The past few weeks… ok, months, I have been a touch stressed. I don’t like owning two homes. I want the one that is up for sale to sell. We hardly have time to maintain one house, let alone a second one about a mile away and empty.

I took active mental steps to get us on the road to dealing with the new house. I needed focus and clarity on what exactly needed to happen beyond “empty boxes” since I can easily dump a box out. Where to put the stuff laying on the floor in a pile is a bigger issue.

When I started packing the house up to move I saw it as an opportunity to purge. At least early on I did. Later in the process I just started dumping stuff in boxes. The real opportunity to purge is coming now. Because there were boxes and piles of things that were garage sale or Goodwill… and instead of getting hauled to Goodwill, or actually having a garage sale, instead they were just moved to the new house and are still my problem to deal with. And despite having a larger house, I am still struggling with where to put things.

My answer to a lot of the issues in the new house is to do the one room a month thing. Each month (or other set period of time) I tackle one room. I set out a plan of attack, figure out what would make that room fly, scale back my dreams to somewhat realistic, and then put it into action. I am not always great with the deadline aspect. But sometimes it is just best to move on to the next room without the one room being completely finished. I am nothing if not a good procrastinator. Sometimes best to say, “just not going to get done, maybe next year”.
I actually didn’t do a single thing to the foyer this past weekend.

So I guess this introduction really isn’t that valid here. Since what all I did get accomplished didn’t have much to do with the room (or really area) that I am currently tackling. Except suffice it to say that there are three things that need to happen in the foyer, one of them for AB to do (hang the mirror) and the other is so easy to forget that I need to keep it on my radar by mentioning it (get 'off white' paint to touch up the ceiling where I was unable to keep my brush on the wall - what exactly WAS I doing while painting? Apparently not paying attention...). I also want a bench, but I can’t justify the money for that right now when the other house has not sold.

Since tackling the foyer wasn’t in the cards for the weekend I decided to steer myself towards the room giving me the most angst… the Master bedroom. There were still boxes all over to be unpacked. Boxes that upon examination of the contents were things that for the most part could be ignored for who knows how long. Except that every time I walked into the Master bedroom – which is a lot of times – I cringed at the boxes lining the wall under the windows.

So Saturday while Skadi napped and Leif went semi-neglected in front of the computer – I unpacked them! I did a lot of throwing away… purging, of things that should have been purged before moving and during the packing phase.

Once finished I made AB go in and admire the room more than once. It gave me such a feeling of peace and calm to have those boxes gone.

Truth be told, one box remains. One small, but very full and heavy box. I know what is in it… the many books that were stacked in our bedroom at the other house. Books that need to go in the bookshelf… that AB has to modify to fit into the office. So for now, until I can get that box hauled downstairs, a box of books sits in there. I can deal with a box of books for now.

It was a very uneventful weekend otherwise. We cooked. We went on a few hikes. AB held an open house. We worked on maintenance on the yard at the other house - a sprinkler has broken and left a large patch of brown grass in the backyard... gurrr. We played soccer. We watched the thunderstorms and lightning. We watched movies. We were lazy.

It was a good weekend.

I am ready for another.

The Foyer

So I have decided to get back to my one room a month routine. One month I will tackle putting together, organizing and setting up a room. I keep telling myself this will take forever and I would like to be "in" the house, fully IN our new house earlier. But it's not going to happen. It's just not a logical approach (yes, I am part Vulcan apparently... and if you haven't seen Star Trek, go see it. Now.). The one room a month IS logical and will get me further on my path to being IN the house and also it engages AB better because he knows whiat the priority for the month is.

The remainder of May (since I just started this) and all of June is the foyer. It doesn't sound like a lot, it isn't a huge area, but it is the first area people see when they walk in my house. And I have ideas and plans to put into motion.

The post from a few weeks ago is where I started.

Here it is during the Memorial Day weekend paint-fest:



Skadi loved painting and she was terribly helpful. When she decided she was done she had two green feet - and I had more paint on me than she had on her favorite "Icky Mouse" pajamas.

And here is where it stands now:

Favorite black and white pictures are up.

I have a great mirror to hang perpindicular to the pictures, but AB lifted it up, chastized me a little for thinking I was going to use nails and suggested he was going to need anchors and screws (same as in the other house I guess) to mount it and he didn't have time today. So the next task is to hang the mirror.

Next task after that is the touch up stuff. I have a lot of green edges to touch up.

And white on the ceiling... somehow.... somewhere I will find a white that matches. Yes, I am a klutz with the paint and am apparently no longer allowed to tape the ceiling... or paint near the ceiling.

I also want a bench. A nice bench to put under the photos. I had wanted a bench and coat hanging thing, but we don't use the front entrance to go in and out and we have a coat closet *right* there. So instead I will get a bench.

And maybe a side table to put across the arch in the photo above by the coat closet?

Yes, with it being summer and all, it WILL take me all of June to do this list.

Month of July is Leif's Star Wars themed room. Goal is to have THAT done before his birthday on July 29th.