love with them:



I love irises. Always have. There was an iris field in Boulder near my apartment in college that I loved. Irises were my wedding flower.

And oh, they were on sale. I got one for $36 and the other for $41. Yay me!

They are going to look spectacular in my bathroom! And now I have color inspiration for the lackluster room!

Ready for the weekend!

Oh wait. You mean it is over?


I would like to order another day please.


This is one of those days where if I had loads of vacation time - I would be staying home tomorrow to recover.


It has just been one of those weekends. It started with two minor household chores that each turned major in their own right.

Part of the February-March goal was to get and install a pull out spice rack. After much deliberation and measuring the cabinet - at least four hundred fifteen times - I placed the order. If you ever want to put pull-outs into existing cabinets I have to recommend you look at Rev-A-Shelf. Really nice quality. And you don't have to replace the entire cabinet like Home Depot started out telling me we had to do.

All you need to do is yank the door off, remove the shelves and hardware, attach your door to the front of the unit, then screw it into place in the cabinet!

Sounds easy right?

We had thought about everything - like even that the knob on the adjacent corner cabinet would have to be moved. And that it would be the only cabinet in the kitchen with a funky placed knob - but we could deal with that when we were talking about the bigger picture - a fancy pull out spice cabinet!




A little wood putty will fix that...


Remember when I said we thought about everything?



Yeah, I was wrong.



We did NOT think about the hood.





Ah well. Lessons learned I guess.

That little shelf in there just houses those little used spices (black sesame seeds anyone? fennel seeds?).

We still love the pull out, though a little disappointed at neglecting that one detail. But if we had it to do over I am not sure we would have changed and done anything different.

------------

The next task this weekend was to replace the coveted instant hot water tap. I never had one of these before moving into this house, but I have become freakishly dependent on the silly thing.

Perfect French Press Coffee in 4 minutes flat. Top Ramen for the kids in 3 minutes. Starbucks Via in as fast as you can dump the packet in the cup and fill the mug with water. Tea? Your steeping time is all. Instant oatmeal for the kids? Only as long as it takes the oatmeal to cool to edible temp.

Yes. I fell hard.

So when it cracked and emptied itself all over the bottom cabinet a few weeks ago it was a no brainer that as long as it was under $300, it was getting replaced.

I found one for $130 and pounced.

If you don't already have one, it would be a pain to install as you need the hole in your countertop. But replacing one? Also a no brainer.

Ha.

Famous last words.

I took Leif to a birthday party and came back to find the heater sitting still in the middle of the kitchen floor. Turned out that the one I bought was ever so slightly bigger than the one we pulled out. Making installation in the same position impossible thanks to the placement of the garbage disposal.

We went to work debating the next move.

AB's plan was to cut a hole in the cabinet and mount it halfway in the pie shaped empty area between the cabinet and the neighboring drawers.

I cringed at that and pushed for mounting it in a different under the sink spot that would only require a copper tube extension.

Easy peasy, I told AB.

This is my thing, I reminded him. See you just need connector compression fittings and a length of copper tubing.

And I added on that it would take me seconds to do in my lab and I had all the equipment there. Though that was just anecdote to boost my method because no way was I driving all they way out to work to do use the tools in my lab OR to "borrow" the necessary fittings. Dang lab rules.

Instead Skadi and I ran to Ace to grab copper tubing and fittings. And then we bought a tube cutter too... since the Ace dude had NO idea how to cut tubing and I knew the edges would need to be cleaned up before installing ferrules.

$33 later...

Hooked it up and it worked!

Then I walked upstairs all full of myself to change laundry around, pulled open the dryer and saw my wet clothes sitting there.

Wet clothes.

As in not dry.

I pushed the button.

Nope.

Once AB confirmed that I was not being a dork with the dryer and that it was not the breaker, I pulled the clothes out and hung them on the banisters.

Then I pulled the clothes out of the waher and hung those on the banister.

Then I pulled AB's work cell phone out of the bottom of the washer.

Yeah, one of those weekends.

February Goals - Nearing the End

As February winds down I am looking back on my goals progress. The primary goal to get a pull out for the spice cabinet is not completed only because we decided before ordering online we should really make a pass at Home Depot. They might also have some alternate suggestions to consider and can offer advice on fitting a pull out for our extra tall top cabinets. (Height of the cabinet hadn't really dawned on me until it came to measuring twice.)

We did however get the cupboard reorg completed and are very happy with the outcome of that. Someday I expect I will relearn where my measuring cups are now.

The wine closet wasn’t one we planned to tackle, but as luck would have it we obtained a great wine rack and put it to use. Now I can tell exactly when we are getting low on white wines (like we are now).

So the spice cabinet pull out will extend into March, which is fine. March is going to be a bit of a relaxing month for me with goals. I have two things planned…

See this dress? It is a pillowcase dress.


And it is $89.

See this one? It is $98. It is lined and has an M on it, so it is $9 more.



I am POSITIVE I can make one in two hours. I just know it.

March goal is to find an adorable pillowcase and make Skadi a dress.

My second goal is The Orange Tree. I special ordered the fabric I wanted – black 18 ct Aida – could not believe you can’t just find this stuff at craft stores… And the black 14 ct Aida isn’t sold in a large enough sheet at my local craft stores. So it was going to be a special order either way.

Ordered two weeks ago…

Apparently all cross stitchers are procrastinators?

Or maybe they had to weave it from cotton fibers?

Whatever the reason it is on its way here and should arrive before March 1 in time for the new goal!

I won’t finish it… I will be lucky to get one tenth of it done during the month of March. But getting started is often half the battle.

I am leaning towards an April goal of the library. I have boxes stacked randomly, a lamp to hang and I just discovered the perfect under the window shelf/seat combo unit that will go perfect. Paint? Just maybe...

Goals Progress

I have to admit that my February goals haven't seen nearly the activity that my January goals did. I kind of went nuts last month and will not meet the same level of deliverable this month.

You may recall that one of my debates last month was whether or not to tackle the wine or the kitchen. It was buy some wine storage, or buy some pull outs for the kitchen. The pull outs won. But, one of my good friends also read my blog and said, "so I have this wine rack... and we don't really buy wine... and it is covered with flour... take a look!"

They had pulled the 110 bottle wine rack out of their house when they bought it and were using it as a divider in their garage. And amazingly enough it was about exactly what I was looking for to fit the spot we have!

Wa la!

That also means that I didn't really start the kitchen goals until this weekend - halfway through February. It is a lot of just organizational stuff. When we moved in, it seemed that in order to get IN, stuff was just placed randomly. I had intended to place things just right, and some things did. However, other drawers and cabinets suffered.

AB isn't always a huge fan of my goals because he sees them as potentially a lot of work for him. February he wasn't terribly opposed to - "what, you want to organize the kitchen cupboards? GO for it!"

I organized Friday evening while AB was putting the kids to bed, the desk and the cabinets and drawers around the desk in the kitchen. It isn't my favorite part of the kitchen. Not a terrible big fan on the desk in the kitchen concept. I would rather have actual usable counter space because I am a self declared stacker. I won't stack stuff on my usable countertops, but I sure will on a desk.

AB smiled when I showed him the results of him putting the kids to bed and then we watched Big Love.

The next day I moved the baggies/foil/saran wrap drawer. I turned the old one into the baking notions drawer and filled a large drawer with lunch and packaging stuff.

I am not sure I have seen AB so excited in awhile! He raved!

And then he was so thrilled by this he came into the kitchen and helped me finish up the rest of the drawer and cupboard switcheroo.

Organized! Sensical organization! It is mine!

With one exception... what do you put in a base cabinet, corner lazy Susan? It shouldn't bother me that it is nearly empty, but it does. I just don't know what to put there.

My next step was to start working on the pull out spice cabinet. I found some resources on a few websites and some decent prices, until it dawned on me that I should also look at the height... these were made for 23" tall upper cabinets and apparently I have freakishly tall upper cabinets at 40". And a 23" pull out would make for a lot of wasted space.

I have found tall pull outs, but I haven't full commited yet. AB has suggested a trip to Home Depot and see what we can see in person. Probably a good idea.

I have gotten a jump on my March goals. My floss is bought, I am putting it on my floss bobbins and I special ordered the cross stitch fabric I want. I should be set to go by March! Now I just need to find a pretty pillow case to make the pillowcase dress.

I am debating April goals... it may be to start on plans for the outdoor entertainment area... or it may be something like organize my online photos... or figure out what to do with all my books. Who knows!

February Goals Defined

It’s been decided!

The February goal will be the kitchen.

The main thing here is to get pull out spice racks in the narrow cabinet next to the stove. It is the perfect location for a spice cabinet, but the design doesn’t work – it is deep, tall and difficult to organize. The pull outs should work wonders in organizing one of our most used cabinets in the kitchen.

My plan isn’t to stop there. Lately I have been feeling as though my kitchen isn’t organized as well as it could be. I don’t like to change things around at all. I like to get items in a place that works and leave them. This is a major difference between myself and my mom, who is always changing things around. I blogged about this at some point, but I can't seem to find it right now... Anyways, suffice it to say that right now, things aren’t working where they are.

I have a lazy Susan in a convenient place, but that is nearly unused. I have bowls I use regularly in a high cabinet. AB’s BBQ utensils (and he has a lot of them) are in a drawer that isn’t really big enough. And the Aluminum foil/Saran Wrap/Wax Paper/Baggies drawer is just way too little. Then there is the desk (that I really wish was a countertop – but that wish will just remain) needs to be organized and also needs a chair (shh… don’t tell AB this one, he needn’t know I have hopes of purchasing something else in the kitchen during this month since the pull outs are expensive enough!) and the cabinets above it organized. This should fit well also with the season – tax time – as I have our routine tax receipts in one of the cubbies up there.

The plan has been set and will be put into motion!

Decisions

I am guessing that I am right on par with my goals as most resolutioners right now given the state of the parking lot at the health club. It's still packed. And for me? January has been amazingly productive.

I don't mean to harp on it, but I think I got more done around my house this month than I did the entire last six months. Master closet cleaned, linen closet cleaned, deep freeze cleaned out and organized, the boxes in the Master bedroom emptied (not saying much has a place yet...) and as of today, Leif's closet has been cleaned out and organized. Phew.

And I still have another weekend left! Though I may suggest we take a break and go do something fun, like ski, or take the kids bowling, or something.

I have been giving thought to what I want to tackle in February and I have narrowed it down to two things. AB wants me to pick the least expensive, preferable no expense option since we are trying to save money for any number of things (mini vacation for our 10th anniversary, travel trailer, new TV...).

I am leaning towards fixing up our wine closet. I had picked out some inexpensive storage options totaling about $200. Then today I went to get baking decorations out of the spice cabinet and waffled when little glass jars came tumbling. Maybe I want the pull outs.

Pull outs, or wine storage? Pull outs or wine storage?

Have I mentioned that I suck at making decisions? And AB is NO help at all because he immediatly says, "they both cost money!"

I went in to count wine bottles and immediately arrived at the fact that the inexpensive storage options I had initially targeted may not work since we are within a case of that capacity.

I suppose we just need to work harder at drinking our wine!

Goals

So if you haven't been keeping up, my goal for 2008 is to not only get my house organized, but to get it ready to sell in 9 months to a year. My plan has been to address one room a month, every month. January was the library, February was Leif's room and the guest bathroom (since it is small), March was Skadi's room.

Skadi's room, for all intensive purposes is 95% done. My sewing table needs to be replaced by her crib, and we need to do something with the queen sized bed in that room.

But finishing her room has been put on hold. Meanwhile, Skadi's crib sits in our closet - where she sleeps so that we don't wake her up (me reading at night with the light on, AB snoring...). Our crib seems to be on its last legs and AB fears moving it very much. So given that my mom and stepdad are coming out in a few weeks, we have put off moving Skadi into her room for our own ease. So that also means that her room will remain at being 95% done beyond March (i.e., tomorrow).

So the next question became, which room is next? I was leaning pretty solidly to our Master Suite - to include the bathroom.

AB, despite all his whining about my goals that he thinks have become his goals, had another suggestion yesterday. We need to treat outside as "a room".

He is right. April is the perfect month to get our backyard in shape. As long as it quits snowing freak snow showers on us and warms up. In theory we will be able to plant the garden in a few weeks. Plus, I want my patio to be in good shape for when my mom and stepdad visit... sitting outside with a gin and tonic or glass of wine, eating BBQ, is always a favorite activity for us all when they visit.

The indoor rooms can wait until it is too hot and miserable to go outside and work. And it is a chance to switch things up a little. And when my husband starts whining about "my goals", I can remind him that this one, was his idea.

The "to do list" includes coating the patio with an epoxy resin so the two cement slabs become one that is much more appealing to the eye and to tender bare feet. Clean out the awful corner that is the bane of my existance. If I ever feel like I need to complain to my husband about something I just walk over to the west side of our house. Where my brow immediately furrows...

I need to clean out my flower beds front and back. I pruned my roses last weekend. And we need to plant the vegetable garden (broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, a tomato or two and mostly room for giant pumpkin rearing).

The goal is set!

The start of a rock collection and more

I have two rocks in my coat pocket. This is hugely reminiscent of being 5 years old and collecting rocks. I had a great collection that I still wish I had. A few arrowheads in there, a large chunk of quartz and some fossils were also in there.

We were out for a hike up a local hill Sunday afternoon and Leif found a "rock with holes" he liked. I showed him there were lots of rocks with holes around and they were called "lava rocks". He picked me out one, kept his and we continued on our walk. A little while later he told me he was tired of having the rock in his pocket, but he wanted to keep it.

He handed it to me with strict instructions, "don't throw it away mommy, I want to take my ava rock for show and tell".

I think Leif needs a box for his rocks.

We had a good, quiet weekend. Swimming on Saturday where I dropped a sizeable chunk of money on registering both kids for the next session. Skadi loves the water and is getting far more interactive with the experience, even to the point of crawling to the pool edge and making every effort to get herself in the water. It became a game with daddy on Saturday.

Saturday afternoon we went to the birthday party from hell. It is worthy of a post unto its own. But though I have tried I just can't write the post. Ok, I can write it just fine, it is the posting of it that I can't seem to do. So the succinct version has a mom who calls her husband names, a drunken dad, a very unruly child who has to be pulled off of other children by guests because dad can't do it, mom is inside making it all perfect and the dad's "special friends" (aka hoochie mamas) are parked at his side. Yeah, birthday party from hell. We got in the car and I haven't heard AB be so vocal about other people and their childrearing... ever.

Sunday we were disappointed at the turn of the weather that put our morning hike on hold. So instead when Skadi went down for a nap late morning I started on the guest room... which consequentially meant that AB started on the guest room too.

He kept commenting that he liked how he constantly gets roped into *my* monthly goals. Of course with a smile on his face most of the time. I reminded him we were cleaning out the guest room so HIS mother had a place to stay when she arrives in just under three weeks. I had to recruit him to put all the Christmas decorations, Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations, itty bitty baby stuff, outgrown Skadi clothes, too boyish for a girl clothes and other random stuff into the attic.

It was about this point where AB said, "can we just go buy a new house WITH storage instead". And I think he was only partway joking.

Once all that stuff was out I was amazed at what an easy job the guest room will be to get ready for our houseguest. Give me a few hours in there and we will be set. Then once my MIL leaves let the fun decorating begin for it to become Skadi's room.

This is where AB and I are at odds. There is a queen sized bed in there. It is a comfortable queen sized bed or according to most everyone who has stayed in our house has told us.

I want to get rid of it.

AB doesn't.

We don't have storage for it, we aren't going to pay for a (badly needed) storage unit. It is an old bed. Why save it?

Because we might want it for a guest room again someday. Or because we could haul it to Shelton (somehow given we don't have a trailer either) and have a decent bed there to sleep in. One that doesn't skeeve us out or isn't a big mushball.

So in the meantime... before we either go to Shelton again and can rig someway to haul a queen sized bed 5 hours to the cabin, get rid of one of the beds at the cabin by hauling it somewhere, get this bed up into the attic sleeping area... or before we buy a new house that actually has a guest room... what should we do with it?

According to AB it stays in Skadi's room. She has a tiny room. The crib and bed will fit, but no rocker. I have to have the rocker in there. AB suggests we lean the queen bed against the wall.

Lovely.

And oh so safe for a baby's room.

Moving on...

Sunday afternoon the weather improved a little and we hiked our hill and Leif did a fantastic job. This was where he found his ava rock. We got back to the playground and he admired a child's size Specialized bike. He needs a two wheeler. Bad.

I looked online today and found the same bike... a mere $190. Not going to happen. But bike shopping is in our near future.

We went home and after being home for about 20 minutes, Leif and Skadi were standing at the coffee table.

Which one falls?

Leif. No idea how but he whacked his chin on the coffeetable, bites his lip and puts one tooth through the lip, the other only halfway through. Blood everywhere.

AB got him calmed down enough to look at the gaping wound. I made phonecalls where I was told they won't stitch a puncture wound of the lip, to watch it, keep it clean and don't let him pick at it.

AB suggested we stick a ring in it and get him started early.

To which he endured seething glares from me.

Oh and the keeping him from picking it? Not working. This morning he came in to see me in the bathroom and told me his owie was gone, he bit it off. Yep, the scab was gone, and it was oozing again.

Ick.

February - mostly done

So aside from the curtains - that at 4pm on Sunday I remembered I was going to sew. And aside from the fact that AB needs to change lightbulbs in his closet - yes I know how to change lightbulbs, but it is hard to do with a very needy nearly 11 month old squealing at your feet. And aside from the fact that the panther picture needs to be hung up.

Leif's bedroom is done.

I am happy with the storage options I found at Target. The closet is pretty well cleaned out. So a lot of things went back in. But a lot went to trash and a lot went to the garage sale stack. There is room to store things in the closet (likely "things" from Skadi's closet - which is not walk in and full of kid stuff), room for Leif's nicer clothes to be hung, and room for the larger Little People items.

I also spent about 30 minutes in the kids bathroom (told you I didn't need a full month there) and cleaned out the vanity. So I will also add that to the list since I bought bins and a few little storage things for it - that room is also done.

AB cheered that he got a few weeks reprieve before onto the next room. Silly, silly boy.

I reminded him his mom is coming out in early-mid March. And that room needs serious attention before March 1st.

So here are the after pictures. Before pictures are here.

Weekend wrap up

This weekend flew by. AB poured Pinot Noir on Friday and Saturday and enjoyed that.

I took Leif to swimming and wrestled with Skadi while we watched. Just did not want to sit still. I think we will put her back in swimming starting next session. She loves the water and is just getting to that point where she recognizes the pool and really wants to be in it.

We came home and Leif had quiet time in his tent in the dining room. He has been begging for a week now to "go camping" and talks about building fires, sleeping in the tent with the dog and mommy and daddy, gathering firewood and saving C from any monsters that might invade the campground.

I told Leif he had to be quiet in his tent for quiet time, otherwise it was off to his bed for quiet time. He took me seriously. He was quiet and layed still in there for about 45 minutes, relaxing. No nap, but lately we are at about 50-50 with naps.

We headed out for a playdate with sibling friends where it dawned on Skadi that L was doing something she doesn't do. (L is two months older.)

Walking.

SO since that playdate Skadi has been striving to stand on her own.

Without holding on.

Just the other day I was saying Skadi was a long ways from walking. I am taking that back. I think she will take her first unassisted steps in the next 2-3 weeks.

We all got home and AB and I looked at each other and about the same time asked, "where are we ordering food?" PF Changs it was.

After the kids went to bed, AB and I finished "3:10 to Yuma", which wasn't half bad. AB enjoyed it "allright" for a Western. And since I never care for Westerns I really liked it comparatively. I am sure that had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Nope, not one bit...

This morning we ate Swedies (crepes). Skadi actually ate more than Leif did... she loves her daddy's crepes. Then we hung around the house doing chores and such for the most part. AB made a quick trip to the grocery store and then to retrieve Sonic limeades, but that was about it - other than our morning walk.

I tackled the scary closet and have hit the motherlode with respect to garage sale fodder. And trash.

I pulled out my wedding dress and AB told me to put it on. I argued, but finally gave in. I couldn't zip it all the way (after 8 years), but I got it on. Leif looked at me and said, "you look like a butterfly! No an angel, you look like and angel mommy." Awww!

I made my way through about 1/3 of the closet while AB hung the Ikea animal hanger and herded the cats. I mean kids.

The closet still needs some serious attention, but it is started. I will admit that a few times I found myself just standing there looking, not sure what to tackle next.

At one point I pulled out a pair of leggings from my high school gymnastics team. AB laughed at them and said, "what did you wear those when you were 8?" He joked they might fit Skadi now.

Nope, I told him, I used to wear these when I was 16. Oh those were the days when I, like every other teenaged girl, complained about being fat at 104 lbs.

I threw the leggings away.

They only served to remind me of "those days". And well, I will never weigh 104 again, nor do I want to. I don't need the momento leggings from team.

Fish tacos and pinot noir for dinner. (Not the best match in the world.)

And that does it for our weekend. How was yours?

February goal started

As the first weekend in February, it is also the first weekend to address the current goal at hand... Leif's room. As I said before, his is not a hard room. Here are pictures of the starting point... a little organization is all the room-portion (excluding the closet) really needs.

I went to Target on Saturday and found nicely coordinating bins and containers for the shelves. I cleaned off the shelves, the Ikea organizer and the book shelf top and dresser top and started sorting. Keep (keepsake), keep (put back on the shelves in some organized fashion), garage sale or toss.

The garage sale pile is pitifully small. The toss pile was good sized, but a lot of the stuff was set for keep.

After a few hours (maybe at most) of sorting and putting things back AB came in. I was surprised by his comment - "I like the organizers".

Well so do I. So back to Target I will go (after AB gets paid next week) to buy another set of green plastic organizers: a new garbage can, a medium sized flex tote for cleaning day pick up, a small flex tote for holding essentials on the dresser top, some little bins for marbles and other "pieces", and some more medium sized bins for the shelves.

I cleaned out his dresser while AB put him to bed one night and purged most of the size 2T clothes since he is just now out of that size. And then I retrieved some hangers and started hanging his nicer shirts and sweaters in the crazy closet.

AB still needs to hang the stuffed animal holder. I mentioned this on Sunday and he reminded me he has all of February to do it. ;-) As far as I am concerned he has until I get the new storage bins from Target. Because once that is done, the room part is done and the closet shall remain.

The closet. The closet that looms. (And houses monsters if you believe Leif.)

Anyways, I haven't told AB this, but as of today our time schedule is being slid up. My MIL just wrote that she will be here March 13-18th. Which means that Skadi's room, though it won't be ready for her to occupy, will need to be cleaned out and prepped as a guest room for one last hurrah before our guest room goes away for good - or at least until we buy a new house.

And that little bathroom that doesn't really serve to have a whole month devoted to it? Also needs to be handled before then. (More little bins from Target.)

(Can you tell I have a thing for little plastic storage bins?)

February Goal

I am preparing - at least mentally - for my February goal. My son's bedroom. I picked this room because it is relatively easy. He has a big toy box, a book shelf and an Ikea storage unit for sets of things. Like the picture below, but ours is white and has green and white different sized bins. (Which I really, really like by the way. No more boxes. Of course you are sorely out of luck unless you have an Ikea store near you.)

The things I have to work on in his room are relatively few and somewhat easy. Such as:

-Hang the stuffed animal storage net thing (another Ikea see below).

-Clear off the orange shelves and return only displayed items. (Or items that have been put into time out.) A few little storage bins might be necessary.

-Clean out the toy box (garage sale fodder?)
-Sort through the book shelf
-Under the bed storage redo.
-Finish curtains and hang them.

And the big task is to tackle the closet. Clean out the walk in closet, sort out what can be sold versus stored. Return storage items. Carve out an area where Leif can have some storage for big toys and places to hang HIS clothes.

Not bad, reasonably do-able. I don't expect I will get my huge burst of, "it looks so good and so much better" from this room, but at least it will be done.

March is the scary month. And the month where I will no longer have a guest room. If you want to visit and not sleep on an air mattress, the couch, in a hotel or in Leif's twin better do it before March!

January is done!

My January goal is done. The library, and it is gorgeous. (Check out the new PB light!)

Actually I am really happy with the end product. Sure, if I had my way the area under the window with the kid's table might house a chaisse lounger perfect for snuggling up and reading a book. And the kid's table and chairs and toys would be relegated to the playroom... but we have no playroom. And a chaisse isn't within the budget.

And if I were really complete I would have done something (though I am not sure what) with the old computer in the box under the desk. But it isn't in the way, and we both keep thinking "what if we need something off of it" and so it doesn't get recycled. But as it stands, I am thrilled with the library. I even cleaned the insides of the desk drawers and the cedar chest.

AB has gotten into my monthly goals groove too. He asked me yesterday, "which room is next?" Followed by a quick, "we don't start it until February right? That's the point, right?"

We chatted about what room is on the list next. I had put the guest bath on there and his response was, "what are you doing with that room?"

"Organizing it," I told him.

"Well that will take all of a couple hours," he said.

He is right. The bathroom can and probably should be tossed in with another room and not given an entire month to itself.

We did decide that we would tackle Leif's room next. I had hesitated because of the packed to the brim walk in closet in his room. Full of stuff. Full of stuff that isn't his.

AB felt we should clean the closet out in search of garage sale fodder. But the reality of the situation is that unless we get a storage unit (and we are waffling on this), most everything will probably go right back in there in an albeit, far more organized fashion. We could probably even carve out some room for Leif's stuff and he might be able to utilize it.

SO that is the plan. Leif's room for February!

Goal progress

I am making good progress on my January goal to organize my library. Since my last post on this topic I cleaned off the file cabinet (notice I didn't say "out").


I ordered a wall lamp from Pottery Barn (clearance), which I think will work great in that room. I hesitated to buy a desk lamp because it would be another thing to clutter the desk and for the kitty to knock off and break (we have had a lot of this lately, so I am quite sensitive to it). I decided to hedge away from floor lamps. And maybe it is just because I have bad memories of cheap torchierre lights from Target that bend and contort and tip.


Well what did that leave me? Wall mounted. And wow, lamps are expensive. I got a decent deal on PB, not great, but it will work and I like it.




AB is happy with this purchase too, which to me is very valuable since I don't often hear that from him.


I still have my photo archive boxes to buy and fill, my desk to tackle this weekend then after that everything visible will be organized.


That leaves the inside of the file cabinet (that place where I was tossing papers in a somewhat willy nilly fashion last weekend) and the "mudroom" in the library... the big structure my husband built to house winter gear. (I have to admit to not even digging in it this year yet to find my own gloves... I fear it that much.)


These last two places fall in the somewhat "optional" category for me in this process. I know the stuff in the file cabinet isn't *that* old or out of order since the file cabinet was new a year ago - and I haven't used it very much. And with the cedar winter clothes storage I just don't have a much better option right now. And since it is out of sight, keeps like items together and functional, my vote is to leave it be. Though I would like a cushion on top of the bench for sitting on... and that would "soften" the room substantially. But that WOULD mean a precarious trip back to the fabric store. I am not sure I can do it!


Anyone know where I can buy a premade, inexpensive sitting cushion for a bench? With cool fabric of course.


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With the end in distant sight for my library, I have started considering which room will be next. This room was a medium sized job, but since February is short I was thinking tackling one of the smaller job rooms would be best.


Problem is... I am not sure I have a small job room. At first glance I would say that would be either Leif's room (which was redone last year and new storage added in October), the formal dining room (aka sewing room and play room) or the living room. But all of these have one underlying problem in my scheme... very few little issues, but each has one big issue of varying types.


In Leif's bedroom - he needs his display shelves cleaned off, an hour long job maybe, he could help me thus making it 1.5 hours. He needs his stuffed animal storage net hung (which would take AB 10 minutes). But his closet looms. He calls it the "Monster's bedroom" and we keep the door closed all the time. Mostly to hide all the stuff in storage in there (luggage, Halloween decor, wedding stuff, old textbooks, old clothes, etc). It would be nice for Leif to have a closet and I could quit using the nursery closet for him. It is a decent walk in closet... packed. And I just so don't even know what to do with the stuff in there. That is the issue with THAT room.


My living room. Simple organization, organize the cds and dvds and no big deal. Except for the media storage thing we started on before Leif was born, our priorities shifted, and we never finished it. It WAS a coat closet. Yes, odd place for a coat closet (if you have been in my house). So we took the door off, painted shelves and put them in with the intention of making built in media storage. We planned (and bought some of the stuff) to remove the door molding and finish it as built ins. At this point we could just forget all that and the door could go back on and just hide the whole mess of media stuff. Or I could hire a contractor to finish it. ($$$$$$$$$) I don't know what to do other than procrastinate and be forced into a decision when it is time to sell the house. And THAT is the issue there.


The last one would be the formal dining room/playroom. It could use some better toy storage... but that isn't a big issue. The big issue is what it really needs is wine storage. We have cases of wine stacked in there and need at minimum, a 100 bottle wine chiller. ($$$$$)


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So there are the issues in those rooms. A quick rundown on the other rooms in the house (and feel free to offer up suggestions):


Nursery/guest room: Will be tackled in March when we plan to move the Beaner to her room. The longer we can keep the queen bed in there the better. (Anyone want a very comfortable - according to family - queen sized bed in March?) This room won't cost a lot, but it will be A LOT of organization and decorating (with already purchased items). Just time is needed here.


Utility Room: This is an option for February. I have a fair amount of storage in here from my closet that houses craft stuff and cleaning supplies, the over the appliance cupboards that need organized and the coat closet. Then there is the top of the shelves I put in there that act as landing place for when AB doesn't want to open the door to the garage to return a tool. (Hmmm...)


Kitchen: It's too exhausting to even list. Suffice it to say I need pull outs. Need. And the floors... bamboo laminate is on the radar. This is getting pushed back to a month with money. (Do those exist?)


Master Bedroom: Just time is needed to go through the dressers and stuff. Decide what to do with the weight bench, etc. It wouldn't be a hard room, but I don't want to tackle until Skadi is out of there.


Master bath and closet: Time consuming with the closet and I want lots of closet organizers - so potentially pricey. The big part isn't for me here, but is for AB in repairing some broken trim in the bathroom and likely ripping out the linoleum patch and installing tile or something where we had a shower leak that ruined a section of our 6' x 4' linoleum.


Oh and the last place... guest bath: Actually this is a good candidate for February. It's just really organizing in there and buying containers to hold things and drawer seperators. It would probably only really take a weekend...