Before and After

BooMama is hosting a Before and After carnival. Back in June she challenged us to commit to a project around the house and conquer it over the summer. She was even gracious enough to give us an extension.

I accepted the challenge and decided to finish landscaping the Hairdryer household's backyard. My goals were:

1. Clean out weeds and debris.
2. Clean off the porch.
3. Plant 1 or 2 trees to shade the house from the evening sun.
4. Lay sod.
5. Weed and mulch the vegetable garden area so it is ready for planting next season.
6. Buy Honey a new grill.

Here are my before pictures:

In this picture you will notice the messy porch, ancient grill, weeds, broken wheel barrel, and some sort of baseball backstop thing.

Here is the picture of what lay between the back porch and the back gate. Our dumpster is just on the other side of the fence. Every time it rained our backyard became an absolute mud pit. It was a major chore to even take out the trash. Not fun.

Here are the after pics:

Here you will see that numbers 1,2,4,and 6 on my list were accomplished. The debris and weeds are gone, the grass is growing in nicely, the porch is neat and tidy, and the new grill (with it's weather resistant cover) is in place.


Here's a view of the vegetable garden area. I put down some cheap bedding border that will hopeful keep the healthy bermuda grass from invading. At one point in July when we were working on this project, I had the beds cleaned out and growth free. I attempted to spread mulch, but sadly I ran out before I got the job completed. I was sorely mistaken on the amount of mulch it would take to cover my vegetable area. Estimation is not my strong suit.

Here's a pic of our new grill. Honey feels like he's died and gone to grilling heaven. It has two different sides, one for propane and one for charcoal, allowing you to pick your poison when you cook. It also has a side burner for those times when you feel all Martha Stewart and want to cook the complete meal, side vegetables and all, outside.

We didn't check off our list planting trees and actually finishing the vegetable garden prep. Here's a newsflash: the middle of the hottest and driest month of the year (July) is not the best time to plant trees. Who knew? So we decided to put the tree planting off until October-ish. I'll finish the vegetable garden by then, and of course I'll post pictures.

If you're interested in seeing other Before and After projects, click over to BooMama's Before and After and check out the Mr. Linky. Happy weekend!

I'm SO doing this!

This year is the year of tying up loose ends at the Hairdryer house. Because of that, I have several projects that need to be done before we can say we've settled in to our now over a year old house.

In the Spring we hosted The Great Office Makeover, which by the way, I'm still loving. The only drawback is that when I open the blinds on my huge window so I can enjoy the natural sunlight while I blog, this is the view I'm greeted with:

Yes, it's our backyard. It's ugly, dirty, weedy, and overgrown. Not exactly an inspiration or a pleasure to behold. And when it rains, we can't take the trash out for a day or so because our dumpster is right behind that fence, just beyond the great chasm of mud.

Here's another view. Our yard is small, but homey. Or it could be if we'd get it cleaned out and get some grass planted. Compared to the 1/2 acre we left behind with the old house, this is just a couple of hours of hard labor away from being in Better Homes and Gardens. But we just haven't gotten around to it yet. So here are the goals:

1. Clean out weeds and debris.
2. Clean off porch.
3. Plant 1 or 2 trees to shade the house from the evening sun.
4. Lay sod.
5. Weed and mulch vegetable garden area so it will be ready for planting next year.
6. Buy Honey a new grill so we can enjoy our favorite summer fixin's.

That's it. That's all I ask. It's very doable. We just have to find someone to level our dirt and get us the sod when we're ready. See you in July with the makeover results.

If you want to see more before and after projects, head over to BooMama's.

And don't forget about the Bloggy Book Game I'm hosting

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Reveal

Hey! I'm glad you stopped by! I really want to show off my new diggs. I even made cookies. They''re the no-bake, drop kind of cookies that taste delicious but take no time to make. I even put them on a Spaqua plate to get into the festive spirit. When I make these cookies, this is what I do.

Place:

4 c. corn flakes (or other cereals like Cheerios or Chex)

and

1 1/2 c. peanut butter (or 1 c. peanut butter, 1/2 c. choc. chips - my personal favorite)

in a large mixing bowl.

Combine in a small sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a soft boil:

1 c. light Karo syrup

and

1 c. sugar

Pour hot sugar/syrup mixture over peanut butter and choc. chips melting them.

Gently fold cereal and melty, gooey stuff together until combined.

Spoon on to wax paper in bite sizes and allow to cool. Or eat them with a spoon straight out of the bowl when they are warm and soft. Either way, this recipe makes about 4 doz tblsp. sized cookies. They're delicious!

But what am I thinking? You're not here to talk cookies. You want to see the office, our (my) new favorite room! The place where all the Talking Hairdryer magic will happen from here on out. Ok, here it is . . .

In this picture you'll notice the desk, the dream shelf, and the curtain. You'll also see that the mess from before is gone.

Here's another angle. In this pic you'll notice the bookshelves assembled by yours truly and my tough assistant Bubba. You'll also see that the upper shelf is doing its job nicely. I even found a spot on the bookshelf for my new plate.

Here is an up close look at one of my favorite accessories. My Popa made this for me a few years ago. In our old house, it served as the towel hooks for our 3 rd bathroom. But here we only have two bathrooms, so I've been looking for a special place to hang it. The doorknobs are from a hotel that was built around 1900. Waaay back in the 70s, Popa worked on the demolition of the hotel and was granted permission to salvage anything that he wanted. For about 30 years the doorknobs were on the original doors and used in our family cabin. A few years ago, I came up with the idea to make them in to hooks and Popa made it happen. They're a special keepsake that will always have a place in my home.

On top of the bookshelves are my jars. Two of them are button jars, one holds marbles, and one has several spools of thread. The thread was my great grandmother's. She was a wonderful seamstress and a master quilter. Having the thread that belonged to her makes me feel a connection to her even though I never met her.

And here is my dinning room. All clean and back to normal. Just to prove that we cleaned up the whole entire mess and found homes for all that junk. Well, most of it . . . some of it was trashed, donated, or marked for garage sale. After all, we are still tying up loose ends. If you'd like to see the whole process from beginning to end, all the posts are filed here.

Thanks for enduring this project with me. It was loads of fun, tons of work, and immeasurably satisfying. I feel 10 lbs lighter and ready for some less tiring fun. I have a few more projects planned for the house as we spend 2008 Settling In, but they can wait for another day. Right now, I going to enjoy Spring Break . . . and a cookie!

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Day 5

I've lost count of the real days we've spent on this project, so let's just pretend it really is Day 5. In case you think I've been holding out on you, I want to let you know right now that most assuredly I have not. What you are about to see really did happen yesterday.

**I think I'll take a moment here to explain that yesterday was a looooong day and I am verrrry tired. So if this post seems lacking, that's why.**

Yesterday, Scott Paden from Signature Design came to my house. We know him because he married a girl that used to be in our youth group a few years back. We were recently reacquainted when he was hired to do the cabinet work in a house our friends were building. He did such a wonderful job with their house, we thought he might want to help us out with our extreme office makeover.

In our (my) dream office there are sturdy, professional, beautiful shelves installed about 12 inches from the ceiling that provide some extra storage for all the crafty schoolish stuff that we (I) have. My previous attempts at shelving included the not quite sturdy, less than beautiful wire shelving that Walmart sells. It did the job, but it wasn't a dream come true. So we decided that since we knew a guy, we'd do it right this time. Enter Scott. He worked most of the morning custom building us (me) some dream come true shelves. He set up right outside on the back porch and didn't even make a mess. An added bonus is that he's tall. So most of the time he doesn't even need a ladder.

And low and behold, a couple of hours later, my dream shelves were complete. Scott even offerd to sweep up his non-mess, but I declined saying that it would only continue to get dirty since we still needed to prime and paint them. I filled in the nail holes, and had most of the primer coat on when Honey got home from work. We let the DVR record Survivor while we bathed the kids and put them to bed. Then we put the first coat of paint on. While it was drying, we watched our episode of Survivor, because let's face it...it's not much fun watching paint dry. After it was over, we (Honey) put the second coat on and I offered moral support. We finally made it to bed around 1 am and I don't remember a thing after that until Bubba woke us up at 7:00 this morning. Because he still had one more day of school before Spring Break. And he needed someone to drive him. And make him breakfast. And make his lunch.

But when I dragged my sorry self outta' bed this morning, this is what I saw:

And I love it!

Since my dream shelves are finally installed and painted I believe that we must have a party tomorrow! Everyone come back Saturday night around 9:00 pm CST. That will give you enough time to put the kids to bed and make you a cup of de-caf. I'll provide the cookies and when you're settled in your favorite blogging spot, I'll give you a tour of our (my) dream office. It will be so much fun! See you then!

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Day 4

Or, you know, day 12 . . . since there are about 4 of you that aren't sick of the office makeover. Here's another pic.

The best thing about going to the preschool today was that my secret pal brought me a present. It's this great plate with a matching stand and I love what it says about family. And I love that it's got a couple of different shades of brown that just so happen to match my little office.

So, I'll find a home for it somewhere in here ASAP. Thanks Secret Pal!

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Day 3

Or Day 11 if you're keeping score at home. I woke up that morning with renewed energy. I'd received a call the night before saying that the furniture we'd ordered had arrived several days early. So I arranged for it to be delivered around lunch time. The boxes came, and as I suspected there was some assembly required. Honey was working out of town and I didn't want to wait for him to start the assembly. I figured I could handle the bookshelf and he could help me with the desk.

So Bubba and I set to work on the shelf. It took me about 2 1/2 hours. . .

But I love how it looks, even if I do say so myself. I am a lover of children's literature, and I was afraid it wouldn't hold all of my books plus the other stuff we needed it to store, but so far so good. I'll reevaluate when the entire project is done . . .

That left the desk. After I got the kids to bed, I worked on it about an hour until Honey got home. He was dog tired and so was I, so we went to bed and promised to work on it the next day.

So, on Day 12, after about 3 hours of he and I working together we had a desk! Some of my favorite things about it are . . .

the cabinet that stores the CPU and gets it off my desk and hides all the cords so well

the sliding keyboard and mouse holder that keeps the desktop free for other things when the computer is not in use

the "L shape" of the desk that gives us another workspace and drawers to store all those essentials like staplers, notepads, calculators, and address books

I'm ecstatic about the progress we made on Day 11 and 12. But we're not finished yet . . .

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Day 2

Are you ready for Day 2 of Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition? Are you sore from all the work we did yesterday? Does your lower back hurt from bending over and scooting across the floor to tape the baseboards? Mine does.

So, Day 2 . . . here's where I wish that this project actually happened in consecutive days just like I'm posting. But it didn't. So this whole Day 2 . . . Day 3 . . . Day 4 stuff? Let's just consider them goals, guidelines if you will. In my dream world, when Carter from HGTV comes and does all the work for me, it's in and out, the whole project completed in just a couple of short days.

Here in the real world this is how it went down:
Honey came home from work the evening of Day 1 and was inspired. He loved all the prep work I'd done, since he hates that part of painting, and he was ready to contribute to the cause.


So, we came home from church that evening, put the kids to bed, and put the first coat of paint on the walls. We were up 'til midnight, not painting. We finished that at about 11. Then I watched Men In Trees on my best friend the DVR. Because it returned from it's writers' strike hiatus and I couldn't bear to wait another minute to find out if Jack was going to make it back from the Bering Sea.


Do you like the color? It's called
"spaqua". I saw a picture in a magazine once of a home office/craft room painted in that color and have dreamed of it ever since. I totally love it! In my vision, there are spaqua walls, white trim, and dark furniture. And a white pegboard hanging on the wall ready to efficiently and stylishly store all the stuff that we use on a daily basis.

Most of our house is that off white color. So far we've painted our bedroom and bathroom, and the kids' rooms. I used to be scared of color, but since I have some experience with it I'm feeling all devil-may-care. Spaqua is definitely my most bold color choice so far. But . . .

I love it! It's just the perfect amount of fun and funky. The rest of my house would probably be considered some sort of country, Tuscan, traditional, lived, in mix and match. I figured if I was going to be funky, the office is the place to be it.

I'm sure by now you've noticed the computer desk/chair ensemble. The computer desk is actually a hand-me-down from my parents. It was the desk we put our very first family PC on back in about 1983. Me and that desk go waaaaay back. It's been with me since I moved in to my first apartment the summer after I graduated college.

The folding chair is a pain in the rear. Really. Don't let the cushiony looking thing on the seat fool you. It is hard and unforgiving and the source of much lower back pain for me. I guess I spend waaaay too much time sitting in it. If I'd use it for its intended purpose, to sit in while playing cards at the table it matches, I'd be much better off. My dad (who is not normally a pain in the rear) bought the table and 4 chairs for me and Honey as a wedding gift. It's one of those things you could probably live without, so as a newlywed you wouldn't spend the two pennies you have on it, but it's nice to have when you need it.

After the painting marathon we crashed and the next morning (the real Day 2), Honey woke up early, snuck in and put the second coat on before he left for work. That afternoon, he and Mary TuTu did the touch-ups and the painting was done!

Days 3 and 4 passed with no measurable progress on our project. On Day 5 though, I found some cutie pie fabric that I had planned on making into skirts for the girls and never got around to it. It went perfectly with the color scheme I'm going for, so, I made a curtain for the window. Sorry girls, I'll buy you some skirts at Target.

I didn't have enough of one fabric to cover the entire 5 ft. span, so I pieced blocks of fabric together.

Just the level of funk I'm going for!

And with that little project, progress ceased for a few days. Preschool, baseball practice, cooking, laundry, and PTA just couldn't wait any longer.

But finally on Day 11 it all started coming together. . .

The Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition Day 1

WOW! Day 1 of the office overhaul was a doozy! I decided to do our room makeover just like they do it on TV. And since I'm the designer for this project I get to be the boss and do all the fun stuff like shopping and putting the finishing touches on the room once all the labor intensive stuff is done. So here are the steps that are planned for the project so far:



Step 1: Designer (Me) walks through and points out all the things gone wrong in the room and informs the laborers (Honey) of the plan.







Step 2: We (me and my 4 year old assistants) clean out entire room top to bottom and expose the stuff on the front lawn for all the world to see while sorting through every item deciding whether to keep it, sell it, or trash it. (Note my mad photography skillz in the picture below.)

Step 3: We (me) rethink idea of putting all the stuff on the lawn because of all of the Homeowners Association Rules . . . and because our project will probably last much longer than 2 days like the TV shows. So, we (me and the 4 year olds) move everything in to the dinning room.

Step 4: We (me) deep clean the entire room. Wipe down the walls, baseboards, and blinds. Sweep and mop. Even the windows inside and out get cleaned. Patch holes and remove switch covers.

Step 5: We (me) tape the baseboards, door frames, and window sill.

What's on the docket for Day 2 you ask? Now that would spoil the surprise wouldn't it?!

Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition

Welcome to my party! I heard so much about the Ultimate Blog Party last year, but I missed out on getting to participate. I was thrilled to hear that there would be a 2nd annual version this year and immediately decided to have a lil' get together.

The only problem? Umm...the house isn't exactly what you'd call company ready. We're in the midst of our own little version of "Way-out-there Home Remodel: Office Edition". And when you're doing all the crazy, extreme makeover stuff that "Way-out-there Home Remodel" requires, the house gets a little messy. OK, a lot messy.

To begin, I'd like to give you a "before" tour of our home office.

In this room we (meaning I): blog, sew, scrapbook, plan preschool lessons, take care of household bookkeeping, oh, and iron.

And, Honey uses this room as his office...when he's not in his car. Because Honey's job requires him to spend a lot of time in his car. But he does return home every night and uses this space for his business.

I know it seems like nothing short of a miracle that we accomplish so much in this mess. And really, what's even more miraculous is the fact that I have no anxiety showing you, blogland, pictures of my deepest darkest secret. But there it is in all its organized chaos glory.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided that in this year of tying up loose ends, the office would have to be tackled. We just could not function one more minute in this space. It was sucking the life out of me. The preparations began in earnest, and this weekend I am going to share the journey with you. It's going to be tons of fun. There will be cleaning, sorting, trashing, painting, sewing, and furniture construction. Lots of work that in the end will be totally worth it.

So, pull up a chair, or better yet, grab a screwdriver, mop, or paintbrush and jump right in. Join me at my homepage and watch the transformation. We'll have the real party when all the work is done.

Tying up loose ends

Last year my motto was "simplify". About the time January 2007 was over and February hit, I realized that it was time to simplify our lives. On pretty much every front: organizing, scheduling, moneying, and familying. (OK, moneying and familying aren't real words, but you get the picture)

We started with the most natural things like getting rid of stuff. And then we organized the stuff that we still had. This was easy because we were moving. When I packed our old house up, I just didn't keep anything that we didn't use. I gave much of it away, and trashed a lot, too. But when we moved I didn't want to take anything that wouldn't have a place in our new house.

Like every other normal person, I started with good intentions and got about 90% of the purging and putting away done. And then I got ADD and moved on to other things before I finished the job. So our garage and office became storage places for stuff that still needed to be organized.

When we moved houses, we told ourselves that it was just a temporary downsize until we got back on our feet financially. We hoped that in a couple of years we could look for a house that was more "us". It helped me deal with letting go of a house I loved. And for almost a year, I didn't give my heart to the new house. I still hadn't found places for some of our furniture, and I didn't put any effort in to making this house feel like home. I just made it functional.

Last year Honey was also in job limbo. He had a job, but it wasn't one that he wanted to keep long term. And so last summer, he began his current job. And, for the most part, he likes it. And after almost 9 months, he feels like he's settled for a while and we are no longer in this financial holding pattern of waiting for something better.

Now that we are almost a quarter of our way through 2008, it's time for a new theme. And during my month of rest, I prayed a lot about what this year would mean to our family. And over the course of the last few weeks, I feel like my motto for 2008 will be "getting settled in". We spent last year in transition. In so many ways we went from complicated and busy to simple. And now it's time to settle in. It's time to tie up all those loose ends that are keeping us from being in a peaceful place. 2007 brought so many changes to our lives that we need 2008 to learn how to manage our new life. We need 2008 to finish dealing with our stuff, to put a few homey touches on this house and call it our permanent home, to learn how to work with our new budget, to allow ourselves to enjoy this new season of life.

In January, Honey and I started taking the "Financial Peace University" class by Dave Ramsey. We are about half way through it, and so far, it's served as a great reinforcement to all of our current money morals. It's also been a great way to get us back in to the habits of saving, giving, and planning in advance for expenses. We had given up all of those things last year when our income was so unstable. We are looking forward to what he has to say about planning for the future and gaining insight about where to go from here.

And now that spring is just around the corner and there are no more weekly Community Group meetings that require our house to be presentable, we are full steam ahead on adding some of those "homey" touches to the house. The kind of touches that require your house to be a little "unsettled" for a short time, but the end result is totally worth it!

So, I'm curious. Do you have a motto for 2008? Is there a direction you feel the Lord is leading you this year? If so, what sorts of things are you doing to follow His lead?