Slow and Steady Wins the Race Right?

I won't post pictures. Just go back a post and imagine the same picture with out the boxes in the background. That's what I accomplished today. It doesn't seem like much visually, but if you break it down analytically it seems much more impressive. The following are no longer taking up space in the library...

• 5 boxes of stuff burned
• 1 large garbage bag on non-flammable garbage
• 2 large boxes of books for the library book re-sale (next weekend - be there!)
• 1 box keepsake items up to the closet to be put in appropriate boxes
• 1 box office misc to the office to be put away
• 13 boxes of keeper books to be stored in the back bedroom until the library can be turned from a play room unto a library

So I'd say half the stuff that was in there is now gone. I'm starting to get excited. I talked to the local flooring store to see if I could get carpet squares for the room, but I guess they don't do carpet squares anymore. He said to come see him about a remnant, but I hate to spend that much money on something that will only be in place for the next 10 years. When it becomes a library we want to refinish the wood floors.

Now I wish I had looked at toy organizers when I was at Target last night. But I think I'm going to end up disappointed because I have all these great plans for everything that's going to fit in the room. I have a desk, a children's size table and chairs, a four piece kitchen set, a wardrobe, three doll beds, a doll high chair, a toy airplane set, and the easel my mom plans to get them for Christmas to get in there. I'm starting to worry there won't be room for any toys once I get all the furniture in.

White Trash Sandbox

Today Elsie is two!

My poor daughters. It must be a horriable thing to have a mother who is always thinking in the long run. While that's help to build a pretty nice house (Rejuvination fixtures, wrought iron beds, and other items that will stand the test of time and use), it doesn't bode very well for a cool sandbox. Since mom figures how long are they going to play with the stinking thing anyway.

Last year Tim was supposed to pick Elsie up one of those cheap plastic sandboxes for her birthday. Well he never did. So this year it was pretty easy to decide what to get her. We were at a friend's daughter's birthday party and Elsie was playing with a lovely sand/water table. I mentioned to my friend that she was going to be getting a sandbox soon. The friend told me how much her kids liked the sand table and that it was pretty cheap. Her idea of pretty cheap and mine are different, and I knew this before she even opened her mouth to tell me what the price was.

So after weeks of bouncing ideas back and forth in my brain I've come up with my solution to the sand table. Assembly below:

1) Go to your local store and buy a plastic storage box with a lid (there were bigger storage boxes than this, and if I had boys I proably would have gotten one, but the girls aren't intersted in driving big trucks through sand) and two trash baskets who's openings are wider than the bottoms (for support). If I had gotten the bigger box I probably would have had to make this a four leg table, but this way I can just get away with two.

2) Dig around in your pile of house repair stuff and find an old tube of sealent/adhesive. Turn the trash cans up-side down and generously apply the sealent to the bottoms (I did all of this right were I planned on setting the sandbox so I don't have to worry about moving the thing and upsetting the seal).

3) Place the bottom of the box on the bottom of the trash cans so that the weight of the sand will be supported in the most effective manner.

4) Add sand.

5) Stick a few of the fad plastic dishes that were on extream mark-down in the sand of lots of scooping/pouring fun. Finish it all off with the lid of the plastic tote so the sand stays nice and clean.

6) Enjoy with your bossy older sister.

I Might Have Started A Project (But Don't Hold Your Breath)

OK, I fully realize that this is the most unproductive looking after picture any houseblogger has ever posted. And I don't have a before... but you have to cut me a little slack (or else I'll go back into posting dormancy in protest) ha ha!



Yesterday afternoon I had the girls down for naps and was happily wasting away my life on Facebook when there came a knock on my door. It was my mother. She had come to help me (i.e. forcibly motivate me to) start cleaning out the men's room.

Not because we are going to turn it into the wood-paneled library Tim has envisioned all along. No, it's going to be a toy room. It seems as the girls get bigger so do their toys. So this is a project that needs to be done by this Christmas or else all Santa is going to be able to bring them is cloths.

So Mom showed up with a stack of plastic totes and I grabbed some garbage bags and we set to work. Three boxes of tools and various hardware are now on the porch to be transported to a pallet in the new shed. Various pictures are now lying on the dining room table ready to be hung using the hangers I found in a pile. And three sacks of junk were hauled out. That took two hours and seemed to clear about 1/4 of the room's floor space.

You can't really tell from the glare of the window but much of the remaining clutter in the back is our book collection. I'm going to need a few more boxes before I can tackle that (mom heard some where that books shouldn't be stored in plastic totes because it can cause mold). Also, it's not in the picture but off to the left side of the room is stacks and stacks of paint and varnish cans left over. I need to weed through those and deem which ones are still fit to store.

But that is progress.

And Then The Wait Is Over

I am a firm believer that good things come to those who wait. I know this drives some people in my life crazy and many question what is wrong with me at times. For instance my mother-in-law does not understand why I do not have curtains in most of my house. This to her is boarding on a mortal sin at times.

A few weeks ago she was at the house and was trying once again to convince me that I needed some by saying that we couldn't have a babysitter out for the girls because she would feel unsafe with out curtains. My thought is that we can't have anyone young and skittish out to watch the girls because the shear size and creakiness of the house is more terrifying than the lack of proper window treatment. Now I shouldn't complain because my mother-in-law is a good person who just wants me to be happy (and decent), and she always offers to just by the curtains I want or just something temporary herself. But I just know myself, and that anything that wasn't perfect would just drive me nuts and eventually I would just take them down to "clean" them and never put them up again. So why waste the money is my position.



Now the wait isn't over for curtains, that's just a example for you all. I'm still shopping there, but I have now found the bedside tables for the master bedroom. TaDa!

It's the Taylor Vintage Steel Bedside Table new at the Pottery Barn. If you remember the bed saga of a few years ago we purchased a metal bed (note I still haven't found that perfect piece for over the bed too). Now for some reason I just don't like the looks of wooden bedside tables next to it. But I hadn't found anything in any sort of other material that I liked either. Glass was too fancy and hard to maintain. Wicker too casual (plus Tim has a strange fear/loathing of wicker that I will never understand, but won't challenge). Plastic too modern. So on and so forth. I had kind of relegated myself to the fact that I would just have to go wood and that I would find something painted black. But it seemed like anything I did see was distressed and I'm not a fan of fake distressed. I like my distress real.

Then the other day at the kitchen table I laid my eyes upon this beauty. It's perfect in every way. The black finish and little brass knob will match the bed perfectly. The little side rails will be so handy in preventing the girls from knocking everything off (both bedside lamps need to go in for repair). The drawer is perfect for Tim's insulin and needle which he needs to have close to remember, but also needs to be out of sight of the girls. And the shelves at the bottom are perfect for all the books that tend to accumulate on my side. Yes, it is a little pricey. But the one lesson we've seemed to learn over and over again with this project is you get what you pay for. So anymore I kind of want my pieces to be more expensive because that way I know there's lesser chance that I'll be disappointed in the quality of the piece once it arrives on my step.

Cool Ways The National Trust Is Using Flickr

So I've been raising two kids lately and I can't seem to multi-task like I used to. That's my excuse for not knowing these two great photo montages were going at the National Trust For Historic Preservation's web site. Check them out for yourself and think about adding to them next time you are out and about.



This Place Matters- It looks like you are supposed to hold up a sign with these words next to a building that you think is important. I need to look at what they have already, but if they don't have the Park Inn (check out that new website too) I want to do that. And my house of course.



Reuse It!- Seems to be a green inititive to make people more aware of the fact that it is more environmentaly sound to reuse an old building than to build a new on. Rath Pack anyone.

Revenge Is Ours

We finally got the little fellow. It took a box cage and a carrot (we had been trying lettuce up until this point, guess he didn't like the stuff). So late last night we hopped in the car with our new pet and took him to one of our least favorite contractor's house. Oh, will he be surprised this morning! Lucky for us he doesn't lock the truck.

APRIL FOOLS!

While it was tempting we were raised right and didn't resort to levels unbecoming of us.

It seems to have done minimal damage to the room. Just tore out some of the insulation.

The Newton Woodchuck Project

Does anyone remember that movie from almost 10 years ago, the Blair Witch Project? Remember how those kids sat around in the woods really freaked out with flashlights shining on their faces? Well that's kind of how I'm feeling right now. Except I'm not in the woods. And it's not dark out so I don't need a flashlight to dramatically light myself. And I don't have a runny nose or a video camera. But I am oh so scared.

Every time the house creaks or the girls make a noise I'm on high alert looking which way and that to plan my escape/find an effective bludgeoning instrument to survive the woodchuck attacker. As of last night Tim almost had me convinced that the woodchuck had left and it was just a little ground squirrel in the library. See this is why our relationship works so well. Tim makes up completely irrational stories to explain away things he doesn't want to deal with. And I support him in this by being stupidly gullible. For the most part it works for us. That is until I go and do something like take Molly's potty stool out to peek in the window of the library. It's very hard to be gullible when you are looking right at the woodchuck.

Now tonight Tim will return home (well, unless he reads this first and then I'll bet he'll make every effort not to), and I will demand that he take care of the situation. Yes, I could and really should do it myself. But I see claiming to be a sissy around wild animals as being one of the perks of being a girl. The cons of course include menstruating and never being able to beat your husband at arm wrestling competitions. Tim will try and convince me that I don't know the difference between a woodchuck and a ground squirrel, and that it was yes, a really big ground squirrel. I will act all insulted for him thinking I'm stupid, even though technically I was stupid last night, and sulk around the house. Then he will eventually give in and try to fix the situation.

Of course, my day will not be complete unless I share this gem with you that he told me on the phone this morning when I called after the woodchuck visual. "Just calm down. It gives you something to blog about."