Before & After: Attic Makeover Present

Himself gave me quite a gift last month.

He took this ugly cruddy "finished" portion of attic and fixed it up so I could store my creative stash.  I just had too much bulky stuff to keep it all in my studio.

He used a bunch of my leftover boards from other projects, plus what I call my 'scrippy-scrap' pieces to put in a new floor.  It was a whole lot of hours wearing a respirator while bent over on padded knees to get the job done.

Might I had it was usually pretty warm up there too.

This is the side we keep the 'quick grab' stuff that we need to get to quickly...when we need it.  Things like the extra coffee pots when we have a bunch of people over and so on.

(The upside down tub means it is empty)

Here's the other side with general storage.  I added the pool noodles to the rafter braces to keep from knocking our heads off when we forget to duck.  They work great!

I love having the space to store things out of my office!

Thanks Hubby!  What an awesome Valentines gift!

Shelter From The Storm

There's a project I've had on my to-do list that has been too long in the making.  That is to have a storm shelter under the stairway.

Since living here in Tennessee, we've had about 10 tornadoes hit in our county.  On 22 January 1999, an F3 hit the downtown area and did a lot of damage.  In 2003, I spent the night in my storm shelter as straight line winds and a small tornado caused damages.

Both of those above mentioned storms happened in the night.  I've spent many nights watching tornado 'signatures' on the weather radar pop on and off.  Nerve wracking.

So I finally decided to get my shelter fixed up.  I gave myself the deadline of today to have it done.  Why today?  It's National Disaster Day.

Here's what I started with after removing a lot of junk that was stuffed in there.  Kind of depressing...

After a lot of cleaning and painting it looks pretty good.

A carpet and bench make it much more comfortable to wait it out.

Under the bench is the fire safe (no jewels...just papers), one crate with 4 gallons of water, and the second with containers holding munchies, flashlights & batteries, candles & lighters, and cat food.

Yep, cat food.  Miss Persia has her crate with a water bowl and soft bed.  Her crate will soon be sitting in a clean cat pan with high quality scoopable litter.

The tub to the left is for iced/snowed-in storage.  Some blankets and extras you don't want to run out of.  On top of the tub is a weather alert radio that has a battery back-up.

We'll probably use the shelter 3 or 4 times a year.

But I wanted to use this closet for another sort of storm... a storm that is daily.

Ever since seeing the movie "War Room" I have really, really wanted to have my own prayer closet.

So the right side of the closet is now my prayer room.

I'm not done setting it up, but it is ready to go and today will be my first day to use it.

My (Sorta) KonMari Closet

I've been hearing so much about the KonMari decluttering and organizing method that I had to take a look at what it was all about.  In short (in case you're one of the few like me that isn't up on it), it is a decluttering method made popular by Marie Kondo.  It's being called the "Japanese Method"... "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up"... "Revolutionary"... and so on.

OK, whatever.  Let's see how it works.

Her first tenet/rule is that you only keep things that "spark joy" for you.  Ummmmm... right... You know, for some people EVERYTHING 'sparks joy'.  And there are quite a few things that don't spark joy that are kinda needed... like ye old toilet plunger.

But if you go middle of the road and use sense, that can be a good measuring mark.

Her next instruction is that you must declutter by 'type' not room.  For example, when you declutter books (which she says is the 2nd thing you must work on... clothes being first), you must bring ALL books to a central location.

That is so not going to happen in this 2 floor house.

Next principle is that you must physically touch each item and consider it.  That makes sense as it makes you actually think through the process.  Then after you've gone through things, everything must be put away in a permanent place all of its own.

Extremely little should be put in storage containers and you shouldn't buy any sort of organizing containers (tho she does use a lot of small boxes to keep things sorted).

There are parts that are not going to happen in this house... like thanking each item for its service to me, making sure things are put away in a method that makes the thing 'happy' and rested, getting rid of ALL paper, getting rid of any book you have not read yet, and so on.

But that being said, I gave her decluttering method a whirl with her first organizing area... clothes.

I've just recently committed to discovering and going towards my own signature style.  And my weight loss continues, so my clothes definitely need culling.

I pulled out all my clothes by type... winter jackets, sweaters, etc were first so I could prep them for summer storage.  I tried every single piece on and decided if it would be wearable next fall.  There were quite a few pieces that didn't fit well now... so they went into the eBay pile.  Then on to shirts... then slacks... and so on.

Although it has not been all that long since I did a culling, I was surprised at how many more things I let go of as I thought about "does it bring me joy".  Did it bring a smile to my face when I looked in the mirror?

I also put a limit on myself as to how many articles of 'work' clothing did I need to keep.  Those extras went straight into the trash since their sad condition is what landed them in the work category in the first place.

I've been using the 'upright' folding method for many years now, way before KonMari made it popular.  It works beautifully for drawers, tho I can't see it being used on a shelf area as some do.  Whatever works for you... right?

When it was all over, I had all sorts of extra space in both my closet and dresser.  I was able to rearrange how everything is organized to make it even easy to use.  Not bad for a few hours work.

Have you heard of this method?  If so, what do you think of it?

Home Tour: Hall Bathroom

Our first 'remodel' in our home was the hall bathroom.  We decided to start here because this is the room EVERYONE uses and it was an eyesore (as you'll see in the 'before' photo at the end).

Its long and narrow profile made it a challenge to work in the features we wanted but it worked out for us.

There was so much wasted space between the toilet and the tub that we put a large bench along the entire back wall.  It is about two feet deep, which we love.  The left side has 4 niches and we had two very strong grab bars installed on both sides.

The vanity is a repurposed sofa table.  It's taller than the average vanity... exactly what I was looking for.

On the back of the toilet I set a bowl to hold wash clothes (the linen closet is in the hallway...).

Our trash can - a chamber pot from Himself's uncle's estate sale.  Herb would have gotten a kick out of this!

A closer look at the shelf.  The vase was a gift from Himself's cousin, who was 104 at the time he gave it to use.  It had been his late wife's.  It is Red Wing pottery and the town of Red Wing is just up the road from his cousin's home.  For a visual pun I put the little cardinal next to it.  ;-)  

Back over the the sink area.

LOVE this faucet!  We found it at Overstock.com at a great price.  Kids get such a huge kick out of it (and so do some big kids!).

With the open vanity I had to figure out how to store things.  These three baskets from Home Goods did the trick.  The stained glass cross was a gift from my parents and hides the drain pipe.

The opposite wall showcases a beautiful wall hanging from Kyrgyzstan.  It was a gift from my sister in law.  I'll have to get her to tell me about it and do a separate post on it.

Yes, it absolutely is!

Now prepare yourself for the "BEFORE" bathroom...

Ugh.

A Gathering of Plants

This is my 'year of the plant'.  I'm working on developing a 'green thumb' for both outdoor and indoor plants.  To be sure, I'll be starting off with the toughest plants I can find!

Here's the start of my indoor gang!  The cedar chest is a great place to keep them.  Even tho it is a west exposure, the matchstick blind makes it bright yet indirect light.  (On days it is really intense we pull the curtains during the peak of hotness).

My hen and chicks planting.  As you can see from the first photo, several have bolted and are getting ready to bloom.

The two leftover 'chicks' from my give-away.  The pineapple is a second generation... the baby of a recycle pineapple plant.

Inside my little greenhouse (a gift from Himself that he found at TJ Maxx) are a couple of plants (fern and ivy) that are going to end up in a terrarium.  The orchid is a tough guy from Trader Joe's.

I'm looking forward to having plants again.  I have several areas picked out to start more groupings, plus my porch, deck, and courtyard.

http://www.urbanjunglebloggers.com/may-2015-show-your-plant-gang/ 

#urbanjunglebloggers

A Little of This and a Little of That...

Wow.  When I put up my recipe yesterday I realized I hadn't posted in a whole week.  It's not that I haven't been busy... I've been very, very busy with more 'long haul' projects.  I'll be writing about them when I get done, but here are a few sneak peeks...

Been doing some staining...

... and some painting too.

Looking through my frames to switch out art.

And deciding which pieces of art and photography I want to enter in a contest (if we don't get snowed out!).

Helping Himself get his new computer up and running.

Working in my 'boho' studio...

Keeping clutter at bay...

And helping Himself with some of his sorting and culling.  I have plans for these old books!

Busyness abounds... just nothing to write about yet!

Junk Free January: The Garage

The last 4 months have wrecked havoc in my garage.  It all started with cleaning out the shed and my studio.  Things from the shed that belonged in the garage mixed with things from my studio (which I had to empty to work on).  That ran into our preparing to leave for our annual trip to see Himself's Senior relatives in MN.  Coming back home brought us right into the holiday season.

Ugh...

So January was our month to get it back under control.  You know how motivated I am when I'm working along with a blog challenge.  This time the challenge was "Junk Free January at  http://www.thriftdiving.com/junkfreejanuary/ 

We 'dove' in alright... with a fast neatening early in the month.  Then other projects pushed their way into the front of our 'to do' list.  But we put "finishing the garage" on our calendar for this last week of January.

It's been a long, tiring week but so worth it!  Look at our before and after photos to see what we accomplished.

NE wall section...

Tool shelf cleaned and reorganized.  My home 'staging' shelf also redone.

 North wall- east side

Boxes moved to a holding area (photos below).  Those are boxes moved out from my studio.  I'll be focusing on the studio in February.  Tiller was moved back to its place in the shed.

 North wall- west side.

 

Cleaning supply shelf neatened.  Bird station back in order.  Driftwood board rack neatened up too (oops... left my cleaning rag on it!).

South wall- west side.

Himself got all the paint and car products back as they should be.  Tools were put away too.

 South wall- east side and East wall- south side.

 

This was the absolute WORST part of the garage.  The grey boxes belong to Himself, and he was able to cut the number by half.  Which gave me room to clear the wall in front of the car (the red boxes are mine).

We hung the carpets until we are ready to use them.  The folding tables finally have an easy to get to home. 

Himself has decided that painting the garage floor will be a project in the future.  The former owner tinkered with cars and the floor shows it.  It's a mess!

SW corner recycle center.

 

                                Dumping ground was more like it!  

Himself also cleaned up this area.  Now I can get to it so I can do my recycling.  And I put a tub to hold my mailing boxes and envelopes.  The twine sits there because we use it a lot.

West wall looking south.

What a mess, it was another dumping ground.

MUCH better.  These are all the tubs/boxes I need to go thru for my studio.  The tubs under the workbench are designated for specific items for my creative projects, so technically they are done.  That table was the one in front of the car in the before photo.  Now it's holding my tender perennial plants til it's time to go back outside.

Workbench looking to the north.

Bleh!

Organized.

We are sore and exhausted.  But it has been so worth it to get it to the point that it will stay neat with very little effort.