Another Memorial Day Weekend Marathon

Last year I had my parents visiting for the weekend and we got a surprising amount accomplished in just a few days (new dishwasher install, new curtains, painted the bathroom, hung mirrors, replaced switches & outlets and bought baseboards).

This weekend I summoned them back for round 2. Here’s the to do list:

Replace both toilets

old toilet ready to come out

Why – Both toilets were original to the house and, well, old and decrepit. The main bathroom valve leaks (inside the tank) so it’s constantly draining water and then refilling. Hello high water bills! The master bathroom toilet doesn’t completely flush anymore and I have no idea why. So, time for new! We bought bowls back in January during a sale but need to pick up the tanks and any other misc pieces.

Update – despite an on-going saga that warrants its own post, the toilets are in! I still need to fix the tile in the master bath but they’re in!

new toilet in master bath

and:

new toilet main bath

Replace more outlets.

dirty, painted on beige outlet

Why – because I have CDO and everything has to match, that’s why! Dad did most of the house over the past few years as I was painting or finishing rooms. But he seemed to have missed a few that were hiding behind beds or bookshelves. I was out of a few pieces but picked them up so we’re all set to swap ‘em out.

still dirty wall, new white outlet

Measure, cut, paint and install baseboards.

Why- well again with the matching… there’s a small bit of the office that did not get baseboards when we did the office, plus a section of the hallway that used to have a bookshelf built in. Additionally the master bedroom needs to have old baseboards yanked and new ones cut (I’ll probably wait to install in this room once the walls are painted.

Update – well due to problems with the toilet project we didn’t get time to paint the baseboards and get them installed. But we did remove the master bedroom baseboards so that I can paint. Once the bench staining project is done I’ll have room to paint the baseboards. The next time the saw is in town we’ll get the measured, cut and installed.

dirty carpet but baseboards are out!

Get rid of ‘de bolt’

see the dangerous bolt?

Why – when this gate was installed there were two bolts sticking out. Wilson found the first and ripped the skin on his left rear leg (owie) which resulted in an expensive Sunday urgent vet visit. Walking by the gate a few weeks ago I nearly tore my arm open on the top one. It’s got to come off!

bolt stub

Take down lights and the shelf in the master bedroom

Why – this is just more painting prep so that I can finish with the ceiling, then prime and paint the walls. It’s going to be bold color (just like the kitchen, office and guest room) and the white lights and shelf will go back up probably still as white. The only switch will be that the shelf needs to be raised up a few inches for some furniture to fit underneath.

shelf gone – walls ready for paint!

Stain wood for the bench & drill holes

bench in the summer of 2011

Why- I love this bench, it belonged to my grandparents and I’m glad to have it at my house now. But it’s seen better days so I bought wood to replace the weak and wimpy slats and am working on staining them. Once stained they’ll need drill holes for the bolts. But I won’t be done quite yet, we need to remove the old wood, sand down the frame and paint it. While I like the flat black, I’m thinking that Oil Rubbed Bronze would make it really pop. And hide stains better.

About halfway done with staining

I’m still working on staining. They recommend waiting 4-6 hours between coats so I need to get back to this project tomorrow. The drill holes are done though so as soon as the wood is done I’ll set it aside and start working on the frame.

I’m sure we’ll be adding other things to this list. For one, I finally bought the right size replacement knobs for the broken drawers in the kitchen. They do need to be stained and installed though.

But the list here comes first, lots to do and then the garage to empty (I’ve been storing furniture for 6 months now and it’s time it went home lol).

The garage is getting there! I still need to move the queen headboard from the master bedroom and start sanding it so it can be painted. But it’s definitely looking better! Here’s a peak at the tool hanging storage:

Yes, this makes me happy

I’ll definitely have enough content for a garage post soon, there’s a lot to do in there and I am so glad to have it clean so I can work on projects in earnest. Not having room to move around really cramps my style.

Next up: clearing the side yard, repotting and working on my container garden, refinishing the bench, sanding and painting a headboard, installing the last door inside, priming & painting a ceiling

Mid-May Where Has the Month Gone? Post

There’s a lot going on over here, as referenced in this post, but as things speed up I’m even more committed to getting projects done.

See, I’m sitting on the love seat in the living room next to my queen mattress (propped up against the wall) and looking at the dog crates which need to be used at night again so I can get rest instead of being dive bombed by Nixon.

He looks cute and innocent but he can dive bomb.

There have been some small successes lately. For one, I found an affordable backup charger for my laptop so now when I want to go on a trip or work from the living room I don’t have to move my entire desk in the office to unplug the charger.

I’ve also started keeping a metal bowl out on the counter for food scraps throughout the day and then I dump it at night in the compost bin, add some water and give it a spin.

I’m even happy I finally managed to eat the manicotti noodles that I bought a year ago even though I didn’t make traditional manicotti, I was just happy to get them out of the pantry so they’d stop mocking me.

But there’s much more to accomplish this weekend so here are my goals and I’ll be back to update (with pictures as I go).

1) Spray paint the last set of door hardware with ORB – done

2) Mow and trim the front yard – done!

 

3) Continue to trim flowers, clean up dead leaves and add to the green waste bin – mostly done, always more to do

4) Clear and at least prep the office door for painting. Bonus points for getting the first coat done – done

5) Prep the kitchen stool for the final coat of paint – done and got it painted for an upcoming post

6) Move out all of the flower pots and clean them up – done

7) Trim the grass in the backyard and lay down fertilizer – grass is trimmed, fertilizer not yet done

8) Make another batch of lentil soup – done and in the freezer

 

Whew. I think I can get all of that done today if I stay focused and don’t get too tired. First up is feeding the dogs so they’ll stop barking at me and having something for breakfast myself.

Energy and Exhaustion

Lately I’ve been feeling more and more exhausted as things get really busy in my business.While I’ve been incredibly productive in some ways I’m slacking in others. For example,

• reaching out to dozens of clients, leads and colleagues
• filling my practice, serving private clients and getting great results
• frequently messy house that desperately needs routine cleaning
• complete failure at cooking meals
• spending time with the dogs at the park a few times a week
• haven’t gone back to the gym since their jacuzzi broke a few weeks ago

Most of the time it feels like I’m failing in far too many areas than where I’m succeeding. On the weekends that I work for 2 days it feels overwhelming and I go into Monday exhausted. If I take the weekend “off” to work on photography, sleep in or work around the house then I feel guilty.

Last night I went out to a birthday party and hanging out with friends old and new was a great break from the computer:

Each week I make a point to meet up with my friend Ana,

or Lily,

so we can work on our businesses and record videos together. That feels balanced and I always have more energy after two or three of us get together for a few hours.

While I have dozens of half finished projects at home I lack both the time, money and energy to complete them. Which makes me feel like a slacker.

It’s tempting to compare our low energy times with the brilliance that other bloggers put out there. Most people post about the great things, a dinner out, new purchases, great experiences. Even in the Facebook economy we don’t talk much about the mundane.

So what do you do when everyone out there seems to have a more fabulous, exotic and productive life?

I prefer naps.

In fact, I was convicted lately when I jokingly replied to someone who asked how I get it “all” done when I said “I don’t sleep.” Which could not be further from the truth. I sleep at least 8 hours a night, sometimes more.

Now, I justify this intense time investment because 2-3 mornings a week I have vivid, clear dreams about my client’s businesses, often creating marketing campaigns and implementation plans when I’m asleep. These mornings I wake up inspired and writing ten miles an hour to get it all written down.

But, the truth is I’m not productive because I don’t sleep. I can be productive (in some ways) because I don’t watch tv, I don’t go shopping and I don’t cook or clean much.

I’ve known and accepted for years that I’m an incredible Type A personality. Even when I take timeoff, like the party last night, I end up doing something more. Taking pictures to add to my photography blog, networking around my business, writing myself notes of things to accomplish when I get home. Yeah, even my relaxing time at home is spent researching, working on projects or gardening.

I tell ya, it’s a sickness. When I was 14 I came down with mono and spent an incredibly boring 3 weeks at home recovering. Torture, absolute torture.

So I guess I’d rather be busy, even when I’m looking at all the things that haven’t been done and stressing myself out. On days like today I just do the next thing I can which means right now I’m going to wash the car.

May Goals

Well this year has been a whirlwind of travel thus far and it’s not over yet. But I am excited that the month of May means staying at home and getting sh*t done. Yes, that’s my company’s motto.

For the house that means tackling projects that are bugging me the most including:

• replacing 3 more outlets in the bedrooms that were missed the first time (this is my OCD tendencies insisting they must all match and be upgraded to white)
• replacing both toilets which have leaky seals and many problems
• removing the lights and shelf in my bedroom so I can paint
• removing the baseboards in the master bedroom for painting

And that’s just the short list as my Projects Page can attest. I would be sublimely happy to find an ORB faucet for the bathroom that didn’t cost $200 so I could replace the large, gangly, boxy cabinet and sink with my pretty, new pedestal sink. Which of course needs a faucet first.

The grass is growing and some of the bald spots are (slowly) filling in on the back yard but mostly this time of year the roses are blooming like crazy.

 

The mint has also overtaken the front yard:

 

And a few select tulips have survived and bloomed:

Due to the travel lately I’m really enjoying being at home and seeing everything bloom. Psssst for a lot MORE photography posts, including this amazing iris, check out my daily photography blog here: http://theonethousandproject.wordpress.com/

Remodel in Arizona Part 3

I’m not going to fight my nature on this one… I like clear surfaces. Even more than organization sometimes, I love seeing a clear counter.

The top two places this is important is in the kitchen and bathroom for one simple reason: dirt. In the kitchen pieces of food stuck to things is just gross and in the bathroom you have the unholy trinity of soap, hair and makeup residue.

So are you ready for the before pics?

not so much surface space

This is what I mean by gross residue:

ewww

And the space between the bathtub and the counter became a magnet for trash:

see? soap residue is nasty

I should mention I did most of this cleaning while waiting for Ikea to deliver the bedroom furniture (shown assembled in this post). First everything came off the counter so I could scrub it down, Windex the mirror and sort out the make-up, lotions, medicine and all kinds of bathroomy stuff. I added the small trash can between the bathtub and counter and picked up a new (larger one) for the far side.

Here’s the after:

The two bath mats were $11 at Ross

Mostly I just picked up the trash and swept, putting things away in the drawers or cabinet (the white door on the far right of this pic)

and the (clean!) counter:

see all the counter space?

One of the first suggestions I made was using a nifty corner caddy in the bathtub to store a portion of the LUSH collection. Lower baskets are great for a bath while the taller ones are within reach for showers.

Shower Caddy for $25 at Target

I picked up the tension rod at Target and although it shows 96-100″ and I had only 69″ you can easily leave out one length of pole to get the right height. Fun fact: I assembled this while watching Saved By the Bell on Netflix streaming.

The rest of the bathroom was just messy, a recently departed shape shifting cat had left behind bowls and toys and litter and food, most of which was still in the bathroom. Such feline accessories went into the storage area of the laundry room making space for a great spinning towel holder:

Found at a quirky thrift store for $20

The makeup from the counter went into the first drawer:

while you can still see all kinds of makeup it's easy to hide too

And the counter top is used for hair supplies, toothbrushes and the turn style for bottles:

using the yellow dishes I brought from CA

I scored this one for $18 at a Phoenix thrift store and even found a smaller one for the counter top:

$15 smaller counter top organizer

The cabinet behind the door was great for storing the (immense) LUSH collection. BFF already had the colander but it needed to be cleaned up a bit. The tins in the back (on the bottom shelf) have LUSH soaps and bath bombs:

still room for storage

This tray is great for smaller items to ensure they don’t fall through the shelving:

$10 at Ross. And it's blue.

There you have it! The bathroom redo which costs all of $84 and a good amount of elbow grease. If you already have towel storage or a bathroom caddy then it should cost even less!

My Home is Plant Hospice

I’ve come to accept one thing about my skills. I am not a gardener. Oh no. While some of my plants have thrived (don’t ask me how), I am quite miserable at keeping my favorites alive.

For example hydrangeas shrivel up and die within weeks. “Forcing bulbs” indoors was a miserable failure as well. I even transplanted a fern that promptly wilted up.

Don’t let the ones still alive fool you. They’re just luring me into a false sense of security.

One thing I realized is that I am especially lured in by plants on life support. When they clearance out plants because of imminent death I can’t stop myself from buying them. Like this one for $1 at Wal-Mart.

Isn’t it pretty? So much potential.

For some reason getting plants that already on life support gives me a fall guy. Obviously if the plants die it was not MY fault but the slacker at the store who failed to keep the plant in good condition. If anything I’m just giving the plant a nice home for its last few weeks.

Plant hospice, if you will.

For the interior plants I most often get cut flowers from the store… like these white tulips

 

Actually tulips are one of my favorite flowers

And these lilies from Rob are one of my favorite flowers:

Despite the “mostly dead” status it’s always a little sad when I have to throw them out. Maybe I should start a flower graveyard and if any of them seed and resurrect it’ll be a miracle.

Remodel in Arizona Part 2

So the real reason for my makeover duties was the guest room which started out looking like this:

air mattress and classy cardboard box side table

 This room was lovingly referred to as the “trash room.”

corner by the closet

 yeah… lots of stuff:

before the decrapification process

We picked up the bed frame, mattress, side support, and cross supports at Ikea to have them delivered 2 days later. So in the meantime I worked on the living room (full story here) and then cleaned out the guest room. Once the room was relatively clean I went out shopping.

I started by finding these pillow covers:

Covers: $1.50/ea at Goodwill
Insert: $10/ea at Wal-Mart

 I wanted these larger pillows for the bench seat and found two smaller accent pillows:

$4/ea at Goodwill

I will warn you that 98% of the time the linens at Goodwill or other thrift locations are not good. You’ll find lots of stains, fraying and ugly out there. So when you do find something suede, pretty and clean (do the smell test): buy it.

It was about this time the Ikea delivery arrived and I assembled the frame first. Of course I put the headboard by the door and the foot board against the wall so this is me moving it around:

it's surprisingly sturdy and light

And you can see the bookshelf turned bench here too:

Ikea frame: $100

Let’s talk about the bookshelf bench for a minute. I created a pinboard here with inspiration and this was a main component

We’d picked this one out and then, by the miracle that is Swedish design, found one at the As-Is section on sale:

$45 and it came assembled

 Here’s the bookshelf turned bench with the pillows:

bench with pillows

Isn’t it great? So great for storage on the bottom and comfy!

Now for more storage… no offense to the cardboard box but it had to go into the closet.

I had always envisioned a side table against the opposite wall so you could walk around the bed (makes it much easier to change sheets) and I set out to find an appropriate table.

Table: $35
Lamp: $16.50

The table is actually a metal vanity chair that I picked up at a thrift store in Phoenix. The lamp was purchased in pieces and is controlled by the light switch.  The lamp base came from Goodwill for $3 and I purchased the adjustable lamp shade bit for $5 at Wal-mart and the shade at a thrift store for $8.50.

For the table I added a blue tray from Target and found this great silver leaf tray from a thrift store for jewelry, keys, anything small:

Tray: $2.50
Silver leaf: $3.60

The blue comforter was an impulse buy from Ross but the price was right at $10.99:

The finished guest room

 So there you have it, the guest room is done! Once again I cleaned up most of the stuff by putting like things together, moving all the Christmas decorations into one box (which went to the laundry room) and using the shelves in the closet. Then it was just some vacuuming, dusting and furniture assembly.