Bathroom Fix

Husband Johnny was away at a convention for a few days.  I couldn't sleep.  The bathroom wallpaper HAD to come down.  So over 2.5 days, I did some changes to the bathroom.

Let me break down the supplies I used:

• White Semi-Gloss Paint for trim $14.97
• Summer Memory Paint $25.74
• Trim Tray Set $2.89
• Paint Tray Set $2.77
• Vent $4.89
• Wall Paper Scrapper $6.97
• DIF Remover $4.97
• Outlet $2.95
• Switch $1.88
• Covers x2 90 cents

TOTAL: $68.93 + tax (but I did use a $10 Menard's rebate check)

The blue paint I used was leftovers from the living room. Menards had a big paint square with several colors on it that they say match and look nice. So I just keep using colors only from that square. They are the experts.

BEFORE:
Hunter green sponge paint, rusty vent, dark trim, icky hinges.
AFTER:
I painted the trim white, painted the walls Summer Memory, painted the cabinet Merced Blued. I bought 8 hinges (at $10.99) to replace the icky ones, but after removing them I noticed they just needed to clean them.  After a good cleaning, they were fine. Which was great, since it saved me $11, and saved me from having to measure and drill new holes.
BEFORE:
Connor removing the wallpaper.
AFTER:
Removed wallpaper. The walls aren't in the best shape, so there are all sorts of bumps. Sigh. Replaced the old tan/off-white/cream colored outlet with a white one. My first time doing that. My good buddy Joel helped me, by guiding me through text messages.
BEFORE:
Connor removing more wall paper. He helped me peal it off. I had to soak it with the DIF spray and scrap off the gluey residue. It was hard work, but the spray worked great. About 90 minutes to get it all down.
AFTER:
No more wallpaper, doors painted white, and light switch replaced with a white one. My first light switch replacement too.
BEFORE:
I forgot to take a picture with the wallpaper still on, so I drew what it looked like in. When we first looked at the house, we were like "Oh my god, we have to fix this bathroom before we even move in!" 5 years later..... Also, notice the weird brown rusty spots under the mirror. I tried to cover those with paint too.
AFTER:
And here I am. Pretty much done. I do need to touch up some spots with white paint, but i am always needing to do that.

Deck

Yikes. It needed re-staining. And it is not done yet.
And, it needs some serious fixing. One thing at a time.

Week 4: Sun Room

On to organizing the Sun Room. This room just needed more cleaning than anything. And we are planning a massive Easter day party, so what better time than now!

BEFORE:
AFTER:
I took down the mirror down into the downstairs bathroom. I picked up the books. Connor has thousands of books, so I put 7 of them into the sell-room. The little table next to the chair is ready to go outside. It's my outdoor coffee table.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Cleared off the pool table. There were random toys, tools, pictures, paint supplies, a coffee maker - you get the idea. Everything went to the basement. That must be why basement is one of the last zones to clean, as everything is making it's way down there!

There was a bunch of 12 packs of soda next to the fridge, and I put the INTO the fridge. Genius.

The liquor box got a SERIOUS upgrade. The cardboard box on top of the black fridge was what we used to haul our liquor to Winona when we moved here 5 years ago. It has just been a handy place to keep the bottles. But really, an eye sore. So, I replaced it with a green bin that was housing puzzles. (a problem for another day.)

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Just another shot of the cleaned up zone. You can see near the door, a shoe tray I recently bought to put our outdoor shoes on. I bought it at Menards for around $6, but now the Target Dollar Spot has super cute pink and green ones for $2.50.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
Put the extra kitchen chair BACK in the kitchen, and the back massage portion in the basement. Put the magazine rack back into Connor's room. So his books now have a storage area, instead of all over the floor of his bedroom.

So, in the end, I only got rid of 7 books, 3 pictures, the old liquor box, and boxes that held the sodas. Not much, but cleaning up the zone, and putting thing back were they belong helped this room out a ton. I did do a mini-make over not that long ago on the microwave cart in the room, HERE.

Big Blue Wall

Long Before, even old carpet:
After:
There is "Merced River".
On the far left, you can see a bit of the tan "Summer Memory" peeking through.

Long Before, very long, you can see the sponge green even! That light fixture was short lived there, then moved to the entry way.
After:
Now I need help. Bad.

WTF do I put on the wall? Seriously, it's a big, blue, EMPTY wall. Before over the kitchen table the entire wall was wallpapered with Con's art work. And in the living room, the TV was there. Now it's so empty. What do you even do? Can I get away with nothing, and the blue can act as its own artwork?

Week 2

Week 1 of de-cluttering the playroom pit went well.  I tossed out all sorts of broken, loud and sad toys.  I took about half away, and they are in their storage bins in a room Connor does not have access to.  And a bunch are in the pile of things to be sold.  Gotta nail down a garage sale date now.

Onward!

Week 2: Bathroom
I'm begining work on de-cluttering the bathroom.  I have made great strides in orgainzing the bathroom.  Awhile back I redid the whole closet to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

 Yikes, it got messy!

 WTF is going on here????  Seriously, I don't give my dogs baths (shhhh....) and I don't use pads.

Messy, Messy, Messy!

So, I am going to go through all those adorable pink/green/blue baskets, purge out old make up, and unused bathroom products.

And, I'll use my nice camera instead of BB to capture the transformation.

AND, I may do some tricks to Jbiz's bathroom, but that place is NASTY.

Bedroom Make Over

We finally "finished" the bedroom. When we bought the house, the walls were painted white and there were lace curtains. I couldn't find a picture of that....so, just imagine! This is as close as it gets. ;)

The befores:Blue carpet??? That 13" TV/VCR combo has been returned to its original owner - Jessica.
The quilt hanging up as a make-shift curtain, I never meant for it to be a curtain. I bought it at a yard sale for $4, and I thought it was just beautiful. It is a handmade one, and now it has a home in the living room over a railing so that everyone can enjoy it.

Garbage can was sitting on top of the dresser, so the dogs could not get into it.
Cat bed on top of a dresser, on the right. We just threw that away, as Sammy never used it. Ever.
The carpet was in bad bad bad shape. We painted the room in September 2009, and were going to replace the carpet once the paint dried, so we didn't really cover the carpet much. It was full of white paint drops. Finally, the carpet has been replaced.


The Afters:

We completely re-arrange the furniture, trying to open the tiny room up.
New tan with brown flecks carpet. We changed out the brass colored closet door nobs with some darker metal ones. They match the metal hardware on the rest of the bedroom furniture.
We replaced the white sheer curtains with some brown and gold ones. They are Better Homes and Gardens ones from Walmart for $10 a piece. Now that is a steal. We have just white min-blinds behind them. The one is fine, but one still needs replacing. We need to wait till Spring, when the window plastics come down.
The old 13" TV/VCR was replaced by a flat screen from my parents. Fits much better! In the center towards the door, I put a new-to-the-room laundry hamper. This hamper was in Connor's room, and we just had a plastic laundry basket sitting in ours. I figure, might as well have the nice looking on in our nice looking room. Purple plastic moved the Connor's room!
The blue bedding has been replaced with this lovely brown and gold set. Another Walmart Better Homes and Gardens purchase. I bought just a bed-in-a-bag for $75. The sheets from the bed-in-a-bag are actually decent quality.
Now, I didn't clean up the closet very well. This is how is normally looks. You can see on the bottom right side of the closet, I moved the garbage can into there. There was space there, we don't have to look at it, and the dogs can't get into it now.

Quick Make-over

This lovely old microwave cart. Sigh. You know you have one, or two. We had two, but the one got severely broken. This one did have a 25" TV (don't walk by too quickly or it could collapse). We sold the TV on Craigslist for $25. Then the cart just turned into a dumping ground.

The ice cream pail was always there, it housed my "outdoor" things.

So, I cleaned it off with Murphy's Wood Soap (even though I am sure this is not real wood). I took two baskets that were downstairs, full of crap. But that is another story.

The top basket is full of "pool table" junk. Like chalk, racks, dice, brushes. The lower basket replaced my "outdoor" ice cream pail. This basket has things like sunglasses, bug spray, ear plugs for lawn mowing, animal brushes and sunscreen.

I got rid of that awful fantasy football trophy. And the bird house is headed outside.

I'm not a big fan of the picture frames just chilling on top, but that is a project for another day. Suggestions? I was thinking maybe an over sized serving tray or something. This was a ZERO cost makeover, as I already had the baskets. Gotta love that.

Garage Light

How is that for a quick makeover? Got rid of the old one brassy light (there was only one) and replaced with two more modern looking ones. Fabulous.

Basement Redux

Everyone is talking about the big basement make over. (ok, so I've been talking to everyone who will listen) With the inspiration and assistance from IHeartOrganizing, and my shopping buddy Jenna, my financier John and my supportive Pre-Schooler Connor.

Before: Large TV in corner, toys leaking into the "computer room", toys piled on top of the TV. Toys scattered all over the place, with no real proper home.

Now: Large new shevling units! The big one is new ($99 at IKEA) and the smaller one used to be our TV stand up in the living room. It has been replaced by something new. Green Rubbermaid bins from Target for the toys, $6.99 a piece. The large bins on top are also from Target.
Connor, so happy to show off his new shelves. He helped me with the big one. The corner space he has a few pillows. He likes to hid back in there when he gets overwhelmed. It's a nice sensory break space. The top right on the smaller shelf is MY shelf. I keep my coffee cup there, along with some magazines for me to read while Con plays.

Connor and I made labels for each shelf, so that everything has a home. And since Connor isn't too good at reading, we painted pictures on the labels. I was not planning for Woody and Buzz to have their very own shelf, but Connor insisted. I gave him a few days to sort things out, put the toys where he wanted before attaching the labels. It's his space, let him put things where he wants!

The door to the "computer room" is closed, and no toys are in there. Unburied couch, super comfy! Considering a storage ottoman.

Before: Small TV sitting there, piles of old clothes stacked up next to it, random junk on the top shelf.

After: Got rid of the little TV, turned that stand into a place to play cars. It's the right height for a car garage to be parked on. The tool box is under the window, and he uses it as a stool to peak outside.

Before: Utter and complete chaos.

After: All the little toys are picked up and put into there proper homes on the shelves.

Before: Big open space in the center of the room being unused.


After: Plenty of room for his train table, with more than enough open floor space to play on the floor as well. In the back corner is a "bean bag" I made awhile ago, that homes all of Connor's stuffed animals. The green bucket on top has a few large/long toys that don't fit onto the shelves.