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to hell with house goals

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Yeah, you heard me…to hell with my house goals.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with having goals, and nothing specific wrong with any of my house goals. Just that I’ve finally realized that I keep trying to force a square peg into a round hole.

I keep trying to fit my creativity into some sort of sensible plan.

But a sensible plan is a left-brain function. Creativity is a right-brain function. Hence the square peg/round hole theory.

Not only have I been doing that with the creative jobs in my home, but I’ve been doing that with a lot of things in my life. Trying to do what others think I should do. Because it makes more sense. Or because they know more than me. Or because they’ve done a better job than me. Or had fewer failures than me.

It’s time to stop trying to fit a square peg into round hole. It’s time to listen to that little voice inside of me. Whether it’s about the big things in life or about the fun creative things that I want to do in my home.

So to hell with the house goals.

I’m gonna do whichever project I feel like doing, whenever I feel like doing it. Whatever floats to the top of the list. But I’m guessing then it will be inspired. And if creativity isn’t inspired, what’s the point?

I hope you’ll come along for the ride with me!

house goals – 2012 edition

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Now that we’ve rung in the new year, it’s time to set some goals for 2012…house goals!

Last year was the first time I set house goals, although I was probably a bit too ambitious with my 2011 goals!

Not to be outdone by myself, I’ve set equally if not more ambitious house goals for 2012, and hopefully I’ll complete a few more than last year.

Here are my 2012 house goals, in no particular order…

  1. Create a striped painting for an empty wall in the family room
  2. Finish dining/living room walls with bamboo wall treatment
  3. Mod up the family room by completing new pillow covers
  4. Continue the drop cloth revolution by making drop cloth curtains for kitchen sliding door
  5. Sew dog pillow beds
  6. Add board & batten to front door entry hall
  7. Paint master bathroom
  8. Paint master bedroom
  9. Create family photo wall
  10. Build Ikea hack cat box cabinet

And last year’s projects still to be completed…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Clean up my office
  3. Scour my teenage daughter’s room
  4. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  5. Buy a dishwasher
  6. Tile the kitchen back splash
  7. Paint the kitchen
  8. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  And seeing how much I didn’t complete last year, I’ll have to work twice as hard to get through my list this year, so wish me well!

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Create a striped painting for an empty wall in the family room

Here’s the empty wall…

Here’s the inspiration from Jen’s house over at Wanting What I Have…

You can see a tour of her house at The Handmade Home. Jen’s home and style is A-MA-ZING!

Been thinking of making a striped art piece for a while now, and now it’s time to get moving!

2. Finish dining/living room walls with bamboo wall treatment

I literally dreamed this one up.  Had a dream that I was doing this wall treatment, so when I woke up, I thought, what the heck!

Here’s the space…

You can even see the bamboo in the corner.

The rest is top secret until do the project!

3. Mod up the family room by completing new pillow covers

I started to add a touch of mod around the house, especially in the family room, in 2011.

I also purchased fabric to sew new pillow covers that will add more of a touch of mod to the family room.  Need to get sewing to finish up that project.

4. Continue the drop cloth revolution by making drop cloth curtains for kitchen sliding door

Currently we have white plastic vertical blinds.

Need I say more?

5. Sew dog pillow beds

Will this make the little dog stop climbing on the furniture? I sure hope so!

6. Add board & batten to front door entry hall

A seriously ambitious project, but now that I’ve got it in my head, I’m dying to do it! I think it will give an otherwise boring area a bit of character and visual interest. (Please ignore all of the Christmas undecorating whatnot. As you may have guessed, that’s not part of the design. That’s just keeping it real.)

7. Paint master bathroom

Or perhaps I should say hire someone to paint my master bathroom.  I’ve had the color picked out for about 5 years, so I’m thinking that this project has cured long enough!

8. Paint master bedroom

Ditto on hiring someone to paint the master bedroom. With vaulted ceilings, this is not a room I will be painting on my own.

Currently shopping in the gray department.

9. Create family photo wall

I’ve been percolating on this idea for a while now too. Planning to combine family pics with a collection of something vintage…more to come on that later.

10. Build Ikea hack cat box cabinet

Now that I’ve discovered Ikea hackers, I feel that I must build a super-secret cat box cabinet.

And then, there are the projects still lingering from last year’s house goals…

11. Repaint the stairway wall

The stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat.

Apparently it’s taken me a while.

12. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

13. Scour my teenage daughter’s room

While I’ve already started this project, there’s still plenty to be done before it can be considered safe to be inhabited by non-teenage humans.

14. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

It’s still there. Waiting.

Need to find a reasonable roofer.

15. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 5 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

16. Tile the kitchen back splash

Still planning to tile the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

Hopefully it will happen this year!

17. Paint the kitchen

Definitely need to add some color. Enough said.

18. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

There’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  This is an ongoing project for me, and this year I need to hit it extra hard. I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my house goals 2012 edition…what are your 2012 house goals? Do tell!

house goals 2011 wrap up

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

So for 2011, I decided to participate in the house goals project.  My 2011 house goals were ambitious…perhaps too ambitious!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped.

So were are my 2011 house goals & their current status…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall – incomplete
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office – IN PROGRESS
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college – IN PROGRESS
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof – incomplete due to lack of funds
  8. Buy a dishwasher – incomplete due to lack of funds
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash – incomplete due to lack of funds
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall – incomplete
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER! – IN PROGRESS

Some of these goals are definitely going to hit the 2012 list, so you’ll see them again, and hopefully this year they’ll get finished!

For some reason, I never got around to doing a big reveal on #2, painting the kids’ bathroom, which is complete and looks lovely.  Perhaps I’ll try to share some pics here soon.

My 2012 house goals are going to be just as ambitious, so stay tuned…I’ll be posting them in the next day or two, and you’ll be able to place some cash wagers with your friends to see if you think I’ll follow through on any/all of them!

abducted by zombies?

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My daughter at the scene of the latest zombie outbreak in our area

Even though it may seem like it, since I’ve been gone for so long, no, I haven’t been abducted by zombies.

It’s been a busy summer, both with work and getting my daughter packed up and off to college.  All consuming, in fact. So much so that I haven’t been doing much around the house, except laying around in utter exhaustion when I have a few free moments.

Now my daughter is moved into her dorm at college and I’m finding more time for projects again.  At least time for thinking about projects.

The dorm room experience was a great reminder of how little each of us really needs to get along. Just a small space with some personal mementos and other daily necessities is plenty to get us through the day. Not saying I want to move back into the dorms, but it was definitely food for thought about how many possessions we really need and prompted me to reconsider my own version of minimalism again.

I have started the much anticipated cleaning and sanitizing of my daughter’s room, now that she’s gone.  Began that project today, but didn’t get as far as I had anticipated.  This is going to be a multi-weekend undertaking. Eventually, I will provide pics.  Even before pics.  Now that’s blogging audacity!

If you’re wondering about the Zombie Outbreak pic, the weekend before my daughter went off to school, we were driving around running errands as we prepped for this life-changing adventure called college.

Suddenly my daughter started shouting that there was a zombie construction sign and that I had to turn around. I promptly turned around, but was thinking that someone tagged a sign with graffiti, no big deal, right? Imagine my amazement when we saw an actual lit construction site sign, right next to a church and an old cemetery, that said “ZOMBIE OUTBREAK”.

We couldn’t get over it and, of course, I immediately pulled over for a photo shoot! Whoever pulled this little act of rebellion made our entire weekend!

my office studio space

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One of my house goals is to clean up my office.  While I haven’t quite finished that project yet, I can show you some of that room, which is upstairs in a loft that overlooks our family room.  I call it the eagle’s nest, because I can sit up there and hear just about everything that’s going on in the house.  Perfect for spying on the kids.

Here’s a sneak peek of the cleaner parts of my office/art studio space.

My desk and the shelves above it…

Let’s start at the top…the top shelf, that is.

The middle shelf…

And the bottom shelf…

Globes and one of my favorite lamps on the desk.

Here’s a close up of the piece of wood…it’s a piece of wood that my son broke in tae kwon do.  I wrote some of the things that are important to me on it, and it sits on my desk as a daily reminder to keep it real in my life.

Moving on in the room…my pink piano. Oh yes I do have a pink kiddie piano!

A gorgeous black velvet covered chair where my American Girl Bitty Baby doll sits.  My cat sits there a lot too.  Had to do a lot of lint rollering before this pic.

Some day I hope to have a dining room full of these fabulous chairs.

There is a couch that is not pictured here due to the aforementioned mess problem.  I use this trunk as a coffee table for the trunk and for extra storage.

And because it would be quickly lost if I didn’t, I keep the key to the trunk on a hot pink velvet ribbon. Functional, plus it adds a great pop of color.

And let’s not forget my pink table.

This table, which we got from Ikea a million years ago, used to be ugly mustard yellow.  And it lived that way until finally I spray painted it pink.  Quite the improvement.

At the edge of the room is the pink phone and the writing on the wall…

That’s all for now.  Still missing from the pics are the couch, front desk (the one shown is the back desk, sort of like a credenza), and the art table.  Maybe I’ll clean up and add those pics.  Or who knows, I could let it cure for another couple of months or years, like I do with many of my projects!

Showing off my office/art studio at Whisperwood Cottage…

so what’s the plan, stan?

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Sadly, this is not my house, because I love this house…

Recently, I think I’ve finally landed on a plan for what to do about my house.

In case you’re wondering what’s wrong with it…nothing.  It’s just that ever since I got divorced, I’ve been wondering what to do with the house.  Should I stay or should I go?  If I stay…oh you know the words to the song!

Here’s the rub…

Although it’s not a mansion – not even a McMansion – the house is probably too big for just three people, and next year, it will just be two of us most of the time, since my daughter will be off to college.

And to be honest, the house to a wee bit too pricey for me on only one income. Like many people, we’ve experienced some mandatory belt tightening.  Plus, the value of the house has gone down.  Significantly. So much so that if I sold now and actually had the audacity to hire a real estate professional, I probably wouldn’t make back any of the down payment.  Meaning that I wouldn’t have enough to put a down payment on a smaller place.  Meaning that I’d have to rent, and in our area, the rents aren’t that much less than my house payment.

For now the plan is to stay in the house and squeeze by financially for a couple more years, until the market improves and/or I have more equity in the place.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to do projects and complete house goals that take it from tract house to treasure, so that if and when I do decide to sell, it will grab someone’s heart immediately and will sell quickly.   And of course, we’ll be the lucky folks who get to live there in the meantime.

So for now that’s the plan.  It’s not written in stone and it may change 20 times between now and Sunday.  But no matter what, I’m determined to make some model home magic happen on this place, and of course I’ll share it all here!

How have your home plans changed in this tough economy?

no more peeping toms

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This weekend I picked off another home goal from my 2011 list and put an end to any peeping tom foolery in my master bathroom windows.

OK, so maybe I’m a little bit paranoid, especially since the master bath is on the second floor, but I feel as if people can look in between the blinds and the window and see me all nakey.

I decided that this year I would add some curtains, so I could rest easy when I’m waltzing around in my birthday suit, plus it would warm up the room a bit and the windows wouldn’t look so nakey either…

The tile on the floor and in the shower & surrounding the tub is a slate-like ceramic tile with a hint of light blue & teal blue…

…so I opted for teal blue as an accent color for an otherwise neutral room.  I purchased 4 curtain panels for $9.99 each as well as 2 curtain rods at Target…

The wild fabric behind the box is the ironing board cover that I made…

…and got to work prepping to hang curtains.

Of course, I hit a snag.  Literally.

Usually this would send me back to the store to return the item in a fit of frustration, but since I’m basically a lazy human being, I decided to see if I could remedy the problem myself with the help of my knitpicker.

At least that’s what I think it’s called.  It’s what my mom the knitter calls it.  The handy dandy knitpicker is a tool used to pull snags through knits.  It can also be used on looser weaves such as this one.

So I knitpicked the snag…

And pulled it through to the other side of the curtain…

Crisis averted.  Then I went about the business of hanging the curtain rods and the curtains.  No small task considering that I had to work around this large garden tub…

I suppose I could have put a stepladder in the tub to work on, but that would have meant stopping the project & going downstairs, and as I’ve already stated, I’m basically a lazy human being, so I did it the hard way, precariously balancing, rockclimbing my tub like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2.

Nevertheless, the curtains were hung by the bathtub with care.

But I didn’t like the way the inner part of the curtain looked on the rod.  Not as gathered as the rest of the curtain.

Simple enough to solve with some large safety pins.

Since these curtains will be remaining open, I pinned the back of the pocket to make it more gathered up.  Here’s the end result…

Definitely solves the problem of covering the openings on the sides of the blinds.  They warm up the room and they have great texture.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’m in love with the color.  Seems a wee bit too bright.  I’m usually not crazy about short curtains, and these seem to have a highwater feel to them, but considering that they’re right by the tub, and that the tub is used exclusively by my 10-year-old son who doesn’t care a whole lot about whether or not curtains get wet, they probably should be highwaters.

For now I’m keeping them.  Maybe someday I’ll switch them out if they don’t grow on me more.

Also, I’d like to give a shout out to my special helper, Max, who was with me through this entire project…

Another 2011 house goal complete!

joining the drop cloth curtain revolution

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I’m finally joining the drop cloth curtain revolution that is making its way across Blogland, like here and here and quite a few other places.  Official name is the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR). Viva la revolucion!

With two 8-foot tall windows in our family room and not much more than an $8 budget, I thought drop cloth curtains would be a terrific option, plus I love the grey-beige color and believe it or not, they look like linen!

Of course I forgot to take a before pic, so let’s just jump right in…

Click on the photo to enlarge

These curtains are so simple, just about anyone could make them!

Step 1. Buy 6′ x 9′ canvas drop cloth.  I purchased 4 at $9.97 each from Home Depot.  Get out clearance curtain rods ($12.97 each) from garage, where they’ve been “curing” for a year.

Step 2. Wash & dry drop cloths.  Iron drop cloths.

Step 3. Hang curtain rods.

Step 4. Attach curtain clips to drop cloth panels.  If panel is too long, fold a length toward the front of the curtain to the desired length (see photo).  Slide rings on to curtain rods.

Step 5. Stand back and admire your handy work!

Did you notice?  No mention of a sewing machine anywhere.  This is a no-sew project!

Don’t they look fabulous?  Really dresses up the windows, giving them a touch of class. and really warms up the room!  No one would ever guess they weren’t linen!

Click on the photo to enlarge. And no, the left curtain rod is not uneven…that’s just the camera angle!

So, I added gorgeous window treatments to two 8-foot windows for less than $65. Plus, these curtains were so quick & easy, I might move on and use them on the sliding glass door in the kitchen!

Edited to add – This project is the first 2011 House Goal that I’ve completed.  One down, 11 to go!

house goals – 2011 edition

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Over at Nesting Place, the Nester came up with a brilliant idea – house goals!

Given that I work full time and procrastinate, leaving me with limited time and energy, I thought that house goals would be perfect for me.

So here are my 2001 house goals…

  1. Repaint the stairway wall
  2. Paint the kids’ bathroom- COMPLETE!
  3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!
  4. Clean up my office
  5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college
  6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!
  7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof
  8. Buy a dishwasher
  9. Tile the kitchen back splash
  10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall
  11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

As you can see, it’s an expansive list.  I probably could have listed 3 or 4 times the number of projects, but in the spirit of keeping it real, I decided to stick with 12, so that I could reasonably do 1 project per month.

Here’s a little more detail around the projects…

1. Repaint the stairway wall

So, the stairwell wall has already been painted, but it still needs another coat. And apparently it’s taken me a while.

Last year at work, we had a holiday white elephant exchange and do you know what I got?  Paint!  Two gallons of slate gray paint!  The exact color that I was planning on painting the stairwell wall already.  Every now and then, fate sends a little gift of home decor love.  Now I’ve got to get on the stick and finish the job.

2. Paint the kids’ bathroom– COMPLETE!

No photos of this madness.  All I have to say is this about that…teenage hair dye explosion. Walls, door trim, baseboard. Splattered with dark brown hair dye.

Needless to say, all future hair dyeing has been banned.

I thought that I might get this project done when I was on vacation over the holidays, but it just didn’t happen.  However, paint has been purchased, so it can happen any time inspiration strikes.

3. Add curtains to the master bathroom – COMPLETE!

I just can’t seem to get past the creepy feeling that people can look into the cracks between the blinds.  So curtains are in order.  Just need to find the right ones.

4. Clean up my office

This seems as if it should be a simple enough project, but it’s my combination office, craft room, and general lounging area.  And it’s been neglected for quite some time.  Lots of filing and decisions to be made about what stays and what goes.

5. Scour my teenage daughter’s room after she goes off to college

The same teenage daughter who experienced the hair dye explosion has a room that could potentially be condemned by the health department.  And honestly, I’ve given up on getting her to keep it consistently clean.  Every now and then she has a flare-up of cleaning, but it gets out of hand more often than not.

So, when she goes off to school, I’ll be in there in my hazmat suit, ready to sanitize.

6. Add drop cloth curtains to the family room windows – COMPLETE!

I’m planning to join the Internet Bloggers Drop Cloth Revolution (IBDCR) and make curtains out of drop cloths.  ‘Nuff said.

7. Get that damn satellite dish off the roof

So, I happen to have a satellite dish dangling from my roof by a thread.  No, we don’t still use the satellite.  And yes, I’ve become that neighbor.

But who can I hire to get that damn thing off the roof?  I just don’t know who does that kind of thing.

8. Buy a dishwasher

Although my house is only 4 1/2 years old, the dishwasher is no longer working.  I’ve already spent a small fortune to get the problem diagnosed, but it’s still not fixed.  It could be fixed, but the dishwasher repair guy told me that it’s a design flaw, and would likely be broken again within a year.  So I opted to not fix it and put the money toward a new dishwasher.  In the meantime, I’m using a $2.99 solution…a dishpan, and frankly, not doing such a great job of keeping up with the dishes.

9. Tile the kitchen back splash

OK, what I’d really like to do is an extreme kitchen makeover, because the layout of my kitchen is really dumb.  But since I don’t have an extra $10-20k hanging around, I’ve got to make due with what I have.  So I’ll at least add some cosmetic changes, the first being tiling the back splash with those cool & funky little glass tiles.

10. Paint at least 1 kitchen wall

Most people probably wouldn’t stop at just 1 kitchen wall, but with an open-concept floor plan, the walls go on forever, without a logical stopping point.  So I’ll start with a goal of 1 wall, and figure out where to go from there.

11. For the love of all things holy, DECLUTTER!

Well, there’s probably not a whole lot more that needs to be said about this issue.  I’ve been leaning more toward minimizing than maximizing, and I am going to continue to follow that trend, little by little, throughout the year.

Those are my true confession house goals 2011 edition…what are your 2011 house goals?