Tag Archives: DIY

January Cure Get Together and 3 Minute Surface Sweep

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

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

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Yesterday’s assignment was to plan an end of the month Get Together in our newly cleaned and organized home. I do love having people over, but I’m afraid this month is out of the question. Also, Ren Fest begins the 7th of February here and those who know me, know that John and I will be there. The last weekend of January I seriously need to have a gigantic yard sale to get rid of all the stuff piled in the Out Box/Room and which is taking up a good 1/3 of the garage and which has spilled over into the barn.

Thus, rather than spend time thinking about a Get Together, I got together with my measuring tape and my laundry room project. I had to measure the width, depth, and height of the existing shelves, measure the tallest of the small appliances I’d like to store in there, calculate where to place a new shelf to accommodate the appliances, measure up from the floor to be sure there would be enough room for the bag of dastardly dachshund chow, and begin to ponder things like paint colors, and drop zone storage.

Today’s assignment was a timed three to ten minute rapid sweep of one surface. Going after that one area as if the in-laws had just that moment called from up the road and I had three to five minutes before they knocked. We’re talking bust butt frantic here. Not just frantic stuffing things into the pantry, which is why my pantry looked that way before the purge, but grabbing stuff and actually putting it where it belonged.

deskbeforeMy desk was the chosen victim because it butts up against the kitchen island and people entering the front door see it before they see that nice sparkling clean kitchen (yes, it still sparkles). I set the stove timer. I don’t even know if my “smart” phone has a timer, but I do know I’m not smart enough to find it if it does. I went old school and pressed the start button.

Grabbing stuff willy nilly and stuffing it into the kangaroo pouch I’d formed in the hem of my sweatshirt. I grabbed car keys, sunglasses an empty coke can, candy wrappers, old mail, chargers, charger cables, laptop cleaner, laptop duster, and ran around the house frantically placing things in their designated areas. Back to the desk I picked up random paperclips, pens, pen tops, note pads, and pocketed loose change. Paperclips went back in their box, pen caps went on pens and pens went in the pen basket. Everything else was placed on the kitchen island while I grabbed a damp rag and wiped clean the desk and laptop. Rag was tossed in the washing machine, the stuff I’d dumped on the island was neatly placed back on the desk. DONE! Five minutes. I could hold off the in-laws for an extra moment by yelling “Coming! Just let me get the dachshund sword!” This would give them something to contemplate until I got to the door.

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January Cure Kitchen DONE!

11 Sunday Jan 2015

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

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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DIY Bedspread

09 Tuesday Sep 2014

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

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This post is about a happy accident. During the great tie-dyed patio curtain fiasco, I’d dyed the first 9 x 12 cotton drop cloth using Rit dyes. When washed, the colors faded badly. They were extremely muted versions of the original red, orange, yellow, pale blue and dark blue dyes I had used. I folded it up and hid it from myself thinking the ponies would have a colorful “tarp” for the winter.

Today, as I was folding and putting away laundry, and washing my sheets and pillow cases, I made up the bed with fresh sheets. I was about to toss a light blanket on for a spread when I spied the curtain failure. On a whim I tossed it on the bed and discovered that a 9 x 12 cotton drop cloth is the perfect size spread for a king sized bed! The softer muted colors actually look pretty good in my dark bedroom. The curtain which would have been dim outside, actually brightened things up in my room.

For 15.00 (at Harbor Freight) and a few bottles of Rit dye, I have a durable, washable bedspread! I have pets, so “I can’t have nice things”. Anything in this house has to be able to withstand the washer and dryer. This spread will stand up to the punishment Baxter, the cat, will dish out. dropclothbedspreaddropclothbedspread2