Abundance

As I've said before, we tend to move a lot, whether it's job related or because I've grown bored and need to shake things up. This kind of moving tends to keep you from being a card-carrying, crazy-type pack rat (yes, Judy, I'm referring to you!) but that doesn't mean I'm without sentiment - I have scraps of paper, things from my youth, things from my parents' youth and other assorted memorabilia. Yesterday David motivated all of us to clean out the shed...the shed...the place where all that "memorabilia" is stored. Eeeek! Bugs and junk! Well, as it turns out it wasn't bad at all. We blessed Goodwill with a lot of stuff and threw out even more. But get this - in one box I found goody bags and assorted goody bag fillings from 12 YEARS AGO! That's right, from Tony's 7th birthday party. Tony is 19! In those goody bags? Hot Wheels fruit snacks! 12 year old fruit snacks! Really? I kept those? What? Now I'm mad I didn't take a picture of them! So, now you know, I am a bit of a pack rat!

Bathroom - After!

Woo hoo!  We did it...a few minor decorative touches and the bathroom we stalled out on (after starting in August) will finally be finished!  Here's before and during pictures to show you how far we've come!  I'm still stunned that someone put a full-size vanity in this teeny-tiny bathroom! 

I've also started on the hallway bath, but that vanity will have to stay for now.  We're just painting and installing a new toilet until our home-improvement budget gets bigger.  It's good to see things coming together!

 

Hmmm....

On Christmas day my half-bath remodeling project will be three months old. The room has been gutted, the flooring removed, the walls smoothed and painted...and now, nothing. A new floor is what comes next, but then we had to buy a new hot water heater ($900 including a water pressure valve because apparently our water pressure coming into the house was really high) now it's Christmas time which comes with its own money expenditures. Oh and we probably need a new dryer - there seems to be some sort of fire hazard with our current one. Sigh. So that leads me to tell you that we are currently schlepping our wet laundry to the laundromat down the street. It's not a terrible ordeal - just kind of bothersome. I mean as far as places to go the laundromat is warm, smells good and is generally pretty clean. Especially now that there's no smoking allowed - I always thought it was weird that these people would spend all this time cleaning their clothes only to smoke them up! Of course despite the buttons on the dryer there really only seems to be one temperature and that's HOT...really, really hot! Which does not necessarily mean that the clothes will even actually get dry...just shrunken! Of course I should admit that since our dryer quit, I've only been to the laundromat once, David has gone at least three times. I really did marry well!

Change in plans -

Well I was about to post about my new 10-minute organization plan, but just as I sat down to type, Kyle came zipping downstairs to inform us of his loose tooth!!!!! I know it's the perfect time for him to start loosing teeth, but I'm not going to lie and say it doesn't make me sort of sad. Just another step in this whole growing up and away thing. I'm just stunned at how fast it all zips by!

Okay, back to my new season resolution. I figure that since fall is here and I'm on a home improvement bender, I would start doing a little more organizing and list making. Tonight I took the time while Kyle was in the bath to empty out my gift wrap tub and separate out all the various gift bags from the rolls of wrapping paper. I even grouped the gift bags by type or purpose. Woo hoo. Now of course I realize I need ANOTHER tub just for the gift bags...but that's really the fault of Dollar Tree, they have such darn cute bags for a buck that each time I go in there I add to my collection.

My guest room is really in a state of nothingness. I painted the walls a lovely chocolate brown, set up the guest bed, and bought a new comforter and shams, but then I stopped. I need some accent lighting, some sort of window covering other than a mini-blind, sheets to match and I really need things on the walls and organize the closet so it's usable by a...well, a guest. Right now the closet holds luggage and our aerobed. So it's not overwhelmingly full of junk, but I think there is a better location for those items! So I'm off to Bed Bath & Beyond (armed of course with a 20% off coupon!) to try and perk up the room. Which I probably shouldn't do until I actually finish the downstairs bathroom. As most of you know - too much disarray makes me VERY grumpy!