Tuesday, January 24, 2012

While The Cats Away, The Mice Will Play

Sorry that I just sort of disappeared.  The hubby was out of town all last week and I decided to take advantage and get a few projects checked off my list.  But first, the weekend before Andrew left he helped me to demo the laundry room.  Yay!  That means my laundry room has to actually get done now... we can't just talk about it anymore.  Of course since he was heading out of town and the laundry room only got torn apart, the house was left in major disaster mode.  We've tried cleaning up a little bit, but the guest room and bath have been taken over by laundry stuff.  Not such a big deal, except for the fact that my sister and her fiance were visiting last weekend.  Hehe... sorry Caitlin.
Anyways... back to the projects... the minute Andrew left for the airport, I headed down to the basement and started moving furniture to the middle of the room.  That's right, the toy room finally got painted.  I'm not even sure that I mentioned the toy room had been moved to the basement in June, but we, and by we I mean I, decided we needed to utilize some spaces better in our home.  The basement wasn't being used at all except as a large storage dumping ground and we were always climbing over our guests down there to get to anything including the food storage room.  Since we have visitors a lot, it was kind of a big deal.  So the guest room got moved to the old toy room on the main level, which has worked out much better and the toy room went downstairs.  It really has been win win.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time or energy to decorate the toy room, but just getting it painted and the furniture arranged was a huge undertaking in and of itself.  So without further ado... here is what we have so far...
 This was in June when we were moving stuff around.
 Freshly painted... I love the color.
 Unfortunately, the lovely pink carpet stands out that much more now.
 The file cabinets in the corner of the picture here actually need to go in the storage room, but that room has to be addressed before there is room for these file cabinets.
 The kids spend hours cooking food in their kitchen... it makes me happy.  They also love to race those strollers.
 Nice and organized... I just need to make up labels.
 They also love the chalk board and their table.  I found this table with the four chairs at the DI for $35 a couple summers ago.  Score!  Unfortunately, three of the chairs have been broken... I'm still hoping to be able to fix them though.  I think it would be cute to paint the chairs some fun colors.
And of course, the horse, the very fancy horse.

Once the toy room was done, I moved onto the laundry room.  I'm convinced that the previous owners really liked to put holes in the wall.  They were also really big fans of wall anchors (I kid you not, there were wall anchors for small picture frames) and toggle bolts (oh please shoot me).  The laundry room was no exception, in fact I'm pretty sure this was the favorite room for this.  I don't even know how many holes I patched, but it was a lot.  After I finally got everything patched and sanded and patched and sanded again, I was able to paint before Andrew got home Friday night.  Now we just need to get the new shelves built and installed and then I can decorate.  I'm so excited to have a nice laundry room.
 One of the few times the laundry room has been clean and organized.
 These pictures are actually two years old... I forgot to take pictures before we started tearing things out.  The room was actually a huge disaster before we started and the washer and dryer had been buried for at least two months... when I did laundry I just moved the huge pile to the couch and brought it back to the washer when I was done.   Yes, that is embarrassing to admit.  We're working on it.  Don't judge. 
 Cameron enjoyed helping.
 Just imagine all the holes from that shelving unit... half of which were in toggle bolts.
 Ella thought it was pretty cool that she could touch the roof.

 It was so hard to find a paint color for this room.  Everything looks like some variation of concrete on the walls.


I think I'm happy with the color.  It's certainly better than the yellow that was in there.  I also got a new light fixture for in here.  I'm excited for this to be done.  Hopefully everything gets finished up on Saturday.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Laundry Part 2

As part of organizing the laundry room we need to make our entryway uber functional so that it can be used for coats, shoes, backpacks, etc, which will free up tons of space in the laundry room.  Our laundry room is just way too small to be used as a mudroom/laundry/storage room.  So thanks again to pinterest, I've found some great inspiration for our entryway.
 I love this chest of drawers, the rug, the mirror, the chairs and that glass vase.
 Love the red door and entry table.
 We need hooks...
 ...lots of hooks
 I love the railing with hooks and kids art. 
I love this way of displaying the munchkins art work.  I'm pretty sure Ella would love to help with this project.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Laundry Love

I have three organizational goals for the house this year... 1) makeover the laundry room, 2) revamp the kids closet and 3) organize the storage room.  Now, the kids closet should take priority, but I'm really wanting to do the laundry room first.  After all, I walk into and through that room countless times a day.  So after scouring pinterest (oh, how I love pinterest), here is what I've come up with for the laundry room.
 I love this serene wall color.
 I love everything about this room... the wall color, the mirror, the wire basket and the light fixture.
 I need these shelves above my washer and dryer.
 Shelving for the opposite side of the room.
Love the glass containers for laundry soap, stain removers, vinegar, etc...

Sunday, January 1, 2012

How'd I Do... December Goals

My goodness, I can't believe 2011 is over.  2011 was a crazy busy year for us.  I'm hoping that 2012 will slow down a little, but we'll see.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas... We had a great time in California visiting grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.  The munchkins loved it and had so much fun playing with cousins.  We were sad to leave family, but it's always so nice to come home.
So let's review December's goals:


Homemaking -
Decorate for Christmas 
Deep clean before Christmas - I was pretty to happy to actually get the house cleaned before our trip.  It was well worth the frantic cleaning spree the day before leaving to come home to a clean house and fresh sheets.

Cooking -
Make a fabulous cake for Ella's birthday party - Bummer... I did make some cute cupcakes though.
Try three new recipes - I've gotta be honest... I could have tried three new recipes, but I don't remember.
Christmas baking/goodie plates - I had the best intentions, I even bought the stuff, but then I just ran out of time.

Mothering -
Take Ella on a date - January is the month.  It was kinda hard to do this since we were so busy and when I was planning on shopping it was for Christmas.
Remember to read Christmas stories with the kiddos - The kids loved unwrapping a book each night to read.  Definitely need to do this again.

Creating - 
Finish all the homemade gifts I've planned... there are a lot - With a lot of late nights, it all got done.
Sew a scarf for me... I need something for my stocking too - Nope, but I've got plans for one or two.
Finish the flowers and gift bags for Ella's birthday party - Yep and they were adorable.

Financing -
Figure out a new budget for 2012 - This is on the calendar for this week.
Plan budget for the month of December... there is a lot to cram in this month - I actually stayed in budget.

Enriching -
Read two books - I think I did this, but like the recipes, I just can't remember.
Host our Cooking Group - We had so much fun.
Have a date night with Andrew... it is our anniversary this month after all - We actually got to go out a few times this month.  We especially had a great time in Santa Monica.

Let's look at January:

Homemaking -
Pack away Christmas decor
Sort through Christmas boxes and purge unused decor
Organize toy room with new toys
Deep clean laundry room
Paint laundry room

Cooking -
Try three new recipes
Gather recipes for family cookbook

Mothering -
Take Ella on a date
Patience, Patience, Patience

Creating -
Begin organizing craft closet

Financing -
Work out 2012 budget

Enriching -
Read a book
Give myself permission to take a nap when I'm tired

As you can see, there are quite a few homemaking goals this month.  Our house has kinda become a disaster in the last few months and it's time to address that mess.  What better time than the beginning of a new year.