Category Archives: Home Decor

January Cure Kitchen DONE!

11 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

gleamingstainlessCranking up the amplifiers to ELEVEN and singing WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! HooooooRAH and all that jazz. I’d be moon walking and hopping up and down if my back would bend anymore. How about I lay on the sofa and imagine myself doing those things? Sounds good. Notice the little white rice cooker for my celebratory roast beef supper tonight is the only thing out of place in this room now. I’d shake a pom-pom but I don’t think my shoulders move any more either.

Notice the gleam on that stainless? I learned this trick when we lived in town. Our neighbor was a janitor at the elementary school and he noticed us scrubbing windows one day. He gave us his secret for cleaning school windows, bathroom mirrors, stainless appliances, etc. Got a pencil and paper? It’s pretty involved. Wet a washrag, take some dish detergent, draw a smiley face in a very thin stream of detergent on the wet rag, scrub the surface, wipe or squeegie dry. No need to rinse, just wipe dry. That’s it, okay I added the part about drawing the smiley face. Moving on.

longview1Long view of my dazzlingly clean and uncluttered kitchen. John even climbed up on the counters and deep cleaned the grucky no-woman’s land known as the pot shelf.

myviewThis is now the lovely view from my desk.  LOOK I finally had space to put flowers other than atop the washing machine. There are a ton of things in the dishwasher from the cabinet purge that will soon be headed to the garage sale pile. I was actually able to put some small appliances in the cabinets where I can access them easily.

The laundry room project I chose for the month is on track. I’ve pared down most of it and will come up with a plan for neat and functional storage. Right now it’s functionally grouped on the shelves waiting for whatever I decide on for storage containers. For now, here’s what it looks like.

laundryshelvesI almost wish I’d had the courage to take a before picture but I didn’t want to break into the vodka. It would have taken a serious drunk to show y’all that. Suffice to say, I only opened those sliding doors enough to reach in and get the dastardly dachshund duo their kibble. Now the doors are gone and I DON’T CARE! I’m free of the fear that someone will open those doors and see the horror.  Even better things are coming for this room between other Cure assignments.

January Cure assignment Flowers and Kitchen

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , ,

laundrypurge1After Laundry Purge

This weekend’s assignment is to buy flowers. This is a great idea and I understand the concept, but at this point unless I plop them on top of the washing machine they are impractical. Obviously, I need to go ahead and print out the entire January Cure schedule so I don’t do things like decide my big project will be gutting the laundry room the day before I’m supposed to deep clean the kitchen <cough>.

laundrypurge2Laundry Closet Purged

There were small appliances, beaucoup light bulbs, cleansers, sponge mop heads from mops long gone, vacuum bags, dog grooming supplies, and tons of miscellaneous gleefus accumulated here for lack of a better place to put it. I purged the heck out of this room. Filled the dumpster for the first time ever. The purging of the laundry room was a resounding success. However, all the leftover stuff had to land somewhere while I was cleaning those near empty shelves. That place was every available space on already cluttered kitchen counters.  I have, thus, doubled the work for myself in the weekend project of getting rid of kitchen clutter and deep cleaning the kitchen. ARGH!

kitchenclutter1kitchnclutter2

Before I get started, let me tell you an amusing story about that laundry purge. Notice in the photo of the closet shelves, that there are no longer any sliding doors. John removed them for me. The space is tiny. The door into the house had to be closed while he removed the sliding doors and took them, one at a time, outside to the barn. I was in the house. I did not realize he had leaned one of the sliding doors against the interior door so that he could open the outer door. I opened the interior door to take a peek at his progress which, of course, caused the sliding door to begin to fall. I did mention how tiny this space is right? This space is, in fact, shorter than a door. I made a desperate grab to catch the falling door, missed, the sliding door hit the exterior door slamming the interior door against my arm and pinning me to the door like a rabbit in a snare. Thankfully, my cell phone was in my pocket and I had the presence of mind to grab it and call John before he got back from the barn and tried to open the exterior door. Unfortunately, his cell phone was not in his pocket and it began ringing uselessly about 15 feet away from me in the bear trap. In desperation I pulled, twisted, maneuvered, pulled, twisted and maneuvered my arm out of the door (thank god fat can be manipulated and there’s an argument for having that piece of pie). The problem of a possibly amputated arm became how now to get into the laundry room.

The thought of just building a new laundry facility and a new wheelchair ramp, oh I dunno, out a window somewhere, occurred. I’m seriously contemplating removing the interior door and adding a sliding barn door there anyway, so my second thought was “Just get the damned Jigsaw and we’ll cut the interior door out of here now and be done”. John, thank god my kids grew up watching MacGyver, found a steel rod, bent it into a Z, managed to open the exterior door enough to stick the rod through, catch hold of the lodged door and lift it up out of the way and got it out of there. That process typed out much quicker and easier than it actually took, but he got it done and we were back in business.

This is amusing now because A. I didn’t lose an arm and B. didn’t give the local fire department an interesting story to tell news crews. My grand plans for being Donna Reed once again thwarted by my inner Lucille Ball.

Okay, now to get back to the Cure. John just left for work so I promise not to try anything remotely lethal until he gets home.

January Cure, Assignment 5

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by in Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, January Cure, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Today I am supposed to sit in an area of the house where I rarely sit and contemplate on a problem area, envision the room empty, and rebuild that problem area in my mind, imagining how I want it to look and function. Can I just say here that there probably isn’t a place in my house where I couldn’t sit for hours doing this? Not even on my freshly changed patio and backyard. There’s always something that could be added, changed, something that could work better. I’m beginning to see that the January Cure, isn’t. It’s the 2015 Cure.

Today, I have meditated on the Office/Outbox. While this room is being used as the Outbox, there’s nothing I can do to start the changes I need in there, but I can imagine them and begin the plan. It’s an odd rectangular room with one window,  4 bookshelves, a wall shelf,  a double closet, a desk and a trundle bed. Even without the collected gleefus that’s been shoved in there from every closet and corner I’ve cleared, it doesn’t function well and it’s anything but attractive. I need it to function as a guestroom/office/craft room. It will need to accomodate a sturdy queen sized bed, craft table and computer desk. It will also need to be accessible to wheelchairs. Umm.. yeah.

The second half of today’s assignment is to pick a project from my list to do this month. I’m ignoring their “this month, in about three hours” recommendation. I’m staking claim on the <insert heebie jeebie causing music again> Laundry Room. This room has been the number one problem in this house since the day we moved in.

The laundry room is really a short hallway leading from the main house into the garage. It’s also the only wheelchair accessible point of entry to the house. It’s also where everyone enters when visiting. Why no one uses the front door I don’t know, but there you have it. The doors were build wide enough to allow for wheelchair access. But the room itself is so short that when both doors are open they overlap and bang into each other. invariably knocking into the sliding double doors behind them which hide the laundry closet. With the front loading washer and dryer in there (I chose front load because it’s easier for me to get clothes in and out from my wheelchair), I can’t back up more than a few inches while opening either appliance without knocking one of the sliding double doors off it’s tracks. Bottom line, the room is a nightmare.

This will be my month long, every spare moment, project. I have wood, I will build storage. My son and I build a backyard filled with furniture including a beautiful storage bench, I know we can insert a storage bench in the laundry closet. I have drills, I will remove doors. I have imagination, I will figure out something to cover the entry into the laundry room so that I don’t have to stare at the washing machine.  I will build a better over head shelving system that actually works and that I can actually reach. The room will have a “landing strip” and a way to hang coats. All in a space the size of some walk in closets. Well, that’s the plan anyway!

First I’ll get rid of the clutter. There’s a lot in there. Good things I’d use if I could reach them, but most of it is stuff I’ve long since lost the use for. John is home today and can reach the things on the shelves that are too high for me. This will be a clutter free area by the end of the day.

Before

laundrybeforelaundrybefore2

 

January Cure Assignments 2, 3 and 4

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

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

≈ 2 Comments

pantrybeforeBefore

Obviously, I’ll still be fighting the floors throughout the “Cure”, but our assignments for Monday, Tuesday and today are things I can do. Create an “Outbox”, make a list of problem areas, and organize the pantry.

Outbox? Not a problem. DONE! It used to be called the office. Over the course of the past year, however, it’s been the catch all for things I didn’t know what to do with or how to do away with yet, boxes filled with models, boxes filled with books, old craft supplies I’ll never get to, old VHS tapes, and everything else I’ve dug out of corners, closets and other rooms that need to go just about anywhere else other than here. I laugh at the thought of an “Out box” or bag to contain over 20 years of clutter accumulated both before and after William.

Uncovering the clutter in this house has been akin cutting the strings on a new bale of hay. It wasn’t in the way, we didn’t feel like hoarders, but cut the “strings” and POOF the clutter bale springs outward, becoming twice the size it was when it was neatly stacked away in closets. It needs an Out Room, possibly two, to contain it.

The list was simple. I’m grand at making lists. William was grand at making lists. I’m not great at checking things off unless it’s a grocery list. William’s hale and hearty to-do list speaks for itself. To be fair, the items on his list are more difficult, manly man to-do items. I’ve lived in this house for almost 10 years. I know where the problem areas lie. I know what things bug me and need to be changed. Making the list was easy. Paring the list down to those items which will make the biggest difference was even easy. Getting them all accomplished in January, impossible. Still, there are many smaller tasks that, once accomplished, will make those larger problems much easier to handle.

Today is Pantry Purge day. I do this every year anyway and it was one of the items on the above list I prepared yesterday. So, I get to check off an item on my Cure to-do list as well as complete my today’s assignment. However, anyone thinking this is an hour to hour and a half job, hasn’t seen my pantry. How the heck can that thing junk up so fast in 12 months?! I’m the world’s crappiest house keeper as well as the most disorganized. Perhaps I should make a resolution to buy only two weeks worth of canned goods, one box of cake mix per month, only enough broth to get through two weeks, etc. If I plan my meals better, I can plan my pantry better by only keeping in the pantry what is actually going to be eaten within two weeks and get NOTHING ELSE until the pantry is empty. My problem is, that what sounds good today when making meal plans, will probably seem like too much trouble and mess for just me or I won’t be in the mood for it when time comes to use it. There’s an answer to this. I just haven’t found it yet. I will.

pantryafterpicAfter

January “Cure”

05 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by in General Farm Stuff, Home and other Repairs, Home Decor, Rural life, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, ,

There are several sites I visit every morning in my quest to finish William’s to-do list projects. I found them when I was searching for ways to DIY the backyard furniture. Every day they have articles that help me accomplish at least the things that need to be done before I can tackle an item on the list and often have ideas on ways to do the items on the list.

This year one of the largest items on the list is laying tile in the bedroom. Well, there’s no way to tile the bedroom until said bedroom and closets are organized to the point they can be easily cleared to lay the tile. Apartment Therapy is doing their annual January Cure (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2015-468) and I elected to participate. Lord knows the house needs cleaned and organized, but also, the lack of organization is in the way of completing Billiam’s List.

Of course, the very first thing on the list is FLOORS. Our assignment from Jan. 2 – Jan. 3 was to vacuum and clean floors and rugs. OH, and buy ourselves some flowers first to make ourselves feel better about it. Well, the flowers were supposed to come first, and I bought them, but then had to find space on the cluttered counters to put them, which meant cleaning space on a counter before I could get to the floors.

Manual wheelchairs and upright vacuum cleaners are not happy together. I have bruises, scrapes, and a lump on my head from each time that damned vacuum attacked when I moved the floor attachment so much as 3 feet. I don’t even want to know how high my blood pressure rose while constantly having to disentangle the cord from the wheels and brake handles, and why the hell can’t manual chairs easily roll over a cord no thicker than 1/4 inch?! The floor is my nemesis, the vacuum is possessed by the spirit of Ted Bundy.

In spite of the 6 hour battle with the vacuum, I did manage to get the rugs clean, for a day, and all but the heaviest furniture vacuumed under. It was time to mop/scrub/pray over the floors. Mopping our tile has produced less than pleasant results forever. If I use nothing but clear water, the result is two days of living in a house that smells like a combination of locker room and kennel filled with dirty wet dogs. If I use anything at all to combat odor, I get a sticky film that does not come up no matter how many times I clean rinse it. The end result is always that it looks better and smells better with coffee stains and barn dirt than it does after I spend a day mopping and scrubbing.

Again, please don’t tell me how well vinegar works for this. It doesn’t. I continually believe that vile, smelly liquid will work and all I end up with is vinegar odor added to the kennel/locker room aroma of a sticky, haze covered floor.

Yes, it would be easier to hire someone to come in and clean the floors, but A. I can’t afford to hire this out every week and B. I’d have to have everything organized first so that furniture could be moved out of the way. I live in a puzzle box. If one thing needs to be moved, 4 other things have to be moved first.

So, in the first three days of my January Cure, I managed to place cut flowers, vacuum three rooms, clean rugs, and partially mop/scrub/pray over most of the main room. No. There are no before/after pictures. At this point, I’ve just made a bigger mess.

Our assignment for today is to move through the house, and make notes on things that need to be changed, organized, cleaned, and repaired. I’m afraid my list will be long and arduous. Once the list is completed we then narrow it down to the 3-5 items that will make the most difference in each room. That smaller list will be almost enough to put me in bed the rest of the day just thinking about it. However, I’m fairly brave at home so I intend to see this thing through. I’ll play heroic stuff on the stereo and cowgirl up.

If you’d like to join me in house cleaning and organizing hell, pop over to the Apartment Therapy January Cure (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2015-468) and come commiserate or brag with me. In spite of my struggles and abject failures, the house has GOT to come out of this better than before.