I actually missed this day altogether, but considering it was a catch-up day I don’t feel too bad. Sometimes you just get home from work and want to ignore everything for the rest of the evening, right?
Um… didn’t accomplish much here either. We already have a landing strip set up in our entry. A little IKEA RAST dresser fits nicely between the stairs and living room wall and that stores our junk drawer, a stationary drawer, and a drawer for flashlights/candles/assorted basic tools. On top we have a bin to corral mail. It could definitely use a mirror and a trash bin but I think I’m just going to have to keep an eye out for some finishing pieces rather than try and force it.
Matt took care of this one without even knowing it. We had people coming over for dinner on Friday and he wasn’t going to be home until pretty late on Thursday so he tried to get in some quick tidying where he could.
Not emptied yet…just have to make some time for a Goodwill run. I spent Thursday grocery shopping and doing food prep for Friday. We have an awesomely full out box though!
Friday night we had 6 of our friends over for Bibimbap 2016. We’ve done a bibimbap night once before and it was super successful and V2 was as well. Food was delicious, kitties were being attention whores, and I think I good time was had by all…. and then Saturday we started to destroy our dining room. Stay tuned!
Ugh, I HATE the media fast. I tried. I did. I spent and hour measuring and hanging curtains in our dining room, I did dishes in a timely fashion… and then I went back the the computer. Fail.
The focus on this one was paring down your accessories… which we did when we moved. Our decorative objects sat packed away for months after we moved so I was able to be a little more objective when I unpacked and placed them.
Wow… I failed at the weekend…or won the weekend… I’m not sure which. Friday night We decided to try and get into to the concert at Paisley Park. It was announced on Twitter, tickets were only at the door, and there was no mention of whether or not Prince would be preforming (but I guess sometimes he just randomly does). But it was funk night with Pho and Graham Central Station so Matt really wanted go. Participating in a party at Paisley Park with a possibility of a Prince performance is just one of those things you should try and do if you live in the Twin Cities.
So we went, we got in, we danced, and Matt even saw Prince wandering around*. We left around 1:30 because my feet were killing me** (and it was after the scheduled bands were done) so we didn’t get home until after 2. As far as we can tell we didn’t miss an impromptu Prince performance, so I don’t feel too bad about being the one to make Matt leave.
Why am I mentioning this all when I should be talking about Cure progress? Because I usually go to bed around 10 so this was a crazy late night for me.*** I woke up on Saturday feeling mildly hungover, and I had only had wine with dinner the night before. I then proceeded to accomplish absolutely nothing on Saturday. After dinner Matt suggested a trip to the hardware store to pick up outlets so we could try and fix that fiasco on Sunday, but I declined because then I would have to put on real pants.
On Sunday we actually Got Shit Done. Some shit at least. We went to the hardware store, got new outlets, found a new light fixture for our pantry, and picked up so extra storage bins for the basement. We also picked up another sheer panel for the dining room and weekend flowers while we were at Target. I got 3 different vases out of these $5 spray roses and the greenery left over from week 1. Pretty sweet, huh?
Matt attempted to replace the kitchen outlets and then we discovered that they’re on the one breaker in our house that’s a 20 amp instead of a 15. Doh! This might explain some of the earlier issues. We’re just so goddamn brilliant sometimes. We didn’t want to head back out so Matt tackled the pantry light instead. We had to convert a wall mounted lamp to add a pull chain and there was success all around!
We also got some assorted crap moved out of the living room, did a general clean of the bathrooms (no deep clean needed since we did that as we did the makeover) and tried to corral the paperwork that has a tendency to accumulate in the dining room… so it’s not like I completely slacked off this weekend. I also worked on a couple mini-projects that will be putting an appearance later.
Oh, and because it’s bathroom weekend (and I clearly haven’t rambled on enough yet…) here’s my current though for the micro-bath.
*I saw the silhouette of a short guy with a big afro with his back to me, so I guess I did too?
**Matt is under strict orders to never let me wear those shoes again if we’re doing any significant amounts of standing/walking.
Ok, this is possibly my least favorite assignment of the cure. You tell me to sit quietly and think about a specific thing, I’ll probably space out and think about something else. Maybe I’m a little ADD…. or just contrary. Anyway, I tried pondering our dining room since that’s our next big project and within two minutes I was at my computer brainstorming ideas for the bedroom that I had previously been stumped on. So now I have a bedroom plan in place so I’m still calling this a success.
Give yourself 30 minutes to work on cleaning out a closet and then stop? DONE! Our hall linen closet was starting to get a little out of hand so that seemed like a good thing to tackle. I organized and boxed all our first aid stuff and medications, refolded sheets, moved extra towels into our new bathroom closet, and pulled out a random piece of wood and 2 light fixture globes(???). Spencer also decided to help out with this one.
I FINALLY got curtains done for the kitchen! I chose to work on that because it seemed like a nice, doable evening project. They’re a faux roman shade because, let’s be real here, I’m not going to be regularly adjusting the shade the behind the sideboard. I hung sheers behind the shade to soften the view (busy-ish street, not too pretty) and provide a little privacy (see busy-ish street) while still letting light in.
I like this idea of having an end goal. Just spent January getting your house back in order? Celebrate when you’re done! We’ve been meaning to have people over for Bibimbap for a while now so this seemed like a decent excuse to get it organized. We don’t have a date set since we’re trying to coordinate with 3 couples, but the plan is in the works.
I finally replaced my first batch of flowers… well, added to since I’ve only had to toss a single stem so far. I picked up a bunch of assorted greenery and some baby’s breath since I’m hoping for long-lasting again and I love the texture of the greenery. There’s some eucalyptus in there so it smells pretty awesome too.
The bedroom was more difficult than the flowers… luckily(?) it was barely supposed to get above zero* this weekend so it’s not like I was going anywhere. I finally got my drawer dividers made, put away 2 baskets of clean clothing (that, yes, I have just been digging through in the morning), and washed all the bedding. I discovered the Oxyclean White over the summer and it is ah-ma-zing. It’s color safe so you don’t have to worry about anything with a pattern, and it makes a HUGE different on dingy whites.
Everything got a good tidying and dusting (my most hated chore ever) and I hauled out everything that had no business being stored in the bedroom. Ladder? Half of our tool collection? Curtain rods meant for the entire house? Really?
Ugh, I could not get the color balance in this photo to look decent, and this is the first time I’m showing a picture of the bedroom post-move-in. It doesn’t look quite this drab in person but the yellow tones in the beige paint just bring everything around them down when I try and get pictures. Don’t worry, I think this room’s up next for an overhaul after the dining room! And I even have a plan now!
Also, full disclosure: dressers still need to be excavated. But look how good clean this half of the room looks, right????
*Minnesota: come for the hotdish, stay because your car doors just froze shut.
Our pantry is in relatively decent shape at the moment. This is probably because we only moved in 6 months ago there’s no better pantry purge incentive like moving. Our pantry is also not very deep so we don’t tend to lose things in its depths. We do need to tame our tupperware though and corral some smaller items in bins. The pantry will get a complete over-hall, hopefully within the next year, but it’s functioning decently for now.
We were actually ahead of the game on this one and already started an outbox with a bunch of tupperware from our pantry. I added old hangers some clothes I don’t wear anymore as I worked on other projects during the week.
BAM! I…. didn’t clean out any drawers, but I DID clean out my closet and found some clothes I didn’t even know I had (that’s a good sign your closet desperately needed cleaning). I also picked up some foam core board to redo the dividers in my underwear drawer though. I never put my existing ones back after we moved and I just made use of Kohl’s Intimate Stock Up Sale to refresh said underwear drawer. I disliked my existing dividers (HOFTA from IKEA–too flimsy and doesn’t fit perfectly in a MALM dresser) so I’m going to make my own with the foam core (although I will not be sharing a picture of my knickers on the internet when it’s done. sorrynotsorry).
There wasn’t a lot of deep cleaning to do in the kitchen since we’ve only lived here 6 months and I did a full kitchen overhaul when we moved in. Instead I chose to do a general cleaning and then tackle a couple of the smaller kitchen projects from my list: touch up cabinet paint, replace wonky outlets, hang curtains.
The outlets turned out to be a way bigger pain in the ass than I anticipated. Our wiring is a little jacked up (yay for old homes?) which makes things incredibly frustrating. First one of the outlets sparked on me AFTER we cut the breaker. Turns out it was still getting a very slight current from somewhere (which one of our testers could detect, but the other couldn’t), but we couldn’t link it to a specific breaker so we had to cut the power to the entire house. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Because it’s absolutely mind boggling to me.
The other 2 outlets I was working on were easier despite having some weird existing wiring happening. Unfortunately after we brought the power back on only 1 of the 3 outlets I replaced actually worked. ARGH! We have idea what’s wrong with one (see “weird existing wiring”) which should be annoying, but fixable and I’m hoping the other one is just a randomly defective outlet, otherwise I’ve got nothing.
At least they LOOK way better, right? We’ll fix them, but at the moment I’m still swearing at them so it’s probably better to take a break. I also think I’m going to need to do some drywall patching around the switch/outlet pair since the reason they were all wibbly-wobbly was that the hole for the electrical box was cut too big so the tabs on the top of the outlets aren’t able to brace themselves against the wall.
By the time we were done fighting with the outlets I was all “I hate electrical!” and “Screw the curtains!” but I did touch up the cabinet paint (it suffered from a couple small drips when we painted the walls), remove the splashes of over-spray from the floor (from when I spray painted the radiator), and did a solid cleaning so I’m calling it a successful weekend.
My flowers from last weekend are still going strong (go carnations!) so I’m going to wait to buy more until this bunch needs to be tossed. Maybe I’ll buy a new potted plant though? Menards has some nice looking spider plants and Phyllis (my cut-leaf philodendron) is looking all hella sad.
Despite the fact that I’m not living in an apartment anymore, I’ve joined Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. It just seemed like a good way to kick start the year, it will also replace the current Weekend Reports for the month since I’ll just do a weekly wrap-up instead of a daily post.
There is nothing like the start of a new year to kick yourself into gear and make changes that last. And no, I’m not talking about resolutions, which have a sneaky way of fading along with the holiday glow. I’m talking about taking just one month and investing some effort (21 do-able assignments in total throughout January) toward a cleaner, more organized and more peaceful home. If you are ready to get your place back in shape (and reap the rewards for the whole rest of 2016) the very best way is one manageable step at a time, during our once-a-year-only January Cure. By the end of the month, you’ll be have a cleaner, fresher, more organized home, guaranteed!
Sounds pretty good, right? At least until you start to take naps… which is exactly what I did on Day 1. Luckily, Friday assignments are pretty much weekend assignments so I had 3 whole days to tackle Assignment #1: Flowers and Floors. Except I actually spent those 3 days taking more naps and binge-watching Doctor Who so I’m starting now. Yeah, don’t follow my example for sticking to a schedule. Ever.
I dropped Matt off at the bar to watch the Packer game. I realize most Minnesotans would probably refer to it as the Vikings games, but we’re from Wisconsin so tough cookies. I tend to be slightly more productive when Matt’s out of the house, which is a little weird since it’s not like he gets in my way on anything when he’s here. I picked up so flowers on my way home* and have already cleaned up the floor in the mudroom (which was living up to its name) and swept and mopped the kitchen and pantry. My favorite wood cleaner is Method’s Almond Scented Wood Floor Cleaner. I also have a Rubbermaid Reveal mop, which has the ease of a Swiffer, but you can refill with your own cleaner and the pads are washable/reusable (I’m also pretty sure I didn’t pay anywhere near $50 for mine.. wtf Target?).
Unfortunately dropping Matt off at the bar interrupted my Doctor Who Binge in the middle of a two-parter** so I’ll possibly go back to slacking for this evening. There’s a pint of Izzy’s Midnight Snack in the freezer too so apparently you shouldn’t follow my example for New Years Resolutions either….
*From the most expensive damn grocery stole in the area, so I semi-cheated an picked up some carnations and a bunch of greenery since I am not paying $15 for daisies.
**With Zygons no less! And, yes, I know I’m way behind on this season. I haven’t seen Star Wars yet either, so THERE.
