Sunday, September 2, 2012

Home projects and other news.

I wanted to post an update on my Unglued progress.  I am loving this book.  Loving.  It is the perfect book for me to read right now, at a time that I feel seriously unglued.  The book repeats over and over to put the word of God in your heart.  Read the word, memorize the word, meditate on the word.  Well, I think now's a good time to tell everyone that I'm about 3 weeks in to reading through the Bible in 90 days.  I haven't told you (or many people at all) that because, frankly, it scares me.  It's a lot of reading and I don't want to fail. I've started (and quit) reading the Bible from cover to cover, in chronological order, New Testament first... you name it, I've tried it.  And I always quit.  It's hard.  There are some places, especially in the Old Testament that make me go cross-eyed.  But, I'm going into week 3 tomorrow and I'm in Deuteronomy.  Which means I'm passed Exodus AND Leviticus!  Woot woot!  Those are a couple of my stumbling blocks from the past.  So, those are behind me and I've told the world (or at least my 3 readers) that I'm doing this, so now you're holding me accountable, right?

In other news.... I want to start some new projects around the house.  As most of you know, we just finished a ginormous outdoor renovation that I LOVE and I'm super-excited to enjoy it even more once we can light up the fireplace and curl up in front of it.  It's been awhile since we've taken on a project inside the house.  Here are the things I want to do... in order.  Jason, if you're reading this, don't fall over.... I don't plan on trying to do all of these at once! ;)
I would like to move Julianne's room upstairs.  My thought was to keep Julianne downstairs until we have another baby.... but I don't know when/if that's going to happen.  And since Julianne wakes up at every. single. sound. I think it would be great to move her upstairs and away from the morning business.  Jason gets up at tooearly:thirty and I get up about an hour later at tooearlyforme:thirty.  Well, as soon as we start stirring, guess who's up!  I tuck her back in her bed so that I can have a minute of quiet (or an hour since I'm reading like a ton of God's word daily)... but she's still up too early... which means she's super crabby and exhausted.  Will moving her upstairs actually help? I don't know *I hate it when people ask and answer their own questions, don't you??  Super annoying.*  But I want to try.  Julianne moved into the room we totally decorated for Lucy.  In fact, the only things we changed were the name sign on the wall (and that took like a year) and I had a friend paint a sign to put over the changing table.  Nothing else changed.  At all.
We totally re-did Lucy and Adelaide's room about 2 years ago and then we moved Adelaide into the guest room when she started Kindergarten (and bought her some bedding to make it look like she's not sleeping in the guest room).  We had always thought at least 2 of the kids would share a room... but right now, we don't like the combinations.  Lucy wakes up too early (do you see a trend?) and Adelaide really needs her rest because she's in big school all day.  So, instead of bunking Lucy and Julianne together (which I think would only result in them waking up earlier and earlier), I would like to move Julianne into the other guest room upstairs.  We would then have a guest room downstairs.  In order to convince Jason this would work for our future plans, is to tell him that we can paint the downstairs room that has always been a nursery gray.  I will use gray if we ever use that room as a nursery again.  I promise. :)  Anyway, it would be a guest room now and if we have another child (or two), it will remain the guest room/nursery.  And all of our children, for now, will be upstairs along with the playroom.  Sounds like a great idea to me!!!  So, first and foremost, I would like to turn the guest room upstairs into Juli's big girl room and I would like for it to look like this.
  If anyone would like to offer their expertise on repurposing furniture or other things into furniture, I'd love a good lesson... we would like to furnish this room on a dime. :)
And I would like to paint the downstairs room gray and move the upstairs furniture into this room for our guest room.  I would love repurpose an old, beat-up mantle into a headboard like this one.  I should take a moment to mention that I don't really like anything else going on in this room.... other than the headboard.
Next on my list is the pantry/laundry room.  I have asked a friend to make these.  My laundry room is tiny, and the storage isn't very functional.  It does have some great cabinets above the washer/dryer that I'm too short to reach without a step stool and a counter opposite the washer/dryer with a utility sink.  So, it has some bones that are great, but the use of the space hasn't reached it's potential.  I think the use of the pedestal under the washer/dryer will be great for sorting laundry and actually using that space.  Then I would like the other side of my laundry room, under the counter to look like this.
While all that is going on, I would love to paint the laundry room a fun color I wouldn't be able to get away with in the rest of the house, like a fun orange or hot pink. :)  Since it's so small, though, I might need to settle for a soothing green or Tiffany blue.  I wonder if Jason would go for a chandelier in there?  Hmmmm....
Speaking of under-utilized spaces, my pantry... it's kinda pathetic.  I know, I know... I'm thankful I have a pantry.  I really am.  But, only half of it is really used... actually less than half.  It's the size of a small closet, but the only shelves in there are on the back wall... and they stop about 3 feet from the floor.  We are losing some major function in the pantry.  I would love to yank all of the wire shelves out and toss them... paint and then get a great closet shelving system put in that will actually work for us.  Like with real shelves that won't let stuff fall through and that cans can't sit on levelly.
Something like this pantry.
Okay for long term, I would love to see about having my kitchen cabinets painted and glazed.
And super long term, I would like to pretty much rip out the entire master bathroom with it's beautiful but totally uncomfortable bathtub and start over.
Please don't take this post to mean that I'm not thankful for our beautiful home.  I am.  But I want to make it our's  and I want to make it work for us.
I don't see a point in keeping a perfectly suitable room upstairs just for guests that come once every three months or so (sorry grandparents)... we live here every day and I want it to work first and foremost for us.  And I didn't envision all of our girls having their own rooms, but if that's what gives everyone the most sleep, split 'em up!  Anyway.... stay tuned... I'm looking to start switching stuff up here soon.