Spare Room = Bare Room

I bought my house over 2 and a half years ago, and in that time my Spare bedroom became a catch all room for well, everything. It had craft stuff, my nieces toys, a pile of stuff for good will, lots of puzzles and games, but no actual bed. It was blah, and boring, and I had no idea what to do with it. I've had some paint samples hanging on the walls in there for about the last 5 months but couldn't ever get the motivation to actually do anything with it. Well once summer started I began my annual "holy-crap-it's-summer-so-I-must-compulsively-clean-every-inch-of-my-house-from-floor-to-ceiling". Once I had cleared every bit of junk from the spare room so I could shampoo the carpets I decided that since the room was empty I might as well take advantage of it and paint. The problem was that I still had no idea what to do with it so I turned to Behr.com to help me. After a few afternoons of playing with colors I settled on Hallowed Hush and Solitude (which ironically had been hanging on my walls for months although I didn't discover that until after I'd bought the paint). Now the room has lots of color, although it is lacking things like furniture. That's okay because my next project is going to be refinishing a few pieces I already have for the room! I just love summer, there's so much time for projects!!!


Blah and boring!

Still blah, still boring

Hallowed Hush on top, those ceilings are high!

Top color done, now comes the tape...

And tape, and tape, and tape.....

1st coat of Solitude hits the walls!!

So fun!

Removing the tape was my favorite part

Now for furniture, and a bed.......

Toilet Trials

To start off my summer vacation I decided to tackle the toilet in my guest bathroom. This toilet has been a pain in the rear since I moved into the house several years ago. My poor dad has been over many times to replace flappers, and fiddle around inside the tank trying to stop it from running constantly. After the last flapper install Dad declared that the whole system would have to be replaced. Well that was about 6 months ago and we've both been to busy to do anything about it. I was talking (i.e. complaining) about this to my BFF Bridget and she told me that she had replaced the innards of the toilet at her old house.
Well if SHE could do it, then darn it so could I. I promptly headed to Home Depot and bought a complete toilet repair kit that promised to be "easy to install". The box even declared "easy to install", the guy at Home Depot who I asked about it said "easy to install". HA, it was definitely NOT easy to install. Factor in my RA which means my hands have very little strength, and screws that are so corroded that they literally disintegrate when you touch them, this Easy to Install system ended up taking me 1 week, 1 visit from my mom, 1 call to our pastor, 1 visit from said pastor, and 1 new tool courtesy of said pastor. (Dad is currently in Israel, hence my calling our other pastor for help). But, after Mom and Pastor Alex helped me unscrew the tank from the bowl I was able to do the rest of the install myself, and I'm pretty darn pleased!!


Finally the tank comes off! All it took was 2
extra days, and 2 extra helpers.

As though the toilet wasn't enough of a project I

decided that this was the perfect time to remove

the wall paper from that area to make painting easier.

A tub full of old (gross) parts.

A floor covered with tools and wall paper debris

Now just look at that! A beautiful new system.

Sweet Success

Can gardening really be fun?

When I was younger there was one chore that I hated above all others....yard work. I absolutely despised having to work in the yard. It wasn't the mowing that bothered me because quite frankly a lawn mower is just a big loud power tool and who doesn't love power tools! No it wasn't the mowing, it was the raking! Why oh why did we have to rake? And it wasn't a little bit of raking, we had a BIG yard which equalled a LOT of grass to rake. I couldn't understand the point of raking and, in fact, I refuse to rake my own yard now (instead I set the mower to mulch and just deal with it). Now before you start to think that I was a poor, overworked child, let me assure you that I wasn't. I had my usual set of chores to do and parent's who were fun and never unreasonable. Plus my dad decided one year that instead of a raise he would have someone come and do our yard for us so the raking stopped before I hit my teens. Still the hatred of raking stayed with me and spilled over to include all sorts of yard work including any kind of gardening. I was utterly confused by anyone (my mom included) who seemed to actually like spending time in the yard. I didn't see the appeal of backbreaking work all for a few flowers that would die anyway.

And then I bought a house.

One of the deal-breakers in my search for a house was that I had to have a fenced in backyard for my dog. I found myself looking at homes with BIG yards and small yards and settled on my "House of Dreams" which had the perfect sized yard for me and my Schnauzer. Knowing that I was going to buy a house with a yard I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to do some yard work. I knew it came with the territory, and since I already had my "no raking" policy in place I was okay with it. The House of Dreams in all of it's sad neglected glory had two flower beds in the front yard that were horribly overgrown. Almost immediately after moving in I decided that all of the shrubbery had to go and I set about doing a total demolition to the front yard. Imagine my surprise when I found that I LIKED it! I liked pulling out all of the old stuff and picking out just the right flowers and shrubs. I liked weeding the beds, and mowing the yard. I found myself feeling closer to my mom since we now had something in common (that she didn't share with my sister)! Gardening was fun, I was one of those people who enjoyed wandering the flower section of the home improvement store. And even though my "no raking" policy remained firmly in place, I found myself thoroughly enjoying all of the time I spent in my flowerbeds.

Then came the RA and my new found love of gardening, turned into yet another activity that I was entirely incapable of doing because of my joints. All of the plans I had made for my backyard fell by the wayside and I gave up the idea of being able to landscape the way I wanted to. However, I was happily able to start working outside again this week after many, many, many months of inactivity, and a lot of medication. Now with Spring just around the corner I am once again looking forward to playing in the dirt. While it's true that I have to work a lot slower than I would in the past, I'm thankful that I can at least keep working!

My House of Dreams

Two years ago I found myself in the incredibly lucky position to be able to buy my own house. The house hunt itself was pretty easy because once I saw the House of Dreams I knew that I had to have it. The thing was that the house was absolutely disgusting. There were stains on the carpet the size of a person. The walls were black with dirt (how is that even possible). The ceiling fans had feet of dust hanging off of them (the dust was hanging so low that even I could touch it). The yard was so overgrown that you could barely see the windows. I won't even mention the kitchen because it was to gross for words! The good news for me was that I could see the potential in the house, and I was able to get a LOT of work done on it as part of the deal.

It's been two years and I still absolutely love my house. I love that there are rooms that are still unfinished and empty because I haven't found the right inspiration for them yet. I love that the rooms I have finished were done exactly the way I want them. I love that I can have a completely frustrating and annoying day at work and then come home an instantly relax when I walk into my house!

It is still a work in progress, and one that I love working on....now if only I knew what to do with that extra bedroom.