Guest Room Makeover - Phase Three

Phase three was a big one! After painting, the fun really began. It's humorous to me that it took almost two weeks to paint and only three hours to complete the much more visually dramatic tasks we took on tonight.

We started by clearing the drop cloths and tools, placing the mirror on the back of the dresser and moving it out of the middle of the room and back into place along the back wall.

The nightstand also found a home under the window.

Matt assembled the crib, while I finally broke out the sewing machine and made some curtains.

By the time we were both finished, we were able to start seeing this room in a whole new way. Here are my homemade curtains. Don't look too closely - you might see a wonky seam here and there.

We moved our living room chair into the corner just to see if we like it. And we do. We have another chair (a rocker) to put in the opposite corner, but really wanted to have two chairs in the room. We just weren't sure if they would both fit. I think it's going to work, but I have to say I'm already missing it in the living room.

Here's the crib, all finished! It was by far the easiest piece of furniture either of us has ever put together - just a few screws. You'll also see the new carpet in this picture. It's a grey with cream speckles to kind of tie the walls in with the floor. And for $21 dollars, we think this 4.5 x 7 foot carpet is a steal!

And here we go. The best angle I can get of this room from the doorway. I finally figured out that if I stand on a step stool and aim just below the light on the ceiling fan, I can cut out the haziness from the light and get almost the whole room in the picture.

We are so excited it's starting to come together. Next step: Framed art and shelves on the walls for some fun punches of color!

Guest Room Makeover - Phase Two

The paint is on the walls! It took us two people, two painting sessions, two trips to the hardware store and one whole week to get it done, but this room is no longer a two-toned Winnie the Pooh explosion!

The flea market dresser we purchased is too heavy and cumbersome to move to another room easily, so we covered it with a drop cloth and prepared that room for a facelift - light switch plates, blinds and outlet covers were removed. Windows were caulked, nail holes were patched, paint was stirred, brushes and rollers prepared....

[Ugly two-toned blue/green before]

And then..... I took a last glance over the WHOLE room. Do you see it?

How about now??? Pooh! I can't escape him! I removed that wallpaper border months ago and am just now noticing the patch of Pooh right behind the door. It's always hidden when the door is open and I just plain forgot to check back there... I swear he's mocking me. So out came the wallpaper removing tools one last time.

[The last bit of that blasted Pooh paper]

After that little snag, we got to painting. Matt was on edging for a while until he relinquished the job and gave it to me since painting with a roller is more his forte. Let's just say we have a few spots on the ceiling and trim to touch up on that wall :-)

After our first session, Matt had about half the room painted a soft grey while the other half was still blue and green.

Six days later, we revisited the job to finish her off. It's not much of a before and after shot yet, but here is the original "before." I've come to realize that this room is almost impossible to take pictures of so the quality of the light and angles is seriously lacking.

[Guest Room Before Shot]

And here are a few "afters:"

[A fairly accurate portrayal of the new color]

In pictures it looks a little darker than it truly is, but at least Pooh and the two colors are gone!

And finally, a preview of what our windows have to look forward to.... Homemade curtains are the next project.

New Year's Resolution - Mail Center

Okay. So here's hoping I can get it together and keep my mail organized.

We started with this mess on the breakfast bar:

And this calendar on the short wall you see right when you walk in from the garage:

I spent a whopping $22 dollars on Amazon with free shipping and five days later, we had all we needed to rectify the situation.

Here is my handsome husband hanging our new mail sorter and bulletin board:

And here is the finished product! A mail sorting/posting station that will hopefully keep that breakfast bar clear and ready for things like eating breakfast from here on.

If I ever lose my keys in my own home again....someone needs to hold an intervention.

24 Weeks

Baby Foster seems to be growing fast. I'm almost a week late in posting this, but here she is at 24 weeks.

[Baby Foster 24 Weeks - February 6th, 2012]

In other news, she's kicking a lot now. She's positioned behind the placenta (have I mentioned that this word makes me cringe?) so the doctor said it would take a little longer to feel her. There have been flutters in there for about a month but I've been able to notice some big booming kicks for about two weeks. Matt couldn't feel them from the outside....until last Sunday! Normally she's really jumping around right when it's time for me to go to bed and for the past week he's been able to get the occasional "good night" jab :-)

Our doctor's appointment was short and sweet this week. Just the way I like 'em. Everything is right on track and the doctor is pleased with our progress.

"New" Year's Resolution

I did make a New Year's Resolution, even if I didn't mention it at the beginning of January. Are you ready for it? I decided.........

....... to keep last year's resolution! How exciting!

Ok. For real, I decided to just narrow last year's resolution which was to be more organized. I think overall, I earned a C+ or B- for 2011 on the organization improvement front. This year, I'd like to fine tune a bit more and decided honing in on a few areas are going to be the key. Maybe I'll keep this resolution for years and years, only tweaking one or two areas of my life each year. By the time I'm 50 my life will be a well-oiled machine.... or at least I won't feel like kindergartener pretending to play grown-up anymore.

So this year I will keep my socks matched and my mail sorted. Yes, you read correctly. My socks and my mail will be organized starting this year. For the first year ever.

Facts about me: I am not a sock matcher. I am a stellar launderer. I even make my own laundry detergent. I find folding towels therapeutic (sometimes). But putting clothes away? No, sir. I hate it. And matching my socks....lowest on my list of priorities. So for the six years of my teaching career, I have been wandering among you with mismatched socks. I am pretty good at hiding this fact because I tend to buy and wear very similar styles and mostly in black. But really, they weren't matched and I had no idea where their partners were located.

Over winter break, I matched all of my socks and stockpiled the rest. I figure I'll give them a month or two before I get rid of those that are matchless. You never know when I'll find one who fell behind the dryer or fell in with some of Matt's laundry. So far, it's going well and I've had matching socks for over a month! Hoorah!


[My sock drawer - February 1st, 2012]

As far as my other narrowed down version of organization goes, I'm currently at a loss. Matt and I have a terrible habit of throwing mail up onto our breakfast bar and leaving it until it absolutely must be dealt with. This takes forever and eventually I have a burst of mail rage and clear it all out - piles for recyclying, shredding, paying, filing. Matt does the same thing. I should clarify that he's generally more easy going than me so for him "mail rage" is more like "mail (slight) agitation."

My goal is to clear the breakfast bar of all mail and keep it that way. My plan to do that is still forming, but I think it involves a mail center closer to the garage door. I would love to move this operation into the mudroom, but since it is only wide enough for our current washer dryer set and we use the remaining space for trash/recycling/dog feeding, I am not able to move any other work stations into that area.

Maybe one day when I can afford a set of these:

[The coveted High Efficiency stackable (i.e. space-saving) washer dryer. Sigh....]

Now that's a whole other post for another day. Getting back to my mail center, I think I want to have a wall of mail organization. For now, I'm leaning toward a bulletin board and a mail sorter with both slots for mail and a place to hang my keys. The mail sorter will eliminate the mail pile-up problem and cannot hold enough for me to get too behind. I'll have to force myself to clean that sucker out when it starts to be too full. It will also be placed right next to the pantry which is where we keep the paper recycling bag - hello, easy recycling of junk mail! Added bonus? Because the mail sorter has a few hooks at the bottom, I'll stop losing my keys. The bulletin board will hopefully eliminate the many papers and magnets we have plastered all over our fridge.

Something like this would please me :

We'll see. I'll update you when this business is complete. I know it's the most gripping post I've ever produced, but the pile of mail and my mismatched socks were hurting my soul. Daily.