Live from Tormville!

I had no intention of getting the carpet cleaned today. Part I

I've got a busy week - lots to do.

I woke up this morning feeling a little bit off, chills and stuff, so decided it was a paperwork day. 
One of the things that's been on my list for awhile was to call around for carpet cleaning estimates. 

I called this place.

They talk a good line.  They even told me they could be here by 2:00.

Today??? I asked, slightly panicked.

Yes.  Today.

I had a, 'well heck' moment and decided to go for it.  I spent the next two hours clearing the rooms of clutter and toys - piling it all on the master bed.  Washing the walls of cobwebs and vacuuming the couches.  Because it's natural to clean before the real cleaning people come in.

They are going to call half hour before they arrive.

It's 3:00 and they haven't called yet.

They should be here right during the 'home from school, homework, suppertime, neighbor kids constantly knocking, senior photo shoot, friend coming over to look at hand-me-downs' rush.

You could say I'm a little bit steamed. 

eta:  Okay - they just called and said they are giving me 50% off - so at least they know how to rectify the situation.  Oh - and they'll be here at 4. 

The Boys Room

Projects projects projects.  I feel like I have them everywhere I turn right now.  This is my big one tho.  Since we traded bedrooms with the boys a couple months ago - there's been a lot that needs doing. 

The little boys have basically nothing in their room right now.  A Graco for Mark and a toddler bed for Brian - and a hodgepodge assortment of toys that make it up the stairs.  No dresser, no shelves, no beds - nothing. 

I went to IKEA last Saturday planning to pick them up some small dressers, but once I got there - I realized that I really don't want to do that until the bunk bed is made so I can very carefully consider placement and size.  I don't have a lot of room in here and the space I do have is very awkward.  I also had the idea that I might be better off going with a wardrobe of sorts - they had several at IKEA - since they have no hanging space in this room - their hanging clothes are laying on top of my dresser in our room.  We're still working out the tweaks.

If you look to the left of the mural, you'll see a little block of wood. That's there in case the bathroom door is locked (Allan's other entrance into his room) and he needs to get into his room - it's just enough of a foothold for him to launch up to his bed.  It was one of our smarter ideas. The door below his bed stays locked 99.9% of the time since the little boys think his room is fair game if it's open.

I also want to keep whatever I do - fairly simple.  I know that when the market does turn around and we want to put the house on the market - we'll have to shift the rooms around again.  (making these two rooms once again one - thus requiring a whole new repainting) The whole extra wall and barrier in here probably isn't a real stellar selling tool, but it works for now.

I removed over half of this wallpaper on Tuesday (yesterday I didn't work on that room at all, but rather - cleaned my fridge.  ugh)  It was bittersweet - I actually love this wallpaper and it was a lot of fun to put up.  (approx. 10 years ago)  It's that paper that you put up and then apply a color to the raised/embossed portion.   I enjoyed every bit of that project.  Our master bedroom was mostly white on white - and while I liked it - I'm looking forward to adding some color now and changing things up.

What I'm hoping to do in here is to somewhat coordinate both the boys rooms - on both sides of the wall.  When you walk in the door - both curtains are visible along with the top bit of the wall.  It doesn't matter really, I suppose - but I thought it would make it easier on me as far as using the same paints and fabrics - just making some changes to keep them separate and their own. We'll see how that goes.  I plan to bring Allan, our oldest, to the fabric store so he can make a decision on his colors and I can begin making curtains.  He is leaning towards the brown/light blue color combo.  I want to keep these rooms as light as possible so that they don't feel closed in.

The bunk bed will be built where the Graco is and come towards where I'm standing to take the picture. 

Here is a better picture of the wall we built around Allan's bed.  It's working pretty slick - I'm glad we went this route.

So, this is where you'll find me these days when I have a spare minute.  Markie, my two year old assistant, has learned the fine art of tearing down wallpaper - my only worry is that he's going to try it everywhere he goes now.  It's coming down very easily - no complaints.

I'm always open to ideas or suggestions too, if anything came to mind during the tour. :)

Spring Cleaning: Day 1

I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped to - but that's okay.  There's always tomorrow.  Or the next day.  I'm planning to spring clean this  house a little at a time - a little bit each day until the end of the month.  Or longer, if necessary (it will most likely be necessary)

My first plan of action is the kitchen cupboards.  They are long overdue for a scrubbing.  I also have it in my head that I'm going to refurbish my cupboards this summer - so this gives me a head start.  I'm planning to sand them, prime them, and paint them.  That's the plan, anyway.  I'll keep you posted.

But for now - a scrubbing. 

I tackled the most used cupboard - the one that holds our vitamins, our peanut butter, our lunch snacks and miscellaneous groceries.  Judging by the expiration dates on some of these items - it's been longer than a year or two since I've done this before.  Where did that time go? 

I daresay my cupboards are looking a little scarce right now.  I think a trip to the grocery store is in order. 

I also decided that as I'm doing my spring cleaning this year, I will take a photo of each room/space as I'm done - and put it in a folder labeled - insurance.  I'm also going to copy those to a private online album.  I always hear that this is recommended - but the last time I did it was about 13 years ago - in our old house.  Definitely time to update, even tho much of our furniture is, actually, the same as it was 13 years ago.

Since I know that someone is going to ask - and since I know that more than a few of my readers use these same oils - I'll give you a close up of our oil shelf.  We've been storing them this way for, well, about 11 years or so.  Pa simply bought some boards, made them to size, and drilled out base holes with a large drill bit.  Easy, and very functional.  It's a much used space.

So today, I emptied out the entire contents - scrubbed - did the corners with a toothpick (I'm very much a toothpick cleaner of corners) tossed a ton, and put everything back where it belonged.

Tomorrow I hope to tackle the pantry.
hope is good

It could be that I'm delusional

This past week I mentioned the possibility of moving my nook into the laundry room.  That's the laundry room in the photo above.  This would be an exercise in organization and *keeping up on things*. heh.

I'm that done with having my nook in the kitchen tho, that I really think we're going to give this a try.  Most of you who've read my blog for awhile know that I line dry everything.  That's issue number one - I dry at least one load of shirts a day on those hangers.  In the warmer weather - they'll be on the clothesline outside instead.

I worry about keeping that counter clean tho.  I use it all.the.time.  I use it for letting bakery cool - I use it when I put a roast in the slow cooker - I use it to hold things that we're collecting for say - the day we go to the zoo.  I'll collect what we need for the day there.  I use it to wrap presents, the kids sometimes use it for their homework.  I use that counter for more then I ever expected.  I love that counter.   So I'm a little apprehensive about that.

As far as storage - I see myself putting a board/shelf above the drying pole and having baskets on top to hold things.  I also see utilizing this cupboard.  It's not being used real well right now.  To be honest - this cupboard was put up at almost the exact time that Brian, our three year old, came out of his spica cast last year - and a lot of the gifts that he received - the play things and puzzles - got put in that empty spot and are still there to this day. I pull them out for him on a regular basis.  We threw a few cleaning supplies in the cupboard too just to keep things interesting.  And old curtain brackets.  It's a disaster.

I also see utilizing this space.  It's directly across from the laundry room and it still doesn't have a door.  Doors are on the long list - the one that has dishwasher, new vehicles, trim boards, new carpet, lights, storage baskets, a new front door - you know, that list.  There are portions of this storage that aren't being used as well as they could be - so I could revisit some of those and utilize them.  The best part of this storage tho is the shoe bins on the bottom - those have saved us a winters worth of tripping over foot wear.

So those are my conditions and concerns.  I have to also add that I'm planning to put scrapping on the back burner for awhile.  I'm not giving it up - I can't do that - but I'm taking on fewer scrap on demands for the time being.  I've been scrapping on a deadline since before I was pregnant for Mark - and I need a release from that for awhile - need to catch up on some things around the house, need to get some sewing done, need to try some other things.  But I enjoy scrapping and stamping too much to give it up completely - I just don't want it staring me in the face everyday, all day, any more.  That is why it's going to shift out of my kitchen, no matter how I have to do it.

Back to the laundry room - these are the bulletin boards that my sister made for me for Christmas 2007, when she had my name.  They work wonderfully in here - I tend to pin the pictures of the nieces and nephews on them when they come in the mail.  Those are all Pa's peeps - my side hasn't been as good at sending pictures lately - me included. 

My sister had Pa's name in 2008 - you might remember how I mentioned she doesn't like the post office?   True story. 

In other stuff -  Go Highlanders!!   Pa and Allan went to the game last night - I watched from home, but tonight - I think it's my turn to head to the game! 

Just something fun and different

Good, um, afternoon.  Am I late today?  hm.

Well - it's like this.  I was snuggling with my youngest this morning.  He still had that fresh from the tub smell from the night before, and it was cold, and he was cozy, and quiet - that's rare.

So we reveled in our quiet moment.

And then the bigs woke up. 

I sent both the bigs to school today - altho neither of them are feeling 100% yet.  I was secretly hoping for a snow day so they could have another day of rest.  Alas.   I feel like I'm just sitting here waiting by the phone now for one of them needing to be picked up.  Wendy's teacher did just email and said she appears to be doing fine.

I wonder if she'll still be fine when the Motrin wears off? 

Anyway.

I did my morning workout, took  a shower, did some laundry, broke up fights and all of a sudden it's nearly noon.  How did that happen?? 

At that point I wondered what to share today. 

I decided on the door.  It's not quite done - still a little rough around the edges - it was trickier to adhere to the plywood then we had hoped.  Pa ended up taking this job on himself the beginning of the week and has done a little bit more to it each night.  We'll probably put some trim up at the top end across the whole length to both give it a more finished look and help hold it in place. 

I'm not quite remembering where I got that backdrop from, but I remember getting a couple of them and that they were freebies.  I almost freecycled it when this idea occured to me.  Phew. 

When warmer weather comes (it will - right???) I'l paint the remaining wall that isn't covered.

It's coming together, a little bit at a time.....

A room in progress

While I've not had much time to work on our room change since the day we switched, Allan has been busy ordering shelves, setting things up - and is wishing he could sew so that he could switch out the curtains himself.  Alas and all that, he'll just have to be patient. 

It's hard to really show you the difference between the before and the after as the wall takes up so much of the space now - I'll have to borrow my brothers super wide angle to get it from the other side, but here are a few shots from inside Al's new room.  You can see the old room here.  I'm taking this picture from the entrance to the closet hallway - right by the window.  His room isn't large and is rather odd shaped - but he's tickled with it. 

I just realized that I didn't get a photo of the door we (okay, he and him) made - I'll have to do that, Pa made a cool lock for it.  I still need to adhere the mural to that wall too - so those will come later.  Later, as in, later later later. 

And I find myself thankful that we kept the pegboard up in my old office - Allan will make use of it. 

For now, his dresser sticks out a bit too - and while it bothers me, it doesn't seem to bother him.  I might try convincing him to just get shelves for the wall.  He's only storing books and toys in there, the clothes are all in the closet. That dresser, by the way, is a junk picking find that I refinished.  I like those kind of projects now and then. It's a sweet dresser, dovetailed hinges and everything.

And more girl curtains

I'll take a few more detail shots, uh, later......   but that's where we're at right now.  It was a good move. 

There are stars on my ceiling

We're not done yet. Far from it, in fact. It's the type of project that will go on for awhile - I'll paint the walls in the spring, redo the curtains when I'm in the mood, buy shelving when the funds allow it - that type of thing.

But we're off to a good start. The move we made will buy us some peace until the economy picks back up and we can relaunch our hopes of moving (we looked, out of curiosity, at some of the homes that we looked at four years ago - homes that are still for sale now.  Those that were going for $250,000 then, are going for $120,000 now. And they are still for sale.  Just to give you an idea.  The ideal position right now is to be a first time home buyer.  Alas - that's not us) but until then....

...I have stars on my ceiling.  I told Allan the least he could have done was to remove them while his loft was still up in his old room.  hmph.   We definitely have some hiccups to work out. My dresses are in the front hall closet, the sewing machine is in Wendy's room, I lost a dresser so don't know where to keep my, um, socks.

The painting of the walls will come when I can open up the windows.  The door to this creation will be made tomorrow and Allan's desk after that.

The toys will be moved up sometime next week.

It's a process.

Overall tho, everyone is excited.  Wendy is excited to be able to keep things nice.  I'm excited to see if she is actually capable of doing that.  Allan is excited to have his own space.  The boys are excited to have a room that they won't be constantly booted from.  I'm excited for the toys to move upstairs and the joy that will be found in each kid having a spot to call their own.

Now if I could just figure out how to get the youngest to sleep at night, life would be near perfect....

me and my bright ideas

Many of you know that I've been on a long quest to find a solution to our shortage of rooms over here. When our hopes of selling (bad buyers) fell thru twice in 2004 while I was then pregnant for our third child, we took down the sign and decided to just make the best of things.  And I got pregnant again. That's what happens when we make the best of things.  Now we are six of us cozied up into three bedroom home with a two and a half foot tall basement - and the economy is worse now (and getting worse still) then it was back then.  So we are here until things turn around.

Currently - the near two year old is sharing a bedroom with the 13 year old which basically just means that his crib is in that bedroom, he doesn't play in there.  The near four year old (boy) and the eight year old girl also share a room.  That room has become something of a playroom.

Well.

This past couple months I could tell that the situation couldn't go on much longer.  This week alone the boys have colored on Wendy's dolls, eaten her chapstick, broken one of her necklaces and the list goes on and on - she has no hope of keeping any of her things nice when her room is also the playroom.  For Allan's room to be a playroom is out of the question for various reasons - one of them being that he collects knives and another being that he's my exceptionally neat and tidy kid. Perhaps it might be interesting or educational to shake him up a bit, but that's a battle that I choose not to get into. He's a full ten and twelve years older than his brothers. They'd wreak havoc for certain, and my sanity couldn't handle it.

Today, while I was shoveling - the solution (I hope) finally occured to me.  I don't know why it didn't come to me sooner - I've worked out all sorts of different variables in my brain over the past couple years but never this one.  It's that whole girl/boy thing - it'd be different if they were all boys.

So.  My winter project.  What we're hoping to do is to put the master bedroom in what is currently Wendy's room. (that's an old link - she has a loft bed now, not a toddler bed - but everything else - wallpaper, etc, is the same) The little boys will go into what is currently mainly Allan's room.  That leaves Allan and Wendy.  They will go in our room.  heh.  But wait - our room should be big enough that we can put up a dividing wall in the middle of it, giving them both their own personal space - the only trick is that we have to figure out access to the far room.  We're going to invite a few friends over who are more knowledgeable than us to tell us if we're on track in our thoughts, but I really really think it will work.

But golly molly, it's gonna be a big job.  Both Wendy and Allan have custom made bolted to the wall loft beds - so those need to be taken down.  Allan's we hope to move - Wendy doesn't want hers.  We need to figure out closets and storage.  Beds. Make sure the size works - Wendy's new room will be the oddest size and shape, but I still think it will work and they are both so thrilled at the idea of finally getting their own space that size and shape are irrelevant.  I only want to make sure there is room to fit the bed.  That seems important.

So, that will be my winter project - with a bonus of some inventory gutting, dusting, cleaning, shaking of the rugs - all of it.  But first I have to finish writing my class - then I can get busy.  It's motivating, and long overdue.

Fingers crossed that it works!

Ready, Set, Monday!

I'm geared up for Monday - as per usual. I'm feeling a little more on top of things this morning, having knocked a few things off my to do list over the weekend.

This closet (the boys) wasn't on my todo list, but it also got done.  Finally. With pa's frequent out of town trips lately - it was a long mess in progress.  Now we're working on getting this room back in order.  Allan's been putting his stuff in, and he knows that he has to leave enough room for Mark to move into it also.  I'm not sure if I'll get to that before the family wedding or not.  I want to - but I've got other commitments to work on first.   I love organizing.

We enjoyed a lazy day yesterday - Uncle George rode the bike over (an '88 Suzuki - I was telling him that except for the duct tape on the stereo, it looks like new.  And it does), we enjoyed a visit, threw burgers on the grill, that sort of thing - and before we knew it the day was over. 

My shoulder, knock on wood, feels better this morning.  It's been feeling a little better each day.  Debating if I should go back to the chiropracter or not.  He wanted to see me today, but he also felt certain it would pop back out over the weekend. It didn't.  Huge relief.

Today will be a test tho as I hope, weather permitting, to get some laundry on the line.

Amongst other things
Lots of things

Layouts to make
shopping lists to write up
A daughter starting Busy Bees
dinner to figure
bills to pay
a walk to take
and boys to tend to

I best get busy
Happy Monday!!

My Scrappy Spot

First of all - I had the most delightfully productive and relaxing day in a long time.  I puttered, I accomplished, I cleaned, I baked, I organized, I tubbed the kids, sorted laundry - just all kinds of things.  I never did make it out to go dress hunting - the rain never let up for a walk to town - but that's okay.  I've resigned myself to the fact that my budget just might decree that I have to wear last years dress my 2006 dress.

that's okay. 

Another thing I finally got to today was the very large heap of paper on our kitchen counter.  This heap had graduated to a portable cardboard box a couple weeks ago when we had the No Crow BBQ.  The box landed in the laundry room and piles of laundry began to stack on top of that.  It was time to go thru it.

 

These were all in that pile.  Unread.  That one on the top just came today. Three are still in their plastic, and I think I've only cracked the binding on two.  I've been busy. I'm planning to go thru them all now before October comes, and I'm packing a few to bring on our ten hour drive north in a couple weeks.  That one on the bottom is going traveling with me for sure - love reading Ali while I'm on the road.

 

I've also been doing some organizing and resorting this past couple days.  I've found that, for me, the organization of my work area is a constant process.  Being that it's such a small space, and that it's in my small kitchen, space is at a premium.

I went thru and condensed my TT stamps, keeping at my desk only my very favorites, my most used....

 

and I labelled those binders as well.  I have a lot of favorites. The other four binders moved to the closet giving me room to put some of my scrapbooks close at hand - I've missed having that. 

I need to order more of those whatchamacallits for the album binding - love those - and the kids love being able to grab their books and peek at what I've been doing with their pages. The three books that aren't labelled are - sibling pages, holidays and recently finished need to be filed pages. I like that book because it's the one that's easiest to show company when they ask what I've been scrapping lately.  I file into the appropriate books as it gets full or I get in the mood.

 

I did a little organizing under my desk this past week too.  There are two of these drawer systems under my desk, and it used to be that one was mine and the other was the kids - crayons, markers, coloring books, that type of thing.

I kicked them out.  I should have done it long ago.  I now have 14 full drawers.  Off the top of my head they are

The top of my desk (this is the pile that seems to multiply on my desk - it now has it's own drawer.  don't laugh)
Scenic Route.  I'm a Scenic Route addict - they get their own drawer.  And it's full.
Daisy D's.  Love them too.  Also a full drawer.
Embellishments
Technique Tuesday stamps without storage sheets 
Punches/Scissors/Adhesive
Clear embellishments/paper/transparencies
Top Secret I can't tell you drawer
Stuff with cool edges - best drawer I ever made - all my Bazzill edges, scalloped edged paper, fancy trims - all in this drawer - love it
Memorabilia/souveniors (kids programs/ticket stubs/report cards/etc)
recent cards that i've made
two drawers are 'newest product I have purchased' drawers

that's all I'm remembering right now - looks like I'm just forgetting two - not bad. 

 

I had Pa put in the curtain rod last week so I could hide these drawers - I thought I was going to have to make a little curtain, but then dug this tablecloth out of my collection and I think it works just fine.  I merely flipped it over the rod and handstitched just a few simple stitches to keep it held in place - it's been working great and I'll still be able to use it as a tablecloth someday. Love simple solutions.

 

Just before we went up north this summer - I purchased these small drawers from Target.  I actually purchased six sets - thinking they would span the entire space across the back of my desk.  It was swell - for a day.  It made my desk feel smaller and closed in.  I emptied three of them out, gave them to Pa for the garage, and this seems to be working much better now.  

 

I also picked up this cool yellow wall hanging thingamabob from TJMaxx last week when I was supposed to be dress shopping.  I love it even more than I expected I would.  It lifted a lot of things off of my desk and they are very easy to reach and see right there.

 

And that's about it.  The Target bag hanging on the right there is my garbage bag - the accordian file is all my scraps sorted by color - the kids have free reign of that one and use it often, the brown cardboard box - I'm going to have to look because I honestly can't remember right now......hmm. And the red rag in my cup holder is for wiping my stamps, keeping my desk clean.  Cuz I still stamp - I always will.

And with that - I'm off to create - if I could just figure out Where in the world my headset went so I could listen to some music while I create.....

be good