Holy Laundry, Batman!

First, totally random and off topic, when a friend was helping me gut the shed we found a fly swatter from a Best Western. Can you imagine the days when your hotel room came with a complimentary fly swatter? Ick.

I don't know what made me think of that.

Anyway, laundry.

I know I am not alone when I say that I do not enjoy doing laundry.

But I do it everyday.

A few weeks ago, I had men working in my house for three days in a row, and since I have less desire to walk through the house with baskets of dirty unmentionables than I do to do laundry, I let it pile up, and then there was the weekend, and so I began Monday with a humongous pile of laundry.

I decided to wash and dry it all, then fold it at once.

It took me over an HOUR to fold laundry. An HOUR. And then I had to keep Isaac off the bed because he wanted to jump up and down in all that stuff, it was a mess. And then I had to put it all away, and put things on hangers. Ugh.

I have so much more respect for people who hold all their laundry and do it in one day. That was awful.

I went back to my every day, which makes a solid 10 minutes of folding and putting away a day, instead of an all day folding extravaganza. It's so much less painful.

I know some of you are reading this and thinking this might possibly be the most boring post ever, but I felt the need to share. Just in case those who read this and do laundry once a week might want to try everyday. Personally, I feel it is SO much easier.

What little boys think

Sometimes the stuff that comes out of Isaac's mouth is just too hilarious to not share.

Yesterday we're in Target (where I am now recognized. I'm amazed it took this long.) and we walk past the women's undergarmet department. I was looking at the display of bras right there and thinking they all looked really small to me (Ahem). Isaac is looking at them too and he says "Look, Mama, bras for little girls."

I laughed so hard, right there in the middle of Target. Then I had to explain that they were for little grown ups.

Renovation Frustrations

We all know DIY truths that should be self evident:

1. Just because you CAN DIY something doesn't mean you SHOULD DIY something.

2. Anything you DIY will take at least 3 times longer than you think it should.

3. Anything you DIY will cost 3 times what you think it should.

And none of this has been proved more clearly to me than my recent attempt to update my pantry.

Yes, I've painted my cabinets. And I've ripped out carpet by myself. And gardened plenty by myself. And laid flooring by myself. And I've wisely paid other people do to things like drywall, remove walls, move electrical and lay tile.

Oh, and if you're wondering WHY I choose to do this, lets say the shelves were old, rusty and it's like a dark cave there. I felt at least light might shine through wire shelves, and a nice white paint on the walls could help with that some too.

I felt that removing pantry shelves, painting the pantry, and putting new shelves in place should be simple. Straightforward. I budgeted $75 to this project, after pricing wire shelving. I budgeted two full mornings that Isaac was at school. One to remove shelves and paint, and two to buy shelves and install.

Did it work that way? No.

First day, I started taking the shelves out. Like every thing else I've removed from this house, multiple types of screws were used, which meant for every shelf I had to switch from phillips to flathead and back again. At least there were no nails or bolts. I still have bits of curtain rods hanging up because of that. Each shelf was flat metal that had been covered with shelf paper at some point in their lives. It's hard to define the age of that stuff but it nearly matched the original wall paper so I'd say 1983 or thereabouts.

After pulling most of the shelves out, I used the stepladder to get to the top one, and got knocked in the face with a horrible musty gross smell. Through long breaths and then sticking my head back in the closet, I got the shelves cleared out of the way.

Then I used my duster to brush the dust off the walls and ceiling, and grabbed the flashlight to look at the corners. I figured the smell was small-enclosed-space-with-29-years-of-food-stored-in-it. Unfortunately, I discovered via flashlight that the smell was actually vintage dead mouse.

Yes. Dead mouse.
DEAD mouse.
Dead MOUSE.

I freaked out. I messaged Paul (because, of course, he can resolve this problem from Afghanistan, right?)

Day two: After I calmed down, I got the flashlight and looked again at the dead mouse- whose face was sticking out of a hole in the wall in the top most corner of the pantry above the door.

And then I started making phone calls. It turns out that is takes an extra special pest control place to take care of dead mice. And $200.

Guess what I wasn't going to spend $200 dollars on. So I remembered this:

And I dealt with it. (I will say that the pest man's heartfelt "Good for you" when I called to cancel actually meant a lot to me.) After getting gloves, a stick from the yard, and using a milkshake to ensure Isaac would stay out of the room, I got rid of the mouse. I am not an expert on dead animals by any means, but I would guess that it had been dead longer than we've lived in this house. Everyone warned me that if you find a dead one, there are probably a lot more you don't see. In this instance, I'm going to say there are not.

Day Three: And then I had to go to the home improvement store to purchase spray foam insulation to fill the holes in there. While I was there I purchased what I needed for the shelves. Except for the shelves themselves because they didn't have the right kind.

I sprayed the insulation, painted the pantry, and while I had the paint out, painted the living room and the green wall in the kitchen that needed to match the living room since I got that wall removed.

Then I went to the second home improvement store in the day to get the wire shelves, which I needed cut to exactly 22 and 3/4 inches since the pantry is 23 inches wide.

I came home, thinking at last! A project done in the amount of time I estimate.

I was wrong. The lady had cut the shelves to 23 inches, which means they just barely didn't fit.

(Day four) I began painting my bathroom vanity. What? ADD at it's finest, right there.

I took the weekend off to do other things, while not enjoying having to dig through the two huge boxes storing my pantry items.

Today I went back to the store, had my shelves re-cut, got the shelves on the wall, and yes, they're crooked. But they're also DONE and DONE is better than perfect but incomplete. Right? Right.

Although I still have to get the door back on the pantry, still calling it done.

Because 7 days is too long, and it cost about 135 to actually get it complete. Which is better than it would have been if I had to deal with the mouse, at least. I haven't had a project give me so much trouble before. 

Next project? 

I don't even want to think about it.  

PS: I forgot to add the peice de resistance. I ended up buying the wrong stuff (from TWO stores) and as I returned the last item today, the returns person said "Thank you for not making this complicated." I had no words.

Thrifty Decor Chick

Wall

What have I been doing?

I decided wall removal meant bringing in the big guns.

Professionals.

I painted cabinets myself. I couldn't find a great before picture, although I must have one somewhere! But here is a during.

And an after. I still nee to paint the bottom ones, but since one needs to be replaced, I am waiting on that.

But the really big deal I have been working on is removing a wall.

This used to be in our kitchen. Aside from not matching the rest of the cabinets, and actually being bath cabinets... and not being wired correctly... okay, I don't think I need to go on in my argument on why I got rid of these. BUT it became a crap depository and not at all used for kitchen stuff.

So I pulled the cabinets out... and then later, I talked to Paul about getting rid of the wall. And he loved the idea.

So I finally got that done. This is now what you see:

Not done with renovations yet, but moving at a good clip none the less.

Classy? that's me.

To day was... ridiculous. Kinda like blogging from your phone is ridiculous, so expect a short post. With few capitalized letters. Today I gave away a bookcase on free cycle, and it had been a rough day. I forgot the lady was coming, and sat down and had a whiskey and coke at 7 pm. i took the last sip when my doorbell rang. Isaac runs and answers it.... in his underwear. After she left, I realised I'd probably smelled like whiskey and how astonishingly classless I probably came across. Lovely.

Maybe my prorities are messed up

Today was day one of the three day house project called "painting cabinets." I will go in more detail about that after I have finished the job, but for now I have a story to tell.

Step one was scrubbing the front and back of the cabinets. I am doing that (with gloves on) and thinking about how much I dislike how dark my kitchen feels (hence, the painting).

My cabinets must have taken issue because next thing I know, I have the worlds biggest splinter.

Shanked by a cabinet door. Sheesh.

And I run off to the bathroom to pull it out, and realise the splinter went all the way through my finger. As in it went in on the soft pad of my finger and came out at the tip of my finger near my nail.

Sounds gross and painful doesn't it? Thankfully it sounds worse than it actually was. But staring at it, I thought "do I need to go to the ER for this? A SPLINTER? Wait. If I go to the emergency room, I won't be able to get the first coat of paint on the cabinets."

And I pulled it out, bandaged it up, got new gloves, and went back to scrubbing.

It's okay. It's just a bit tender. But it made me re ponder my priorities.

I didn't want to go to the ER because I was worried my project wouldn't get done?

Sigh.

Happy Valentine's Day?

Today was... a weird day for me. I've been keeping to myself a lot this week. And it's been pretty nice. But today I went to a birthday party and it intermediately made me very happy and very sad.

The last birthday party I'd been to was Isaac's, before Paul deployed. So I spent more time than I should have thinking about that, and about how I missed him.

A lot of the parents there were BOTH there. And seeing them interact reminded me of the empty space over my left shoulder, where Paul normally stands.

On the positive side, I ran into someone who I hadn't seen in so long, she didn't know my husband was deployed. When I told her about it, her eyes got really big and she said "Oh my god!"

Her tone, however, said, "You are Super Mom, you should get mom of the year, you do amazing things just by being by yourself and handling everything!"

So that was rather awesome.

Then I watched a friend's daughter while she and her husband went out for Valentine's Day. I was more than happy to do so while they had some well deserved couple time, but of course, I was thinking about romantic dinners out with Paul... and how much I'm looking forward to them.

And how far away we are from having a romantic dinner.

And then I missed Paul's weekly phone call, partially because I was fighting with a customer service person over a 86 cent charge.

So, anyway, it was a day of mixed feelings, as well as being on my feet all day and feeling overwhelmed.

Also, Valentine's Day is coming up and I'd like to be happy for other people, but I am feeling sorry for myself. I have every intention of eating a box of chocolates alone by myself on the sofa, which is irritating but at least I have plans....

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day: