Basement: Before & After!!!!

Garage sale is in ONE WEEK!!!! :) I am SO ready!

When we started moving my stuff into the house, there were a LOT of boxes. Because I moved around quite a bit in Hays, most of my kitchen/other stuff was still in boxes.

Once we got everything here, I was tasked with sifting through boxes I'd been lugging around since college. Some of them hit the recycling bin. Others were just trashed. Some of the stuff found a place in our house. And some of the stuff ... was demoted to the "to garage sale" pile, which looked like this:


Scary, right?

Over the last week or so, we've been slowly moving stuff out to the garage to prepare for the sale. Erik joked that he better sleep with one eye open or I'd put him in the garage to get rid of! ;)

Well, it's all out!


If we stay in this house long enough (who knows how long that will be?), I envision finishing this space into an office space with a door for me. There will still be some unfinished storage space in my vision, but my visions don't always translate into reality. ;)

Wider view:


This is terribly exciting all around. I "think* that because I've got all of the boxes sifted through that it means the things that are useful are in the house, the stuff that is junk has been tossed, the paper has been recycled and the "other " is in the garage sale. I have a few boxes I'm keeping, but it was nothing compared to the PILES of boxes we started off with. (you can see a few HERE
and HERE, although I promise, there were MORE boxes in there before I started on these projects).

I also have an idea of how I can make myself a makeshift work bench, but more on that when it actually happens. :)

How we communicate ...

Erik and I have extremely sophisticated and advanced ways of communicating. Especially when it comes to the dishwasher. The questions is always: "Clean or dirty?" ... and we used to have a piece of paper that we stuck on the dishwasher with a piece of tape. But we went thru several sides, and now this is what we do:





Ok, so we have abridged it to the "C" and "D" .... but it gets everything sorted out for us.

Middle bedroom!!!!!!!!

Before, I cleaned the middle bedroom from THIS:


into THIS: (you can check out the blog post HERE)


WELL .... now, IT'S CLEAN AND READY FOR OCCUPATION!!!!!!!


I don't think we'll paint it in the near future. I don't really have a vision in paint for this room .....







Yeah, there's a bit of stuff in the corner, but I can live with it.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why the heck there's a love seat in there .... well .... there isn't room in the living room. And there was enough room for it .... so I figured "why not?" :)


Of course, Esse had to inspect my work. Erik fondly calls her our "sidewalk supervisor." ;)

Where have all the hangers gone?

Seriously! It's like the case of the missing sock .... only with hangers!

I did laundry on Friday (hanging it on the line to dry!), and we were at least 12 hangers short when it came time to put things in the closet. WHAT GIVES!?!??!?!?!????


Hmmmmmm....... like missing socks, I have no answer. Anyone else have this struggle?

Oh, but my remedy to the ever happening missing sock .... mismatch them so it won't matter anyway! ;)

We're going to have to break down and actually purchase hangers. I don't remember EVER doing that in my lifetime....

# 98 — Get that tree taken care of in the backyard

... CHECK!!!!!!!

Boy howdy am I happy about this one.

Erik will say I've "had it in for the tree since the moment you saw it, Karen" ...

Well, Erik .... the tree was almost half dead. It eventually would be dangerous. I didn't want it to be a liability.

We called basically everyone in the phone book. Well, the quotes to take the tree down ranges SO VASTLY. Well, we kept going until we got quotes from just about everyone .... and let me say, our persistence paid OFF! The last quote was about half of what the others were. SOLD! :) Some things, I'm willing to pay more for ... like a pair of jeans that make me look smokin' hot. Other things ... well, in the end the price wouldn't mean a job better done. So away we went.

Here's the before and after photos:


You'll see that one branch was already cut ... yeah, I did that. I attacked the tree with gusto, trying to take care of some of the dead branches myself, but it was getting dangerous.


I also have photos/videos in progress, but wanted to share that I've checked something more off of the 101 in 1001 list. :)

We opted to keep the trunk of the tree around so we could hang our hammoc swing. :) I'll be sure to share those photos soon!

Oh, and a few more items coming up to check off of the list ... #46, 71, 72 and 90. But I am having space issues and will download the photos and share them as soon as possible! :)

A wild hair ....

Our middle bedroom is just a "catch all" place. Every once in awhile, I'll get a hankering to attack it. Truly, it looks better now than 6 months ago. But you might not believe me....


The love seat from the living room was moved here b/c I did some rearranging. But there wasn't enough floor space, so I had to put it on its side. Crazy, I know!


So Friday night I got one of my hankerings.

The double beds are now in the basement store room, and we're finally able to put up the full sized bed in that room.


Of course, everything had to come OUT of the room before I moved mattresses.

And in the end, all of it went back in. It's not really that there's less STUFF, but it's easier to get to/organize/access.


My goal is to have it ready by the time my friend gets hitched in October, because we'll have a boat-load of friends/family in from out of town. It's gonna be a FULL house, but then we'll have room for quite a few extra people to have beds to sleep in. :)


Of course, Esse is an opportunist .... and she can't resist a big pile of blankets. :)


"Buzz off, Mom."

Rockin' it out!

Check out how our rocking chair came!

Project manager Esse the cat. :)


In progress ...


DONE!!!!!


My parents' friends, Kathy and George, gave us this item off of our wedding registry! :) Now I'm more anxious than EVER to get the back patio area done, so I can rock and read with a little more privacy.

Piles of paper ...

Ok, so our house doesn't look like this, but I *feel* it looks like this.

Anyhow, I've shredded GOBS of paper I no longer need, so next is getting all of the household papers in order. Yay!

#94 — Clean/organize the garage so one of us can pull a car in during the winter.

... CHCECK!!!!!!


YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Check out this clean garage!

I didn't realize this was on my 101 in 1001 list, but it was excited to see when I saw it was!

Since I didn't realize it was on my list, I didn't take a before picture ... so sorry if you wanted to see our dirty, dirty, dirty garage. But ... let's just say it was littered w/ boxes (from wedding gifts, etc.). My roto-tiller and bike were also placed wherever I wanted.

Now, things are MUCH better organized.


Erik even got me hooks to hang my bike up, so we can pull a car in! :-)


On the side ... things are hung ... or placed in the extra spaces between the 2x4s.

Reorganizing!!!!!!!

After we were married, I didn't waste ANY time in reorganizing Erik's ... er OUR ... bedroom.

Before: (please pardon the clutter!)


After: (doesn't it look SO much larger? Better furniture arrangement ROCKS!)


Yes, there are some paint samples on the wall ... and we've picked out one .... anyone want to come help paint???? ;-)

AND today, our AWESOME closet organizers showed up! Now I just need to finalize our closet color, then tear out one built-in ... and move out the clothes ... to get the brand new closet rolling! :-)

This CAN'T be healthy ...

UUUUUUUUUUUGH! Time to find a color we can live with in our closet ... but I want to be able to weave it into other places in our house, such as the dining room.

Anyhow, I *think* we have narrowed it down ... which is a relief! Aren't all of those colors INSANE? Did you ever know there were so many shades of tan and brown?


I *do* have to say I enjoy some of the names of the colors.


Seriously. Who comes up with these names? And can I have a job interview? ;-)