Friday, February 5, 2010

My mundane task

Yesterday I challenged you to find the mundane to do to keep/make your house nicer!

So I share a picture that shows some of my 'issues'. This is from the previous house, but it is the only one I could find. I know how to delete bad pictures and crop, so I have cropped out 'yuck' from most of my pics.

First, I have a little sigh seeing Reckless in the background in her bed, I still miss her. Anyway,
You can see the top of my coffee table, which isn't always the case, but you can see there is something UNDER Reckless' bed. Under the tug o' war toy are Jay's shoes, there are his jeans laying on a a bench across the table.
and one of Duncan's shirts is also under the table. Clutter falls EVERYWHERE in my house. With Jay, Duncan, the dogs and myself stuff just multiplies. By the time I work, take care of animals, make dinner, clean up dinner, get the kiddo in bed and fall over...things get put aside. So my MUNDANE task that I avoid is cleaning. Years ago when I found FLYLADY I would clean one day a week. My house would be spotless Friday night and by Tuesday a train wreck. It isn't like that any more...I do more daily routines, 27 FLINGs and such, but it just isn't second nature for me. After refinishing floors last week and not being able to do my daily stuff, it got out of control. I did some cleaning last night, prepped dinner for tonight and so forth.
I want badly to paint a cherub I bought, I want to pull down panelling in our bedroom, I want to build a tack room in my barn and paint the cabinet in the bathroom. Those things would be great for blogging.
Cleaning my living room, scrubbing the toilet, shining my sink...those things...they just don't seem FUN or blogworthy or noteable...but they are THE most important. I have been in some impressive houses, with architecture for days, expensive furniture, great floors and if they were messy that was all you noticed. I have also been in tiny, scantilly furnished cabins/cottages and been truly impressed with how LOVED those homes were.
So my MUNDANE task for myself this day/week/month....is to be more diligent about picking up those shoes, shirts and papers so that I can enjoy things like my floor, my mantel and just my house.
and honestly, I still can't tell you what that is under Reckless' bed!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The boring stuff!

Somehow we all love a makeover...redo...declutter...makeover! The more extreme the better! We like to watch shows with dumpsters full of people's overpurchasing, pack-ratting ways.

What we don't want to see is the day to day that we do to prevent ourselves from getting that need. The fixing a door hinge before it falls off, the new gravel in the driveway, daily chores and more.

TV and blogland has brought us face to face with "You can fix it" but it also reinforces our need for instant gratification!

So today I challenge all my blog friends to do something mundane for the sake of NOT having a big thing to do later!

What can you do today?

Thursday, January 28, 2010

A few more photos of the floor

I am planning on doing ONE more floor this year (maybe May), so I will hopefully do a 'tutorial' style pictures!

Here is the Living Room before and after! We still have to reinstall trim and whatnot, but what a difference....also excuse all the rubbish in the first picture...when I vacated the office stuff I made a train wreck and didnt' bother to sweep before snapping this! :D Here are pics of D's room before and after!

The following are the Master Bedroom
First the amount of old stain/varnish and yucky oldness.More of where previous contractors decided to clean out their paint machien on the floor, which was going under carpet at the time.
the after room! There are some darker areas and spots from where carpet padding had gotten damp and sat there. I despise carpet for this reason. How anyone pulls up old carpet sees what LIVES under there and puts it back down is beyond me! :D

I couldn't be much prouder of myself, I have to say!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Before and After....

I have more to post, but for now this was one of the worst areas. When the previous owners had planned to put carpet down they carpeted over the return air vents and their painters had a party painting the floor in the hall and front closet. Here is when we pulled the carpet and put plywood in the opening. I love a WELL PAINTED wood floor...this is NOT that!
Here we are looking from the kitchen to that exact spot AFTER!
I am acutely aware that fifty year old hardwood that has been 'unloved' in it's life wont' be PERFECT, but isn't that better. If you look right inside the opening to the left...you will see our patch of new hardwood.



Monday, January 25, 2010

Blame me.

If there is MORE dust in your house than usual this week, blame me. I have been sanding hardwood floors I have increased the national dust volume, I apologize. I hope to have some pictures for you soon.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

In awe!

I have lived most of my life in and around Central Indiana.

I had never seen THIS before!



How majestic..how wonderful! I saw him (or her) twice in one day less than 2 miles from my house!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Earthquake in Haiti

What can you give up today (or this week) to help? I am donating $35 in place of a riding lesson to the Salvation army.
January is financially hard on our family, but NOTHING like that. I challenge you to give just a little this week.