A Before and After for Real Life

I've been keeping something from you.

You know how I get to live on this amazing beautiful property, right?

It's the stuff that dreams are made of, this place. Even with a million foot garden hose in the picture.

The thing is, I've let it get like this:

It's a junk heap and it's embarrassing. You can see this from the road when you drive by.

It started off innocently enough. A pile of topsoil delivered in March, a chain-link fence torn down this Spring meant to go to the recycling centre. Slowly, more and more just got added. A few bags of trash that didn't make it into the garage, some used fireworks from the May long weekend.

I didn't actually clue into how much it was bugging me until last week, so I wrote it on my Calendar and decided I would clean it up.

So you're expecting now to see it all cleared out, the driveway re-paved, new flowers, chairs, maybe a tire swing.

But instead I'm going to show you this.

Yup. That's the after. And that's my finger. The sun was so bright and my eyes were all watery and I didn't see. But it's evidence that I was distracted because I worked my butt off. For 15 mins.

I have this rule for myself, that if a job seems too huge and I feel like I can't get it done without throwing off the balance of the rest of my life, I'll work on it for just 15 mins, and that's better than doing nothing at all.

So I pulled the weeds out of the dirt pile, threw out all the trash and the old fireworks, dumped some pots of dead flowers, and moved the pretty alive flowers out front where they can actually be seen.

So why am I showing you this? Well, maybe you have a sad neglected area around the house too. In fact, I bet most people probably do. If you're like me, and get worried about spending too much time on big jobs, you can do it in little chunks of time, and after 3 or 4 chunks, you'll really start to see a difference. So much better than doing nothing at all. For your home, and your sanity.

That's progress, people.

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The Slipcover Saga Continues

Remember back a few weeks ago when I was talking about ordering a slipcover? I couldn't believe all the feedback and advice I got. It seems like everyone's got an opinion on this matter.

Well, I went ahead and ordered one, and I ordered one that most people suggested I didn't get, which was my favorite.

Well, you see, I've never had a slipcover on anything before, so I guess the advice just wasn't making sense to me. And I love plaid, and wanted to look at lots of it. And I know they always say to do a neutral slipcover and then add patterned pillows, but that just seems like it would take a lot of time or money to get enough nice ones.

And I wanted my sofa de-grossified and de-embarrassing-fied like, yesterday.

So this is what it looks like now.

Well, no. This is what it looks like now:

It looks pretty decent until you sit on it. And we're sofa-sitters around here, so I'll have to develop a new compulsion to tuck in the sofa every time I walk by. It's OK. I already compulsively chop the pillows, so I'm there anyway.

So I don't love it. In fact, when Chris came home he said "Well, that's a little disappointing, isn't it?" That's not what you want to hear.

But I do love parts of it!

I love the fabric. It's a soft ultra suede and it's easy to clean. The color and pattern are so fresh and clean looking too.

I love the little ties around it and I love the back view of the sofa coming into the living room.

See? It's charming from here!

How can it be so un-charming from the front? I think I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?

Maybe I should go straight to the source and ask Surefit myself.

I'll keep you updated as the sage continues.... Pin It

Twine Door Pull

This is kind of a "Hmm" project for me. As in "Hmm, I wonder if there's some little tiny project I could make for fun for the front hall project before I do some more painting."

And, "Hmm, maybe some twine is in order here."

 Also, "Hmm, you know, the before picture actually kind of looks better than the after."

Here it is, the before picture. Nice, right? I stole it off of a dresser that needs to be redone, and that's missing one of the other knobs anyway.

But I just felt like wrapping it in twine and seeing what would happen.

This is what happened.

It looks terrible! I doesn't help that Chris was trying to fix something about this little under-the-stairs door and the screw was too long and went right through the wood. I white washed the twine anyway, for an aged look.

But then when you stand back... and you hang a "G" on it, it's actually pretty cute. When you pass by it in the hall, it looks like it might be that natural bleached wood that we've been seeing around.

And I think it might bring a nice bit of softness to this hall that's going to end up looking pretty crisp  and contrasty.

And I'm probably thinking just way too much about one little measly door pull.

Besides, I can always go back to Leo.

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Other people wake up with sand in their teeth too.

Do you ever feel like you're learning way too many big life lessons for a person your age? Do you always feel like you should know that already? We went camping this weekend and I did that again.

We left on Thursday morning and by Wednesday, mid-day-ish I had already completely lost my composure and was freaking out (to myself and the cat) about how out of control of the packing situation I was. This was supposed to be the year when I took lots of extra time to make all my preparations just perfect, but that didn't happen. "This is dumb. Why do we even go camping anyway? We live in the country already and we have this house that I spend all this time trying to make welcoming and comfy and now we're going to leave that, do a whole bunch more work to just get through the day, and come back having lost three days of housework time."

So I told myself a bunch of reasons why and they made sense and sounded good enough and all. That kept me going for a few hours, but by later that night I was in full-on freak-out mode again, got over it, and decided to just try to keep a good attitude about it the next day. I'm exhausting!

I always go on a little rampage when I wake up in the tent on camping mornings. I feel icky! Everything is wet! I just want to make a tea but I have to go through 18 steps first and I don't know where anything is! I have to pee and all these strangers are going to see my messy hair! Panic, panic, panic. And I feel like a failure at camp-home-making because clearly everyone else must have all these great tips and tricks and goes on living just like they're at home in their freshly-vacuumed houses, because that's just how it must be.

So, clearly we've never camped with anyone else before. This time though, Kennedy met a little friend on the second day we were there. Well, we got to know this girl's parents a bit and we hung out with them while the kids played. These are the "good campers" that I'm always wanting to be like. They were there for a week and a half. We were being ambitious this year and decided to do 3 nights. They had this whole camping thing figured out.

But.

Their kids had matted hair and sweaters with dirt on them that they wore for three days anyway. They sometimes ate less-than-balanced meals for dinner. They woke up with sand in their teeth. They got bugs in their tent. Their daughter didn't ask me to wipe the sticky off of our picnic table when they sat down to color. She didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked her if she'd like me to. Because this is camping. This is what you do. You're living in a little forest-room made out of dirt. So, things get dirty.

Oh.

So you're not supposed to try to control the dirt and make everything all sparkly and new looking? It's worth a shot, this dirt-embracing mentality. Actually, I could get used to this. And I did. And when we got home to that house I've been working so hard to make comfortable and liveable? The one that was going to fall apart if I was away from it? It miraculously became the cleanest, shiniest, most welcoming place we've ever seen, giant piles of laundry in the middle of the kitchen floor and all. Not bad for three days work.

Photos taken by Chris one night at sunset. Pin It

Kennedy's Closet: The Almost Reveal

Hi Everyone!

I got to spend the morning on a field trip to a farm with Kennedy's class today. Hay rides, ziplines, baby animals, the whole deal. As a little girl with a (soon to be) horsey/animal/farm room, you can bet she loved it. So I'm back. And a cup of tea and a painkiller later, I'm ready to show you some of that room!

The closet to be exact! C'mon in. It's a little squishy, but I bet we can all fit.

We've actually been working away on this for about 10 months now. Chris had to rip out all the walls, re-frame them, put in drywall and then add the built-in shelves.

Can you believe I accidentally painted the closet the same color as it was before the renovation? I couldn't find my before pictures from the home inspection, but there was some pink 80-year-old floral wall paper in here. So we chose our paint color and a few months later, I got around to painting it. It wasn't until I stepped back to admire my work that I realized.... it looked pretty much the same.

The built-in shelves and the wood trim pieces Chris added really make a difference though. The shelving is painted Sherwin Williams Macadamia. The walls are Martha Stewart Almond Butter, just like the rest of the room.

Things get pretty nutty in here.

Ha.

Anyway....

On the opposite wall, there's a matching wood trim piece with 3 hooks.

Aren't they purdy?

I really like these hooks.

Can you tell?

Above the hooks I hung these little mirrors my Grandma sent me a few years ago.

I tucked the pretty satin ribbons they used to hang with away in a drawer and used some twine instead to make them a little more farmey.

The sign I made a few weeks ago found his home in here too.

So it's looking pretty good so far, right?

Well, I went up to take my photos yesterday and 2 things happened:

1)I got another idea for something I want to do in here.

2)This:

I went to peel away the painter's tape yesterday after I painted the old baseboards that Chris reinstalled and the wall paint came right off with it.

Oops.

Then I couldn't seem to get all of it off the floor either. Sorry about the bad photo, the light from the window reaches the top half of the closet a little better, but you can kind of see what I'm talking about.

The floor was just the old plywood so I used the brown craft paper trick on it to make it a little more neutral and comfortable to look at. It's actually really nice to walk on too! It's just a temporary solution, but I think I may have a fun idea to make it even better.

So, now I need to execute my plan and also get those walls fixed up. At the rate we've been working in here, I'd say we can meet up again for the reveal: part 2 in say, 3 or 4 months?

Hey, it's only a closet! Pin It

A Sign for the Deck

I found myself with my sign-maker hat on the other day again. We've been slowly working on making our back deck off the master bedroom a little more comfortable, so I had deck decorations (that sounds silly!) on my mind.

There aren't many easy projects that have as much impact as a happy little sign, are there?

OK, I realize that in this photo, we are in fact, already on the deck, and the sign says "to the deck" but let me show you where the sign really goes.

See? Not really quite as fun. I saw this old red board that I'd pulled out of the wood pile sitting next to my new grey back door and I thought it might make me happy to see some cheery red up there everyday instead of just the sad purple walls. Really, they're purple. It's not the camera.

Well, that just doesn't do the sign and all it's weathered goodness justice, so we went out for some sunshine.

The board came off of an old Adirondack chair we had that fell apart so I really didn't need to do anything but stamp on some white letters. There was some bluey paint left on some of the stamps, but I think that just adds to it.

Side note: Around here, they sometimes call Adirondack chairs "Muskoka chairs". It drives me batty. End of side note.

This railing will soon be coming down. Chris is working on building some big wide steps leading down to the lawn instead of the little narrow ramp that was there before. We'll probably re-use the wood though for a prettier, lattice-free railing because the weathering on it is perfect. If not, more sign material for me!

I'm maybe cheating a little bit here. Just about anything would look great with that view in the background, don't ya think? Oh well, if I've got it, might as well share!


Most of my projects lately have been quick, easy, instant-gratification stuff, which I love. Tomorrow, though I'm getting ready to show you one of our bigger projects from the last year. It's finally almost ready! Meet me back here tomorrow to see Kennedy's closet!


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A big step forward in the front hall

I change my perspective on this front hall project every five minutes, I swear. One moment it's the most significant and symbolic thing in my life and needs to get done PRONTO and the next it's no big deal. It's just a hallway.

Of course, now that Chris has done his (big) part to help me out, and it's my turn to get to work, it's suddenly not such a pressing issue! I'm terrible, I admit it!

But I am grateful.

The moldings are up! Yippee skippee!

Having them up just means so much to me. It means, in my head at least, that I live in that house.
You know, that house that exists in your head as The House. The one you're supposed to live in. So my hall is that first step.

Some people would probably just throw the moldings up, paint the room, shine the floors, and get on with it. I sometimes think I'm one of those people. Or I think I should be. But I'm just not right now. This project is taking months when it doesn't have to. But I'm just loving this little thing called balance right now. And working within my means - with my money and with my time.

So even if it takes me all year to get this done, it will still be meaningful and significant for me. And other things will get done too. And life will go on.

This week in life, Chris brought home two little furball puppies for me to babysit for someone at work who's away on training. So that's pretty much what I'm doing. It's a wonder I'm writing this right now. I think one of them might be in the kitchen eating the cat's food actually.

So I may have another week where balance in life means not working on this hall again, but finished or not, isn't it lovely?

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Our Garden: It's a learning experience.

It's been a few weeks since I've taken you outside for a little tour, so I thought it was time for an update.

First of all, here's the world out front.

I won my little battle against the weeds in the path and we've trimmed up some of the hedges. There's a fun hot-pink something-or-other blooming now. So yay for the front of the house!

Now onto the veggie garden.

I'll be honest with you. When I was editing these photos last night, I was wondering why I was even sharing them at all. There's not much of a ta-da here.

In fact, some of these are downright embarrassing. The weeds! The cucumber beetle damage!

Oh, those cucumber beetles. Two weeks ago, I didn't even know what they were. Then one morning I found about 20 on each of my pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, melons, etc. I tried the old soap and water trick. That did nothing. I tried a slightly harsher, but still natural store-bought spray. Nope. Then I got up the courage to try the "squish their little bodies and leave the carcasses on the leaves so that it smells like death to them" method.

I wore gloves, but I still screamed the whole time. I'm not going lie. At least out here, there's no one to hear me! So I just scream away as much as I need to in order to get the job done.

I don't know if it was really my bug killing or not, but after a few days, I saw a lot fewer beetles on my plants. And now there are hardly any at all. I trimmed back most of the damaged parts and look! We have zucchinis growing! I think that means I may have done something right! I think they might survive!

So why am I showing you photos of my sad-looking plants? Is this supposed to motivate you to go out and create a beautiful garden of your own? Well, maybe, but probably not. But also, maybe your garden looks like mine. And maybe you know nothing about gardening and it's a learning experience for you too. So maybe you'll realize that you're not the only one with a half-successful garden in a bloggy world where we only show off our best. I just love getting a little taste of reality up in here every now and then.

Or maybe your garden doesn't look like mine. Maybe it's thriving and full and weedless and maybe this will help you realize how much you've learned in your gardening pursuits and how much you really do know. And maybe you'll share some of that knowledge with me!

One day I'll be just like you, Experienced Gardener Lady. And this is how I'm getting there.

Don't worry. I did pull that weed after I saw it in this photo.

People have been checking up on our garden. They drive by and report back to Chris' parents. They've been saying nice things. I know they just can't see all the weeds from the road, but it does make me feel encouraged.

If it wasn't looking so good, I know we'd hear about it. "So, I hear you're having a little trouble with the old garden, there." With a little wink and a smile. Or something like that. Because we're those crazy kids with the too-big garden who moved here from the city and suddenly we think we're little farmers or something. But they don't say that! They just say it's looking good!

And we have corn! I can't wait until the rows get to be really tall. I don't know what it is with me and corn fields, but I just love them.

This. This view is what makes me feel like it's all not so bad. The leeks and the broccoli and the cauliflower. They're all just as happy as can be.

Can you tell my mind is just spinning? Can you tell I have 1001 thing to show you and tell you all about this garden? Can you tell I'm lost and hopeful and overwhelmed and a little proud all at the same time?

I guess that's why the only way I can sum it up is to say: Yup, it's a learning experience.

And the season's really only just getting started. Pin It