Lots of Irons in the Fire

When you read DIY blogs with any regularity, you are presented with beautiful "before and after" pictures of amazing projects.  These blogs make it appear that these talented people live their lives sequentially, going smoothly through one project start to finish before they begin their next amazing project.

My life doesn't work that way.  Not even close.

Right now, I have a lot of irons in the fire.  If kept a photo log of them all, I would present them in nicely laid out progression of completed projects.  But I don't...I'm lucky if I can remember to snap ANY pictures along the way.  Still, I'm doing some fun stuff, so I thought I'd share some of it with you.


Finishing the garage gave me space to start working on others things.  In addition to the bathroom off the laundry room, I've decided to tackle the red bathroom.  Yes, red.  Learning to put on make-up with a red bathroom was quite a challenge, let me tell you.  This bathroom is the only room in our home that hasn't been painted in the five years we've lived here.  Why?  Because the paint was so horrible (it bled red every time I wiped it down), I was just sure that I'd have to use oil-based primer and it would be a horrible job.  When I was at Home Depot earlier in the week, though, the girl at the paint counter encouraged me to try Behr Ultra, Home Depot's new paint with primer included.  Painting meant the weird chair rail needed to be removed and, look, there is a strip of wallpaper that needs to be removed.  Yippee! 

Why did they leave this when they put up the chair rail?

  A lot of work needs to be done before I can think of actually painting, but still I am thinking about it.

For $2.50, I brought home a "flat" sample of the color I'm thinking of using.  She promised it would cover and I think she's right. 

There has been no bleed through. I'm so jazzed!  Maybe this won't be the horrific project I think it will be.  Yeah, I know, it will still be a big project.

While I was upstairs, I decided to add this shelf to our closet.  I love it.  It finishes the closet perfectly and gives me some much needed storage (which, you might notice, I already filled).

Love this shelf!  Only $12 and some effort!

In between all of this construction, I've been raising this cute girl...

and turning her into a crazy cat lady.

Should I be worried that Valiant took this pictures of his sister and the cats?

One of my cats thinks she's a dog and sleeps on the dogs whenever she can.

Cat-Dog?  (She's certainly big enough!)

She also heard that I'd decided to add pictures of my shoes to their respective boxes to make my closet more organized and wanted to be in on the project.

Needless to say, the project isn't done yet.

Oh, and Buttercup and I started volunteering at a local animal shelter two days a week.  (Valiant says he can't do it because he'll want to bring all the animals home.)

Still working on the laundry room and the attached bathroom.   So, here's the truth...I don't think anybody's life actually flows neatly.  I think we can make ourselves crazy holding ourselves to those "after" standards.  Life is messy, even when the pictures aren't.  The fun starts when we embrace it all. 

Yep, a lot of irons in the fire.

If You Give a Mom an Idea...

Sometimes I think that the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is actually based on the real life adventures of moms.  Seriously. 

Let me explain...

A few months ago, I had the bright idea that it was time to paint the laundry room.  My neighbor is a General Contractor and needed a little work and I really wanted to the laundry painted.  Unfortunately, in the middle of the project, he got "real" work and the area behind my washing machine and dryer have not matched the rest of the laundry room since then.  With the holidays put to bed for another year and temperatures in the mid 30s, I finally decided to pull the washing machine and dryer out of their area and paint their "cubby" myself today.  So far, so good, right?

Well, pulling out the washing machine and dryer out from the wall exposed the fur and other detritus of life that accumulated under those machines since the last time they were moved out from the wall.  Sigh.  Since the space I was going to be working in was very cramped, I needed to vacuum FIRST...so out comes the vacuum with the hoses, etc. 

Got vacuuming and cleaning done and I made short work of painting behind the machines...no big deal.  (I'll show you all when it all done...I have to make a cushion for a bench and put up some art.)

I was using the lovely utility sink that Superman made for me during his last vacation to clean all the painting paraphernalia and looked around my garage.  Big mistake. 

I actually saw the garage, darn it.  All the stuff that has been put off since before Thanksgiving suddenly "showed".  I couldn't deny the mess.  (Valiant seems to know where to find equipment, but not where to put it back, so it all gets "thrown" in the vicinity of where it belongs.)  Also, like my desk, if I know something belongs in the garage but I don't have time to deal with it, I instruct the kids to put in "on Dad's workbench and I deal with it later".  Well, later arrived today.  Cold or not, I needed to tackle this garage or we wouldn't be able to find a way in by Spring.

Armed with a space heater (it is so cold!), an iPod and speakers, and a broom and dustpan, I tackled the garage.  Again, it didn't occur to me to take a picture until I'd already begun digging out, but this is what it looked like when it occurred to me to share this journey with you.

It took 3 hours (!), but I got it done.   Superman's work bench is beautiful.  (I even changed the bulbs in the fluorescent light fixture!)  My work bench is beautiful. 
 

The plants I'm wintering are organized.  (The dead ones have to stay  until I can't get to the compost.)    I even repaired the dog kennel.

See, it is just like Give a Mouse a Cookie...one thing leads to another...

P.S.  Do you see that round thing in the AFTER of my workbench?  That is a $20 dining room table that I'm going to refinish when it warms up...I'm so excited.