All My Ducks In A Row

Have I ever told you that my husband is talented?

 Here is some of his handywork:

Wouldn't you agree?

Linking to French Country Cottage    & At the Picket Fence 

Finders Keepers

I've always wanted to find money while cleaning out.  

 

And today I did just that!  Even though it's fake!

I have been cleaning out a bedroom closet today getting ready for new carpet and decided to go ahead and pull the old carpet up.  Other than the play money, I also found enough sand and dirt in there to plant a tree. I can't imagine what the rest of the room is going to look like.       

JAM-PACKED

That would pretty much describe the closet in my daughter's old room, as well as, my upcoming weekend. 

First the closet.

I cannot believe how much I was able to cram into a 4 x 6 space. 

 Here is only a portion of what I have already taken out of there:

And here is what I still have to remove:

Since I will be doing the same thing in my son's room, this will be a great time to organize, re-vamp and throw away.  

Why am I doing this?  New carpet for one.  And the other is the reason for my jam packed weekend.

She's moving back home! 

This new development happened this week and I am in "full-steam-ahead" mode.  Thankfully we had already begun the process of clearing out the room and painting.  That all happened last weekend (before we knew she was moving back home).  What's left to do now is to paint the trim and doors and have new carpet installed. I also need to repaint the iron bed that will go back in there, as well as, the dresser, and buy mattresses.  (see this post)  And then of course there is always a ton of last minute odds and ends to do when trying to wrap up this kind of project, but those may have to wait.  Right now the carpet and furniture are the priorities.

And as if all this were not enough I have yet to pick out carpet so I need to do that today and schedule an installation; move EVERYTHING out of my son's room because we are also replacing the carpet in there; AND painting my mother-in-law's living room.  This was a commitment we made last weekend and need to follow through and finish it this weekend.  Oh yea, and I have a doctor's appointment and a dental appointment to keep.

Whew!  What am I doing still on this computer?  In the words of Niecy Nash of Clean House, I've got to "Go Get to Gettin." 

This Is What Happens

Right after I write a post on being neat:

This is what our dining room looks like presently.  But for a good reason!

For quite some time now my daughter's old bedroom has been the catch-all room.   I HATE "junk" rooms and have always said I would NEVER have one in my house, but I also know to never say never!  This weekend was the time to declare war. No more junk room! No more junk room!

We cleaned everything out and painted the walls a khaki color to match the new bedspread I bought last year even though I did not have a mattress to put it on.  I gave the one I had to my daughter at the end of 2010 or the beginning of last year when she moved into a new apartment.  I never replaced it because I knew it would just be one more thing to have to move out when it was time to relcaim it as a bedroom.

My son's old room and the dining room are the only two rooms in the house that are not used very often so I had to move everything in one of those two and it had to be the dining room because I need to recarpet the two bedrooms. We painted and fixed up his room last year, but I had to wait about carpet because:

1. I was not ready to move everything out of the then "junk" room.

2. And because at the time there was carpet in the hallway.  I wanted it to be replaced so the carpet layers could address the new floor at the doorways instead of carpet.

You can see the orange, pink, and green bedding in the first pic.  The old iron bed belonged to my husband when he was growing up.  It is soooo heavy.  It takes both of us to move it.  It may very well be the heaviest piece of furniture in my house!  It is going to get repainted.  Also, the painted green dresser that it is leaning against will probably get repainted.  I have a lot to do in that room: paint trim and doors, paint beds, dresser, make a bedskirt, hang pictures, paint mirror, call the carpet layers....

This is why I put off redecorating a room.  One thing leads to another to another to another...

Real or Fake

It appears to me that in blogland especially in the world of home decor that most of those who have an interest and a knack for designing the inside of their homes also have the same talents with plants and landscaping their yards. 

I am sure there are exceptions. 

I am one!

I love a beautifully landscaped yard, but I have no skills in that area.  My thumb has never been close to any of the gazillion shades of green whatsoever.

However...

I decided about three weeks ago that I needed something green and alive in my house. I have way too many fake plants and I am getting tired of them.  I know I will probably never get rid of all of them, but I would like to scale back a wee bit!

I took a huge risk in following through with bringing something home that would actually need water, sun, and nurturng to live.  Not a risk for me, but a risk for this poor thing:

Right now it looks good and it makes me happy.  Maybe just maybe it will like me back, and continue to thrive. 

Here are a few of my fake plants:

 

The Pinterest Plunge

I have wanted to try to make something I saw on pinterest for quite some time now.  And I finally did it! 

Laundry Detergent



It is suppose to be cheaper than the name brands and last a lot longer.  But honestly I don't care about any of those things.  Not anymore anyway, because I can't describe to you how wonderful it smells!   We (meaning B.J. and I) now go into the laundry room throughout the day, lift the lid, and sniff!  Crazy, huh?  But, honestly it smells that good.  We are hooked and need our laundry detergent fix.  

Try it!  I promise you will be hooked too!!

   

Line Up, Please. And In Orderly Fashion!

I don't think I could be classified as a fanatic, but by nature I guess I am somewhat of a "neat freak".  Please note that everything in my house is not "orderly" and what may be in order today may not be that way tomorrow.  But it's always my goal!  So, with that in mind, the pictures I am about to show you are ONLYof things presently (you guessed it) in order. 

What?  You didn't think I would show you my junk room, did you?

My new rugs for the hallway.  Matching and perfectly lined up!

I would prefer my silverware drawer look like this.

And not like this.

My dishes to match.

And my clothes to be neatly folded in their "assigned" drawers.

Towels folded.

Magazines put away.

And beds made.

 (O.K. maybe just a little fanatical.)



On Paint:

I hate to paint.  Did I ever mention that?  I hate the mess and I hate the process.  About halfway into it I begin to question myself and am usually ready to ditch the entire project.  But then when I see everything begin to come together I muster up enough enthusiasm to finish what I started and then I, more times than not, love the outcome. 

Several people have asked me to paint something for them.  I can't bring myself to do it.  Mainly for the lack of time but also because it scares me.  It's one thing to mess up something that belongs to me but an entirely different story to mess up a piece of furniture that belongs to someone else.  I DID paint a dresser for my niece's nursery last year that turned out cute.  But I thought I was going to have to go buy her a new dresser before it reached "cuteness"!

Here is a corbel that I purchased at a thrift store last year for $3.50.  I painted it Wednesday evening and for some reason the paint didn't want to adhere. I'm going to redo it. Maybe! Because did I mention that I hate to paint?

I know painted furniture has been around forever it and will continue to be but it will probably not always be as trendy as it is right now. That's why I will never go wild and crazy painting everything around me.  I don't like to paint antiques unless they are in really bad shape so there are pieces of furniture in my house that will never get painted.  Like this sideboard in my foyer:

Or this industrial cart used as a coffee table:

BTW: I went to New Orleans yesterday to shop.  The antique store where we purchased ours has raised their prices on these carts by nearly $300.00.  Glad I got mine when I did.    
Something else that will never see paint, my piano:

 Or this curio cabinet:

Or the four poster bed in my son's old room:

Here are some things I am itching to paint. My fireplace mantel for one:

My kitchen cabinets:

And the drop leaf table I use for my computer desk:

Here is something I'm straddling the fence on.  I have an antique dining room suite that I 'm not in love with but I don't want to get rid of it.  I have the china cabinet, table, six chairs, and a side table. Here is the china cabinet.  After looking at this pic, I think I'll start out by maybe painting the inside of it for now.   What do you think? 

Something I painted last year.  My dresser:

  
And something I would like to re-paint.  Antique hutch:

Whew, enough talk about painting.  I'm breaking out in hives as I type.  Let's change the subject!

As I mentioned earlier I went shopping in New Orleans yesterday.  The town was buzzing with people getting ready for the LSU vs Alabama game this weekend.  It is a crazy place to be right now but I manged to maneuver through a VERY small portion of it to shop.  Here is my one and only purchase of the day.  Vintage place mats that I will eventually get framed:

How do I always manage to turn a new purchase into a new project?  For every time I get to scratch something off my project list, I have to add something else to it!!  Oh well, it must be what I love to do.

OK, I had better get off of here and get busy.  I'm off to "scratch" and "add"!!!
  

Hallway

My final post on the hallway.  Maybe.  For now at least.  We still have some trimming to do but for the most part we are calling it finished.  I am not in love with the rug we bought, but will keep it in there for now, at least throughout the winter.  I also want to hang more pictures, but that will come later.  I need to find something I like first. There is a thermostat in the middle of the wall where I need to hang something that I need to figure out how to work around.  For over 15 years this halltree has sat at the end of the hall, so I was more than ready for a change.  It now sits in my foyer waiting to be refinished.  It is very old and in very bad condition. 

At the end of the hallway now:

This hutch that I wanted to put in there did not fit. 

 I measured it wrong.  Imagine that? I'll show you a better picture of it in a future post.  We moved it into the master bedroom.  Still have big plans for it because it's just too plain.     

The dragonfly prints looked like this up until Saturday:

I didn't like the black frames so they got a makeover.  Here is a closer look at them. 

It took me most of the day to turn something new into something that looked old.  Here is one part of the process and the part where I was tempted to put them in my boxes ready for the Salvation Army.  They looked like they should be in a baby's nursery.  But I continued to layer and sand and layer and sand some more.  Finally I was pleased with the way they turned out. 

B.J. and I watched a program on t.v. this morning about a Disney Cruise ship.  They lifted it out of the water and did a complete makeover of the inside and outside in two weeks.  Less time than it took for us to finished one little bitty narrow hallway!!

Here is a better picture of the new floor.  I do not have a before pic because I couldn't bring myself to photograph and share the 18 year old carpet that was in there.  This is the concrete floor AFTER we took out the carpet.

Linking with http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/01/wow-us-wednesdays-47.html
                   No Minimalist Here