Summer Home Tour: Accessory Free!

Brace yourselves. This home tour is going to be a little different.

I accepted The Nester's challenge to go accessory free for 30 days. I thought I might put a few tchotchkes back for this home tour, but when it came time to do that, I was paralysed. Which ones should I pick? Where should I put them? If I put something here and not there, will it look weird? I was driving myself crazy. I'm just not ready to put anything back.

I am joining the house tour anyway, for a very personal reason.

I'm probably going to over-explain, so feel free to jump down to the pictures. But, please know this. Getting ready for this Home Tour was a fantastic challenge for me--and the reason I did it. This post--and joinng Gina's wonderful tour is my "reward."

When I first found out about Gina's Summer Tour of Homes, I was so excited! I flirted with the idea of getting all my rooms spiffed up and ready for a photo. I was thrilled to think I could join the party on Friday and show off my home.

Then, I got a head cold.

I began thinking that my rooms were too unfinished. I have a million plans for my living room: it will be completely transformed (I hope) by the end of August. My bedroom still has paint splotches waiting for me to figure out what colour I want. (You'll see.) And, sadly, I thought, my home probably wouldn't be "good enough" anyway.

I started looking at the beautiful homes Gina lined up for us Monday through Thursday and instead of feeling envious and defeated--which I had fully expected to feel as I have felt that in the past--I started to "get" the commitment and passion and the love of home expressed by the women behind the cameras. It was wonderful. It was liberating. It was inspiring.

I have the same passion, the same love for my home. I struggle with the consistency which cleaning demands, though. Fortunately, my kids aren't littles anymore, so my home is never a complete disaster everywhere all at once. But rarely is it ever clean and tidy all at once, either. As a result, I have this absurd notion that I cannot have all the spaces in my home clean at the same time.

See the word "therapy" up there in the title of my blog? It is there for a reason! My blog is my accountability place. I find it incredibly motivating to take pictures and write about what I've done. In fact, I just finished a challenge to do one procrastinated project a day for the entire month of May. (I did 24! I'm so pleased.) I decided to participate in the house tour to challenge that nasty, self-defeating thought. I can have all my rooms clean, tidy and ready for company. Of course I can. I just needed to do it.

OK. Enough talking. Thanks for bearing with me.  Hope you enjoy our small home. One other thing: it's been raining for a few days, it will rain, yet, for a few more. The house is darker than usual.

Geesh, you must be thinking, why is she bothering?

Well, it's clean! That's a reason to celebrate!

So..................................

Welcome!

Our family, my husband, myself, our 15 year old son, our 12 (almost 13!) year old daughter and our Beagle live in our home which was built in 1949. War shortages were still in effect. Our house is 1230 square feet (or 114.3 square meters). It has three bedrooms (one on the main floor) and a bath and a half.

We tore out an old overgrown cedar bush and a topped off tree too close to the house a few years ago. I know nothing about gardening so restoring this area has been slow going. This area is also super challenging because it faces north. A few bushes I've tried to plant here have died.

But, hey, come on in.

This is our modest front entry. It's really just a hallway! I used to have a cabinet here, but it ate up too much space. I took it down and after living with nothing, realised I needed something. I just recently put up this little shelf. The bucket below holds our library returns.

This nook used to house the telephone, back in the day.

To the left we have our living room.

I quite like this room all cleaned up!

In case you were wondering why I still have cushions on my couch in an Accessory-Free challenge--

That's why!

Opposite the living room is where I spend most of my time. It is the dining room, but we only eat here on special occasions.

I do a lot of my projects here, work on the computer, plan my menus, work on the budget, and sew. It's a busy room!

Behind it is another busy place: the kitchen! It is small with almost no storage, barely room for the table, and an extremely bad layout. Notice, too, there's no dishwasher.

We all have to traipse through here to go to the basement or to the back yard (door to both is on the right)

Still, it is my favourite room in the house. I love my black and white checkerboard floor and decided to riff with the whole black and white graphic theme with my stencil on that soffit (in the picture above) and the little glass curtains I made.

I love having a big mirror here. It's like having another window and it just magnifies the best thing about this kitchen: all the light! (Sorry you missed it. There was a tornado watch in effect when I took these photos and it was hailing outside.)

Let's head back out of the kitchen to the hallway.

I will paint the back part to match the front, I just haven't done it quite yet!

That's my son's room straight ahead. Out of respect for his privacy (and my pride!) we won't go in there today. To his credit, he does keep it tidy.

This is our scheduling and school paper station.

The bathroom is tiny. The sink is original to the house though and I love it. I believe it is a half moon Crane.

I made the curtains from drop cloth and tea towels.

Let's head upstairs where we have the master bedroom, my daughter's room (not on the tour!), and a half bath tucked under the eaves.

I have a mini-library on the landing.

Here is our master en-suite.

I kid! It's a teeny tiny powder room. It's become another favourite room since I spiffied it up.

The Master Bedroom almost didn't make the tour.

I put those paint splotches on the wall more than a year ago. I have paint, but I have fallen out of love with it and I'm trying to decide whether to be sensible and use it or wait until I find the perfect, affordable duvet cover to coordinate with. I am mighty tired of those splotches, though!

I'm aching to do something with the headboard wall.

You may have noticed the laundry room didn't make the tour. Oh well. Progress, not perfection, right? Click the link if you'd like to see it right after we transformed it.

Thank you so much for coming! It has been an enormous treat to have you. If you have a moment, leave a comment. I'd love to "talk" with you, just as if we were sitting here at my banged up kitchen table.

Care for an orange?

 

See all the fabulous and wonderful inspiring home tours here. I have!

June Challenge: Organizing

I've discovered that there seems to be more than one kind of organizing, just like there's more than one kind of trip.

Let's call one "Organizing en haute."

It's like taking a trip to Paris. (Thus the French sounding name. ahem.) It involves planning. It may involve organizing products, like dividers and boxes and labels. It is more than merely shuffling things around. It is not just de-cluttering (though getting rid of stuff is a really important part of it). Organizing en haute is grander: its purpose is to make a particular space function better. It involves assigning homes to things-- things which had different, inferior homes or were, until now, homeless.

In a nutshell, it is creating something new and better for stuff I have chosen to keep. It is highly intentional.

But, this project was nothing like that. No, this little organizing project was like a walk around the block.

What did I "organize?"

My nightstand.

I've just recently discovered Emily Henderson. (I know, I know. But we don't have our TV hooked up to the outside world.) She has a lovely little video about how to style the top of one's nightstand.

My nightstand is unfortunately much too small for me to "style" it. EH says I should have
1) light.
2) something low and horizontal to "ground" my tabletop, and
3) something to bridge the two, preferably something sculptural or quirky, or both.

Let's just say my clock is something low and horizontal and the lamp is something both tall and the sculptural bridge between the two. For quirk, I added my Matryoshka  dolls. (It seems I no longer have the smallest, solid doll.)

Wow. That sure is a dinky little "tablescape." I think a painting or picture on the wall behind the lamp is almost mandatory, here. Not only would it disguise that hatch, but it would brighten and balance the whole thing immensely. It's all just a bit too "leggy" at the moment. I think that as soon as the budget allows, I would like a prettier alarm clock--and swing arm lamps, too.

Nonetheless, I am enjoying my freshly cleaned and organized nightstand.

Decorating: The Stool

June Challenge: Decorating

I had hoped to have a bunch of projects to show you in this post but unfortunately, I have had a bad head cold. Last night, I couldn't stand the thought of not having a post for today, so I picked the quickest thing I could think of to finish.

My footstool.

Ever since my husband built a new leg for it, I've been meaning to stain it to match. Not that it will ever match exactly as they are different woods. I figured that if the staining didn't work, then I would paint the legs instead. Of course, that would mean making a decision about paint colour!

The cover is also loose, so I thought I would replace it at the same time.

I love that green burlap underlayer, but unfortunately it is in very bad shape. I should have just gutted the whole thing to "re-do" it properly, but that much work was beyond me. Plus, buying new foam for padding just isn't in the budget.

And that's why this project stalled for what, two years?

I have been dithering about my living room even longer than that. I wanted to choose some pretty fabric and recover the footstool with it. But what colour? What pattern? Compound that with the fact that fabric selection in my city is dismal and I was guaranteed to have a procrastinated project on my hands: because short of falling in love with something on the spot, I'd have to choose something that would go with everything else --which of course meant deciding everything else!

In the last few weeks, I've even been browsing Tonicliving and fabric.com.

Last night, in the spirit of just getting it done, I took it down to the basement and applied two coats of Minwax stain in chestnut.

The newly stained one is the right front. I did not put any polyurethane on it. I really did not want it to be shiny. I don't want any of the legs to be shiny.

I brought it upstairs this morning and just dealt with the fabric already on it.

I removed the old nails. Actually, they were stair tacks.

I stapled down the green fabric, put it in front of the rocking chair, set down the flowers and took a pretty picture.

Done.

Fortunately, my cold seems to be loosening its grip on my head, so I hope to have more organizing, decorating and cleaning projects for us soon!

A Start: Cleaning Windows.

June Cleaning: First Report

There's nothing quite like clean windows to say

"Summer is here!"


Of course, there's nothing quite so much like filthy windows to say:

"Ick!"

Windows are a bit complicated at our house. The ones at the front, the living room and dining room windows are lovely.  Each window is in three parts: the long narrow bits on each side open to let in breezes.

These are simple. I vacuum the screens and wash the windows. Done.

The windows at the back of the house, though, (and one kitchen window on the East side) are a different story. They are old double hung, one over one up and down sliding single paned windows. We put up storm windows in the fall and screens in the spring. I made the screens.

They are held in the window frame by these little wing nuts.

I suppose I should paint the wood spacers but I never think of it.

It takes a few days to get them done, sometimes, even, a few weeks. This year, it took us about three weeks to get the screens up. The nights were chilly, so as I was closing the windows in the evenings anyway, there didn't seem to be a rush!

It gave me time to wash the window sills.

Here is the back of the house with the ground floor screens in.

See the two windows in the second story? (The left is the stairwell landing and the right is the 1/2 bathroom). Both of them still have the storm windows in. (That's why the moldings look thicker.) Neither of them have screens.

So far, both my husband and I have been too chicken to go up there and change out the windows, anyway! But making screens for them is on the list!

The Tchotchke Challenge

The Nester has thrown the gauntlet: pack away your accessories for 30 days! Get them gone from all your surfaces.

When the Nester first proposed the challenge, I figured I wouldn't bother participating. I don't have too many accessories. I'm not addicted to my pretty things. I don't need to do this.

But I thought about it a bit too much, wondering what it would be like to live with nothing but the useful about me.

So, today, after grocery shopping, I started clearing.

The first challenge, of course, is to identify an accessory. What is it, exactly?

Some things are easy. Mostly everything here, for example.

And here.

But what about the kids' artwork? Projects from shop class?

The grasshopper on wheels is my son's project from shop class. My daughter made the bowl on the shelf below at a ceramics shop. (It holds my stretchie bands for my workouts.)

I decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that if the item was on the wall, it could stay. Anything either leaning, or on a stand, that would be taken down.

If it was decorative but it held something useful (and ugly) it could also stay. I'm just being lazy, really. I didn't want to have to try and find homes for these things.

But that is part of my decorating philosophy, such as it is. Something beautiful is nice, but it is better if it can also be useful. I like things to earn their keep.

And what about this?

These are our dishes. We use them multiple times a day. I am not putting them back in the cupboard. The idea is not to live the month of June without beauty. It is not to un-decorate, but to de-accessorize; to refresh our eyes, not make them sad.

After I filled the laundry basket for the third time, I figured this challenge just may be a good idea after all.

 

 

 There are weird gaps in my house and I don't promise not to shuffle things around. (Actually, I started already.)

The basket holds sewing projects in progress.

But, so far, this feels good. Let's see what happens.

June: Goals (The Gargantuan List)

In spite of the fact that I wasn't able to finish Anti-procrastination Project month the way I would have liked, I am thrilled I got so much done!

Because of that, I am going to approach June in much the same way. That means I am going to commit to getting a certain number of projects done and blog about them every week. They fall into three broad categories: cleaning, organizing and decorating.

A lot of my annual and semi-annual cleaning chores haven't been done, yet. I usually do them as part of my "Spring Cleaning" but I was too distracted with all the organizing I was doing earlier this year. So, this month I want to catch up.

I've made a huge list of all the things I want to get done: some of them will be done this month, some of them will take longer. Some of them depend on how much extra money we will have.

But, a list is a great way to keep track of my plans, so I am going to share it here and link back when the project is done. I plan to blog about at least one or two projects in each category every week: so I am committing to three posts a week. Posting daily was a real grind, but a regular schedule keeps me chugging along and getting things done. It works for me!

So, here's the gargantuan, throw everything at the wall, big brain dump list.

Cleaning:

Wash windows and window sills, and vacuum screens in the kitchen, downstairs bathroom, living room and dining room. Done: June 6. Cleaning Windows: A Start

Wash curtains in the kitchen. Done!

Clean the oven, oven racks and stove top.
Clean the floor under the oven.

Clean the floor under the fridge.
Vacuum the fridge coils.

Clean the mail box and house numbers.

Clean the screen doors, both front and back.
Clean both exterior doors, front and back.

Clean the tiles in the tub and shower surround.

Dust all the bookshelves. Living room, dining room, upstairs hallway, bedroom.

Vacuum the bedroom floor--especially under the bed and couch! done.
Vacuum our mattress.

Wash the table top in the laundry room.
Wash the shelves.
Clean the machines.

Clean the pantry shelves.

Organizing:

Empty 2 boxes of photos
Empty the memorabilia box.
Re-label scrapbook patterned paper.
Purge and create a home for 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
Create a home for odd sized photos.

Organize the white cabinet in the bathroom.

Organize the linen closet upstairs.

Switch out the summer and winter clothing.
Clear out the nightstands in the master bedroom. Done! June Challenge: Organizing
Clean out my husband's side of the closet.

Find a home for the winter sheets on the shelves in the laundry room.

Organize the pantry into zones.

Decorating:

Kitchen:

Touch up blue chairs with paint. Re-painted in navy. December 2014
Refinish top of kitchen table. (If possible. It may not be.) Done: October 2014

Dining room/Home Office:

Fix the IKEA non lights on top of the shelf. fixed, but not blogged.

Living Room:

Finish sewing white drapes and putting in pleater tape.
Finish sewing couch slip cover.
sew a cover for the Poang chair.
Sew new pillows

All of these projects were finally completed as part of the One Room Challenge in the fall of 2014.

Deal with the footstool done.
Renew the gallery wall. Done, December 2013: Gallery Wall Part Deux.

Back Hallway:

scrape popcorn off of ceiling (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
paint. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Stairwell:

Hang large mirror (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
touch up paint on risers. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Upstairs Hallway:

make and install screen. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
sew new curtains for window. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Master Bedroom: 

Paint room.
Paint headboard wall with something stencillish.
Buy or make a new duvet cover.

all done, March 2014!

Back Entry:

Hang extra board w/hooks.

done. In fact, the whole place was purty'd up in November.

Laundry Room:

Re-hang curtain.


Whew! There's no way all of this can be done in one month! But I will do all that I can this month.