middle of boys room- progress!

middle of boys room- progress!
Originally uploaded by thefarmersdaughter

This weekend was weird- Sat. I did nothing. Well, I went shopping with the boy, but after that- nothing. We watched tv and vegged. Sunday though- a totally different story

We started work on the boys room. We took down the wall o shelves and I patched them. Next is more sanding, priming and painting. My son wants this color to stay. (at least today that's what he said) The Mr. put up my old kitchen shelves up on the opposite wall for pictures etc... and he's bringing up the old secretary from the basement for me to work on this week. I have to paint it. I may try a wood grain, but maybe not. I don't know yet. It's going to replace the giant Heywood Wakefield dresser you see in this picture. It was my great Grandma's and it's a bit fragile for a growing boy. Plus- it's HUGE. In a 8 x 10 ft room it's almost all you see.

So here is what I did on Sunday since I slacked on Sat.
-Cleaned my paint closet, organized it, and decanted a few gallons into quarts.
-took my winter clothes to downstairs storage.
-went grocery shopping and did this weeks menu
-took off the shelves in the boys room and helped the Mr. put up the new ones
-spackled the wall
-sanded the wall
-dusted the room (those three go together- wow was it messy)
-took a long walk down to the river and messed around as a family- watched the boy try to "fish" with a stick and chase the geese.

Here is the menu for this week-
Sunday we had sirloin steak with baked potatoes
Monday - homemade lasagna with salad
Tue. - Salmon (grilled if nice outside) with veggies and couscous
Wed. -Dirty rice with biscuits and salad
Thur. - going out with MIL
Fri -Roasted whole Chicken with garlic bread and salad
Sat. Lunch it's just me and the boy, but for dinner I will probably
make lunch, homemade waffles, with eggs, sausage or
bacon, biscuits and fruit. Yummy.

The Cure- week 3.

I have no energy this week. After the blizzard on Tuesday it just sort of sucked the life right out of me. The weather isn't bad now (actually it was rather nice on Wed.) but it's going to rain, freezing rain and snow for the next week- so it's hard to get rather rah rah right now. I should tell you that I have found since moving up here I hate March. I hate it. The weather sucks and I am over winter by now. The snow is dirty, the weather is unpredictable, and there isn't much going on. That is why I started doing the cure- it gave me something to focus on.

This is my done list so far for this week-

• Monday I spent it doing normal household jobs- dishes, laundry, the bathrooms etc... took a while because I took the weekend off. I also took down the shower curtain and put up the new summer one, cleaned up the landing strip , took pics and put them on Flickr, and found a container to put the fall curtain rings in. I put them in a box and put them near my fall curtains in storage.


• Tuesday I spent looking up stuff on the computer ( native grasses for my hillside, low sodium cookbooks for my mother, re-usable bags for the grocery store) I made my shirt piles for WT, I packed up my winter clothes and my boys winter clothes. I cleaned and organized my closet and the boys closet. I put out our spring stuff. I also made 2 pillow shams for my bedroom, and a valence for my boys room (but I have to fix that because it's too long.)


• Wednesday I took the boy to the lake. The big lake. We ran on the sand dunes, ate at McDonalds, went to some junk stores and picked up driftwood. The only work I did was to go through the hats and gloves and organize those-because we needed some.


• Thursday I did general housework again, did some paint swatches on the bedroom wall, made dinner for the Mother in Law, and did some work on the garage sale plans (ad verbiage, inclusion on the city wide garage sale map, layout map of the sale)


• Friday (today) I have cleaned out the washer and the dishwasher, cleaned out the buffet drawers and the scrapbooking drawers, cleaned out my organizer, started work on the final paint job in the laundry room and cleaned the laundry room floor.

I still have a lot more to do, but this will have to do for now.

Wardrobe Therapy- Shirts- oh boy piles and piles!

For someone who spent over 20 years in the great southwest desert- I sure don't have a lot of summer clothes. My piles are rather meager and colorless. Unless of course, you happen to love black and white. Here they go
3 identical eddie bauer (eb) t's. good v neck- good sleeves

2 old navy t's. Too low of a v neck. kinda slutty. going to goodwill

2 old navy t's scoop neck- one olive, one orangy pattered. Nice.
Lee jeans white w/blue pattern t. again, good scoop neckline, good condition
EB 3/4 sleeve v neck t brown. Not the best color for summer, but a good t shirt

2 Mossimo t shirts 1 blk, 1 white. ok. probably will transition to sleepwear.

3 rabbity old navy t shirts. Out of rotation. Going into the garden wear pile.

2 tissue weight black t shirts. 1 3/4 sleeves, 1 short sleeve. Both scoop neck. Both great with skirts or jeans.

Spring/Summer button down shirts. NO short sleeved. I hate short sleeve shirts. I only have black and white shirts. I think here is an opportunity for some color too...

• Black and white tunic. It's in really nice condition, but I think I am over the tunic look
• Jones of NY white linen shirt. I don't wear this much. I don't really know why. I think I am going to and decide if it's something I really want to keep
• Banana Republic white button down shirt. I like this one with jeans. It's a nice light weight
• Liz Clayborn white linen shirt with some embroidery on it. I like it. The black one though- not as much. It has these ties at the 3/4 sleeve bottom, and when I wore it it seemed to wrinkle even more than linen usually does. Probably going away.
• Gauze tunic shirt. I actually have 2 of these. One with pink embroidery, one with blue. I wear them over a tank top. I will keep these because with jeans they look rather nice.
  

These are my knits for the season.

• I have 3 identical EB lightweight sweaters (only 2 are shown, the other is in the wash), one is black, one is sky blue, the other is the darker blue. I love these sweaters. I wish they had a white or a pink one.....
• Banana Republic open weave longer tunic sweater . It's ok. I have to wear a tank under it.

My cruddy t shirts. I love these bad boys. When I can't wear them any longer, I cut the image off them and sew them into a throw. Here are the 6 I have right now.

• Mojo Hand is my brothers art business
• the skeleton riding a horse with birds is great for biking
• Chuys was my favorite mexican restaurant in Austin
• the thunderbird lounge is the first to be replaced this season
• The idol hand is something that I actually wear out with a suede western shirt and jeans.
• The Salt Lick t (the best bbq restaurant on the PLANET) I wear when I grill or make brisket. (I have a case of Salt Lick sauce that I get every year on my birthday. )

SO that is what I have for tops. A lot of black, some white, no real color. I wear t shirts all the time, and I don't have an outside job to dress for, so that is what I am going to focus on. Some colors with a good cut. I think 3 t shirts will do me, and 2 fresh tank tops (black/white) maybe a new light weight sweater. I do need a lot of black t shirts due to what I do in the summer, but the old ones will do just fine this season. When I go to garage sales and flea markets I don't want a lot of dirt and ick to show, and I don't want to dress all that well so I can get a good deal (look like you have money and stuff is going to be higher!)

I can't believe this!

This is RIGHT NOW. As I type this, we are getting more snow. As I look out my window right now- it's snowing even harder. There looks to be about 3 inches out there since last night and "they" say we will be getting- gulp- 5 to 9 INCHES of snow today. Yesterday the boy and I were walking around the house, looking at the iris bulbs that were shooting up, moving the dead branches from around the house. There was snow, but it was old snow. And there was a lot of grass showing. It was sunny, 40 and nice.
I hate winter. HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.
Ok, now that that is out of my system, it's back to work. (It's a good day for work- what the hell else am I going to do?)





UPDATE-


MORE SNOW! yesterday the roads were clear- there was no snow down at the river!

Apartment Therapy Cure- Week 3 already??

I am so glad that my landing strip has worked for me since the last few cures. I will really get to do other work this week- finishing the laundry room, working on my dolls ( I am six behind now) , general household cleaning, and putting together the last bits of stuff for my boys new room. So here is my done list for the past weekend ( I really only worked on Thursday, I was sick Friday and Saturday (Food poisoning from my "run to the border" on Friday for lunch) and then Sunday was Easter. And it snowed, and snowed, and snowed......)

Here are the tasks that I had to do for week 2 AT cure:

• Fix one thing yourself- replaced a broken deadbolt lock
• Clean/clear one surface- I cleared off the bar table surface that collects a jumble of crap
• Visions- Names for my style. I have no clue. I don't really think like that. Giving my dolls names sends me into fits. I know what I like, what I want to do, but I don't give it a name. But I tried, so here it it- For my son's room the style name is "out of Africa" more safari than kiddie zoo, I think it fits. For my bedroom- I'm thinking "summery beachhouse" because my bedroom changes with the seasons and it's lighter and brighter, with flowers curtains, shell and paintings of the Caribbean.
• the living room and the rest of the house is more "rustic modern cabin " because I can't move my house-it's on the water and in the woods- and I have deer horns and Herman Miller.
  
• DONE ( Thursday)

1. Filled 4 "to sell" boxes
2. Filled HUGE "karma" bag and took that to Goodwill
3. Finished cleaning and organizing the pantry
4. cleaned under the stove and fridge
5. 2 loads of laundry
6. found a "go" bag for my son and filled it- travel potty seat, kan-do wipes, disinfectant spray and wipes, extra pair of underwear and pants and first aid kit. (he's never had an accident, but there's always a first time.)
7. Painted the nicks etc on the cabinets, touched up missed spots on the bead board
8. re did the kitchen art shelf and put up new art for the kitchen
9. did the touch up paint job on the green kitchen walls
10. dusted the light fixtures
11. put up the summer curtains ( to soon I think, but I am desperate for spring)
12. packed up the winter curtains and took to the storage room

To Do list for the week

• look up and find re usable shopping bags
• find a container to put used pop bottles and cans (we have a deposit law here)
• move all the stuff for the garage sale to the storage room
• organize the hats and gloves, make sure everything has a mate
• clean out the paint closet
• run cleaner through the dishwasher and washing machine
• WT- shirt piles!
• find all my picture frames
• go through the 2 drawers in the buffet that are filled with pictures and scrapbooking stuff
• find a container for the curtain rings to store until next winter
• finish the 6 dolls I am working on
• clean out my organizer
• finish priming the bar
• make the curtains for Max's room and the pillow shams for my bedroom
• keep up with everything else.
• color my hair

I think that's it, although I am sure that I will add more. Hopefully the weather will be nicer and the boy and I can get out and do something too...

Week 2- Midweek update.

I have done a lot of work this week because I think I am going to take this weekend off. The Mr. has a 3 day weekend and I thought it would be nice not to have to do any work at all and just have fun.
This is week 2- kitchen week. Since I am doing a combo of both the deep clean and one room cures, I am following this weeks kitchen clean up.

Things I have gotten done so far-

Monday I- Cleaned and dusted the screens of 5 windows (9 left to go), did general pick up and cleaning, painted the orange swatch in the kitchen, did 3 loads of laundry, cleaned 2 bathrooms and 2 toilets top to bottom, cleaned the floors in the kitchen and dining room, made chili gravy for home made enchiladas for Tues., painted with my son (who is sick right now with a head cold and that is the reason I can get so much done right now- he's pretty sedate right now and just wants to either read, color or watch tv all the while blowing his nose and rubbing his eyes- poor kid) cleaned the stove inside (my son helped me with that- I use lemon juice and baking soda so it's ok) threw away old food from the fridge (2 elderly tomatoes and 1 soy sauce), organized and cleaned out the silverware drawers, the kitchen tools and the cabinet of plastics (only 3 extra lids this time- yea!)

Tuesday I- watched the ice storm from the newly cleaned windows, and looked through my new magazines I got from the hospital gift shop. Then, when it started to melt we went to town and went shopping- I got fabrics for pillows and a curtain for the boys new room and small battery operated lights for his closet, then I primed the orange swatch in the kitchen white because we decided not to paint that orange, found the summer white curtains (they were lost for the past few days) and changed out the winter brown dining room curtains with the new summer ones. Then I made steak enchiladas with chili gravy and home made tortilla chips and salsa for dinner -with limeade, sorry, no margaritas for me!

newly cleaned pantry pictures!



• Wednesday I-Cleaned the fridge, re worked my husbands closet shelves because his stuff was stuffed in them, 3 loads of laundry, general pickup and cleaning, painted the backsplash in the kitchen, cleaned all the countertops in the kitchen, started cleaning the pantry (got the upper shelves and the drawers done) started work in the bedroom reworking accessories on the shelves, took care of my son who is still "all snotzy" as he says, and then decided that I too am coming down with something. Crap!

You would thing that with a newly found case of heart disease in my family I would have less fatty food

gratuitous refrigerator and freezer pictures

I have a large to do list for tomorrow so I hope I feel better tomorrow.

TO DO LIST

1. Finish the pantry


2. move the to sell box downstairs and start another one


3. do some touch up painting in the kitchen


4. put away all the various paints I have brought out


5. start a box for the items I am getting for my sons room re-do


6. finish the last 3 cabinets in the kitchen and the drawer under the stove.


7. dust the kitchen light fixtures


8. pull the stove and fridge out and clean under them

I think that's it. That better be it. After this I get to move on to redecorating- the fun stuff.

Wardrobe Therapy catch up post.

I have only been out of the loop for 4 days and yet, it feels like 4 weeks. I need to center my thinking and calm down. I decided to do some small housework and my wardrobe therapy interview. My son is watching Playhouse Disney- it's such a treat for him! Did I tell you I finished potty training? OK, I know how to use the bathroom, that came out wrong. My 3 yr old son is toilet "trained". I hate that phrase. He's a big boy now. YEA! NO more accidental washing diapers in the washer! No more icky diaper garbage! NO MORE SMELLS!

Ok, onward to the interview.

Wardrobe Therapy

Bones

I have got to do laundry- and I need to finish bringing up the spring/summer stuff so I can do piles. I also have to take away the winter stuff- package it up and store it for next year.

Breath-

Really, this is simple for me. I need to weed out the nasty t shirts from last year and plan on getting new ones for summer. I have to really look at neck and sleeve cut, shapes and legnth. Those things are so important in t shirts.

Head

Do the interview and start planning the wardrobe changes. My spring/summer is far different than anyone elses here I am sure, so it will be interesting to see how this goes. (this is the season that I play outside, garden and garage sale and flea market. None of those things need nice clothes)

Pamper

For me that is a new hair color and a little shopping. Also, I get outside to move around more and I am very much looking forward to biking and rollerblading.



My Uniform for summer.
This is a white t shirt with a jean skirt/short thing on the bottom. It actually just looks like a skirt, but with a 3 yr old you can flash someone in a second picking him up so a skort is better for me. I find shorts icky (on me- not in general) .... sorry it's wrinkled, I just took it out of storage. I also wear black t shirts with a black skirt in the summer but it didn't photograph well.

This is my "dressy" summer look. T shirt with a flippy skirt. I wear flat sandals or ones with a small 2 inch heel.
This is my more business casual look. It's dark jeans or a med. wash jean, a white t, and a navy or a green jacket on top. You can sort of see the green jacket in the closet. If it's more casual and cooler I have a thin suede western style shirt I wear instead of the blazer.

SO those are my favorites and my wardrobe for spring. Summer is more the top 2 type of outfits , but summer in my neck of the woods can be rather cold so a jacket is often needed.

Colors

The colors I look best in are fall colors- dark red, green, brown, orange. I know black and white are to stark, but honestly I am not comfortable wearing color. I want to try to find some colorful stuff this season though. I look horrid in yellows ( I look like old cheese) and with slightly yellow and red undertones to my skin and red hair it's tough to find anything except greens and some blues that look good on me. Still, it's a goal.

Back at home

I am so glad this week is over. When I last wrote, my Dad had failed his stress test and we were taking him down for more treatment to the heart hospital . The Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center where we went is excellent, it is a huge hospital organization and this center is the best in the state. This is what happened this weekend- we went down on Friday for my father to have a heart catheterization with possible stent. They had to inject him with contrast dye and look for blockages that stop oxygen and blood flow to the heart. They found one spot at 75% blocked ( that's the upper picture that says 25%) and a few that were at 30 and 40% blocked. Apparently, they don't do anything about those until they get worse. So, he got a stent to insure blood flow to that part of his heart.

This is what it looks like

This doesn't take that long really, they go in through the groin (no incision), insert the stent, and you're done. The procedure is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. You usually stay overnight then go home. Dad looked great when we left him on Friday after the procedure, so we got him to his room , he was sleepy and tired, so we left ( this hospital is 120+ miles away round trip) .
Next morning we get there to bring him home, and no, they are going to keep him. He has a few issues with enzyme totals and his blood pressure. He's also having some chest pains. He still looks great though, so we stay all afternoon and head back home. We go back up there today and he still looks great, but he had chest pains, and his blood pressure fell during the night. He had 5 or 6 EKG's during the night. He had a load of heart related tests. Everything kept coming back normal and looking good. Apparently, his blood pressure is very very low normally. He has some pain, but they believe that that is from some small capillaries that die off during this procedure and will go away in about a week, but his heart is doing fine. My Mom is an ex nurse so she quizzed and re quizzed every staff member she came into contact with. Apparently, he's doing well, and he wanted to come home, so we finally got to bring him home tonight.

I am exhausted. I have driven over 450 miles since Friday going back and forth to the hospital with my Mother. I have spent countless hours looking at the sick and dying, walking the halls with the multitudes of people visiting their friends and family. I hate elevators and I bet I have ridden for 100 floors a few times over. I have never seen so much unappealing food as I have this weekend. I am tired, but I think my Dad will be OK so it's all worth it.

I will be back to the cure and wardrobe therapy Monday. Goodnight , and thank you all for your thoughts and kind wishes.

Apartment Therapy Cure Week 1- Abreviated

I learned last night that my Dad is going in for a heart operation on Friday. HE IS OK right now. He had a stress test on Monday, and although it looked fine going in, apparently after the stress it did not. The left side of his heart is not getting oxygen. He has not had a heart attack, but they also aren't taking any chances and are getting him taken care of asap. Thank God for health insurance. Here's the kicker though. My Dad found out about this because of my son.

I took a weekend trip a couple weeks ago, and my husband took my son over to their house to go sledding. Apparently, my Dad felt a little tired, and his throat "burned" A week later he told his Dr. about it- and he felt that a stress test was in order. If it wasn't for the sledding incident, he wouldn't have gotten the stress test. As some of you know, I had cancer that was detected ONLY because I was pregnant with my son. Because of my son I am alive today. Because of my son my Dad discovered he had a heart problem. Weird huh? I think he's my little lucky charm.

So, today will be the last day of my week 1. I fully expect to be back at this on Sunday, but I have to go to the hospital with my Mom and stay with her during this time. I kicked it into high gear today and this is what I got done this week-

• Monday I was sick all day and didn't do anything except sleep.
• Tuesday I went shopping (grocery and otherwise- got a great new doorknocker) made some shopping lists for the new bedroom items I need to find, put together boxes to hold those new items until I can use them, sculpted 2 new doll heads, did the dishes and the laundry, and my Mr. finished caulking the kitchen.
• On Wednesday I- got hotel info for our hospital stay, put more stuff in the "sell" box, cleaned my closet and the front hall closet, cleared out the landing strip and did my filing, addressed and mailed the Easter cards, cleaned the main bathroom, vacuumed the entire house, stripped the beds and remade them, aired out the entire house for 4 hours, did phonics work with my boy, and cleaned the laundry room. I cleaned all the public spaces, my bedroom and my sons room. I worked in my studio for another 15 min. and actually now have enough floor space cleaned off that I could vacuum in there.

As for green cleaning- listen, I hate chemicals and chemicals hate me (not as much as SCB). I use a micro fibre dusting cloth for dusting (DUH) and I also use a 1 1/2 inch paintbrush for dusting- it's great for dusting picture frames, little knick knacks, blinds and window frames. For my floors, to wash my floors I actually use mostly Hot water on a cloth diaper attached to an old swiffer. It works great, and I just throw it into the washer when I'm done- the diaper- not the swiffer. For tougher stuff on the floor, I use some floor cleaner (Method) on the diaper. I use Bon Ami for scouring, Clorox Green Works toilet cleaner (Tang just doesn't cut it at my house), Method window cleaner, and lysol antibacterial wipes for stuff like chicken juice and really icky stuff that I feel need to die.

So that's it- wish my Dad luck!

week zero Apartment Therapy cure list

I am not totally sure why we needed a week zero. I was all ready to start work and kick some butt so I started early. Besides, since I have a house, sometimes 8 weeks just isn't enough time to do the cure right- especially the cleaning part of it.
So what did I do this week? Well, first I didn't spend to much time on the thinking phases of this cure. This is number 3 for me, and I know what my house is saying.
My house is

• Bi-Polar. The public areas are clean and re done. The not so public areas are, well, not so clean, or re done. I have some storage issues and clutter abounds in those storage areas. My husband is kinda lazy when it comes to clutter and picking up.


• Dusty. Boy is it dusty. With the boy, the man , the dog and cat- there's all sorts of fur, dust, bits of kid food, crayons, paper, etc... it collects in corners and under things. It is a constant battle to keep on top of it.


• Small. My house is small and it knows it. It is not ashamed- but it is aware of the problem

What I did this week-

I didn't feel around the walls- that's for sure. I know my outside walls are cold in the winter- DUH I live in Michigan. Ditto for the windows. But I watched the suns location through the windows now, and I tried to figure out how well the heater was working in each room so we can adjust that. Then I cleaned-

• On Sunday- I took everything out of the living room, cleaned everything and re arraigned the furniture just a bit. I took some of the boys toys out too....


• On Monday- I primed the new bar table my Mr. built and went to Lowes where I looked for some paint colors for the boys room (being redone when the snow melts) and some curtains for my new room. I found both.


• On Tuesday- I cleaned the main bathroom- including the toilet and the floor, and the kitchen floor.


• On Wednesday- I was sick. I had my MIL over for dinner, and I cleaned out the computer of some bad digital pictures(dark, unfocused etc) and some older photos I had saved for style trays etc....


• On Thursday - I hung the new curtains, cleaned the kitchen, primed the new wall in the laundry and the new trim in the kitchen. Lost is on tonight so no work tonight. I am a couch potato tonight.


• On Friday - I went to town and bought some really great fabric to make 2 decorative pillow shams to go with the new curtains. I opened up the house and aired it out. Even though it was under 20 degrees I couldn't wait any longer. I set my budget for this cure at 100.00 for the bedroom, 100.00 for the boys room, and 200.00 for plants outside. I will go into the breakdown at a later date.


• On Saturday- I took a walk outside for the first time in weeks. I got down to the river and looked around. I took some pictures- it was fabulous. It was 8 degrees, but it was fabulous. I cleaned some more in my studio. About 30 minutes- got rid of a few boxes of storage (took to the basement) and finished like stuff with like stuff in boxes. I framed one of my brothers prints that he sent up to me. I cleaned the kitchen and spot dusted around the house. I sat with the boy and talked about his room. He wants it green- and I think we have decided on a safari theme- back to Africa meets British Colonial maybe. That may change and I don't have much more ideas past that right now. I know the room won't be animal prints and posters though for sure. We watched Torchwood and Dr Who on the BBC America and looked through magazines for style tear sheets.


• On Sunday I worked more in my studio and found some items for both bedrooms, I painted test swatches on the bedroom walls, my Mr. put some trim up on the new built in bar table, and he assures me he will finish caulking before the night is over. I cleaned my bathroom. Here is what my son wants his new room to look like (right now at least)

Style thoughts

Part of week one of the cure is trying to find your style, and putting pictures in your style tray that reflect what you like or want. This is my 3rd cure, so I wasn't actually planning on doing that, but I still look at magazines and websites for style ideas and such.



Yesterday my Metropolitan Life came in the mail. I have mixed feelings about this magazine, but I have been getting it for years and years, and for the past year, I have been looking at it with my son. He's 3, but he's with me 24/7, so he looks at what I look at, shops with me etc..... He loves paint swatches- has since he was a little baby.( We also look at architecture, paintings, we go to lowes and home depot- it's not just all shopping. ) My husband gets him involved with tools and building so he has been around remodeling and decor choices since he was born.

So we're looking at pictures and he pick this one out





and he says he likes it. I ask him why- thinking he'll just say "I don't know" or "I just do" but no, he goes on about the great ceilings, the art on the wall, and the candle holders on the table. Then he tells me he really likes the chairs, and asks me why there aren't any curtains. My mouth fell open.



We are re doing his room for his birthday this spring- and I think that I may have him all wrong. I think that we are taught ( or just pick up via osmosis) that little boys don't care what their room looks like and that children in general like childish things. Maybe that's not the case. Or maybe my kids just a weirdo. Either way- I think I need to listen to him a bit better.

The electrical box suprise

I started doing a cosmetic redo of the laundry room in December. My husband ran a heat duct into the room and I started to repaint. During this time I found a surprise- a second electrical box hidden in the wall. By hidden I mean just that- it was walled up. My Mr's friend is an electrician, and when we bought the place he came out to give stuff a good look over, and to fix a few minor issues. He always said there was a second box somewhere ( which is good, because I want a kiln and the second box assures me I don't need any major rewiring) and in December I found it.
The laundry is a bad add- on to the house. Probably about 30 years ago. The walls are made of that horrible pressed fiberboard paneling. The floor is slightly uneven. The ceiling is low. The floor is yellow vinyl. The layout is bad. We want to re do the entire room in a few years- make it larger, add a bathroom etc... plus, the best views of the river are out my laundry room window! But, no $$$$ for a remodel right now, so cosmetic overhaul is the best I can do. The entire wall with the electrical box and the heat duct had to be totally refaced and made useful. My Mr. is almost done with that project.

The wall panel over the box now slides away if we need to access the panel. The wall is now actual wood, not fiberboard. When the trim is finished- I just need to prime and paint the remaining parts of the room and I am done. Yea!

Sunday cure work

After having my terrific brunch of ham, biscuits, eggs, and hash browns, I decided that I needed to do something instead of wallowing and whining about my hatred of winter weather. I decided to totally clean my living room. And when I say totally, that's exactly what I mean. I removed everything from the room except for the tv and cabinet (which is strapped to the wall for babyproofing) and the 2 sofas. Everything else came out and this is what I found out

• The cat SHEDS


• crayon tips go everywhere


• carpet is NOT cleaned after you vacuum it once. Even with a good machine it takes a few passes


• clean the inside windows and the outside windows look even dirtier


• crayon can be cleaned off the walls with the magic sponge, but it can change the color of the paint on the wall

I cleaned the window frames and locks (yuk), edged the carpet, and removed a ton of the boys toys to their rightful home in his room. I still have a lot of kids toys in my living room, but that's totally ok with me. It's his room too and he spends a lot of time in there with us. He should have his stuff. The walls of the living room need to be re painted, but I am going to wait until he is out of this crayon phase. I dusted and cleaned but didn't take down any of the winter linens or curtains yet because it's cold and icky outside and I think the summer whites would make it feel even colder inside.

So, I have one very clean room to start the cure with. Yea me.