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Category Archives: Home Decor

Day 2 January Cure 2017- Making a List (humming- checking it twice)

03 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by Jean in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure 2017

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Today’s assignment is to make a list of all problem areas, large and small in the entire house. From burned out lightbulbs and loose doorknobs to jammed full closets, disorganized cabinets to repairs and improvements.

This is my third year participating in this Cure and each year this list has made huge improvements in my house. Every year this list makes me tackle those dark places that groan in the night.. no wait, that’s the voice in my head that groans when I think about them.

Don’t get put off by all the things that are on your list. I’ve had some huge and daunting tasks on my master list, from my laundry room hell to the pit of despair that was my husband’s office which became the place where everything went we didn’t know what else to do with. While we did manage a nearly complete redo of the double closet in the laundry room, there was no way to handle the office of doom during the Cure. This was something we simply kept working at a bit at a time because we needed to make it work as an office, a craft room and a guest room. This required many measurements, much planning and a lot of building.

Our big project for the Cure in 2015 was the laundry room. It is a tiny room. Barely wide enough to fit the washer and dryer on one wall. On the opposing wall there was a shallow closet hidden by double sliding doors where everything got stuffed and hidden. The room is so small it wasn’t as long as those sliding doors we removed. We found this fact when my son was taking the doors out of the house one at a time and left one leaning against the laundry side of the door to the kitchen. I peeked in to see how he was progressing, knocked the door over where it wedged itself between the door to the kitchen and the door to the garage. I tried to save the situation by reaching through to catch the door before it fell, missed and my arm got pinned in the door.  It was funny as hell actually so don’t gasp. In spite of all the gasps, giggles and cursing, we got it done and it made for some amusing and impressive blog posts.

laundrytableshelves1

The Cure shows that everything can be done in small bits so that it doesn’t overwhelm and yet leads toward a clean and functional home.

During last year’s Cure the office where everything got stuffed was our big project.  This is what it looked like on January 10.

Officebefore2

 

This is what the office looked like at the end of the 2016 Cure

officeafter2ndhour

 

And this is what it looked like later last spring when we got it finished and working to suit our needs.

officeshelfhungwithtoys

guestbed

One messy drawer here, one cluttered cabinet there, one loose doorknob a week, one dark corner a month, your master list is there to keep the problem areas in focus.  Some large areas like our office/guest room/craft room, might take several months of planning, some hard tasks like our laundry room might take a month in small bits and pieces. The thing is to slowly keep chipping away at them and not worry about the time it takes. Every clean shelf in those seriously problematic places makes a huge difference in the appearance of the room and, therefore, your outlook on the task at hand.

So, here is my list for January 2017:

Loose doorknobs: Master bedroom door, Laundry door

Light fixtures: Clean and replace bulbs

Cabinet under sink: Clean and organize

Spice cabinet: ugh, just do something to make it work

Long term: Guest room closet: Jeeeez just DO it.

Cord jumble behind TV.

Clear out trunks to store china. Get rid of china cabinets.

Wash Windows, Mirrors and Door glass

Straighten Laundry Room and wipe down washer and dryer and add another bin for the Kraken’s Chow

Paint doors

Choose new paint for den

Stain and replace hound chewed baseboard in guest bathroom.

Wash guest bath curtain

Sew fresh curtains for Den

Clean book/plant shelf in den

Either sell or give away piano or sign us both up for piano lessons.

Organize drawers under TV.

Big Project: Walk in closets in Master Bedroom: Go through clothes and send 3/4 to charity. Rip out carpet and ready floors for tile. Remove closet doors and switch them to open outward. (I see some cussing coming here.) Stain and install shelving (I see a mess and more cussing coming here.)

So, ready your master list! Start small on the big projects by aiming to clear one shelf or one corner a day. Just one 30 minute task at a time. A bulb or doorknob a day your way to a better home.

 

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January Cure 2017 Day 1

02 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Jean in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure 2017

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Tags

home organization, January Cure 2017, organizing

I woke up with coffee while refreshing the Apartment Therapy page, anxiously awaiting the whip and chair that will force me to clean house from top to bottom in one month. I have surely slipped into some alternate reality where I look forward to the torture that is cleaning my house.

How this can happen is beyond me but it’s happened 3 years running now. It’s the mop and bucket family reunion. I have Harry Potter online friends, horse owning online friends, and Apartment Therapy’s January Cure has given me a very large group of non-clean freak friends that are almost as disorganized as I am. This is the real reason I tune in and get excited at the end of December. My buddies! I live for reading the discussions, commenting on posts, posting myself and getting to know everyone.

HAZZAH!! The first assignment was just posted and it is NOT THE FLOORS! WOOT WOOT WOOT WOOT! Today’s assignment is to declutter just one single drawer. How easy is that? Of course, you haven’t seen my nightstand drawers. I’ll pick the worst one. Top drawer, left nightstand.  I will take before and after pictures. It’s really a mess. Little odds and ends. Guaranteed to take an hour to sort through, pitch and relocate all those odds and ends.

But there’s a problem here. No flowers? We’re not supposed to run out and get ourselves a bouquet? Every year I’ve done this we’ve first had to get flowers to perk ourselves up for the tasks ahead. Every year I’ve immediately looked at my cluttered and disheveled counters full of mail, baking ingredients, gifts that haven’t been put away, snacks, etc. and thought “Okay, so where do I shove a vase of flowers? Between the bags of flour and sugar or can I shove those tins of cookies and popcorn out of the way enough to make room?” But not this year! This year I had company in for the weekend so I had to make the clutter disappear by friday. This year I have plenty of room for flowers so it’s only appropriate that this year they’re left off the first day to-do list. I call MALARKEY and I’m going to be a rebel and pick up flowers anyway.

Okay, so, it wasn’t what I’d consider “easy”. Easy is mixing a shot of Frangelico in a cup of eggnog and watching something on Netflix. Cleaning the dreaded nightstand drawer was like uncovering an archaeological site wherein several civilizations are buried.

 

bedroomjunkdrawer2

So I removed the top layers and found a first gen iPod, 7 old pairs of reading glasses, two dozen pens of various types, jewelry, pills, birth certificate, old check book (from 10 years ago), thermometer, hand creams, chapstick, several pairs of ancient earbuds tangled up with everything else in that drawer, bottle caps, hair bands, hair clasps, chocolate frog cards, bubble gum turned to granite, a couple of “neat rocks”, old bankcards (5 to 8 years old), candy wrappers and book lights.

pilojunk

What’s worse than a bunch of totally useless, non-working junk taking up space in a drawer? The bottom layer of fuzz, critter hair, and change, that’s what.

crudchange

There may have been enough change in this drawer to take myself out to lunch at some place fancier than a fast food burger joint. Obviously, I need to eat larger pickles because just this change filled 3/4 of a dill spears jar.

The end result, is the jewelry I couldn’t find is now in it’s proper place where I can find it, things I often actually need at bed time are where they can be reached at bed time, hardware has been moved to where hardware should go, the glasses are bagged up for charity, the now-I-know-where-all-my-pens-went pens are now with office supplies in a closet that was “Cured” last year and has remained healthy for an entire year,  medications and supplies are in the medicine cabinet or first aid basket in the pantry, and the drawer is vacuumed and wiped clean.

TaDA!

afterdrawer

 

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Billiam’s List Bedroom Tile: Pat us on the head!

16 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by Jean in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, Uncategorized

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tileday3

TaDAAA!

It is taking longer to complete the project than we anticipated, but it’s going wonderfully well considering we’ve only had about 12 hours of actual tiling to work with. John, has never participated in the tiling efforts of past projects but you would never know it. The experience I gained on those past projects as tiling helper has, to my amazement, come back to me.  We’ve had to stop and think out a few issues but luckily those issues were spotted well ahead of time, planned for and we sailed right on through them. I think, if we did this every day (like THAT is going to happen BAHAHAHAHA) we could do this professionally and get the job done in two days rather than a week and be as good as the best tile professionals out there. Yes, our little job is looking that good. We’re very proud of it so far and I know Billiam would be too.

bedroomtileedge

Just look at that perfect edge on a slightly off square wall!

The walls are off square, thankfully, not as much as Billiam guesstimated, but by adjusting the width of the grout lines ever so slightly we made the thing look perfect because the line of tile is straight and the cut tiles are all even. Tiles that had to be cut to fit at the doors and door facings matched up so perfectly it’s difficult to realize that there are even cut tiles there. They just look like the baseboards were installed over the full tiles.

In spite of the difficulties surrounding our poor little abused wet saw, I have prevailed. Tile cutting was always my job so that Billiam wouldn’t have to get up and down so often and I got pretty darned good at it.

bedroomtilecut

One of the tiles I cut to fit a doorway. (In the dark, with a flashlight between my teeth)

So, yes. We’re pretty stoked about it. John’s work schedule, is, of course, ridiculous so the grout is going to take a few days. When Billiam and I did the tile in the den we had a hard time choosing between two grout colors. One was a dark brown, “Chocolate”, and the other was a few shades lighter, “Nutmeg”. We ended up choosing the lighter color and we were disappointed in how it looked once the grout had cured. It still looks great, but it wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. This time around, I chose the “Chocolate”. I’m hoping it will be more like our original vision, but if it’s not, well, Chocolate in the bedroom just cannot possibly be a bad thing right?

Grout and grouting tools are ready and on standby, waiting for John to have another morning shift. Thank goodness I didn’t decide to tile the bedroom before we turned the old office into a guestroom.

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Ugh. Fall Cleaning. Ugh.

26 Monday Sep 2016

Posted by Jean in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, Uncategorized

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struggleIt’s still hot outside 95% of the time but we are getting short breaths of Autumn once in a while. It is September in Aridzona and that means the holidays are approaching.  We will, as usual, be hosting a post-Thanksgiving Feastival for our juggling friends and who ever else would like to turn up. Hopefully, I can get William’s family out here for a nice supper on the patio when the weather is cooler and the patio won’t be an oven. Then, of course, my favorite holiday, Christmas. I’d like to be sans cobwebs so that the pretty lights don’t spotlight that sort of grunge. I don’t decorate for Halloween. I don’t have to.

Today’s task is to clean doors and door frames, see which doors need repainting and wash the walls that are only covered with art or light furniture. What I really need are a magic wand and a fire hose. What I have are rags and Scrubbing Bubbles. I learned long ago that semi-gloss or gloss is the only paint compatible with my lifestyle. Both I can spray with Scrubbing Bubbles that will cut through kitchen grease and grime and wipe right off with a damp rag with no paint damage. If I have to clean I also have to make it as easy as possible.

If I manage my Fall cleaning tasks for this week I am giving myself a new Nook. My old one doesn’t keep a charge for more than a few chapters and has recently become stubborn about releasing books I want to re-read from the “Cloud”. Then, at the end of each week of completed tasks, I will treat myself to a new book.

I will endeavor not to think about the fact that all of this will likely need to be done again in January. Ugh.

My actual working list is broken down room by room, to make me think I’ve actually accomplished something by end of day. For this blog, however, I’m just lumping it all together.  My Fall list of grunge to do something about that needs to be completed by the end of October:

Before anything else can happen, corral the mutts. Less help is a big help in that department.

Move furniture away from walls. ALL of it. Including that damned low set of drawers that weighs about eight billion pounds where the TV and video stuff sit. Ugh.  Then vacuuming, dusting, mopping and washing the walls and cleaning the baseboards behind all that furniture will be a piece of cake comparatively.

Remove and clean art, wall hangings, etc. wash walls.

Wash shower curtains and drapes. (Yes, I said wash drapes. If it needs dry cleaning, it is not welcome in my house.)

Move and Clean all appliances, large and small and clean shelves, walls and floor under and behind them.

Wash and/or repaint door facings.

Track down and murder every last dust bunny.

Clean pot shelf

Clean light fixtures and fans

Clean cabinets

Clean under sinks

Polish mirrors and counters

Thoroughly scrub and clean floors.

Clean leather and pleather furniture

Polish wood furniture and baseboards.

Take clothes I’ll never fit in again to the local charity shop.

Wash windows and screens.

Repair bull nose corners (see a previous post that describes this project) in bedroom and repaint.

Thoroughly clean patio furniture.

Yes, I realize most of these tasks should be done at least weekly. However, if I kept this house the way this house should be kept I’d never be able to do another thing. Ever. I would die smelling like scrubbing bubbles.

 

 

 

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The Office Project is DONE!

04 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by Jean in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure 2016, Wood Crafts

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Tags

DIY, do it yourself, home decor, home furniture, home organization, homemade furniture, January Cure 2016, wood craft, wood crafts, wood furniture

The office project has actually been done for a couple of months. I’ve just had too many other things going on to write about it.  The battle with the local fauna has begun and it’s gotten ugly, the pool water reached a point where there was no alternative other than draining and refilling (it lasted healthily for 10 years so I can’t complain, even though I complained a LOT at the cost. I’d best find flecks of 24 karat gold in that water at that price.), it’s weed season, a new planting season, and wind season. We also had a tragedy which took the wind out of my sails for a while and I’m still not over that yet, but here goes.

It’s been so long since I posted, I can’t start the reveal without reminding everyone what the office/storage/swap meet/ebay/junk room looked like before we got in gear.

Officebefore2

Before

Other than packing up some of my husband’s things, we’d just closed the door on this room for 2 years and used it to store things we didn’t know what else to do with and couldn’t let go of yet. It was the junk drawer of rooms. I had been needing to do something constructive with it for 2 years. I decided during a previous Cure that I’d turn it into a Guest room/craft room/office, but still didn’t have the energy/heart to get to work on it. My brother had contacted me a year ago to let me know he was planning to come out this spring to do some hiking and wanted to visit for a couple of days. This was the boost I needed, but I still didn’t do anything about it until finally, three months before he was to be here, I was jolted into the home renovation version of last minute cram for finals mode.

My son and I cleared the room of boxes, junk, furniture, and dust bunnies. Starting from scratch we painted, pulled down the wall shelf unit from the north wall, repainted it the same color as the walls so my “stuff” collection would take visual priority, measured for a queen sized bed and craft tables, and built the tables. We bought 3 things for the room, other than cheap wood for the tables. I ordered a bedspread, glass chimes and a fabulous painting done by my best friend. Then, we added the crafting stuff, computer stuff and my collection stuff. The result is a relaxing place to work, play and sleep. Guests can relax, work and play in here too. The way it is arranged is very wheelchair accessible.

guestbed

Eternity Tree bedspread from Pyramid Collection. Years ago I had gotten their Tree of Life bedspread for my own bed and I’ve loved it. They are machine washable!

guestbed1andprint

My friend Daphne MuShatt’s painting. She has many available, but I’ve always loved this one and it reminds me of Maiden, Mother, and Crone life stages.

daphneart

The colors in the painting and the subject suit this room, and my spirit, perfectly.

officeshelfhungwithtoys

Funny thing about those shelves William made many moons ago when we lived in town. He’d decided on a paint color for his office (our living room) and painted the shelves to match so that the shelves would disappear and his History of Space Exploration models would stand out. The color he chose for that poorly lit room made you want to sing “Under the Sea” at night and swim laps through the living room.  When I began repainting them to match the color John and I had chosen for this room, I was shocked to realize I’d picked that same color! I was terrified I’d end up in another giant aquarium room, but turns out, lighting makes all the difference here. I still think William had a hand in the paint color choice though because we went in thinking we’d made our choice online and this color caught our eye at the last minute.

curtainsandchimes

The east facing office window. I watch the sun come up every morning with my coffee and Facebook friends and relatives. Those curtains were made with cheap cotton drop cloths and they were the first project for the new sewing machine. The glass chimes were ordered at the same time as the bedspread and also come from Pyramid Collection. The breeze coming through the window makes them sing prettily. My homemade incense drying in old glass tumblers lends a pleasant aroma.

chimes

Just a close up so you can see the patterned glass and pretty colors in the chimes.

dementorsnape

Part of my Harry Potter collection arranged on the top of my bookshelf. Those “stones” were made by William about 5 years ago. We were trying to make a Sorceror’s Stone for a friend of ours. The stones in the photo were some of the fails, but too pretty to toss.

Unfortunately, my brother had to cancel his trip to Arizona, so I have a fabulous guest/craft/office available if anyone wants to come visit. Maybe if we add a microwave and a mini refrigerator I’ll just live in here.

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Current woes, tall tales, and lessons learned

  • Here are the mutts.
  • January Cure 2018- Flowers and Floors and Stuff
  • January Cure 2018 Day 2- Make a list
  • January Cure 2018- Day 1- Clear and Organize a Drawer
  • January Cure 2018: But first a word from our sponsor
  • January Cure Weekend 1- Flowers and Floor
  • Day 3 January Cure 2017- Purge the Pantry vs Cabinet Cleanout
  • Day 2 January Cure 2017- Making a List (humming- checking it twice)
  • January Cure 2017 Day 1
  • Billiam’s List Bedroom Tile: Pat us on the head!

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