Listy McGhee

Since our last assessment got pushed back yet again (this time it wasn't our fault) we have more time to get rooms actually finished. (Well at least get finishes done, even if the rooms won't be completely done.) So I did what comes naturally for a crazy person, and wrote out about 6 different lists of what we have to do before that time. So here's the list of what we're hoping going to get done by July 21.

 BLUE ROOM

o   Clean out

o   Rip up carpet

o   Remove wallpaper

o   Paint

o   Install floor

o   Cut out bigger closet

o   Make closet doors

o   Get dresser for change table

o   Upholster chair

DINING ROOM

o   3^rd coat of paint

o   get picture ledge up and painted

o   picture moulds

o   base/window and door casing

o   pick up buffet

o   get electrical sorted out

o   Install Octa

o   Finish hutch project

KITCHEN

o   Case and base

o   Make sure all outlets and switches are in working order

o   Mud holes

o   Touch up paint

o   Bottle storage shelf

o   Coffee/tea shelf

o   Open shelving by stove

o   Finish toe kick

o   Counters on peninsula cabinets

BEIGE ROOM/LAUNDRY

o   Tidy

o   Remove  electrical wires

o   Cut out “step”

o   Organize closet

  (how is it I still have no pictures of our living room?!)

LIVING ROOM

o   Get rid of shower

o   Take out built-in

o   Move TV

o   Get rid of couches

o   Bring brown couch over

o   Put switches at doors

o   Organize

o   Pick up chest for shoe storage

UPSTAIRS

o   Finish painting hall

o   Base in bath

o   Shelf in bath

o   Curtains (dye & install)

o   Paint closet

o   Install closet organizer

o   Put up canvas in bathroom

o   Art in hallway

April Organize-A-Rama: You Call That an Office?

So, April's apparently half over already? Someone clearly neglected to tell me! I've been working on a few areas, getting them organized, or functioning better, so first up was one area that didn't really take all that long, but has made a pretty big difference so far. That would our "office". We don't don't have a dedicated home office space (yet). But we do have a desk in the corner of our bedroom that we can use as a makeshift office for the interim. His name is Shakey...because if you look at it wrong it could fall over - it's that sturdy, but he does the trick for now.

Sorry about the crappy phone pictures the in-laws have my camera and it was night time) Please pretend that the light is in fact finished and hanging proudly, illuminating the room; instead of unceremoniously slumped half finished and half forgotten in the corner. (While you're pretending the ball of folded paper isn't there, you can also go ahead and imagine that that duct work is enclosed nicely) Now, moving on the desk. It's not particularly unorganized, it's something that's just not really living up to it's full potential. While a light sneeze may bring ol' Shakey down without warning, he still really wants to pull his weight, and help us stay on top of our bills, and taxes, and magazines, and what not. The cords are a big pain in my you know what, and since the desk top doesn't work (and hasn't for close to 6 months) they can finally disappear! We needed a central "hub" for billing and other paperwork, so I wasn't running all over the house trying to find where I'd stored things when we needed them. Plus keeping on top of bills is rather important, because companies can get a little testy when you don't pay on time - and "I lost my bill in a mountain of random paperwork" doesn't really fly with them.
   After about two hours of organizing (actually it was more like 1.5 hours of tracking everything down and about a half hour of organizing) Shakey now looks like this:

Not too shabby of a makeover eh? And yes, it is essential that you be watching Dr. Who whilst organizing. We got rid of the non working desk top and put the laptop up there. Unfortunately we don't have wireless because we're pretty technology illiterate, and our wireless router wouldn't work for some reason when we moved, so we have a massive 100ft internet cord that we just traipse all over the house when we need to move. So coiling it up keeps it out of our way. Bianca the hippo is an excellent note holder for all the corny little notes we like to write each other, and the calendar clipped to the wall tracks all our bills - when they come out, how much that kind of thing.

100 nerd points if you can name what Dr. Who episode I was watching. I plan on adding a cork board (I thought I'd have enough left over from a project, but alas, I didn't) and probably a larger calendar. As for underneath, we've got everything there now, at the reach of our fingertips. Sorted and stored and pretty looking.

I've got all my magazines, which I reference often, I went through them all and threw out ones that I deemed no longer relevant, and took out pages in ones that only had a few nice things - which ended up in the blue binder - that's where I keep track of all the house stuff. (Inspiration, layouts, budgeting, etc.) The green binder I is pretty self explanatory, it's a house for all those called Manuel. Every time I see (or hear) the word manual, I think of Wall-E, when the captain doesn't realize it's a book. "Operate Manuel. Manuel, relay instructions." (Check it out...funny) White file thingy has all our current tax stuff, receipts, papers all that jazz (because we're bad, and still haven't filed yet - still have time). The red binder has the recipes I ripped out of magazines that I then got rid of (can I get a woot woot for throwing out 20lbs of old magazines), it's also where I do our menu planning.

These files house all our important paperwork. Our banking stuff, insurance stuff, travel plans for future trips, medical stuff, yada, yada, yada. The purple ones have all our paid bills stored for tax purposes (two months at a time) and previous years taxes.
   That cleared up paper from all over the house, and has helped my piece of mind, knowing where all our important papers are - so hopefully nothing else gets lost. That crosses one thing of my list, and I'm currently working on the our closet and the blue room, so hopefully those should both be done by this weekend.

Another Year Over

Another year over, and a new one in full swing already. I've already crossed a bunch of things off my to-do list which is good! So I decided to make some house related resolutions for 2013, in order to help further motivate us in this year. So, here's 10 things that we've discussed and plan/hope to have happen this year.

 1. FINISH THE DANG KITCHEN.
        I can't pretend to be happy that this is still on our list of things to do for this year, but sadly it is :(.

We still have to do the floor, eating nook, install a few more base cabinets, and the uppers, all the electrical, plus all the little finishing touches like kick plates, and trim and what have you.

2. Re-do the main floor bathroom...making it bigger and better
          This was on our to-do list for 2012, but obviously we didn't even come close. We did manage to accomplish some minor updates though - like a new toilet and paint. (although the ceiling is still pink, I should probably do something about that)

But we need to tear down a wall, and upgrade pretty much everything in there, and we're pretty sure we'll probably run into some mold issues, so we'll see how that goes. I'm excited to tackle this project and make the bathroom all spiffy and good for a family bigger than 2.

3.  Tackle the back bedroom (affectionately called the blue room).

        This is the room that we intended on having as the nursery. Since we've run into some fertility issues, we're not sure if it'll ever be a nursery, nursery, but it will definitely be the coolest kid bedroom around, regardless of how old a whipper-snapper we get. There's not much structurally we plan on doing in here, but a bigger closet, and for sure new flooring are on the list. I'm oddly excited to pop this bad boy out!

4.  Living room. Un-pop that ceiling, and lay some lovely new floor.
         This was also something we'd at least start this year, but alas, did not. We have to scrape the ugly popcorn ceiling, because we both hate it, we also need to replace (as well as reinforce) the floor. I mentioned before that we're thinking a dark vinyl tile since there's two entry points, and it's super durable, and since the kitchen floor is pretty dark it'll flow nicely. Obviously it'd be nice if we could completely finish the room (ie, paint and new couch, TV set up, entry established, storage, etc) but I'm trying this new thing this year, it's called "being realistic". So I'll be happy with just a proper ceiling and new floors.

5. Master suite. Finish bedroom and bathroom
       This shouldn't take too long, since they've both been stuck in the "almost done" phase for a while now. Bedroom only needs a few tweaks, and the bathroom basically just needs some beadboard. This one shouldn't be too hard to cross off our list.

6.  Laundry...move it or lose it.
        Well, not lose it, but definitely move it. Downstairs. Yes downstairs, heaven forbid it not be on the same floor. We currently have to lug it down stairs to do it, so what's another 7 stairs? Plus, we've both grown up having laundry in the basement, and it doesn't bother us at all...gives my lazy butt a bit of a workout.

The laundry has to move downstairs to make way for that bathroom (and 2nd bedroom) expansion.

7. Brick, hooouuuse. (c'mon, sing it!)
         We need to brick over the old front door that we took out almost a year ago, and since we're most likely moving (or possibly taking out completely) a window at the back of the house, we'll need to re-brick that as well.

8. The garage. Umm...if you could even call it that!?
         This is like the big ugly mole on the guy from the Austin Powers movie, something that is gross, and just keeps growing. It's terrible, I don't even like to look at it. Can't even go in there. Must do something about it. The door doesn't work properly, and the floor is dirt & exceptionally uneven. Neither of us are overly fussy about parking the car in there, and we'd both prefer to use it as a sort of workshop. But at this point, I'd just settle for clean!

9.  Backyard. It's time to tame that jungle.
        Ok, so it's not really a jungle so much, but we do need to get rid of the giant ugly bush guy to make way for the great patio flame and whole patio revamp (that I talked about here).

This is probably one we're most excited about getting to. We love cooking and eating outside, and did it a lot this year, so we can't wait to do it on matching sets, and we can't wait to have a lounge area where we can get together with friends and sit on a comfy couch and sit around the fire.

10. The long forgotten dining room!
         When I'm thinking about things I still have to do to the house, for some reason the dining room always slips my mind, maybe because of the fact it's tucked away in the back corner of the house where we don't often go. But more likely it's caused by the fact that it's been sitting in the same embarrassingly unfinished state for the past year.

It's like that weight you slowly gain, you hope that if you ignore it, it'll just get better on it's own, when it fact, it just slowly builds, then WHAM a few years later you're 60lbs heavier, and even your fat clothes don't fit.


Thar she be, 10 things that we can hopefully tackle, and hopefully I can show you in 2013. We also have a number of smaller little things that we'll be doing as well. I plan on being a munch better home owner this year, and actually accomplishing things. This will be the year of doing, instead of the year of putting off.  

Some New Moves in the Bedroom

Jason and I have been working on a few things in the bedroom...prompted by the fact we came into a new bed. I promise I won't regale you with our bedroom life, but rather with the life of our bedroom.  Up until the past week, this is what we had been living with...

A fabulous amount of skin colour. Seriously I wish I had've made Jase stand up against it, because it was almost the same colour as him...peachy with a slightly pink undertone haha. We thought it was the little old ladies room, but apparently it was the son's, which makes us question the colour that much more...either that, or question the son. You can't really tell from these pictures (it was night when I look them, and I was trying to hurry before stuff was to get dumped in it) but there is in fact baseboard and trim around the doors and windows, they were just painted the exact same flesh colour as the wall.
   If you're wondering why we didn't do anything to the room if we hated the colour so much, it's because the kitchen was sucking all our attention - like that annoying new baby when you've been the only child for so long. Plus we honestly just didn't care, because we didn't have a proper bed, or dressers, or anything really for the room, so what was the point of making it look nice, to just dump a bunch of crap in it? At least that's what my thinking was.
   Then, I got bored one day while I was sitting 'round doing nothing, and this happened...

 I painted the trim! Well, just on this window, to see how it would look, and we both loved it. It's amazing how much it brightened up the window and surrounding wall. Then Jase took of the doors to the two closets (from the 2nd picture) which we never closed, and it opened up the space even more. Then something amazing happened. Like I mentioned before, we got. a new. bed! A giant, amazing, practically new, double pillow top, king bed! FOR.FREE! Which, given the small changes I had already implemented, got we wanting more than the dismal flesh walls we were currently staring at. So I painted some ideas of paint I already had on hand to see what we liked...

I was originally thinking something dark and moody, since the room gets a ton of natural light from all angles, but then had some misgivings once they got up on the wall. The first two were almost identical, and pretty much black - which neither of us liked. Then we had a muddy gray and a greige. We eventually both decided we liked the sample taped up the best. Which is Martha Stewart's "Seal". But then a funny thing happened on the way to the paint store. I sort of changed my mind...

A light, light gray. It's a great colour, because in some lights (mainly evening) it reads as like an ice blue, so you never know what you're going to get with it. You can see how gross the trim and covers still look in all their fleshy/almond glory, so I finished painting the trim bright white, and we changed out all the outlets and covers, for square and white.
 

The room looks totally different now, and all we've done is paint. It's amazing what a coat of paint, and some new outlets will do for a room. I'll show a wider room view once we get the new bed in, and things go back to normal a bit...because right now everything's still sort of shoved to the middle of the room, and it's a hot mess!