All's Well That Ends Well - I Think

Well I had a topic that I was going to do for yesterdays blog post. Of course yesterday's post never happened because I got to go on a trip with the family. I was going to talk about our friend Dan and the wonderful furniture that he and his sister gave us. I'll have to save that topic for another day. Today I'll talk about how grateful we are for Dan's help in loading our moving truck.

So, DH booked a cube van for Tuesday from our local car rental place. It turns out that it wasn't a cube van, it's a cargo van - big difference. Since there's nowhere else to rent anything here, the next option is to load everyone in the van and drive about 4 hours to where our stuff is. The plan is to stay overnight in a motel (with a pool and hot tub so the kids can have some fun). Then first thing in the morning DH and our friend Dan will get the truck and the kids and I will head home to take care of the dogs.

Well, the place we were going to get the truck from needed to make some repairs so we went with U-Haul instead. Now, U-Haul can be pretty hit-and-miss but we got a great deal today. Basically, the dealer where we live really needs trucks so we got a big discount and a great big truck.

I helped pack a little bit but then needed to get on my way with the kids. I left the packing in the capable hands of my husband and our good friend Dan. Before starting to pack the truck DH was convinced that there was no way they could get the contents of a full 10x20 storage unit in a 26 foot U-Haul. Thanks to some awesome packing, he was pleasantly surprised.

I got home to find that the tie for both of our dogs had snapped. Our wonderful neighbour had taken care of one dog and the other dog must have just stayed in the dog house till she heard us at the house. At least we have a shed where they can be safe and contained. It's so not what I needed though. I guess we'll be looking for something stronger tomorrow.

Painting Begins

I found the memory card so the pictures are now on the computer. I took a bunch of random pictures around the house. Later DH took pictures in a more methodical process. The unfortunate part is that the battery died as he reached the last two rooms. Of course, those are the first two rooms that we painted. Perhaps he wasn't so well planned after all. We've just painted the walls and the closets so far. We haven't done any trim, partly because I'm not sure what colours I want yet, partly because we'll be replacing the windows this summer anyway and partly because I'm lazy and I can overlook the trim for a while as long as the walls look decent.

We'll have to settle for my 'before' pictures.

This is the girls' room. Yes, it was like that when we moved in. I guess someone tried to get rid of the blue but didn't have much success. No, I don't get the blue square around the light.

This is after. We haven't done the ceiling yet but we'll get to it. The walls are the sky and grassy hills. My 11 year old will be painting horses in the field at some point. We may also do a tree and some flowers. At least it looks much better than it did. It will be neat to see when it's all done.

The other room that has been painted is our bedroom. Our bedroom was probably the best looking but I'm so tired of having a white bedroom. I want it my colour.

Orange!!!! I LOVE orange! It's so bright and cheery.

So, I learned some things with this painting experience. The major lesson is that if you decide to use leftover paint from the previous owner be very careful to check the label . . . and then check it again. I was sure that the paint that I used in the girls' closet said latex. I was wondering why it smelled so bad while I was putting it on . . . and why it didn't seem to want to come off my hands with just soap and water. I looked at the label again and saw the dreaded word "alkyd". So they got to camp out in their brother's room for a couple more days. Thankfully it was fairly mild so I opened their window (of course I had just put the plastic insulation on so that had to come off a bit). I also found out about getting rid of the smell with sliced onions in a bowl of water. Then I learned that rotting onions in a bowl of water smell a lot like alkyd paint. Fun stuff! But the girls are in their own room now in their own bed (a bunk-bed generously given to us by my sister - who has been storing it in her basement for a year, waiting for us to move).

Tomorrow DH goes to get our belongings out of the storage unit.

The Irony

So, I wanted to post some pictures but I have no idea where my card-reader is in all the clutter right now. Here I'm having a blog about creating order and eliminating chaos and right now things are very chaotic. I guess it will just help to show the journey that I'm on.

Yesterday one of our friends delivered a whole bunch of furniture, most of which belonged to his grandmother. It's just beautiful. It has made me realize, though, that a space looks much bigger when there's nothing in it. Tomorrow K is going to pick up bunk beds for the girls' room - yay!

Early next week he'll be picking up our belonging from the storage unit. That is when the real fun will begin. We have an attached garage where much of our belongings can go while we're figuring out how to order everything. We're also not using the basement as living space right now. I'm somewhat dreading having all of our stuff come. I know that there are some things that I want. Over the past couple months while it's been in storage I've realized that I can live without so much of it. Fortunately, I know where there are some donation drop boxes and other places to donate things. I knew when we moved that much of it would be donated. One of the issues about where we were living is that there was no place to donate things and I didn't want to just send everything to the dump. It will be interesting to see just what makes the cut.

A New Beginning

It's been a very long time since I've visited this blog but the time has come to start again. We have recently bought our first home and we moved in a little over a week ago. A move right before Christmas wouldn't be too bad if it was a short distance or if the house was move-in ready. We had neither of those condition. However, things worked out well and we all had a great Christmas and we really didn't need all of the things that we used to 'need'.

With the festivities over (well, we still have New Years) we've been busy making the house into our own. Starting with the easy things, we've been painting - a lot. We have been taking before and after shots and the plan is to share them here.

Over time our plan is to paint everything, refinish the hardwood flooring, install a new furnace, install an airtight fireplace insert, move the kitchen, redo the bathroom, re-insulate the exterior walls, finish the basement. (Some work was already started but it looks like it was improperly done. We'll be removing what needs to be removed and starting over.) Of course, I'll be doing gardening too.

It's going to take some time as it will depend on finances and the time we have available to do the work. It will be exciting to see the transformation. I can tell you one thing, I'm so glad I got rid of a lot of my clutter last year. There's still a lot to get rid of but it could be worse.

Good Start

Yesterday was a great start! I got rid of a whole bunch of crafting odds and ends. Most of it just went in the garbage because it wasn't even worth it to donate it. Some of it went into a box for donating.

I also went through the stuff that didn't sell at the yard sale. I have a big bag of stuff to take to the youth group on Thursday to donate to them. It's so nice to have that out of my house.

I had to go out this morning so I didn't get very much done yet today. I did throw out a set of six plastic plates that we haven't used in ages. Only four more items and I will have met my goal of ten for today. I'm hoping to throw out way more than four more items though.

Starting Again

With most of my projects for February out of the way, I feel that it's time to get focused on junk removal again. I was considering waiting until March 1 but I'm ready now and I don't want to put it off. I think that as far as numbers go, I'll be aiming for 10 items per day. I'm sure that I'll exceed this amount on many days but I think it's a reasonable goal.

There are two things that I think will help this time. First is that my older daughter's birthday party is over. I had kept quite a bit of arts and crafts supplies so that her friends could make things while they were here. I'm glad that I kept it because they had a great time making their creations but now that the party is over, I'll be happy to pass it on.

The other thing is that I had my yard sale this past Saturday. I realized that, for the most part, it's just not worth it to keep a lot of the stuff I have to try to sell it. I had done a bunch of baking for the sale as well and I'm so glad that I did. I made about $130 from the baking and only $30 for the yard sale items. I was able to pass on some great winter wear that I'm glad will be getting used but as far as making money goes, it's not worth the effort. Now I'll be going through the stuff that didn't sell and either throwing it out or putting it in a 'donate' box.

So that's where things are at right now. We'll see how it goes and see what things are like on March 22.

Dropped the Ball

Well, it's a good thing I did so well for the first half of the month because I totally dropped the ball for the second half. There are a couple of reasons why.

First, we're fostering a couple of puppies. What has this taught me? I now know that I'm not as much of a dog person as I once thought. I guess it depends on the breed and the age of the dog. We've enjoyed having them here . . . for the most part. One reason I wanted to foster them is so that my children would start to feel more comfortable around dogs. In that regard, they have done the job beautifully so I think it has been worth it.

Another thing is that I've been trying to go to play groups with my daughter who is still at home full days. When we're not at home, junk removal just doesn't happen.

One more thing to note is that, while I haven't posted about what I've thrown out for well over a week, I've still been throwing things out. Of course, now I've forgotten what a lot of it was. I know that I got rid of a lot more paperwork that I didn't need. I also went through my felt (after making a bunch of felt hand puppets) and got rid of the scraps and organized the rest. I also got rid of a lot of old seeds that I had. I know that I won't be doing a lot of gardening this year so there was no point in keeping a lot of the seeds I had. I've kept the heirloom seeds and some herb seeds but that's about it.

I still have a ways to go in getting the garbage out and reclaiming our house as a real home but a good start has been made. February will be busy for us. I'm not sure how much I'll get done garbage-wise. I'm having a yard-sale though. Some friends and I have booked a local hall so I'll be getting 2 tables there. In the past, I've had so much stuff piled on the tables that it's been hard for people to even see what I had. This time, I've been more ruthless with things and I threw out the stuff that I figured nobody would buy anyway. It should make for a better sale overall. Plus, it will leave more room for baked goods - that's where you make the real money.