Weekend Projects

It feels like its been a long time since a project was completed in one weekend.

So long, that its kind of surprising to have this one done. It went faster than I thought it would. (I did have a little help...)























Part one of the plan to move the guest room is to empty then paint the office, but I wanted to do it quick and cheap. With the leftover paint in the garage, it made sense to make do instead of putting a whole new color up.

I'm so glad I did because I  had forgotten how much I loved this pale yellow color that I picked out 10 years ago. It had been sitting forgotten, and we were re-introduced. Hello old friend. I remember you now...

And I was happy it only took one coat to make the whole room look fresh again.

And I saved some money.

Except I didn't.

I still ended up spending some money on it for disposable paint trays, tape,  and new rollers but it was a lot cheaper than a gallon of good paint (the bathroom paint job was surprisingly expensive.)



 

 

 

I filled the nail holes with wood filler and sanded it down then one thick coat of paint, cleaned everything up and I am done!

 

Except I am not done....

 

Is anyone really ever done with projects?

 

Just like the bathroom, the fresh paint makes the baseboards look dingy, so before the rooms are swapped around, I now plan to paint them bright white.

 

It does not end.

 

 

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Second Quarter Goals.... and some thoughts on productivity

First quarter master bathroom and rose garden is done and was a success and I am so happy and relieved to have it done done done. But the second quarter goals are off to a slooooow start....  in the same spirit of the one room challenge, I am only focusing on two things each quarter, except sometimes I don't only focus on the two things and I start in other areas and have to call myself back to the spot I am suppose to be, thus the productivity problems. 

And.... its the middle of May already ( May? Already!!)  and I have barely started on the two things I said I would accomplish, the living room and making a veggie garden. I can rattle off plenty of reasons for lack of productivity and they are all valid reasons  (I was sick! I keep veering off to do things in other rooms! The list of things keeps growing!) but really, in the end, I still have nothing little to show for livingroom and garden  that I am suppose to be focusing on.

Much like the bathroom, the living room is a bigger project than I first thought (aren't they all?). Actually, I just keep adding things to the list thus making it bigger than originally planned. This has basically been my thought process.... You know, this couch really isn't me.... I really want a new couch! and a new rug!  and a new coffee table! But I don't have any money.... I need to seriously shop some clearance sales and stalk some yard sales. I better go shopping instead of stay in and work on these windows! (it makes sense at the time)

For now, I have filed the nail holes on the trim and will be painting it bright white shortly (hopefully) and curtain brackets are up!  Because I need 154 inches of curtains to cover two French doors and two windows (I know the house is not symmetrical. I didn't build it.  The plans were for a bigger house and the original owner scaled it down. Since I don't see myself doing major structural changes, it drives me bonkers, but I just ignore it), and I don't want to take out a second mortgage to pay for it,  I'm DIY-ing the curtain rod (like this).

I am pretty impressed the brackets are up and the metal electrical pipe has been cut to size and is laying on the floor waiting to be installed, which is an accomplishment. Because I couldn't get the pipe long enough, (did I mention I need more than 11 feet of curtain rod!)  I used a hacksaw and cut another piece to add to a 10 foot rod with a connector. (You would be shocked  and maybe a little horrified at how long I've stood in the aisle at Home depot trying to figure this all out). 

Slow progress will continue....

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small Masterbath projects

 first quarter goals provided quite a bit of weekend projects. All the major things in the bathroom are out of the way and the rosebed is done. Still need  want a new shower curtain, full length mirror, sink fixtures and pictures for the walls....

 

After the torture of wallpaper and painting was out of the way, these are a few of the more fun things....

 

 

My original plan was to throw out the gold fixtures and update with bronze ones. That was until I saw the toilet paper holder was $25.00. (!!) The new plan was buying $8.00 can of spray paint and painting everything bronze. It worked!

 

 

Instead of taping notes and things to the inside of the bathroom cabinet door, I glued some corkboard and made my own little message center. (I used hair clips to hold it in place while it dried). I've got the same thing on some of my kitchen cabinets. 

 

I already had the curtain rod and brackets (bought one too many from JC Penny when I first moved in the house) and curtains (from TJ Maxx). I had to buy one more set of brackets at Walmart. So for a total of $9.88,  and what I already had lying around the house, I now have bathroom curtains up. I love them.

 

 

I also love the new rug. I chose the lighter bathroom wall color to coordinate with the darker bedroom color and wanted to find a rug that coordinated but not matched perfectly with the rug in the bedroom. This is the rug in the bedroom (and the same color walls.)



 

 

A new laundry basket from Target. Its wire so I can put damp towels in it without too much thought and it was $16.99

 

A clock on sale from Target for $8.00 sits on a narrow wall near the window. I don't want to be a clock watcher every morning so I found a spot that is out of the way but still clear enough to glance at each morning when getting dressed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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bathroom project

 

 

A little progress.

 

I've been slowly working on this project forever. Mostly because standing on a ladder taking off wallpaper and painting crown molding is just not fun. 

 

Now, its finally got to a place where I am doing some of the more exciting things. Last night, I hung curtains, put up a shelf, added new light switch covers and I ordered a rug from overstock.com.

 

The next step of this is a weekend trip to TJ Maxx looking for a fuzzy rug for my makeup area and a new (but cheap) shower curtain.  Then a trip to the Habitat for Humanity store to look for some sink faucets.

 

 

 

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Weekend Projects

Welcome to the yard Abraham Darby  (which was not even on my list and a last minute surprise choice), and with your arrival the rose bed is done. 

In master bath news, both ladders are still up, both me and the dog have paint in our hair, I've returned to work exhausted and the general state of total disarray continues.

One day its going to be a fully painted bathroom, with curtains up and new fresh rugs in place and clean and orderly.

Until then, its not.

Until then, I have a week of planning and plotting my next weekend accomplishments.

 

 

 

 

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weekend projects

I had big plans but somehow ended up spending Saturday in my PJs, doing laundry and live streaming the If Gathering 2016 in Austin Texas in my breakfast nook.

On the short list of things I never thought I'd say,  the war on wallpaper is over and Sunday, I went to Home Depot to get sheetrock mud, which my new plans include having it finished this week.

Then, I finished the rose bed, tucked two new roses in under the pine straw and anxiously awaited the arrival of their English cousin, which will arrive by way of Lafayette, La.  I've got my heart set on an apricot one and my finger's crossed it will be this one, but I'll be just as happy with this my second choice.

I say finished the rose bed a little too confidently, because after thinking about it all night, I think I planted Mr. Lincoln too deep and I now plan to dig him up and re-position.  He's only been tucked in for 24 hours, so the shock should not be too great.

There is a long list of things I did not do this weekend, but I did manage to wear myself out  and washed the dog, changed the sheets, cleaned the kitchen, wrapped birthday gifts, made a fire, cut down a little tree and dragged it to the street, made jambalaya, watered the Camilla and begged it to bloom and generally returned to work on Monday exhausted.

Weekend Projects



The plan for making quarterly goals instead of yearly goals is still making a lot of sense to me. I've still got a whirlwind of things to do in my head but I'm basically forcing myself to not think about that and instead focus on getting two (and only two) things done right now .... the master bathroom  done and getting a rose bed in.

Me and the pink steamer were on the ladder again this weekend.   The bathroom wallpaper and the left over glue is finally off.  All of it! Finally off! It took a long long time. I'll celebrate this week by getting dry wall mud up.

The rose bed got a little attention too in the form of fresh soil, spread and ready for some pine straw and some  English Roses.

 

 

 

Doesn't seem like much, but I'm happy that both areas had attention this weekend. It was a busy busy week at work, and having week of house guests and revival at church four late nights in a row and I wanted to just lay on the couch all weekend, but did not. I wasn't sure I'd get much of anything done this weekend, but its moving (ever so slowly) forward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rose garden January update

2016 first quarter goals, getting the master bathroom redone, and getting a rose garden started here.

 

 

  

 

 

The bath is well underway. 

 

The rose garden spot has been picked.

 

The bricks have been relocated. 

 

The newspaper is down to kill the weeds/grass.

 

Coffee grounds and egg shells are periodically being thrown in as organic fertilizer.

 

The plan is that three roses bushes will sit in front of two Carolina Jasmine vines (yellow) and two Confederate Jasmine vines (white) that are recovering from being severely trimmed back last year but usually grow up the white fencing.

 

Next step soil will be purchased and spread and then some type of mulch or hay will arrive and be waiting ready for the rose bushes.

 

That's the plan, at least.  

 

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master bath

 For some reason, I have been struggling making my 2016 goals and I think I've decided to mentally break this year in quarters. The first quarter is going to be focused on getting the rose garden up and running and finally finishing the bathroom.

I'm feeling a strong pull to get the home office up and running well but I think its just because I'm stuck in the master bathroom. It has been put off, pushed back and gone for long stretches being ignored, so the pink steamer and I absolutely can not stop now and re-direct energies to the office. And its just not the office's quarter.

"I am doing a great work and I can not come down" Nehemiah 6:2. Maybe its not as serious as Nehemiah but, when I am on the ladder, this is what I am telling myself. 

Much like the guest room re-do,  my focus has been pulled away by other things, getting house ready for a week worth of company, I'm working overtime, and life in general is getting in the way and its taking some time. Meanwhile, everything is in disarray, dirty and out of place and the ladder has been in the way for weeks. I can't take it out and put it away yet. Its so fun and rewarding to get a project done, but also frustrating when in the middle of it. 

And I keep wondering why I don't just suck it up and hire someone to do this for me.... for whatever reason, I haven't. Proverbs 14:23: "there is profit in hard work" and "let him labor, doing work with his own hands... " Ephesians 4:28. One of my friends has made this bathroom work into a spiritual life lesson. I can't go that far myself, but I think about that correlation when I'm on the ladder. For whatever reason, I am still on the ladder doing it myself and not coming down.

There is some success to report. Currently, there is almost no wallpaper left on the wall. Only one small spot remains. I have started to go back over everything to get the patches of glue that remained. Then I have to go over it once again with a little sandpaper and then it will be ready for a primer. I am planning (hoping) this will all be done by March.(yikes! a deadline!)

I have picked the color (I  think) which is a major accomplishment. Even picking a color took some work. I originally thought I was painting yellow. I swatched a least six yellows but couldn't find the right one, then moved onto blue. Again, after putting up several test spots, couldn't find a blue. Next was grey.... and.... finally....a color has been picked.

 

 

I have also made some other decisions. There will be white fluffy bathmats and shower curtain. I already have the curtains and curtain rods.  The curtains are a light gold colored with medallions and match the ones in the attached bedroom (like these but in cream and gold). 

 

I also got my first gift for the new bathroom. My friend got me a candle and some handmade soap.

 

 

 

So...2016 projects continue.

 

 

 

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2016 Goal Setting

I've been using Lara Casey's  power sheets method of goal setting for the last three or four years.  She walks you through her goal setting here (and here is another example also using the powersheets and here is an abbreviated version not using powersheets). I blogged about my 2015 goals here  and had big plans for making 2016 goals. In fact, thought the goals would be made the last few weeks of the year.  But so far... not much.....

For the first time, I am still struggling through the process...

Looking back, 2015 was a  great success. I blew through a lot of the goals I had set. Some you can actually see the results and some are more personal without real measurable results (like exercising regularly and setting up a night time routine).

Some of the highlights of the most visible, I:
read 47 books (47?!)
got the garage cleaned out and the door fixed
got the guest room up and running
fixed the fireplace
had a huge yard sale (HUGE)
filed the empty spot in the kitchen
Went to Tennessee in June
Went to California in September

The things I have in mind for 2016 are still kind of scattered and random and all over the place.  I can't get them to fall into a neat little line.  Its a lot of things at home that I still want to accomplish, like:

Finally get the wallpaper off in the bathroom. I've been struggling with this for a while. Its about 85% done, but I then have to face down the spots of glue that remain and the spots of sheetrock damage and then start painting. Even though the wallpaper is almost off, its still a big job, and a tiring one.  After the painting, I'll put up a curtain rod, curtains, new rugs, etc....

Get the home office up and running. (basically do to the office what I did to the guest room in 2015).

Paint the upstairs bathroom.

New nightstand. I've been struggling finding the right one. I think I've decided I need two or three enclosed drawers.

I cut some mature Carolina Jasmine way back last year and it is just growing back. While it is still coming in,  I want to put rose bushes in front of it. I've already got the stones in place and started putting down some potting soil and I've been looking at these catalogs forever and it surprisingly makes me a little too excited that one of the first roses for the new bed will be from England. I've also got another spot for some climbing roses.

So.... work on 2016 goals slowly continue.....

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Reading list for 2016: The short list of plans

1. Are you Fully Charged by Tom Rath
2. The Finishing School  by Valerie Woerner (there is a book club too)
3. Once a Great City by David Maraniss
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. Jane Erye by Charlotte Bronte (my best friend who is a high school English teacher recommended this when I asked her what classics I should read)
6. Extreme Ownership by Jacko Willink
7. Wake up Happy by Michael Strahan (reading this now)
8. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (true story of an American hiker who stumbled upon a village in Pakistan who befriended him and he ended up building 55 schools in Pakistan)
9. Law Man by Shon Hopwood (also a true story)
10. More than a Hobby by David Green (Another true story of the founders of Hobby Lobby)
11. Fervent by Priscilla Shirer
12. The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod